CTOKOS Blog

posted on 10 LINKS on 03-12-2009

The danger of musoc.org is that anybody unlucky enough to come across it early in their exploration of “classical music” might think that it represents the values of the music or its institutions. It doesn’t. Musoc.org thinks of itself as defending “art music”, but with its self-indulgent cultural pessimism and apartheid, it’s the last thing that classical music, or whatever you want to call it, needs. Instead, classical music needs defending against the intolerance of self-appointed guardians like musoc.org. Their “hall of shame” is nothing of the sort - it should be a badge of honour for Classic FM and the DC Philharmonic, the first entries.

Classical works often display a certain degree of complexity through the use of development, modulation, variation rather than exact repetition (as seen in Popular Music), Counter point, polyphony and sophisticated harmonies. Public adoration for classical music has dropped since the 1900s, most particularly in more developed countries like the United States and the United Kingdom. Classical music has taken a back seat behind popular forms of music like: jazz, pop, rock, rap, and many more. One small example is the debut album of the 21-year-old soprano singer Camilla Kerslake which has a very slow start in the charts. I suppose it’s the reason why she made available the very classical White Christmas Song Lyrics on her website for this festive season.

The phenomenon of the castrato in classical music in the 1700s shows that young people haven’t just been interested in classical music throughout the years - they’ve practically been canonised as part of a classical music tradition that, although lost, is not forgotten. And the oldest documented violin to have four strings, like the modern violin, was made in 1555.

Virgin Media had planned to launch a music download service by Christmas. The service will enable the subscribers to download music from many famous record labels, including Universal Music. However, when the announcement was made in June EMI and Sony Music were uncertain regarding the service, and they are so even now, more because Virgin has collaborated with their rival Universal music to launch this service.

Last month, a speaker for Virgin Media had stated that the plan was completely on time and that the company would be making the service available by December. It had in fact planned to provide an all-encompassing and unlimited music download facility.

However, the high hopes of the subscribers were not to be realized, as Virgin Media reduced the offer to 40MP3 downloads every month. This decision for reduction has come very recently, which means that Virgin Media will not be making available any unlimited download facilities, though the facility to stream unlimited music will still be there. Further, the new service will cost £15 per month as stated by website The Register.

This is the second mobile service provider that has promised music download facility. The first one is BSkyB, which made similar announcements last summer but has not yet declared any date on which the service, to be known as Sky Songs, will be introduced to the public.

Broadband Genie’s comparative table of broadband devices and prices provides all details regarding the latest broadband offers and services on available in the market, right from cheap broadband to fastest broadband.

So, you also want a home theater in your house? In this case, you may be thinking of designing your own even if you are still unsure about how to go about it. To make things easier for you, you may buy a ready-made home theater design plans which will be able to help you out. Plus, here are a few tips on your design.

Just answer these simple questions and you will come up with a few great plans.

How much space will you use?

If you’re just beginning to go to work on your theater , take into consideration the amount of people who would likely be seated in your theater. Consider the outline of the area. And, is the room exposed to the remainder of the house or is it a close one?

Will the room that you will enjoy for the home theater be primarily for theater only?

If the area that you will use is a multi-purpose room, you may have to arrange some accessories or devices, which can hide the home theater system once it’s not in being used. The home theater design plans will be very key in order to capitalize on the use of the open space.

Do you have a motif in mind for your home theater?

What type of decoration do you want? Do you like a modern design? How about something antique? Would you like to balance the design to the theme of the remainder of your house?

Who will assemble your theater?

Will you hire a home theater installer or you will build it yourself? If so, do you have the capacity and knowledge to do it by yourself?

After you have clarify all of the questions, you should be able to construct a enjoyable design for your home. Don’t forget, a well-designed room can make viewing experience very entertaining for you and your family.

You can encourage your young child in piano lessons to play for others by giving them many opportunities to play for family and friends. This will help your piano student to build trust and confidence in others. Remember, even though kids can be so cute, don’t laugh at your child if they make a mistake while playing for others. Also avoid criticism of their playing and don’t make excuses for how they played either. It is enough to simply say “Thank you” to your little performer for sharing their talent with others. This will send your child the message that they are an individual who is a valued member of your family and community who has something to offer to others. Playing for family and friends prepares children to play for larger audiences, such as at piano recitals and auditions.

If you want to have a conversation with your child about sharing their gifts with others, here is a positive way to go about it. Use the questions below to start a conversation with your child that will help them appreciate the positive benefits of performing.

1. “We all have gifts of ability to share with others.”

2. “Playing the piano for others is how you can share your musical talent.”

3. “Can you think of abilities that other people share with you?”

4. “How do you feel when people share with you?”

5. “What would happen if no one shared their gifts and abilities with others?”

Follow this plan it will go a long way toward encouraging your child in piano lessons to share their musical gifts with others and build a positive history of performance experience.

For great home piano activities parents can use to help children ages 5 to 11 develop their musical talent, visit Piano Adventure Bears Music Education Resources You’ll find a treasure box filled with piano resources to create an exciting musical adventure for your child - right in your own home! Visit their website and subscribe to their f’ree internet newsletter so you can download f’ree piano sheet music and mp3s of original piano compositions.

These exciting stories, games, piano lessons, and inspirational gifts feature the Piano Adventure Bears, Mrs. Treble Beary and her new piano student, Albeart Littlebud. Young students follow along with Albeart to learn what piano lessons are all about in a fun way that kids readily understand appreciate. Click here to visit PianoAdventureBears.com For a wealth of information about piano lessons, visit tallypiano.com

If “legally” filling up your MP3 player with gigabytes of music
for less than the retail price of a single album interests you,
then it is time to choose a music subscription service. Digital
music is an emerging market with three major players enticing
thousands of people to give up pirating their music and actually
paying for it.

When taken into consideration that people have been stealing
music long before the advent of the MP3 file, which made
pirating music a widespread epidemic, why now are people all of
a sudden going straight? So many, that 2005 was the first year
legal downloads of music exceeded illegal downloads on P2P
sites. Thank Rhapsody, Napster, and Yahoo Music Unlimited for
finally offering a model that makes sense. Instead of buying
songs or albums, they offer subscribers the ability to rent
their entire collection of over 1 million tracks for a low
monthly fee. Buying thousands of tracks on Apple’s iTunes would
cost thousands of dollars, where you can easily download 10,000
or more songs to your MP3 player through a music subscription
service for as low as $4.99 a month. Aside from the cost
savings, renting music has more advantages over buying. For one,
it is convenient. Imaging having over 1 million full length high
quality songs at your fingertips, so whether you want to listen
to your favorite song, something different on an impulse, or are
just curious about an emerging artist, you can have it all. On
top of that, you don’t have to worry about slow downloads, poor
audio quality, corrupt or infected files.

Convinced? So which music subscription service is right for you?

While they are all pretty comparable, Rhapsody is probably the
cream of the crop. They offer the most streamlined interface and
the best jukebox functionality, all accessible from any PC
connected to the web. Artist bios, radio stations (which allow
you to skip songs), and advanced playlist features are all
integrated into the interface. For $14.99 a month, this is a
great value. Subscribers also have the option to download songs
for 89 cents a track.

Napster also has an attractive interface with advanced playlist
features and a massive catalog of music that is continually
growing. It has a few nice personalization features, but
transferring songs to an MP3 player can be more difficult with
Napster than the alternatives. For $14.95 a month and 99 cent
tracks, it is still a great value.

Yahoo Music Unlimited is the least expensive option, charging
only $4.99 a month and just 79 cent tracks. It includes a nice
jukebox, radio stations (which allow you to skip songs), and can
integrate with the popular Yahoo Messenger client. If the
appealing price outweighs a lack of extras like artist bios and
a few bugs here and there, then Yahoo is probably the way to go.

With digital music sales soaring, it is a safe bet that all
three of these music subscription services will flourish and
continue to develop even more features, grow their already
extensive catalogs, and convert more and more pirates into
renters.