Boogie music, also known as boogie woogie, is a genre of piano-heavy music particular to America in the 1930′s and 1940′s and 1950′s. It’s characteristic walking bass is familiar to many as a harkening back to rock and roll, even though the form is based strongly on the blues (in fact, it’s often been called an upbeat version of the blues).

Boogie originally started as a strictly piano form; the most familiar versions are still based solely around the instrument. The precise origin of boogie-woogie piano however is uncertain; it was no doubt influenced by early rough music played in the roadhouses and honky tonks in New Orleans and Kansas City and other cities and towns in the south.

A couple early boogie-men were W.C. Handy and Jelly Roll Morton, and as it grew in popularity many other pianists adopted the style. But as boogie became more and more popular, so too did the idea of including a whole band. Before long, the once solo genre adapted itself to accommodate an entire band. The latest versions of boogie often include guitar and other instruments, but the piano and drums remain the focal point. Even years later you can hear the influence of boogie in the music of Jerry Lee Lewis, Elvis, Johnny Cash, and many others.

Many boogies (but not all) are based on the familiar 12-bar blues, which is a series of chord progressions using just the I, IV, and V chords:

Typical 12-bar blues:

4 bars of the I chord

2 bars of the IV chord

2 bars of the I chord

2 bars of the V chord

2 bars of the I chord

then rinse and repeat

Here is a typical left hand boogie pattern in the key of C that can be played either as single notes or octaves or offset broken octaves:

C – E – G – A – Bb – A – G – E

C – E – G – A – Bb – A – G – E

F – A – C – D – Eb – D – C – A

C – E – G – A – Bb – A – G – D

G – B – D – E – F – E – D – B

C – E – G – A – Bb – A – G – E

Boogie is often credited as the originator of rock and roll, but that idea isn’t necessarily valid. While boogie definitely played some role in rock and roll’s early days, it was really rhythm and blues that started the form. Boogie, on the other hand, remained an off-shoot of blues and an entity in its own right. It also may have indirectly spawned a dance of the same name, a dance that led largely to boogie being credited as rock and roll’s most dominant predecessor.

The boogie dance, an upbeat and energetic social dance with small roots in swing, was danced mostly to rock and roll. It spread through teenage social circles like wildfire and became almost synonymous with rock and roll. As boogie (the dance) continued to grow through the 50s, boogie (the music) began to disappear from the limelight. And as it grew further and further from the mainstream, boogie’s captivating hold on audiences became understood as a product of the dance, not the music. The way in which the two forms of boogie were interchanged often led to confusion about where and when the form originated and how it related to the dance and the inception of rock and roll.

In any case, boogie is here to stay. It’s fun to play and fun to listen to.

Can you become a boogie-man or boogie-lady?

Duane Shinn is the author of the popular free 101-week online e-mail newsletter titled Amazing Secrets Of Exciting Piano Chords & Sizzling Chord Progressions- Intelligent Piano Lessons For Adults Only! with over 84,400 current subscribers.

http://www.playpiano.com

The origin of hip-hop can be traced back as far as the ancient tribes in Africa. Rap has been compared with the chants, drumbeats and foot-stomping African tribes performed before wars, the births of babies, and the deaths of kings and elders. Historians have reached further back than the accepted origins of hip-hop. It was born as we know it today in the Bronx, cradled and nurtured by the youth in the low-income areas of New York City.

Fast-forward from the tribes of Africa to the ghettos of Kingston, Jamaica in the late sixties. The impoverished of Kingston gathered together in groups to form DJ conglomerates. They spun roots and culture records and communicated with the audience over the music. At the time, the DJs comments werent as important as the quality of the sound system and its ability to get the crowd moving. Kool Herc grew up in this community before he moved to the Bronx.

During the late sixties, reggae wasnt popular with New Yorkers. As a DJ, Kool Herc spun rhythm and blues records to please his party crowd. But, he had to add his personal touch. During the breaks, Herc began to speak to his audience as he had learned to do in Jamaica. He called out, the audience responded, and then he pumped the volume back up on the record. This call and response technique was nothing new to this community whod been reared in Baptist and Methodist churches where call and response was a technique used by the speakers to get the congregation involved. Historians compare it to the call and response performed by Jazz musicians and was very much a part of the culture of Jazz music during the renaissance in Harlem.

Hercs DJ style caught on. His partys grew in popularity. He began to buy multiple copies of the same albums. When he performed his duties as a DJ, he extended the breaks by using multiple copies of the same records. He chatted, as it is called in dance hall, with his audience for longer and longer periods.

Others copied Hercs style. Soon a friendly battle ensued between New York DJs. They all learned the technique of using break beats. Herc stepped up the game by giving shout-outs to people who were in attendance at the parties and coming up with his signature call and response. Other DJs responded by rhyming with their words when they spoke to the audience. More and more DJs used two and four line rhymes and anecdotes to get their audiences involved and hyped at these parties.

One day, Herc passed the microphone over to two of his friends. He took care of the turn table and allowed his buddies to keep the crowd hyped with chants, rhymes and anecdotes while he extended the breaks of different songs indefinitely. This was the birth of rap as we know it.

Hip-hop has evolved from the days of the basement showdowns to big business in the music industry. In the seventies and eighties, the pioneers and innovators of the rap record was the DJ. He was the guy who used his turntable to create fresh sounds with old records. Then, he became the guy who mixed these familiar breaks with synthesizers to produce completely new beats. Not much has changed in that aspect of hip-hop. The guy who creates the beat is still the heart of the track. Now, we call him the producer. Even though some DJs work as producers as well as DJs (quite a few start out as DJs before they become producers), todays title DJ doesnt carry the same connotative meaning it did in the eighties. Todays hip-hop producer performs the same tasks as the eightys DJ.

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The chromatic harmonica has a button on the side which allows you to play the normal major scale, and with the button depressed, gives you all the half steps or notes in between.

This allows you to play any scale, in any key, but you can’t bend notes very well on this instrument so you don’t get the same bluesy sound as on the diatonic.

Reading music and song tab for the chromatic- The chromatic harmonica hole layout is similar (sometimes referred to as Solo tuning) to the diatonic hole layout (referred to as Richter tuning), but not the same, so song tablature is different.

Many accomplished chromatic players are able to read standard music notation which eliminates the need for song tab.

The chromatic is mostly used for jazz, classical, and pop music- The chromatic harmonica is typically used in jazz, classical, pop, and music where the melodies require more than a 7-note scale (like the one on a standard diatonic).

A classic example of where a chromatic would be required is the theme song to Midnight Cowboy. The original theme to Sesame Street was also played on a chromatic.

People who play the chromatic harmonica- Stevie Wonder, Toots Thielemans, and Larry Adler are three of the best known players of this instrument.

The 40′s and 50′s were the heyday of the ‘Harmonica Bands’ (like the Harmonicats and Harmonica Rascals) and were usually led by a chromatic harmonica player.

For more more information about Chromatic Harmonica please visit http://www.chromatic-harmonica.com

The origin of hip-hop can be traced back as far as the ancient tribes in Africa. Rap has been compared with the chants, drumbeats and foot-stomping African tribes performed before wars, the births of babies, and the deaths of kings and elders. Historians have reached further back than the accepted origins of hip-hop. It was born as we know it today in the Bronx, cradled and nurtured by the youth in the low-income areas of New York City.

Fast-forward from the tribes of Africa to the ghettos of Kingston, Jamaica in the late sixties. The impoverished of Kingston gathered together in groups to form DJ conglomerates. They spun roots and culture records and communicated with the audience over the music. At the time, the DJs comments werent as important as the quality of the sound system and its ability to get the crowd moving. Kool Herc grew up in this community before he moved to the Bronx.

During the late sixties, reggae wasnt popular with New Yorkers. As a DJ, Kool Herc spun rhythm and blues records to please his party crowd. But, he had to add his personal touch. During the breaks, Herc began to speak to his audience as he had learned to do in Jamaica. He called out, the audience responded, and then he pumped the volume back up on the record. This call and response technique was nothing new to this community whod been reared in Baptist and Methodist churches where call and response was a technique used by the speakers to get the congregation involved. Historians compare it to the call and response performed by Jazz musicians and was very much a part of the culture of Jazz music during the renaissance in Harlem.

Hercs DJ style caught on. His partys grew in popularity. He began to buy multiple copies of the same albums. When he performed his duties as a DJ, he extended the breaks by using multiple copies of the same records. He chatted, as it is called in dance hall, with his audience for longer and longer periods.

Others copied Hercs style. Soon a friendly battle ensued between New York DJs. They all learned the technique of using break beats. Herc stepped up the game by giving shout-outs to people who were in attendance at the parties and coming up with his signature call and response. Other DJs responded by rhyming with their words when they spoke to the audience. More and more DJs used two and four line rhymes and anecdotes to get their audiences involved and hyped at these parties.

One day, Herc passed the microphone over to two of his friends. He took care of the turn table and allowed his buddies to keep the crowd hyped with chants, rhymes and anecdotes while he extended the breaks of different songs indefinitely. This was the birth of rap as we know it.

Hip-hop has evolved from the days of the basement showdowns to big business in the music industry. In the seventies and eighties, the pioneers and innovators of the rap record was the DJ. He was the guy who used his turntable to create fresh sounds with old records. Then, he became the guy who mixed these familiar breaks with synthesizers to produce completely new beats. Not much has changed in that aspect of hip-hop. The guy who creates the beat is still the heart of the track. Now, we call him the producer. Even though some DJs work as producers as well as DJs (quite a few start out as DJs before they become producers), todays title DJ doesnt carry the same connotative meaning it did in the eighties. Todays hip-hop producer performs the same tasks as the eightys DJ.

More articles at article database

Alongside guitar names like Gibson and Fender, you can’t mention the best of the best without adding the name of Rickenbacker. This company has been around since 1931, but it wasn’t until 1956, on its 25th anniversary, when Rickenbacker began to make a name for itself in the world of guitars.

That year, Rickenbacker introduced the Combo 400. Guitar collectors call it the guitar with the butterfly style body. But Rickenbacker didn’t stop there. That same year they added a solid body electric bass guitar. The one thing about these guitars that made them different from any other guitar was that they had necks that extended from the head to the bass of the body. Today they call this neck through body construction. Rickenbacker was the first company to make guitars like this and soon came to be a trademark of the company.

During the 1950s, Rickenbacker had many popular models. Probably the most popular were the hollow body six string Capri models. This guitar was first unleashed on the world in 1958. The guitar itself was designed by Roger Rossmeisl. There were three models of this guitar and each one had a different body style.

But it wasn’t until the 1960s that Rickenbacker has sealed its name in rock and roll history when its guitars got permanently fastened to the British invasion of the mid 60s. This invasion came in the form of the greatest rock band of all time, the Beatles. The groups featured several Rickenbacker guitars in its arsenal. Before the Beatles called it quits for good, John Lennon had owned four Rickenbacker guitars himself. The guitars had become so attached to the Beatles that one of the models was known as the Beatlebacker. Never in history had one guitar been so identified with one particular group or person.

It wasn’t long though until Rickenbacker made its way to a number of groups. Roger McGuinn of the Byrds bought himself a Rickenbacker after seeing the Beatles movie A Hard Day’s Night. The sound of the guitar that McGuinn bought actually became the trademark of the Byrds’ sound. Other groups and artists that latched onto the Rickenbacker were Pete Townsend of The Who, John Fogerty of Creedence Clearwater Revival and John Kay of Steppenwolf. By the late 60s there was a six week waiting period just to get one of these guitars. They were beyond popular. They were a true phenomenon.

By the 1970s, Rickenbacker started making guitars with detachable necks. They even matched slanted frets to match the angle of the player’s hand. They also started making their famous double neck models that became quite standard. Other groups started jumping on the Rickenbacker bandwagon like Tom Petty and R.E.M.

Currently, Rickenbacker is as popular as it ever was. More current groups like Oasis, Pearl Jam, Radiohead and U2 all use Rickenbacker guitars to get their patented sound.

If you want to get an idea of just how popular Rickenbacker is, George Harrison of The Beatles was once asked what guitar he played and he answered, Of course it’s a Rickenbacker.

Could there have been any other answer?

Michael Russell Your Independent guide to Guitars

The origin of hip-hop can be traced back as far as the ancient tribes in Africa. Rap has been compared with the chants, drumbeats and foot-stomping African tribes performed before wars, the births of babies, and the deaths of kings and elders. Historians have reached further back than the accepted origins of hip-hop. It was born as we know it today in the Bronx, cradled and nurtured by the youth in the low-income areas of New York City.

Fast-forward from the tribes of Africa to the ghettos of Kingston, Jamaica in the late sixties. The impoverished of Kingston gathered together in groups to form DJ conglomerates. They spun roots and culture records and communicated with the audience over the music. At the time, the DJs comments werent as important as the quality of the sound system and its ability to get the crowd moving. Kool Herc grew up in this community before he moved to the Bronx.

During the late sixties, reggae wasnt popular with New Yorkers. As a DJ, Kool Herc spun rhythm and blues records to please his party crowd. But, he had to add his personal touch. During the breaks, Herc began to speak to his audience as he had learned to do in Jamaica. He called out, the audience responded, and then he pumped the volume back up on the record. This call and response technique was nothing new to this community whod been reared in Baptist and Methodist churches where call and response was a technique used by the speakers to get the congregation involved. Historians compare it to the call and response performed by Jazz musicians and was very much a part of the culture of Jazz music during the renaissance in Harlem.

Hercs DJ style caught on. His partys grew in popularity. He began to buy multiple copies of the same albums. When he performed his duties as a DJ, he extended the breaks by using multiple copies of the same records. He chatted, as it is called in dance hall, with his audience for longer and longer periods.

Others copied Hercs style. Soon a friendly battle ensued between New York DJs. They all learned the technique of using break beats. Herc stepped up the game by giving shout-outs to people who were in attendance at the parties and coming up with his signature call and response. Other DJs responded by rhyming with their words when they spoke to the audience. More and more DJs used two and four line rhymes and anecdotes to get their audiences involved and hyped at these parties.

One day, Herc passed the microphone over to two of his friends. He took care of the turn table and allowed his buddies to keep the crowd hyped with chants, rhymes and anecdotes while he extended the breaks of different songs indefinitely. This was the birth of rap as we know it.

Hip-hop has evolved from the days of the basement showdowns to big business in the music industry. In the seventies and eighties, the pioneers and innovators of the rap record was the DJ. He was the guy who used his turntable to create fresh sounds with old records. Then, he became the guy who mixed these familiar breaks with synthesizers to produce completely new beats. Not much has changed in that aspect of hip-hop. The guy who creates the beat is still the heart of the track. Now, we call him the producer. Even though some DJs work as producers as well as DJs (quite a few start out as DJs before they become producers), todays title DJ doesnt carry the same connotative meaning it did in the eighties. Todays hip-hop producer performs the same tasks as the eightys DJ.

More articles at article database

With the release of For Her Walter Beasley makes his much anticipated debut on the Heads Up record label.

As the story goes the CDs title, For Her, comes as a result of the fact that when Walter first started making it he had just started seeing a new and special woman so it just made sense to him to call it For Her. However at some point during the process of completing the project he broke up with Her. Walter kept the title because he felt she was the emotional inspiration behind the album.

At any rate this is a Very Smooth, Smooth Jazz CD. One of those CDs that goes great with a fireplace, your favorite bottle of wine and your significant other.

The title track, For Her [track 2 and Don’t Say Good Night [track 6 are tunes that will get anybody in the mood.

On Don’t Say Goodnight, and Things Change [track 10 […referring to the break up Walter lends his vocal capabilities. Which come off silky smooth, just like his sax playing.

Smooth Jazz, and Walter Beasley fans will enjoy the mix between soul and smooth jazz on this release.

Overall this CD is a real pleasure to listen to as Walter certainly does not disappoint, and is in my opinion some of his best work.

The standout tunes are Good Morning [track 4, Grace [track 8, and Let’s Ride [track 9. My SmoothLee Bonus Pick, and the one that got Sore […as in Stuck On REpeat is track 5, Lost What Ya’ Feelin?. Very nice!

Release Notes:

This CD was originally released May 24, 2005 on the Heads Up label.

CD track list follows:

1. She’s All That
2. For Her
3. Coolness
4. Good Morning
5. What Ya’ Feelin’?
6. Don’t Say Goodnight
7. Remember When
8. Grace
9. Let’s Ride
10. Things Change
11. Playtime

To hear samples of each song on this CD go to Walter Beasley CD – For Her [ www.smoothlee.com/music-samples/walter-beasley-for-her.htm

Clyde Lee Dennis, a.k.a. SmoothLee has been bumping around on the web since 1999 and is a self described Web Head, and Life long AVID music fan. Smooth Jazz Music in particular. In addition to writing CD Reviews for I Love Smooth Jazz.com he is also the Program Director, and can be heard during his daily radio show which airs on one of the internets most listened to smooth jazz radio stations, Smooth Jazz 24/7

Back in the old days (around ‘Nam) recording at home was a new miracle. You could actually hit record on a device and capture sound in your own home. Your eyes would light up just like Thomas Edison did when he first invented audio recording. Fast forward to 2005. It’s now completely affordable to outfit a fully functional recording rig in your home for the price of a high quality, American made guitar. While the price of getting into home recording is much cheaper than it has ever been before, it’s still a lot of money. Is setting up a small studio worth the price? What are the pitfalls of trying to record yourself? Would you be better off just paying a professional recording studio to do the job for you? Hopefully, I’ll answer these questions and more.

What It Takes

You are going to need a lot of knowledge, gear, time, and patience before jumping into the recording studio world. I was a computer nerd half done with a degree in electronics when I jumped into the recording world. I understood electronic basics and had run live sound numerous times. I totally understood how to operate a mixer/console. So all I had to do was jump into the recording portion, right? ….Well, it turned out that there was quite a learning curve to go from an empty room to the creative process (which is the fun part) and walk out with a finished cd in hand.

I had no idea how much time I would spend cursing Windows audio drivers, failed hard drives, out of sync audio files, clicks and pops, unwanted distortion, etc. Truth be told, I went from an average computer user to a computer master in that couple of monthes it took me to work out all the kinks in my system. That’s right. It took me a few monthes before I was ready to record my first band. It was that tough. That was in 2001. Maybe things are easier now. I’m guessing that you’ll still have quite a road in front of you.

After you get your rig fully operational, you are still going to have to learn the software. I would HIGHLY recommend that you buy a DVD and a book to teach you the software that you intend to use. I could have saved myself hundreds of hours of headaches if I would have just read the stupid manual and had a little instruction. I learned a lot by tinkering (which may be your nature too) but there is no point in learning things the hard way if you don’t have to. On my very first recording session, I had my manual in my lap. You could only imagine how stressful it can be if you have 5 guys staring at you while you desperately push buttons on something you barely understand. I’d say it took me a good 3 monthes of everyday tinkering before I felt comfortable using the software for basic recording. Keep in mind that I wasn’t trying anything advanced here. No crazy editing, no fancy automation. In fact, I had very little understanding of audio when it came down to early reflections and multi-tap delays. I’m talking about just getting the stupid song onto the computer.

Okay, so I’ve kind of prepped you on how the learning curve required for recording music. Let’s talk about the gear.

These days, it’s a waste of time to use the stand alone recorders you see in the mail order company catalogs. While these boxes promise to have everything you need to record your demo (and they usually do) the learning curve requirements are astounding. Yes, I just wrote an entire section on how tough it was to learn computer recording. However, there is a big difference between the learning curve of computer audio and the learning curve of stand alone recorders. When you learn computer knowledge, that knowledge is useful on just about every computer on the planet. (I’ve kept myself from starving a number of times with my computer knowledge which I mostly attribute to recording). Also, computer recording software generally uses a mixer that is a fairly close simulation of the real thing. The concepts stay the same. When you are using the stand alone recorders, you end up learning to hold E1 Function Menu to get to Aux send page. Why do you need a page for aux send? Anyway, I’ve had several friends who have used these boxes and don’t know anything about audio. They spent all their time learning this foreign language that will be obsolete as soon as the record is. In summary, I highly recommend that you go with a computer for your digital recordings.

Okay, so you need a computer. The good news is you don’t need a very fast one by today’s standards. In fact, I built my recording computer for about $300 and it’s overkill. I need a faster computer than most because I do more projects than most. It makes a difference when I’m rendering down mixes that I can do it twice as fast because I have too many songs to mix on a given day. I don’t have 3 minutes to sit around and wait for the computer to think.

On top of the computer, you’ll need a soundcard. I recommend a soundcard with a breakout box. This means that a cable will actually come out of the back of your computer and connect to a box where your audio connections are made. Setups with breakout boxes are almost always preferred. In fact, I ownly know of one professional audio company that doesn’t rely on a breakout box for their computer interphases. I do not recommend Sound Blaster and those sorts. We are not playing games or watching DVDs. We are recording music. The demands are certainly not the same. You will find many Firewire and PCI soundcards in the mail order catalogs that work great. Pay special attention to the number of inputs and optional preamps. This is important. You may only need 2 inputs for your recording. In fact, most projects I do seldom use more than 2 channels 90% of the time. Of course, the other 10% of the time we may be using 19 or 20 channels. If you are recording electronic music and only plan on doing a few overdubs with vocals or the occasional instrument, 2 channels will probably work fine. If you plan on recording your entire 4 piece rock band live with rock drums you are going to need at least 10 inputs (maybe more). So plan ahead and figure out how many mics you plan to use at once.

Next, you need preamps. Preamps boost the signal of a microphone up to line level and are pretty much required. Preamps are usually the top knob on the mixer of your PA. You’ll need one preamp for every microphone you plan on using at one time. You’ll want to have the same number of preamp channels as you do inputs on your soundcard. There are many soundcards that come with preamps. There are many many external preamps that CAN improve you sound quality just slightly. If all else fails, use the preamps in your PA mixer. If your mixer uses inserts you can split the signal right off the preamp by only pushing in the cable half way. I’m referring to the cable that goes out of your preamp and into your soundcard.

Next you’ll need mic stands. There aren’t too many cases where you don’t need a mic stand. You have to be very very careful with mic stands. If you buy a supercheap mic stand, you may have problems with the mic changing it’s position in the middle of a session. The results can be absolutely horrible. So buy decent mic stands. $30 per stand is a reasonable low budget stand. I would not recommend that you spend any less on a mic stand.

Next is microphones. This is where it gets fun. There are so many to choose from and there are so many tonal options. You’ll want as many mics as you have preamp channels and soundcard channels (or you went overkill on preamps / soundcards). Choosing microphones is beyond the scope of this article. You can spend $50 on a mic or you can spend $3000 on a mic and you have no way of knowing which will sound better on a given source. This is a severely big deal when it comes to recording and it’s one major area that seperates the men from the boys, so to speak. Home recording studios usually have terrible mic selections to choose from.

The most important piece of gear in your studio is your studio monitors. If you try to use a boombox you will be very dissapointed when you burn a cd and try to show mom on another stereo system. Of course, you’ll probably be dissapointed even if you have a $10,000 set of studio monitors because your acoustics will be all wrong in you room and even still you probably haven’t mixed enough songs to be any good at actually mixing.

Okay, I’ve outlined what goes into recording your cd. Guess what, any decent studio has all of this taken care of you. Do you know about audio latency in XP? Do you know anything about room nodes? The studio guy probably does. That’s how he makes his living.

So when you walk into a professional recording studio ran by a serious engineer who cares about your music, you can expect to focus on one thing… the recording of your music. You don’t have to wonder about the specs of the computer, the cables connecting the preamps and the soundcard. You don’t have to worry about wasting huge amounts of time while the bass player stares at a mess of cables. You don’t have to buy the mess of cables. In fact, I’ve recorded entire albums cheaper than you would spend on mic stands. In other words, I’ve delayed charging a high price so that I could get tons of practice and become well known in my area. You might find a serious recording guy yourself who might work cheaper than you think.

What an experienced recording studio engineer knows that you probably don’t.

1)The value of his time – An experienced engineer isn’t cheap (but could be much cheaper than trying to record yourself) but he knows that his time is worth X dollars. How is this an advantage? It’s amazing how humans rise to meet a challenge. When you go in knowing that you are about to spend $20, $30, or $50 an hour on recording all of a sudden you take the time to get your guitar setup beforehand. You make sure your songs are mega tight and ready to go. You get your butt in gear because you are about to spend some money. When your guitar players tell you that he thinks he has the recording device working right, you don’t jump up get busy. You get frustrated while he tries to figure out the problems on channel 1 and 5.

2)Advanced knowledge of acoustics – This is one of those areas that you will entirely put off. At first, you are just trying to figure out how to turn the computer on. Have you really put any serious thought into the comb filtering effects of your room? The odds are minute. In fact, I bet most bands put no thought into their room acoustics. Guess what. Any good studio has spent thousands and thousands of dollars pefecting their acoustics. The only thing more important than acoustics in a recording is the song, the musicians, and the instruments. After that, acoutics is first. Proper acoustics are more important than microphones. I’d gladly record an album with $50 mics in a $2,000,000 room before I did the opposite.

3)Advanced microphone selection – Having the right mic for the job is an extremely important part of being a recording engineer. When you know that a guitar is too bright, you put a mic on it that will reduce this brightness. When a vocalist sounds dull, you put a bright mic on them. It goes on and on. This is what really makes the sound quality part of recording. Recording at home will make it hard to justify a $15,000 mic collection (or much higher). Some studios have $15,000 mics.

4)Advanced knowledge of mic placement – Even more important than the microphone is where you put it. A seasoned pro will know what has worked on the past 10 albums he’s done. He knows what he likes and what he doesn’t. He doesn’t have to wait until after the mixing is complete for him to figure out that the snare sound sucks. You’ll be experimenting like crazy, but it will take a while before you get it right, more than likely.

When you combine all this knowledge together, it becomes quite clear that there are serious advantages to letting the pros handle the work. With that being said, if you really want to learn audio, don’t mind pumping thousands into a bottomless pit, and are really that excited about taking years and years and years to learn the craft properly, go for it. I did.

Brandon Drury has written countless home recording tutorials at his website, recordingreview.com. You can hear a portion of the over 600 songs he’s recorded and mixed at his recording studio website.

Hip Hop music is popular with today’s youth. The Hip Hop audience ranges in age from the very young to the seasoned at heart. The messages in the music are clear and often depict life in the real world. Most artist use their own life experiences to tell stories that reflect what their world is like. Hip Hop music is a venue that gives the artist an opportunity to tell it like it is. Many of today’s youth find that through the sounds and messages of Hip Hop they are able to see reflections of themselves and the world around them.

Although some of the messages conveyed by Hip Hop are viewed as negative, it must be understood that the lyrics in these songs are someone’s reality. Hip Hop artist sing about what they have seen and many of their personal experiences. Unfortunately, many of their experiences are not so pretty. Other Hip Hop songs carry a positive message and force the listener to think and dream beyond their current situation. Hip Hop music has taken America by a storm and it will continue to influence our youth. We must all these free expression and the growth of Hip Hop music because what we hear is relative to what’s going on in the world today.

GMP Records, Inc. http://www.godmadeitpossible4me.com also check out http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/deepcover

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We call it music, ever noticed how vividly music triggers memory?

The music start and instantly we remember who we were with, where we were, what we were doing. And a whole range of emotions to back them up.

Now that is time traveling!

I recieve email frequently thanking me for playing a certain song, others requests song and the reasons are as varied as the music itself.

Reminds me of my carefree days

That’s the song that played at our wedding

It was a favorite of a buddy of mine who died last year

Birthday, anniversary, retirement etc

A beautiful thing this time machine, that can instantly changed our mood! Pleasure, comfort, joy, sadness, so many moods! So much music!

We have come to take it for granted, haven’t we? It has become a noise in the background to drown out the noises of life!

But music is always there, you open the radio!

If your local station don’t play the tunes you want, the internet provides access to thousands of stations playing everything from classicals to heavy metal!!!

Being an amateur music historian, I love music!

Recently I did a show on the history of drums a 6,000 year history in a little over 4 hours. For many of the listeners it was a revelation.

That was followed by a history of the electric guitar 4 hour and 23 minutes of the best guitar players since its invention.

I am forever creating music special that are informative fun and entertaining.

Time travel is available just open your ears wide to the possibilities!

Claude Gagne, owner of: K.L.O.D Radio the oldies station

Amateur Music historian and multidsciplinary artist brings a new vision of what radio should be in the 21st century!