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Archive for September, 2009

Jazz music originated and later popularized by Americans of African origin are still a rage because of two main reasons: it’s ‘rhythm’ and its ‘individualistic style’. Two jazz music compositions will never be the same. One can therefore improvise jazz. But, how do you learn jazz on your own? Learn from jazz accompaniment tracks online. Thanks to the modern age of digitization now you can be independent, stay at home and take lessons online. The biggest advantage of learning online is that you could be young or old, you could be a total beginner or higher up on the learning curve, you can learn from jazz midi files. Further, this applies to wind instruments, percussion instruments and string instruments equally. Say you would like to learn jazz on the guitar. Get online and select a suitable set of jazz accompaniment tracks. The video will show the hands on the guitar and the exact positions of your fingers even as you listen to the strumming of the guitar to the tune of the particular jazz composition. You can stop the music when you like by hitting the pause button and start again when you are comfortable. You can replay any number of times without the fear of annoying your teacher! Yes, there is a teacher who gives you the instructions as you follow the lesson on video. These are professional musicians who have been in this game for years and they know how pupils can be different. Let’s say you wish to play jazz on the piano or any other similar reed instrument. Select a set of jazz accompaniment tracks as mentioned for the guitar. In this case the teacher will mention if it’s C minor or major 7. At the same time visually the positions of your left and right hands will be clearly indicated. Not only that, clear indications will be provided indicating LH: C and RH: B G B D (2) so that there is no doubt in your mind how the left hand and the right hand move on the keyboard. Playing jazz is child’s play now!

MIDI or the Musical Instrument Digital Interface protocol is a standardized and efficient mean of transmitting musical performance information as electronic data. The information, transmitted in “MIDI messages” are the instructions to a music synthesizer how to play a piece of music. MIDI files have compatibility with all major browsers. You can play them on personal computer, mobile phones and PDA. This article provides an overview of the advantages and disadvantages of Jazz MIDI files.Advantages of JAZZ MIDI filesThey are tiny in size (2-25 KB) and can easily fit to the floppy disk. So download of these files is least time-consuming and burdensome. They are the best tools for stream media as the user does not have to wait a long for download.MIDI files contain instrument and note specific instructions. Hence changing the note and re-orchestrating the whole song is easier in case of Jazz MIDI files.The user can easily isolate different instruments. So, he/she easily learn to play a musical instrument. Jazz MIDI Files are available for many popular songs. The user can record one part of the track while listening to the otherJazz MIDI files can be saved while composingMIDI Can control hardware including recording devices and sound effects modulesHowever, JAZZ MIDI files are not entirely free from shortcomings. They have their own sets of limitations too. Some of them are: – The sound is system specific. It means the user gets different sounds from the same track when he/she plays the files on two different systems. The sound of MIDI files depend upon the sound card of the system. – In some cases, MIDI files sound like an electronic version. – Using a MIDI file is comparatively difficult than playing a Compact DiscIrrespective of the above shortcomings, Jazz MIDI files have become popular among the Jazz lovers due to their scores of advantages.

There are many people who like to listen to music while they work and I am certainly one of them. I find it helps me focus more on the task at hand. Of course I can imagine that there are people who listen to music because it helps them NOT to focus on their job.
Whilst there may be many reasons for wishing to listen to music in the workplace, can it really improve your productivity?
We know that music can alter your mood. Films have been using musical scores for years to create the right mood for a scene. At times you hardly notice the music at all but you are very receptive to the mood being conveyed. So can we use music to put us in a “productive” mood?
Research seems to support such a claim. For example, a trial where 75 out of 256 workers at a large retail company were issued with personal stereos to wear at work for four weeks showed a 10% increase in productivity for the headphone wearers. Other similar research conducted by researchers at the University of Illinois found a 6.3% increase when compared with the no music control group.
So if we accept that music does increase productivity, does it matter what types of music we listen to? Does all music have the same effect or are certain types better in certain circumstances?
If your goal is to increase your concentration then music which has a constant, easy beat and light melodies are recommended. These are said to be good for those trying to study as they help you pace your reading to aid focus and memorising. Baroque music is reported as an excellent example, especially the works of Vivaldi, Bach and Handel.
Rock music can have a similar effect. According to a report in the journal Neuroscience of Behavior and Physiology, the Russian Academy of Sciences discovered that a person’s ability to recognize visual images, including letters and numbers, is faster when either rock or classical music is playing in the background.
If you are aiming to be more productive through being more relaxed, then you may be interested to learn that research has shown that music with an upbeat rhythm can reduce stress hormone levels by as much as 41%.
Some of the most publicised studies into whether listening to music increases productivity have centred on what has been termed the “Mozart effect”. The term got its name after a study showed that college students had performed better solving mathematical problems when listening to classical music. The effect of listening to Mozart does not appear to be limited to humans either. Apparently cows will produce more milk if Mozart is played.

It is not unusual for young men and women who are full of God given talent and music enthusiasm to want to dive right in and begin sitting in with musicians who have been around for many years and know how to capture an audience with their playing. To the young “want-to-bees” they just can’t wait for their chance to show what they can do. But for many of these young musicians, their first sit-in with experienced musicians did not yield a happy ending.

One of the problems young musicians have with trying to break into the jazz scene, accord to many seasoned jazz musicians, is they don’t know the tunes. It just stands to reason, “How can young musicians play with seasoned jazz musicians if they don’t know the tunes?” The only way for up and coming musicians to learn and memorize a large number of jazz tunes are through hard work and many hours of practice. Practice, practice, and more practice is the key to becoming an exceptional jazz musician who will eventually be able to play with the best, anywhere at anytime. Getting to that point is not an impossible feat, but it takes a level head and strong determination to achieve. But first, above all you must learn the correct changes for every song you play. This is key!!

In the old days, there was no internet, nor sophisticate music software applications, nor notation software that could bring the music to you in a laid out form. Musicians of old had to spend the time necessary to figure out chord changes, melodic patterns and solo arrangements. Many musicians put an album on the turntable and turned the speed back in order to “cop” the runs and solo changes played by Oscar Peterson and many other great jazz pioneers.

Today it’s a different story. If you want to learn the tunes- which basically mean the jazz Standards- and play them well, there are a number of internet based sites available to get you there. An internet site that is very visual and jazz education based is the site sponsored by Doug McKenzie at http://www.bushgrafts.com/jazz/home.htm. Doug McKenzie also has great educational videos on YouTube for jazz pianists. It’s a great online tool for all jazz instrumentalists.

A great new online jazz practice tool is provided at www.studiobypass.com. StudioBypass allows you to select from over 400 jazz and Latin tunes, listen to and manipulate the song of your choice, edit the final output, then download it onto your computer for future practice sessions. It is a fantastic practice tool for new up-and-coming jazz musicians, and also for seasoned jazz professionals. It’s a new day for jazz musicians, and space age tools are available to help you to become better-than-average jazz musicians.