Legal Music Download Sites VS P2P File Sharing

This article compares the differences between legal music download sites VS file sharing networks. 

1) Music files available for download:

The p2p file sharing networks heavily out number the legal music sites when it comes to the amount of files available for download. A p2p application provides millions of unlimited mp3 music files, while a legal music download site provides legitimately licensed music files in the hundreds of thousands.

2) The cost of downloading music:

You can download p2p file sharing networks for free, or for a very cheap one-time fee. A legal music download site is usually either "subscription-based" or "pay-per-download". A legal site will also usually charge extra for the ability to rip or burn music.

3) Variety of files available for download:

A legal music site mainly provides ONLY music files for downloading. A p2p application gives you, besides music files, full movie, game, video, software, TV show and ring-tone files to download as well.

4) Legal Issues & Controversy:

Legitimate legal music download sites are completely free of controversy and 100% legal to use. P2p file sharing networks, while legal, are not without lawsuit concerns and controversy due to how the file sharing technology can be used.

If you choose to use a p2p file sharing program, there are potential risks you need to be aware of, including: 

Lawsuit Risks - Peer to peer file sharing networks have been ruled legal in a court of law. However, if you download and share "copyrighted material" you could risk becoming targeted, and possibly sued, by the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America).

Virus And Privacy Risks - In using a file sharing application, you risk the possibility of installing harmful spyware, viruses, worms and malware on your computer. And if that's not bad enough, many p2p applications also leave you exposed to online hackers and identity thieves that can steal you personal information.

Legal Music Download Sites VS P2P File Sharing - Summary:
At first glance the p2p file sharing networks may seem to offer an easy way to get unlimited free file downloads. But remember, nothing is really free and this is especially true with the p2p file sharing applications.
The file sharing programs come with a price of increased privacy and security threats, and potential RIAA lawsuit risks. The ONLY way to guarantee getting safe music downloads online is by using a legitimately licensed music site that provides downloads of music legally licensed from the record labels and artists themselves.

The Influence Of Blues Guitar On Modern Music

Anybody interested in modern music sooner or later asks the question, "Where did it begin?" Well, if you leave blues guitar music out, you will not have much of an answer. So let us look at where the blues came from, where it went and who it met on the way. We will also take a look at the "blues guitar sound" and how it has its unique effect on our feelings.

The blues as a musical phenomenon began around 1911 when W.C. Handy published popular songs, notably "Memphis Blues" and "St Louis Blues", which affected the hearts and souls of the black people. By the nineteen twenties the general population were beginning to hear this new music through its influence on jazz. Early blues singers like Bessie Smith and Billie Holiday sang with jazz bands while others played with "jug bands" accompanied by fiddle, kazoo and washboard.

Of course to people like W. C. Handy who were brought up singing in church, the piano was the natural instrumental accompaniment to their songs. But the guitar is portable and always was popular so it had to have a place in blues and jazz. Blues guitar players like twelve string guitarist Leadbelly and future electric guitar player B.B. King were making sure the guitar would be an integral part of the blues. Other blues guitarists made their living in smoky saloons playing slide guitar using a bottle neck or the blade of a knife to fret the notes.

After the Second World War young artists like Elvis Presley and Bill Haley were wrapping the blues in a new package called "rock'n'roll" and the players of the electric blues guitar like B.B. King were heralding the arrival of the lead guitar, soon to be a great attraction for both musicians and audiences. Throughout the evolution of the blues the guitar had always taken its turn for solos in jazz bands but now it competed with the singer for the attention of the audience. <

Easy Piano Improvisation

Have you ever wanted to just sit down at the piano and play what you feel? Without worrying if it's good enough or if you have enough "talent?" You can when you learn how to play piano using the amazing open position piano chord!

This chord structure allows the complete beginner to create modern sounds at the piano
First, you must learn how to use it. The easiest way to do this is to simply learn the chords in the Key of C Major. We take the entire 6-note chord and move it up step by step. First we play C Major 7, then D minor 7, E minor 7, F Major 7, G 7, and A minor 7 and finally, B half-diminished. We play the chords first as solid chords (all tones together) then we break them up.

Once we've got this very large chord structure down in our hands, we can then use it to create music with. Improvisation simply means spontaneous expression - learning how to create in the moment. Improvising does not have to be hard! Once you get the chords down, you're left with the melody creation aspect and this is easy to because all you use are the notes from the C Major scale.

We use our chords much the same way a painter uses a palette of colors. We create using chords and the element of time.

Electric Guitar Tablature explain musical ideas

Tablature as a means of writing music down has been with us for hundreds of years, but many people today look down on tabs as a third rate method of musical communication.

In fact, tablature is not a dumbed down version of conventional musical notation, rather what we call sheet music grew from a need for more versatility in notation as music became more complex in medieval times. Electric Guitar Tabs have been a great help to the many people who have taken up the electric guitar and who wanted to get down to the business of playing as quickly as possible.

Conventional music notation has much more to communicate than tabs, but if you already know more or less how the song sounds, and are prepared to work at your own interpretation, then there is nothing wrong with using tablature.

Guitarists composing music using tabs and sharing the results of their work on the internet have brought a wide range of music within reach of amateur musicians who never learnt to read music. To some guitarists learning to read music is a waste of time that would be put to better use expressing their feelings through music. This attitude is at odds with the idea that the more
theoretical knowledge you have, the greater the pool of resources at your disposal for expressing your ideas.
Tablature, on the other hand, allows the guitarist to get to know the basic piece of music in his own way, and use his musical intuition and flair for improvisation to produce a musical work which will be as much his own work as the original composer's.
For that reason electric guitar tabs are a boon to the electric guitar player who does not want to just produce a copy of someone else's work.
You can find electric guitar tabs in music stores along with conventional written music, but the quickest and best place to look for electric guitar tabs is on the internet. Even though there's a
legal dogfight going on about tab publishers infringing the rights of the original composer, many tabs are still available for free.
However you need to exercise your discernment when making use of tablature produced by amateur guitarists. You might need to change things around a little if they don't sound right.
As for the electric guitar player who wants to broaden his musical knowledge, tablature also allows the guitarist to learn new chords, scales or modes very quickly.
Finally a reminder that using electric guitar tabs to learn new material is not a walk in the park - you need to supply some of the information which is otherwise written into sheet music. You need
to have some idea of the note values and a basic understanding of time signatures and tempo. What that boils down to is that you can hear the music in your head, and you just want to know
where to put your fingers on the fret board. That is what guitar tabs were originally made for.

The Lure Of The Nylon String Guitar

As a fan of the electric guitar and an enthusiastic player of acoustic music, I would like to share some of the most fascinating aspects of the nylon string guitar to give you an idea of the beauty of this instrument as a stepping stone for beginner guitarists or as the subject of a lifelong devotion. Although a nylon string guitar fan can go on and on about the wonderful mellow sound and the potential for extracting new meaning from music, maybe we can focus on the more practical aspects of the nylon string acoustic like the different styles of music played on it and the advantages it can hold for an amateur or professional guitarist.
First let's talk about the types of guitars using nylon strings. Many experts say the flamenco guitar with its dry sound is more typical of what a guitar was like before the emergence of the sonorous and lyrical sound of the classical guitar which evolved in the first half of the twentieth century. The flamenco guitar has always been common in some areas of Spain, and it is simply the musical instrument used by a family or group of friends to play the local folk music. The classical guitar was developed to play the classical style compositions which became popular in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. A descendent of the classical guitar is the basic nylon string acoustic guitar you see in music stores today.
The sound of the nylon string guitar is much more peaceful compared to the brighter sound of the steel string acoustic. Another major advantage of the nylon string guitar is that it provides musical accompaniment to songs without distracting attention from your vocals.
By the way - did you know that players of electric guitars or steel string acoustic instruments need to develop callouses on their left hand fingers? Nylon strings are generally a little kinder to your hands. You will find that your nylon string guitar is easy to tune and you can just pick your guitar up and play it at any time of day or night without disturbing anybody in the immediate environment. Also the wider fret board allows you to play chords and single notes without accidentally touching the wrong string.
Nylon string guitars are kinder to finger picking guitarists. Anybody can learn finger style guitar on nylon strings without running too much risk of breaking fingernails, plus you will be pleased at how your first finger picking efforts are rewarded by the more beginner-friendly tone of the nylon acoustic.
Now you have some idea of the attractive aspects of the nylon string acoustic guitar, I do hope you will find some time to devote to this beautiful and, in recent times, neglected instrument.

Learn To Play Guitar Fast

When you watch somebody play fast on the guitar do you always wonder if you could learn to do that? Let us look at what resources we need to increase our own guitar playing speed on a regular basis. The very first thing you are going toneed is a metronome. You can buy one from your local music store, steal one from a maiden aunt or download one for free on the internet. If you choose to steal one, then I am afraid you will not make much progress in your quest to play guitar fast because shortcuts just do not work. Most of us look for the quickest and most painless way to do things, and that is why most of us are not playing guitar at the speed of light.
Okay, you have your metronome and an attitude adjustment. You are ready to begin. The next thing you need is something to practice. It can be a solo passage from a song. It can be an exercise, like a series of arpeggios or a picking exercise. You need to choose your material carefully because you will need to know exactly how fast you want to play in terms of the settings on your metronome. You may or may not need to spend time learning your passage from scratch as some familiarity with the piece is necessary to start increasing how fast you play it. By familiarity I mean the muscles in your fingers, hands and arms need to beable to play your piece without hesitation. So that is the next thing you need. In order to play guitar fast you need to be able to play slowly.
The exercise you have chosen to play should not be too easy, but at the same time it should not have too many tricky bits. That is why you are using an exercise or an isolated passage rather than a song or long solo. Now you are starting to see the way ahead. If you have yourpractice passage ready, check it with your metronome. Make sure you know what your present speed is. The next thing is to take a metronome setting not too far above your present one and make that your goal.
Let us now talk about something you do not need. Muscular tension. You need to practice playing guitar fast without building a level of tension in the muscles that will work against your goal. In order to escape the possibility of too much tension you need to forget about time frames. You have your goal in the metronome setting. Leave the time open ended. The idea is not to actually PLAY guitar faster at sometime in the future, but to WORK A LITTLE BIT ON PLAYING FAST every day.
So if you choose a passage to practice in order to play fast, and playing speed will begin to increase. Once you have reached a level of skill on one exercise, choose another one with a couple more challenges. But remember to begin again from the beginning. Ascertain where you are now and decide on a realistic goal for your next step.

You Can Learn To Read Guitar Sheet Music

When you learn to read guitar sheet music it will be vital in expanding your guitar playing skills. Playing by ear will only get you so far and I am here to help take it to the next step.

I will show you some basic tips and tricks to help you learn to read guitar sheet music and hopefully that will make you a better and more versatile guitar player. I will now give you a list that will show you it is not hard to learn to read guitar sheet music.

Finding the right material

Most guitar books will have some basic sheet music and songs in the front pages that are designed to help you learn to read guitar sheet music quickly. Once you have basic guitar knowledge it is relatively easy to learn to read guitar sheet music. Start in small sections, one chord at a time. Use your guitar and play the chord out loud until you know it sounds correct.

Setting your self up

You will need to be in a small quite room where you will not be distracted by anything when you learn to read guitar sheet music. The only way to know when you get it right is if it sounds right and it can be difficult do that if you have screaming kids in the room with you or loud street noise outside. Concentration is key and this will make it easier to learn how to read guitar sheet music. If you are distracted you may find a whole day can bewasted trying to focus

Getting started
Remember what I said, be free from distraction! I cannot stress that enough. Now you're alone and it's quiet, find a music book with sheet music, try to pick something easy but also try to pick something you are familiar with. It makes it much easier to learn to read guitar sheet music if you are familiar with the tune. Make sure you are confident with one piece before you move on to the next.

Continue practicing
Continue to practice as much as you can, you will find that the better you get the more you will practice. When you enjoy something you will generally apply more time to it. Trying to learn to read guitar sheet music is easy as long as you practice! Once you have mastered reading sheet music then you can attempt towrite you own music and that is where the real fun begins! It is essential to make sure you are confident or you will only have to go back and learn to read guitar sheet music all over again.

Acoustic Guitar Lessons

These mini guitar lessons have been put together for the beginner acoustic guitar student who feels a need to play music but is a bit short on direction.

Lesson One- What kind of guitar are you going to buy? 

If you have a rough idea of what kind of music you want to play, the next step is to find yourself a guitar. Let's start with the basics - nylon string or steel string. A nylon string guitar was made to play classical and folk music. Acoustic guitars make their music by sending the vibration of the strings to the soundboard. The vibrations are then amplified in the body of the guitar. Nylon string guitars make a mellow tone; steel string guitars make a brighter, more metallic sound. One of the main things that will influence you in deciding what kind of sound you want is the guitar your favorite performer plays. If you are just starting out you will not need a top of the range guitar but it is best to get the nicest one in your price range. A cheap, poorly made guitar will be an uphill battle to play. A good instrument will make your practice sessions something to look forward to. Try different guitars. See how the neck feels. Check out if one neckfeels more comfortable to play than others. Another consideration is the distance of the strings from the fret board which is called the "action". Low action is easier to play but if you are planning on strumming enthusiastically or picking loudly the guitar may have a tendency to buzz.

Lesson Two - Go ahead and learn.

The very first step toward learning to play acoustic guitar is to develop confidence and to overcome your natural reluctance try new things. Lack of money, lack of time, or lack of a good teacher are three big obstacles to your guitar learning progress. The other three big obstacles are all you. You may be your worst enemy. How do you react to a challenge? Challenges are your friends. If you find yourself getting frustrated, and not wanting to continue your practice, it might be time to downsize your goal, at least for a while. If you have two chords that you have trouble with, work on the first one alone for a while. Once you have improved a little, go to the next one.

Lesson Three - Daily Practice
As far as your daily practice goes look at starting with half an hour a day. If you can do more, great, you'll become a guitarist faster. The way you carry out your practice is crucial. Putting in the time isn't the only requirement. If you rush or try to fit too much in, then you're working against yourself. Err on the side of too little material at first. If you really are accomplishing what you set out to do in less than thirty minutes, then add a little more.

Lesson Four - Tuning Your Guitar

You can find online guitar tuners to help you get your acoustic guitar in tune. Take a day or two of your practice time to get the knack of tuning. When you start to develop an ear for tuning, try tuning the guitar without the tuner.

Lesson Five - Holding Your Acoustic Guitar
Long hours of practice can take their toll. Learning how to sit and play your acoustic guitar is an art in itself. There are places on the internet that have illustrations showing you how to sit when you're playing, but it would be good to find somebody with a little experience to show you. But don't just go with the way one person plays. If he's self-taught, then you don't want to pick up his bad habits!

Learn To Play Guitar Using Free Software

If you want to learn to play guitar for free there's plenty of software available to help you. This article will enable you to define for yourself how to approach learning the guitar and guide you in setting up the time and space necessary to make solid musical progress.

Imagine yourself sitting down to play the guitar. You want to play to your own musical standards and to make music that impresses your audience. You will play from beginning to end without a hitch. Your attention will be on the music, not nervously anticipating the bits that you can "scrape through" when you are alone in your room but could be your undoing in front of an audience.

To learn to play guitar with a high degree of fluency, the first free resource you will need is time. Even if you have a busy daily schedule you can find say, half an hour to set aside to learning guitar. Think about what you do during the day. After dinner for instance, do you sit staring mindlessly at the television? Could you get up a little earlier in the morning to play guitar? Failing to seriously think about when you are going to practice the guitar will make the other elements of your guitar education more difficult.
Once you have worked when you will practice the guitar each day, you can contemplate the basic needs behind learning music. You can see in your imagination how you want to play guitar, so how do you go about getting the music into your head and your fingers?

An essential piece of equipment you need by your side is your guitar tuner. With free guitar tuners available to download, there's no excuse not to be in tune. I recommend the AP Guitar Tuner. It has a great visual guide to make sure you get your guitar in tune with a minimum of fuss.
Whether you already read standard musical notation or you will be using guitar tablature, you need to go to your friendly neighborhood search engine and look for a free music notation program called TablEdit. Guitarists record arrangements of songs using this program and share it with other guitar players on the internet. You download the software in a zip file and install it on your computer.

Now go to your search engine again and type in the name of the song you want to learn followed by "tabledit". If your request is not too obscure, you will get a number of web pages where you can download your song. As an example, type "classical gas tabledit" into a search engine and you will be rewarded with over one-hundred-and-fifty results. The only drawback with the free version of the program is you can't edit and save the music you are learning.

Another free guitar notation program is called Powertab, so if you can't find a Tabledit file for the piece you want, try your search using "power tab".

Now sit down with yourself and let the notation program play the song. Get a good grip on how the song sounds. Then start to learn the notes in whatever size chunks you need. Break it into licks, bars, half bars, whatever, but don't ride over any bits that are difficult for you. The ultimate aim is to perform a series of small movements, each one leading to the next without unnecessary muscular tension.
If you have difficulty with any part of the song, play it slowly several times on your notation program until you can hear it in your head. Then try it slowly on the guitar.

Finally, if you can't find a TablEdit or Powertab arrangement of your song, the latest version or Apple's Quicktime has the ability to slow down any music without altering the pitch. All you need then is a sound file and a tab or sheet music of your piece and you're ready to rock!

Archlute

Archlute adalah alat musik moyang gitar yang biasanya berdawai 14 pasang(atau bahkan lebih) :), banyak senarnya ya?, hehe.., lute biasa disebut sebagai kecapi dalam Bahasa Indonesia, asal-usul kecapi barat seperti ini akan saya bahas terpisah dalam artikel-artikel mendatang.
Archlute dikembangkan sekitar tahun 1600 M di Eropa, jaman-jaman musik renaisans. Sebenarnya ada berbagai macam model kecapi/lute seperti theorbo, juga tenor lute, juga lute arab/persia. Archlute ini lebih merupakan perpaduan antara theorbo dan tenor lute jaman barok. Bedanya kalau Archlute memiliki dawai 14 pasang, sementara lute jaman barok memiliki 11 atau 13 pasang. Ini  lagu "Bach Prelude for Lute in D Minor BWV 1008", dimainkan oleh David Tayler.

 Sumber tambahan/additional references: http://en.wikipedia.org, http://www.youtube.com