Feb

24

The Reputation of Karaoke in Nations Located in the Far East

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The societal customs of the Far East have fascinated many social scientists for hundreds of years. Probably one the most interesting things, in recent history, about these societal customs are their love of music and their love of singing in public. The first glimpse people had of this phenomenon was when Hip Hop Karaoke CDs and even Gospel Karaoke CDs started being sold in record numbers throughout the Far East. Since these singing machines first became popular a few decades ago, thousands of individuals from the Far East have been enamored with the concept of them. In places like Japan, China, and South Korea, going out to a bar gives people the option to sing in public is an extremely popular source of entertainment for after work. No where else in the world is singing in public more normal and common than the Far East.

Many cultures in the Far East are known for their traits of sincerity and dedication to their work. People of Far Eastern cultures are often seen to be stoic through the eyes of people not from those countries. Interestingly enough, people from China, Japan, and South Korea love to go out to the bars in order to be able to sing in public. And it is not just the young people that are going out to these bars and restaurants. These types of bars are a seen as a time to relax and sing whatever you want. Middle-aged and older business men and women also go to these types of places just as much as young college aged kids go to these bars and restaurants. It does not matter if you are a good singer or a bad singer, just as long as you get out there and sing most public singing enthusiasts will not care about the tone. This form of entertainment is often enjoyed late into the night as plenty of locals stay at these establishments for hours on end.

Singing in public is seen, by some people who live in these cultures, as a way to evaluate a person and it is not by their singing ability. It is a way to see how courageous a person is and how much they are willing to put themselves in the spotlight. It is common for business people to go to one of these bars or restaurants to have a conference. You can find out a lot about a person by paying attention to how they carry themselves while singing on stage in front of an audience.

The popularity of singing in public is just an amazing part of Far East culture. It is not something that many people realize is popular until they travel to these areas parts of the world and see for themselves how much these types of bars and restaurants are well-liked. In fact, many t.v. networks featuring travel have done specials on bars that feature singing machines and they have also been featured on a popular reality show competition, where the competitors race around the world and complete tasks along the way. If you are ever traveling in the Far East a bar or restaurant where you can put yourself in the spotlight to sing is definitely a must-visit because you can get some great insight on local culture.

Feb

12

Start Learning To Understand Music

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The most fun thing to do when playing piano is to pull out the piano bench, stretch out the limbs and let rip with a song you’ve previously learned, or a solo piece you’re experienced with. What’s not so much fun is staying on piano benches attempting to learn what all the squiggles and dots of music notation are, and trying to read them as quickly as possible. Often the music you’re trying to study will be thrown into a sheet music cabinet, not to be considered until motivation happens to strike again. Is practicing reading notation all that important? Wouldn’t it just be superior to focus on the areas of playing that is fun and simple?

The answer to that is a definite “No”. In order to become a well-rounded musician, the difficult aspects of music are going to have to be studied along with the easy parts. But in saying that, I’m misrepresenting the actuality of learning music. The fact is that all aspects of musical learning can be fun, and as you become more and more proficient in reading music notation, you’ll find yourself enjoying the experience.

The basics of reading music are pretty elementary. The challenge, of course, is learning to comprehend these symbols well enough so that it becomes second nature.

If you’ve decided to begin practicing to read notation, make sure that you do it consistently. Don’t just cram in as much learning as you can while your motivated and then forget about it until the urge to learn again comes back. It’s better to practice reading notation for ten minutes every day than to practice for a full hour every six days. You want the meanings of symbols to stick in your head the same way writing does.

Notice for a minute how easy it is for you to comprehend everything I’m writing here. If you’ve ever tried learning a language with a unique set of letters, you’ll know just how hard it can be to get into your brain what those squiggly lines are. But when it comes to reading English, we don’t think of squiggly lines or even single letters, the words simply jump out at us with seemingly little effort from our mind.

The same is possible| to achieve with reading music symbols, and it’s called sight-reading. Sight-reading can only be achieved with the classic method of practice, practice, practice.

Remember, when you find something in music that’s hard to learn, that’s a good thing. The more difficult something is for you to learn, the more your mind will benefit from attacking the problem straight on. Some musicians focus on repeating solo pieces they know well and can play fast, while some are always looking for what they don’t know, for things they can do better. This is what differentiates a great musician from all the others.

Feb

8

The Many Performances And The Awards Given During The 52nd Grammy Awards Show

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The Grammy Awards is an awards show that started in 1958 and has been broadcast on TV since 1971 handing out awards for achievements in the music industry. The name, Grammy awards used to be called the gold gramophone trophies. This year, the 52nd Grammy Awards show was held in Los Angeles and was over three hours long with many awards and live performances such as Lady Gaga and Elton John playing dueling pianos with piano lamps singing a combination of Speechless and Your Song to the crowd. Another amazing performance was by Pink who sang “Glitter in the Air” while performing an impressive aerial acrobatics stunt using silk scarves and dramatic House of Troy lighting.

Beyonce Knowles made Grammy Award history at the 2010 Grammy Awards by winning the most Grammy’s for a female in one year. She won 6 awards for different categories like song of the year and best R&B female vocal. Her song Single Ladies was a worldwide hit that got her several of her awards as well as her album from which that song was on. Despite her success at the awards show, Beyonce appeared surprised to receive so many accolades and especially thanked her spouse, Jay Z, another famous musician. Her career began as a singer in the girl group known as Destiny’s Child and really exploded once she went solo with her career.

The young 20 year old country singer and songwriter, Taylor Swift was the other big winner at the 2010 Grammy Awards winning the biggest prize of Album of the year for her Fearless album. She has had a very successful year winning many awards and the Grammy’s proved to be just that getting her 4 of the gold Gramophone trophies to take home. Besides winning her first Grammy awards, Swift performed a duet with one of her longtime idols, Stevie Nicks. The future certainly appears promising for the young lady from Nashville.

Another group from Nashville, Tennessee that surprised many at the Grammy Awards was the family band named Kings of Leon that won 3 awards including the record of the year beating out rock big timers, U2 and the Dave Matthews band. And yet a third country band won a huge award for being named the best new artist was given to the Zac Brown band. It seems as if the country singers and those hailing from Nashville really did well at the 52nd Grammy Awards.

Another memorable moment of the night was during a special Michael Jackson tribute where they showed a video Jackson had made that was to be performed on his tour that he was preparing for at the time of his sudden death. It was done in 3D and singers, Celine Dion, Smokey Robinson, Jennifer Hudson and Carrie Underwood all contributed to it on stage. Jackson’s daughter and son, Paris and Prince accepted a lifetime achievement award on behalf of their father which moved the whole audience.