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Album: Return To The Sea 2006

Born from the indie-pop ashes of the favorite underground band The Unicorns in 2005, Return to the Sea is the debut album of a great new Canadian band (Montreal to be exact). In fact there has been a lot of good music coming from Canada lately (Arcade Fire, Broken Social Scene, New ographers, Feist, etc.) and Islands are riding that wave. Where The Unicorns (and a lot of other similar bands from the indie rock tree) were chaotic, lo-fi experimenters in the stranger side of indie-pop, Islands are a much more mature and emotional band, adding a variety of new instruments to their repertoire, some unusual to what you’ve heard from other indie-popsters (i.e. strings, accordions, upright bass, etc.) for a much more adult and often whimsical sound. You don’t have to be a fan of The Unicorns or indie-pop in general to like this album , all you need is two functioning ears and two hands to clap along.

What really stands out for me in this album is the ludicrous and often surreal lyrics like “You can Scoop out my brain /Shape it into an ear and then tell me your pain” –just par for the course in this album. The most appropriate way I can describe these guys is that they’re strangly lovable and lovably strange. It’s too bad that this band doesn’t get more exposure and recognition.

Much thanks to Equator Records for releasing this album. ISLANDS ARE FOREVER!
Go buy the rest of their albums too.

My personal favorites are
Rough Gem
Volcanoes
Swans (Life After Death)

Duration : 0:3:37

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Week 1

History

Monday, Day 1

The Alphabet

In circa 2000 BC, the Egyptian pharaohs realized they had a problem. With each military victory over their neighbors, they captured and enslaved more prisoners of war. But the Egyptians could not pass down written orders to these slaves as they could not read hieroglyphics.

Early writing systems, such as Egyptian hieroglyphics, were extremely cumbersome and difficult to learn. These systems had thousands of characters, with each symbol representing an idea or word. Memorizing them could take years. Only a handful of Egyptians could actually read and write their complicated script.

Linguists believe that almost all modern alphabets are derived from the simplified version of hieroglyphics devised by the Egyptians four thousand years ago to communicate with their slaves. The development of an alphabet, the writing system used throughout the Western world, changed the way the ancients communicated.

In the simplified version, each character represented only a sound. This innovation cut back the number of characters from a few thousand to a few dozen, making it far easier to learn and use the characters. The complicated hieroglyphic language was eventually forgotten, and scholars were not able to translate the characters until the discovery of the Rosetta stone in 1799.

The alphabet was extremely successful. When the Egyptian slaves eventually migrated back to their home countries, they took the writing system with them. The alphabet spread across the Near East, becoming the foundation for many writing systems in the area, including Hebrew and Arabic. The Phoenicians, an ancient civilization of seaborne traders, spread the alphabet to the tribes they encountered along the Mediterranean coast. The Greek and Roman alphabets, in turn, were based on the ancient Phoenician script. Today most Western languages, including English, use the Roman alphabet.

Additional Facts

Several letters in modern-day English are direct descendents of ancient Egyptian characters. For instance, the letter B derives from the Egyptian character for the word house.
The most recent edition of the Oxford English Dictionary contains 171,476 words in current usage, among the most of any language.

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Literature

Tuesday, Day 2

Ulysses

James Joyce’s Ulysses (1922) is widely regarded as the greatest novel written in English in the twentieth century. It retells Homer’s Odyssey in the context of a single day — June 16, 1904 — in Dublin, Ireland, recasting Homer’s great hero Odysseus in the unlikely guise of Leopold Bloom, an aging, cuckolded ad salesman who spends the day running errands and making various business appointments before he returns home at long last.

Though Bloom seems unassuming and ordinary, he emerges as a heroic figure, displaying compassion, forgiveness, and generosity toward virtually everyone in the odd cast of characters he meets. In his mundane and often unnoticed deeds, he practices an everyday heroism that is perhaps the only heroism possible in the modern world. And despite the fact that he always feels like an outsider — he is a Jew in overwhelmingly Catholic Ireland — Bloom remains optimistic and dismisses his insecurities.

Ulysses is celebrated for its incredibly rich portraits of characters, its mind-boggling array of allusions to other literary and cultural works, and its many innovations with language. Throughout the course of the novel, Joyce flirts with literary genres and forms ranging from drama to advertising copy to Old English. The novel is perhaps most famous for its extensive use of stream-of-consciousness narrative — Joyce’s attempt to render the inner thoughts of his characters exactly as they occur, with no effort to impose order or organization. This technique became a hallmark of modernist literature and influenced countless other writers, such as Virginia Woolf and William Faulkner, who also experimented with it in their works.

Not surprisingly, Ulysses poses a difficult journey for the reader, especially its famous last chapter, which recounts the thoughts of Bloom’s wife, Molly. Molly’s reverie goes on for more than 24,000 words yet is divided into only eight mammoth sentences. Despite the challenge it poses, the chapter shows Joyce at his most lyrical, especially in the final lines, which reaffirm Molly’s love for her husband despite her infidelity:

and then he asked me would I yes to say yes my mountain flower and first I put my arms around him yes and drew him down to me so he could feel my breasts all perfume yes and his heart was going like mad and yes I said yes I will Yes.

Additional Fact

Ulysses was banned for obscenity in the United States for nearly twelve years because of its (mostly indirect) sexual imagery.

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Visual Arts

Wednesday, Day 3

Lascaux Cave Paintings

The cave paintings at Lascaux are among the earliest known works of art. They were discovered in 1940 near the village of Montignac in central France when four boys stumbled into a cave. Inside they found a series of rooms with nearly 1,500 paintings of animals that were between 15,000 and 17,000 years old.

There are several theories regarding the function of the paintings. A natural feature of the cave may have suggested the shape of an animal to a prehistoric observer who then added highlights to relay his vision to others. Since many of the paintings are located in inaccessible parts of the cave, they may have been used for magical practices. Possibly, prehistoric people believed that the act of drawing animals, especially with a high degree of accuracy, would bring the beasts under their control or increase their numbers in times of scarcity.

The animals are outlined or portrayed in silhouette. They are often shown in what is called twisted perspective, that is, with their heads in profile but their horns facing front. Many of the images include dots, linear patterns, and other designs that may carry symbolic meaning.

The most magnificent chamber of the cave, known as the Great Hall of the Bulls, contains a painted narrative. From left to right, the pictures depict the chase and capture of a bison herd.

As soon as the paintings had been examined and identified as Paleolithic, the caves were opened to the public in 1948. By 1955, however, it became increasingly evident that exposure to as many as 1,200 visitors per day was taking its toll on the works inside. Although protective measures were taken, the site closed in 1963. In order to satisfy public demand, a life-sized replica of the cave was completed in 1983, only 200 meters from the original.

Additional Facts

The cave painters were conscious of visual perspective; they painted figures high on the wall, styled so that they would not appear distorted to the viewer below.
The only human figure depicted in the cave appears in the Shaft of the Dead Man. The fact that it is drawn more crudely than the animals suggest that they did not think it was endowed with magical properties.

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Science

Thursday, Day 4

Cloning

In 1997, a baby sheep named Dolly introduced the world to reproductive cloning. She was a clone because she and her mother shared the same nuclear DNA; in other words, their cells carried the same genetic material. They were like identical twins reared generations apart.

Scientists at the Roslin Institute in Scotland created Dolly by a process called nuclear transfer. Taking the genetic material from an adult donor cell, they transferred it into an unfertilized egg whose genetic material had been removed. In Dolly’s case, the donor cell came from the mammary gland of a six-year-old Finn Dorset ewe. The researchers then gave the egg an electric shock, and it began dividing into an embryo.

One of the reasons Dolly’s creation was so astounding was that it proved to the scientific community that a cell taken from a specialized part of the body could be used to create a whole new organism. Before Dolly, almost all scientists believed that once a cell became specialized it could only produce other specialized cells: A heart cell could only make heart cells, and a liver cell could only make liver cells. But Dolly was made entirely from a cell extracted from her mother’s mammary gland, proving that specialized cells could be completely reprogrammed.

In many ways, Dolly was not like her mother. For example, her telomeres were too short. Telomeres are thin strands of protein that cap off the ends of chromosomes, the structures that carry genes. Although no one is sure exactly what telomeres do, they seem to help protect and repair our cells. As we age, our telomeres get shorter and shorter. Dolly received her mother’s six-year-old telomeres, so from birth, Dolly’s telomeres were shorter than the average lamb her age. Although Dolly appeared to be mostly normal, she was put to sleep in 2004 at the age of six, after suffering from lung cancer and crippling arthritis. The average Finn Dorset sheep lives to age eleven or twelve.

Additional Facts

Since 1997, cattle, mice, goats, and pigs have been successfully cloned using nuclear transfer.
The success rate for cloning is very low in all species. Published studies report that about 1 percent of reconstructed embryos survive birth. But since unsuccessful attempts largely go unreported, the actual number might be much lower.
Before she died, Dolly was the mother of six lambs, all bred the old-fashioned way.
A group of Korean researchers claimed to have cloned a human embryo in 1998, but their experiment was terminated at the 4-cell stage, so there was no evidence of their success.

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Music

Friday, Day 5

The Basics

Music is organized sound that can be replicated through imitation or notation. Music is distinct from noise in that the sounds of a door creaking open or fingernails on a blackboard are irregular and disorganized. The sound waves that map these noises are complex and cannot be heard as identifiable pitches.

Some of the basic ways that we analyze musical sounds are:

Pitch: How high or how low a sound is to the ear. Pitch is measured technically by the frequency of a sound wave, or how often waves repeat themselves. In western music there are twelve unique pitches (C, C-sharp or D-flat, D, D-sharp or E-flat, E, F, F-sharp or G-flat, G, G-sharp or A-flat, A, A-sharp or B-flat, and B). The pitches followed by sharps or flats are called accidentals, and they are most easily described as the black keys on the piano keyboard. They are located musically, one half step between the two pitches on either side of them. For example, D-sharp and E-flat have the same pitch. When referring to pitches in the context of notated, or written music, they are called notes.

Scale: A stepwise arrangement of pitches (for example, C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C) that often serves as the basis for a melody. A piece, or a portion of a piece, will often use only notes found in a particular scale. Western music primarily uses the major scale or the minor scale, in one form or another. To most people, the major scale, because of its particular arrangement of pitches, has the quality of sounding “bright,” “happy,” or “positive.” A minor scale, likewise, is usually described as “dark,” “sad,” or “pessimistic.”

Key: An arrangement or system of pitches, usually based on one of the major or minor scales, that is meant to serve as a reference point and a guiding force of a melody. The tonic of a key is often the starting and ending point for a piece written in a particular key — so if a piece is in E major, then the pitch E will serve as the piece’s tonal center.

Additional Facts

All of these basic elements can be notated on the staff, which is a repeating of five parallel horizontal lines. Often it is divided into measures to indicate metric divisions in the piece and marked at the beginning of each staff of the page with a clef to indicate reference points for identifying pitches.
When a piece strays from its basic key, this is called modulation. Keys are indicated in written music by a key signature at the beginning of each staff.
There are hundreds of scales used in the world’s many different musical cultures. In India, music played on the sitar and other instruments chooses pitches from a collection of twenty-two possibilities, with the distances between scale steps sometimes larger and sometimes smaller than those used in Western music. This can make differences between pitches extremely subtle and demands a high virtuosity from Indian classical musicians.

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Philosophy

Saturday, Day 6

Appearance and Reality

Throughout its history, one of the great themes of philosophy has been the distinction between appearance and reality. This distinction was central to the thought of the earliest philosophers, called the Presocratics, because they lived before Socrates.

The Presocratics believed that the ultimate nature of reality was vastly different from the way it ordinarily appeared to them. For instance, one philosopher named Thales held that appearances notwithstanding, all reality was ultimately composed of water; Heraclitus thought the world was built from fire. Further, Heraclitus maintained that everything was constantly in motion. Another thinker, Parmenides, insisted that nothing actually moved and that all apparent motion was an illusion.

The Presocratics took seriously the possibility that all of reality was ultimately made up of some more fundamental substance. And they suspected that uncritical, everyday observation tends to present us with a misleading picture of the world. For these reasons, their thinking is often considered a precursor to modern science as well as philosophy.

Many later philosophers — including Plato, Spinoza, and Leibniz — followed in this tradition and presented alternative models of reality, which they claimed were closer to the truth than ordinary, commonsense views of the world.

Additional Facts

The distinction between appearance and reality is also central to the venerable philosophical tradition known as skepticism.
Immanuel Kant also addressed the difference between appearance and reality. He distinguished between things we experience and what he called a “thing-in-itself.”

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Religion

Sunday, Day 7

Torah

The Torah is the name generally given to the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, or the Five Books of Moses. Christians refer to these books as the Old Testament. The word Torah can also refer to the entire breadth of Jewish law encompassing several texts as well as oral traditions.

The Five Books of Moses are the basis for the 613 laws that govern the Jewish faith, and they are the foundation for the world’s three great monotheistic faiths — Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. They are as follows:

Genesis: Tells the story of creation as well as the history of the Israelites, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and their families
Exodus: Recounts the exodus from Egypt to Canaan, including Moses receiving the Ten Commandments
Leviticus: Contains the rules and practices of worship
Numbers: Relates the journey of the Israelites in the wilderness
Deuteronomy: Consists of speeches made by Moses at the end of his life that recount Israelite history and ethical teachings

The five books are traditionally believed to have been given to Moses on Mount Sinai. Alternative theories claim the beginning of the Torah was given on Mount Sinai but that the revelation continued throughout Moses’s life.

Historically, archaeologists have argued that the Torah was written sometime between the tenth and sixth centuries BC. Proponents of the Documentary Hypothesis, which according to Orthodox Jews is heretical, claim that the original five books came from four sources, eventually compiled into one by a fifth author or redactor. The arguments in favor of this theory are the multiple names used for God, varying styles of writing. and the repetition of stories.

From the beginning, the Torah was accompanied by an oral tradition, which was necessary for its complete understanding. Although it was thought to be blasphemous to write the oral tradition down, the necessity for doing so eventually became apparent, leading to the creation of the Mishna. Later, as rabbis discussed and debated these two texts, the Talmud was written in order to compile their arguments.

The Jewish tradition uses the text of the Torah to derive innumerable laws and customs. Rabbinic scholars have spent entire lifetimes parsing every word for meaning.

Additional Facts

Torah scrolls written in Hebrew by hand, contain 304,805 letters and may take more than a year to produce by hand. If a single mistake is made, the entire scroll becomes invalid.
Reprinted from: The Intellectual Devotional: Revive Your Mind, Complete Your Education, and Roam Confidently with the Cultured Class by David S. Kidder & Noah D. Oppenheim © 2006 TID Volumes, LLC. Permission granted by Rodale, Inc., Emmaus, PA 18098. Available wherever books are sold or directly from the publisher by calling at (800) 848-4735.

Jeffery Anderson
http://www.articlesbase.com/education-articles/the-intellectual-devotional-74496.html

Are you looking for a business mentor to inspire and motivate you to success but can’t find or afford one? Business audiobooks may just be the ideal business mentoring solution you are looking for to help you grow and succeed.

Statistics show that ninety-seven million Americans drive alone to work everyday — and that doesn’t even include those who commute by bus, train or car pool! With the average commute to and from work now reaching over an hour each way, that’s almost two months of your life each year spent in transit or sitting in traffic. Just think how much you could improve your business or advance your professional career simply by listening to spoken audio recordings containing excellent information on how to improve your sales approach, communication and people skills, how to market your business better, ways to improve your customer service, etc. during this time.

With the rising popularity of MP3 players and iPods, and more new cars being fitted with built-in MP3 players (as of this year, almost all new cars are now capable of playing digital audio files), more business people are discovering that music or the news is not the only thing they can listen to while going about their busy day. Now, people can “listen” to business books, business seminars, sales and marketing lectures and podcasts from successful business people while they’re on-the-go — and when they don’t have time to read. Hence, the huge emerging popularity of audio books with commuters and business owners.

Today’s mobile and “time-starved” business owners, sales managers and sales professionals are discovering that they can download an unlimited amount of information into their brain, learn a foreign language or new skill that will improve their business, and get that competitive business edge while driving in their cars, commuting in trains and buses, or even while standing around in queues.

Most business people love to improve their business acumen via reading and taking courses, but lack the time to do so. This is where spoken audio recordings can play an important role in their professional lives.

Business audio books narrated by successful business people can act as an ideal mentoring tool for business owners (one specific title that comes immediately to mind is the audiobook version of Michael E. Gerber’s business classic “The E-Myth: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work And What To Do About It” read by the author himself!). Imagine all the money you can save on consulting fees and the knowledge you will gain, just by listening to an audio book written and narrated by a business expert while driving, or commuting to work on a bus or train.

Not only will you get mentored by some of the best business minds in the world and gain a competitive business edge by acquiring the latest business information listening to spoken audio recordings on business-related topics, you will also get yourself into the right “state of mind” for doing business successfully.

Just think about it! You arrive at work or at a sales presentation after having been “coached” by a successful business owner while driving or commuting, your mind is immersed in business thoughts and you’re most likely inspired by a great business idea or tip you’ve just heard. You walk into a meeting and you are focused. Your mind is sharp. Your energy is positive and you look vibrant. Your brain is filled with new business strategies and ideas and working subconsciously with these to help you achieve the best results and outcomes no matter what daunting tasks, projects or challenges may lie ahead for you in your busy day.

As a business person, you can now use the amazing value inherent in listening to audio books to gain a competitive business edge over others. You won’t have to worry about not having the time or will to flip through the pages of a book. You can now “listen” to business books when preparing to go to work in the morning, when commuting to and from work, etc.

Currently, there are thousands of best-selling business audiobook titles available. If you are at a loss for specific business audio books to get started, here are 5 of some of the best that any business person should listen to:

1. “How To Win Friends And Influence People” - by Dale Carnegie

One of the most important aspects of any business is the fact that PEOPLE are a crucial part of its success. This is true in almost every aspect of human activity, and especially in business. We need people to keep our businesses going and growing. Not just the people that bring us new sales and new customers, but also the people that make the sales possible, the people who deliver our products, handle complaints, run the administrative aspects of the business, and so on. To be able to succeed in business and other areas of life, we all need to know “how to win friends and influence people”. That’s why this incredible book by Dale Carnegie is a “must have” for any person in business. With the power of the information contained in this classic book, you can learn not just how to influence people so that they bring in more sales for your business, but most importantly how to win staff, suppliers, customers and prospects over as friends to help you make future sales possible. This book is available in audio book format, so you can enjoy listening to it in the comfort of your car while driving or commuting.

2. “E-Myth Mastery” - By Michael E. Gerber

Michael E. Gerber is the world’s leading small business guru and bestselling author of the phenomenally successful “The E-Myth Revisited”. In this audiobook version of his follow up book, “E-Myth Mastery”, Michael Gerber presents the next big step in entrepreneurial management and leadership. This audiobook presents a practical, real-world program that can be implemented in real-time in your business. The E-Myth credo — Don’t work IN your business, work ON it — is spelled out here in the seven essential disciplines followed by every leader of a world-class enterprise. Each discipline provides the leadership keys for unlocking success in the critical areas of business development: Leadership, Marketing, Finance, Money, Management, Client Fulfillment, Lead Conversion and Lead Generation. E-Myth Mastery is the ultimate business development program that will help you recover your passion and turn your company into a world-class operation — a turn-key machine for the money and satisfaction that only a successful entrepreneur can enjoy.

3. “Zig Ziglar’s Secrets Of Closing The Sale” - By Zig Ziglar

All of us are involved in selling every day. Whenever we present a product or a principle, inform a client, or instruct a child, we are engaging in the art of effective persuasion. Zig Ziglar is America’s master of the art of selling and in this audiobook, he explains proven, practical sales techniques all of us can use every day. He also provides vital strategies for specific closes, hundred of sales questions, and dozens of persuasion procedures to help everyone sell their ideas, or themselves. No matter what your age, gender, occupation, or lifestyle, these proven techniques from America’s selling sensation can work for you.

4. “Jack: Straight from the Gut” - by Jack Welch

Jack Welch is unquestionably one of the world’s most successful CEOs ever. In this powerful and thought-provoking audio book, Jack tells his own story, detailing how you can follow his steps to become one of the most successful persons in your career today.

5. “Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make The Leap” - by Jim Collins

You can’t argue with the fact that “without the techniques and strategies, no company or business can excel beyond a few days, weeks or even months”. Businesses and companies that have stood the test of time for many years know what to do and they have done it right. Jim Collins took the time to conduct extensive researches into how and what companies did to maintain success for many long years, while their counterparts failed within a few months or years of starting up. The power of the information contained within this audio book can help any business person to succeed.

These 5 audio books can truly help you improve your business, your career and your life, if you will simply take the time to listen to them and apply what you will learn. Before your next sales presentation, job interview, or important business meeting, take some time to go online and browse through an audiobook store for a downloadable business audiobook that you can burn to CD, or upload to your iPod or MP3 player. It will not only empower you to achieve better business results and improve your life, it will also give you a competitive edge over those who are spending their drive or commute time engaging in less productive activities.

For more articles and information about the benefits of audiobooks, visit http://www.audiobookone.com .

Martin Aranovitch
http://www.articlesbase.com/business-articles/why-business-audiobooks-are-ideal-business-mentors-104201.html

There are bedroom guitar players and there are live performers. There doesn’t seem to be anything in between. The minute you walk on to a stage (whether you get paid or not) you are a professional. You are in the business of entertaining and displaying your wares, so to speak. And if you really want to seriously get your guitar playing together it is the latter you need to strive for in my opinion. I am not suggesting you ‘turn pro’, you know attempt to do this thing full time, that is a whole other set of issues itself, but in order for your guitar playing to really get to where it needs to get to, you simply have to play in a live performance setting, preferably in a public forum. Ideally with other musicians you can interact with.

You can spend a lifetime reading books, studying your musical heroes, playing along to music minus one records, but none of this will ultimately give you the full picture. In order to be a true well rounded musician, you have to have real world experience. I’ll try to explain why…

When I was just starting out in the profession as a fresh untainted fish in the vast sea of the London music business, I had to get myself known in order to find work. So I set about to answer ads in music papers. Now, after studying classical guitar at the London College of Music, I came out of a 3 year course with a facility to sight-read. Or should I say the beginnings of sight-reading ability, as jazz and pop music written on paper is a whole other world, as I was about to find out. I remember having to sight-read a piece of jazz music with a dance band at an audition. There were about 10 guitar players going for this gig. I must have been about 23 years old. The musical director said “I kind of like what you did Chris but you didn’t really cut it mate! There are other guys here that have what I need”. Ouch!!! That hurt. But I was young. It was actually good to hear. So I went back to my music library, pulled out a ton of violin music and practiced reading in different positions on the fretboard. Not to mention learning how to grab chords on sight in different fret positions.

Another time, I went down to audition for the National Youth Jazz Orchestra, a band known to be extremely taxing musically, and a training ground for London session players. I sat in the guitar chair with my Gibson 335 on my lap, ready to play. The director called a chart, I placed it on the stand and he counted it off. He counted it off around 250 BPM. Frighteningly fast! Well, it was all I could do to get my eyes to follow the music, measure by measure, much less play the music that was written within those bars! I didn’t even touch my guitar that rehearsal. I simply placed it back in its case and went home. Ouch again! That was a hard knock! I gave myself exactly a year to get it together. I went back to my practicing with a vengeance. A year later I joined the band for about a year and a half.

Another for instance; about 13 years ago I was playing with a jazz singer in a trio situation with an eminent LA drummer and acoustic bassist. I hadn’t done much trio playing, if any at the time, but I was looking forward to playing. At the end of one of the songs I completely messed up the ending. In fact I would go further, I hadn’t really worked on any song endings. Didn’t really have that together at all. The drummer scowled at me, particularly because I threw him off, as I was not definite in how I wanted to end the song (because I didn’t know myself!). He was furious when I made him look bad. He said to me “Dude, you’ve got to dictate these endings, you’re the one playing the chords!”. He was right. I was crushed! I went home, sulked for a week (maybe two). Then I went back to my practice room. I was not to be defeated…..

These are the hard knocks you simply have to get in your music life to dictate what you need to work on to get your total musicianship together! You just cannot expect to perfect your instrument without real world experience. You can’t get that experience any other way. I can recount tons of times that this sort of thing has happened, and there are still things today that I learn on a weekly basis at live gigs, telling me what I need to work on. The difference today of course is that it’s me who is being critical of myself, rather than other bandmates and musical directors telling me I suck!

And the neccessity of performing live is true of any musical genre you choose. Interacting with other musicians is an art in itself. I know technically great players who can’t play with others. Does this make them great musicians? I’m not so sure. But they sure can get round the instrument. But if they were to do any amount of live ensemble playing they would have one or two knocks coming, and if they are smart they would work on those issues. Otherwise it’s back to solo guitar playing in the back of their local restaurant. (A noble and valid thing to do, let me also say).

There are many issues that come up in a real live playing situation that just don’t come up in a bedroom practice session. Time, time-feel, supportive ensemble playing, projection of sound and tone, and most of all a sense of energy and commitment within a performance that is extremely different, and is very difficult to even put into words frankly. You just need to experience it, and that experience will improve your playing tenfold.

So get out there and do some gigs. I know it is hard to make that happen sometimes, but if you cannot make it happen then start a rehearsal band with a few others and play through repertoire. Get together with other guitarists and play through tunes, take solos and take turns being supportive. As you improve, take the plunge and take yourself to the next level.

And by recommending you do all this I am by no means suggesting you put away your books, records and Jamie Abersold play alongs. Absolutely not. This is something of course you should continue to do. But it is only 50% of your musical makeup. I promise you, by performing live you will improve yourself as a guitar player, but most of all as a musician, and at the end of the day this is what we all need to aspire to.

Go to it and have fun!

Chris Standring
http://www.articlesbase.com/music-articles/how-to-seriously-improve-your-guitar-playing-132877.html

Kemal Evans rips up the streets, riding on the back of a Kabuki Cab serenading local pedestrians and tourists alike with his friend & bassist Nigel Bazinet.
shot live by K. Hawkings

Duration : 0:3:9

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As a parent and former elementary school teacher, one of my favorite authors is Joe Hayes. And one of my favorite books is Tell Me A Cuento/Cuéntame Un Story, a collection of four of his most popular tales in both English and Spanish. If you are not familiar with Joe Hayes, he is the author of numerous bilingual folktales for children, and has earned a distinctive reputation as a master storyteller of southwestern tales.

In this 64 page paperback, Joe Hayes encourages children to interact with the stories through his colorful language, and teams up with illustrator Geronimo Garcia to provide vivid illustrations that brighten every page.

4 Stories in English and Spanish

The first tale, Mariposa, Mariposa is the story of the Butterfly who sews herself a fancy new dress and attracts attention from many suitors. Written in pattern so listeners can predict what comes next, it eventually explains why butteflies look and behave the way they do.

The second story, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Oh!, is similar in style to an Irish tale. The elves dance and sing in the forest at night, and when the kind-hearted poor woman helps them with their song, she is rewarded. This makes the rich woman jealous and you can see where this goes. A great story for exploring the common theme of kindness vs. greed and a lovely book for music and art curriculum connections as well.

Next, No Way, José! tells the story of a bossy rooster who wants to sing at the wedding of his Uncle Perico but he gets his handsome beak dirty eating a berry. He tries to tell others what to do but gets the same response from each one. This cumulative tale builds into a chant with each new encounter and allows all students to get involved and build language.

And finally, in The Terrible Tragadabas, we meet Little Bitty, Middle Size, and Great Big, three granddaughters who are sent to the store to buy little cakes and honey, only to find out about the Tragabadas. Reminiscent of the Three Billy Goats Gruff, this story takes a slightly scary turn. Children absolutely love it!

And… a bonus for all you parents and teachers out there. The publisher, Cinco Puntos Press, offers free teaching resources for each of the four stories. To purchase the book, go to www.sunriseimports.net/tellmeacuento.html. To download the accompanying teacher’s guide, go to www.cincopuntos.com/teachers_guides.html.

Tell Me A Cuento: Cuentame Un Story

Told by Joe Hayes, Illustrated by Geronimo Garcia

Recommended for 8 years and up

Sheila Hull-Summers
http://www.articlesbase.com/advertising-articles/childrens-books-tell-me-a-cuentocuntame-un-story-53380.html

my friends’ band, very talented, toronto, Canada.

Duration : 0:2:0

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Technorati Tags: band, Canada, Canadian, chen, independent, Indie, jam, jamming, ontario, rehearsal, Response, Rock, siya, The, toronto

canadian indie band final fantasy (aka owen pallett) performs a “medley” of three, full-length songs at schuba’s in chicago:

“i’m afraid of japan”
“hey dad”
“the cn tower belongs to the dead”

features overhead projector animation by stephanie comilang

http://www.myspace.com/ffinalffantasy

Duration : 0:9:32

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Technorati Tags: "Final, "Hey, Alternative, animation, Canada, chicago, cn, comilang, dad, Fantasy", Indie, japan, owen, pallet, schuba's, stephanie, tower

Piano improvising and arranging is an art but definitely not a science. It is all based on chords and chord progressions. There aren’t any steadfast rules for creating an arrangement, nothing to dictate the limitless potential of your imagination. Musicians learn to arrange by simply arranging and improvise by improvising—over and over again. It’s a big game of trial and error. But it’s also a scientific method: you keep the experiments that work, and abandon those that don’t work.

That being said, there are a few things that can help you in the knowledge of piano improvization. Don’t think of these as rules, but rather points on a roadmap guiding you through the vast world of arrangement and improvisation possibilities.

The first step, of course, is to learn as much as you can about chords and how they work. Once you get a handle on piano chords and the chord symbols that represent them such as Fm7, G9, D, C7, etc., you can then learn how to break those chords up in various patterns.
Learn several different chording patterns, such as open voicing, arpeggios, upward inversions, western bass, Alberti bass, swing bass or boogie bass. This course guides you through these techniques, in addition to others, and teaches you to understand when they’re the most appropriate.
Learn some right hand fillers, like octaves (and the multitude of harmonic possibilities associated with octaves), tremelos, grace notes, twangs, runs, and turnarounds. Again, this course teaches you these fills and several others.
Study pre-arranged sheet music. Your local music shop will have tons of music books containing several arrangements; read and play through these in detail. Seeing what other people have done with various pieces of music will help you understand the art of arrangement and also introduce you to new techniques!
Dig into different musical styles, like ragtime, blues or country-western. Pick up some compilation CDs focusing on a particular style of music or purchase some piano sheet music specializing in the style. Understanding the fundamental elements of various styles will help you learn to arrange any song in that particular style—or just add a few stylized elements to any arrangement.
Jump online and type in “chord piano” or “piano chords” into your search browser, and you will come up with a zillion choices where you can learn all you need to know about chords in a reasonably short time. It’s not rocket science, and once you learn a few piano chords, you probably will become addicted to chords and their application to your piano playing.

Duane Shinn
http://www.articlesbase.com/music-articles/playing-the-piano-using-chord-symbols-instead-of-being-tied-to-the-written-sheet-music-51778.html

Some people start with nautical star tattoos but soon graduated to more complex designs.  The book, Tattoo, has been called “One of the best tat books yet.”  It talks about how tattooing is a reflection of the basic human desire to decorate the body, and that tattoos have held many different meanings throughout history.

The book is a fascinating journey through the colorful world of the art form through hundreds of fascinating photographs of tattoos as well as the fantastic designs of modern tattoo artists.  You can read more reviews here.

Technorati Tags: gothic tattoos, nautical star tattoos, tattoo crosses, tattoo finder, tattoos ideas