How Can You Find Members for Your Band?

If good help is hard to find, good collaborators are especially difficult to locate.

Finding band mates who share your musical and creative visions, are responsible and have comparable, or better, talent is the most fundamental task in forming a band. Sometimes it can be simple serendipity - your two or three best friends happen to play bass, guitar or drums. But usually it takes much more effort to turn a group of individual musicians into a cohesive band.

The first thing to look for is talent. While some rock stars are self-taught, most studied music and took lessons for years before joining a band. So if you're still in high school or college, check out the school band or music classes. You can also check out local music schools and attend performances.

Go Where They Are!

The best way to find musicians is to go where they are. So do some club hopping and chat people up - especially people who work at the clubs. Ask the bartenders and doormen if they know anyone looking to hook up with a band. Check out the acts. If anyone blows you away, talk to them privately about joining your band.

Musicians move around and it's perfectly accessible to approach someone even if they are already with a band. If they're happy where they are, no harm-no foul; if they are looking to move, then it's a case of being in the right place at the right time.

The most organized way of finding musicians is to hold auditions. Put notices in clubs, in online music chat rooms, at music school and local colleges. If you have the money, put an ad in some music publications.

The first step is to pre-screen applicants on the phone. Find out what their goals are. For example, if you intend to be lead singer, hiring a guitarist who also wants to be lead singer isn't a good mix. You can also get a good sense of personality over the phone so see who you click with Once you get a list of potential band mates, set up auditions. Then it's just a matter of letting your ears - and gut - guide you.

About the Author

You don't have to go crazy, nor do you have to be a slave to the music industry to "make it". To learn how to get in contact with top record labels, managers, producers and more simply visit http://www.TheIndustryYellowPages.com the world's largest list of music contacts

Jazz Guitar – Those Highschool Jazz Competitions

There is nothing more exciting that masses of Jazz lovers all in the same place competing in a competition to showcase the skills they have honed. High school educators all around the country unite at different location to enter their vocal Jazz ensembles, Jazz Bands, Jazz Orchestra's in a competition to represent their schools. All who enter this Jazz competition have been preparing and working hard at learning the music most of the school year.

The music educators gather a small stack of repertoire that will really make their students stand out as unique. The key to performing for the Jazz competition is to know the music, and express it exactly the way the teacher has taught them to do. The truth of the matter is that all Jazz singers should sing out , and not hold back unless the teacher motions for you to do so.

All the instrumentalist should follow the music and shape the sound. Jazz music is an expression that should come as a personal interpretation of the piece. After all, how do the winners in the Jazz competitions exist if the right music and interpretation of the musicians did not exist?

Fortunately, the successful Jazz Group must possess something that allows them to feel at ease with showing soulful emotion with the instrument of voice. When every member does the same thing it makes the most magical atmosphere of music that would send chills up the spine. One can play the piece of music plainly as written, or one can perform the music as written shaping it into something beautiful. Emotion should always be involved with music performance. Moreover, the music performed in Jazz competitions should be believable to the listeners.

Meaning, if you do not feel the music no one else will feel it. Therefore, a performance without emotion is dull and uninteresting.nbsp; If emotion is something hard to grasp at anything in your life, you should try the Mr. Holland's Opus strategy.

There was a girl who could not play her instrument the way she wanted to. He told her in the film to think of something that means a lot to her. She thought of that and was able to perform. If the piece you are playing does not move you personally you might find it hard to perform. However, if you are familiar with what the music is about it will be easier to interpret it. For instance, "Georgia On My Mind" written by Stuart Gorrell and Hoagie Carmichael, one may have never traveled to the state of Georgia. Nevertheless, the music is an expression of adoration for the state of Georgia.

All students participating in high school Jazz competitions should use that emotion to the fullest when performing. In other words, think of something you adore and perform with that though in mind. The thought can be a person, a place or even an object that you hold dear.

Be prepared to shine in high school Jazz competition, and feel the music from your heart.nbsp; It wouldn't hurt for the teachers to choose the right music to show off your talents.

How to Tune a Guitar or Bass

One of the first steps after buying and making the decision to learn to play guitar, is learning how to actually tune it. The good news is that the methods are a plenty, the hard part is finding the right one.

There are many different ways to go about tuning a guitar, and over time I suggest that you learn all of them, just so that you are that much more empowered with guitar knowledge. How to tune a guitar is relatively simple depending on the route you take.

Using a piano

The piano method is how I learned to tune my own guitar when I first started, but I don't recommend this. First of all, you'll need to know how to locate middle E, and second, if you're using a piano - there's a good chance that the piano itself may be out of tune. A keyboard will work best, but again you need to have some prior knowledge of the layout of the keys, and will need to know the names of the strings on your guitar in order to tune them correctly.

Using a tuning fork

You can use a tuning fork, but this takes a little patience and practice, plus the pitches may throw you off guard and lead you down the wrong path if you are just getting started.

Using harmonics

If you are a beginner then you will definitely want to skip this one. This process involves using natural harmonics, but is typically used by more experienced guitar players to double check themselves. This isn't the most accurate method, because if the strings are kind of old then the harmonics will throw off the pitch.

Using other people

That one sounds kind of like a joke, but having someone else to tune to can be quite popular. The biggest problem with this is having to rely upon the other guy. Some people are even so sure that they are in tune, but we're trying to rule out the easiest and best method here.

Using a digital tuner

This is probably the most desirable method, as its easy and takes the guess work out of. Typically a tuner will have a little needle with a set of numbers. You'll have negative and positive numbers, with a zero in the middle. With each string that you try to tune, you want to get the needle as close to that zero as possible. If its a little off - no big deal, but you just want the needle, or in some cases a green light, to show up.

You can download a tuner like this completely for free on the internet, but there have been rumors that these aren't always the most accurate. Investing a small amount of money can get you a tuner that you and your friends can both use, and in a lot of cases they usually come with certain effect pedal boards, or even amps.

About the Author

Jon loves to teach and playing guitar. He is very active in the composing and recording process, and is a movie fanatic.
If you need direction to learn and master guitar, help with strings, tuning, learning chord to learn and master guitar, then I highly recommend that you get professional instruction to a learn and master guitar

First Guitar Hero, and next Orchestra Hero?

From the New York Times:

"What is the hottest thing in music right now?

"A pair of video games ? Guitar Hero and Rock Band.

"Anyone can play. The games allow you to become a member of the band. Each game offers a range of pop music hits on game controllers that look and feel like guitars and drums. What makes these video games so much more impressive than “air guitar” is that through the use of something called the instrument game controller the player actually experiences the visceral feeling of performing music.

"You can even improve if you practice.

"So, why not Orchestra Hero?

"What if I could “play” the horn solo in “Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks” on a “controller horn” or the bassoon solo at the opening of “The Rite of Spring” on a “controller bassoon” or a Chapman Stick with Midi drivers? What if I could bang out the timpani part in the first movement of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony or the clarinet solo at the beginning of “Rhapsody in Blue”?

"And the good news is that Rock Band will soon be opening its format to classical music!"

Full article in the Times --

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/31/orchestra-hero/

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