Aries Music Download Program

For those out there who’ve always wanted to take their music from the garage to the stage, starting up a band on the cheap actually isn’t all that hard to do if one understands what’s needed, not only in terms of and equipment but also in terms of musical ability. The music world when it comes to bands and entertainment can be a very harsh environment, so keep that in mind before starting out.

As far as getting a band up and running, it’s pretty much always the case that finding bandmates to know how to play their instruments well will be the most important first step on the road to rock stardom. If all one wants to be is in a garage band, it won’t be that important, but in almost every other case starting to think like a professional musician will help out a great deal.

What this means is that one is going to have to put in the time needed to find musical gear that won’t break the bank but which also will deliver in terms of quality. Going cheap when it comes to things like drums and guitars is a sure path to ultimate failure because they don’t sound very well in most cases. For good quality and decent prices, something like an Epiphone electric guitar can’t be beat.

One can also start looking for musical gear by hitting garage sales or looking for classifieds. Scoping out an electric guitar for sale through an online ad or auction site is also a good way of finding quality gear a discounted price. If done right, the band will be well on its way to that first paying gig down at the corner bar or some school carnival or the like.

As far as finding any kind of gear, never neglect the local pawn shop, which is an extremely valuable source for musical gear of all kinds. Taking advantage of some other musician’s need for a bit of quick cash is an old tradition in the music world and also a way to get some top quality gear like a Yamaha acoustic electric guitar for about a quarter of what it would cost new.

The point in all this is to make sure that one has lined up quality players, that are able to play quality music, and are playing all of that music on quality equipment. It’s a fact that all of this can be possible for not a lot of upfront money if one knows what one is doing and is willing to go out there and search the Internet or pound the pavement to find all of that good stuff.

Keep in mind that no matter what kind of gear has been found — and it may be some of the best professional equipment in the world — it’s not going to really matter that much if you don’t know how to play at and put it together in a great sounding fashion. Getting up and going without spending a lot of money is possible, but getting it sounding good may take a bit more effort.

Technorati Tags: buying cheap guitars, electric guitars, starting a band

Some people consider music to be an nice interlude, a distraction from the noise of life, or a way to help time pass when waiting for an appointment. Then there are true musicians. These are individuals who feel the deep sense of art that rises from music, and who revel in the emotional rails that music provides for them. When you are impassioned into music you can not turn away from it. It is part of you just as the color of your eyes are part of you.

Of course, whether you opt for the piano or the Fender acoustic electric guitar isn’t really relevant to the passion. The intricacies of the Ibanez electric guitar are more important than the look of any black electric guitar. The strings of a violin or the wail of a sax can all play a role in the spiritual need to move through the music.

So what is that driving force? Is it a sense that maybe if you hurl yourself deeply into music that maybe one day you’ll be famous and wealthy? Is it just a fantasy that someday must come to an end? It could mean something more spiritual and more profound than most of us realize if we give it a chance.

There is a lifelong connection between inspiration and musical influence. Most people can hear the natural inspiration when the right piece plays for them. When it is your own creation that has people feeling uplifted, ready, expressive, and inspired it is pure magic.

Most of us can feel inspired by music. Some of us feel as thought creating the music that inspires us is akin to feeling like we are part of the necessary inner workings that make the world go around. It can be that important. Of course, you may not find that we can always express it like that. We just seem a bit obsessive.

This only happens when there is support. Financial and educational support are part of lighting up these dreams and watching inspired student turn away from violence or gangs in favor of their instrument. When you take the time to truly invest in the promise of a musician, you also encourage the advancement of mathematical and science, as well as an increase in the reading comprehension level.

Music has been said to be a universal language. It is a mirror and a window that reveals the soul at the same time. Every musician and every aspiring musician holds inside them some sort of magic that is just waiting to pop. With every next step and with each new focus, a musician of tomorrow is found in every school across the nation.

Technorati Tags: electric guitars, inspiration, music

Whilst a child is studying at school it is proven that learning a musical instrument is very beneficial. This year is the first year that the Government has launched a National Year of Music. Professor Susan Hallam who works at the Institute of Education for the University of London analysed various scores and tests on behalf of researchers’ studies on the benefits of music to children. The discovery led researchers to believe that learning a musical instrument actually enlarges the left hand side of your brain which leads to the human being able to remember a fifth more information than someone who hadn’t decided to learn a musical instrument. This research was commissioned by the Government in an effort to try and get more children to start learning musical instruments and partake in extra curricular activities outside of school. Ideally, the government wants to try and introduce an incentive for 7 to 11 year olds to start learning a musical instrument for free by 2011. Apparently, music lessons increase a students IQ by seven points compared to 4.3 points for drama lessons. Other similar tests have been run in America and they have also found that playing a musical instrument such as Electric Guitars, Digital Pianos & Grand Pianos helps improve a child’s behaviours and commitment to school. This is due to the fact the when a child works in a smaller group there is a certain level of trust respect and above all else, compromise. When a student is young, music can make such a difference to their lives. it can help develop their own self indentity and keep them out of trouble. It gives them something they can feel happy about. Jamie Cullum has been an active supporter of this campaign and has been taking regular visits to schools inthe neighbouring area.

Technorati Tags: digitalpianos, electric guitars, grand pianos, music, music lessons

Arguably the most famous band on the scene, The Beatles are set to re-release a vast amount of their music backlog accompanied by a bran new computer game. The new video game which is entitled, ‘The Beatles: Rockband” which is released on Wednesday 9th September.
On the game you can see visual simulations of the band performing some of their most famous tracks at some of the most popular venues from around the country. This coincides perfectly with their record label EMI’s scheduled release of 14 of their new digitally enhanced albums which will available in early 2010. Also, from October 19th people who have bought the video game will be able to download the great Abbey Road album either through their XBOX or Playstation 3 for roughly £10. Or alternatively, you can download them individually for about 99p each. This is the start of a long process to get The Beatles back onto the scene with the younger generation of music listeners. There is no doubt that these new CD’s will sell like hotcakes in the shops and I bet EMI are licking their lips!
I have been a fan of the Beatles for as long as I can remember. I am very intrigued to hear how they managed to re-master their tracks so well. I do hope they have not laid digital pianos over their grand pianos or added a hoard of electric guitars to replace the older sound. Plans on how to get the Beatles’ back catalogue implemented into the digital world has been widely discussed between all the parties involved. The companies will also be offering the infamous album, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band for sale in November which is definetly going to be huge with fans from all over the world!
You can watch game play trailers and get more information at The Beatles: Rock Band official website. By the time you have read this article the game would of already been released! I will be making a purchase for sure!

Technorati Tags: digital pianos, electric guitars, grand pianos, music, The Beatles

There can’t be many people who wouldn’t have loved to become a guitar hero. Standing on stage, head down, legs apart, chopping out a blistering guitar solo so loud that it makes peoples ears bleed. And there are a number of truly great electric guitars that have stood the test of time.

One of the most famous electric guitars is the Fender Stratocaster. Originally designed way back in 1954 the Fender Strat was the instrument favoured by the late, great Jimi Hendrix. It’s also the instrument chosen by the likes of Eric Clapton and Pete Townsend of the Who. The Fender Strat is as popular today as it ever was which is understandable as this guitar is truly a design classic.

Another well known and popular electric guitar from Fender is, of course, the Telecaster. This guitar preceded the Stratocaster, being first produced as the Broadcaster in late 1949. There are many well known guitar heros who like to play Tele’s. Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones is a great lover of Telecasters, generally tuned to an open G chord for that classic Rolling Stones sound.

If we are talking about classic guitars we must of course mention the fantastic Gibson Les Paul. This is another truly great electric guitar, first made back in the 1950s and in continuous production ever since. Jimmy Page, of Led Zeppelin and Yardbirds fame, is just one guitarist who loves the Gibson Les Paul. Another great guitarist who made the sound of this instrument famous in the song ‘Alright Now’ was the lat Paul Kossoff of the band Free.

Since I’ve given a mention to two Fenders its only fair that I should talk about two great Gibsons. I could have chosen the great Gibson ES335, a personal favourite and popular with many great guitarists including BB King, but instead I’ve picked the exceptional Gibson SG. This fantastic looking electric guitar, with the distinctive double cutaway, was introduced in the early 1960s to compete with the popular Fender Strat. This is the guitar of choice for Angus Young, lead guitarist and songwriter in the Australian rock band ACDC. This is also the guitar used by the great Tony Iommi of Black Sabbath.

Today there are many great electric guitars, but lots of these are copies of these four iconic models which, for me, are the best there is.

Technorati Tags: electric guitars, eric clapton, fender stratocaster, fender telecaster, gibson les paul, gibson SG, jimi hendrix, paul kossoff

The internet is a truly wonderful resource. Young people today don’t all appreciate how lucky they are to have the worlds knowledge and skills at their fingertips via the internet.

I started playing over thirty years ago with Bert Weedon’s famous ‘Play in a Day’ book, back in the 1970s. I couldn’t afford guitar lessons so I would avidly watch the fingers of every guitarist I could, trying to pick up playing techniques, riffs and licks.

Modern technology has revolutionised the way that people learn to play the guitar. Tuition DVDs, for example, can be played repeatedly, unlike face to face guitar lessons. And the internet provides an ideal platform for the presentation of guitar tutorials.

There are loads of guitar playing teaching websites but by far the best for me is Youtube. You can find instructional videos on everything from choosing guitars to making your own electric guitar. There are plenty of videos that will help those who are just starting out with the guitar and lots more that are ideal for people like me, who’ve been playing for a while but want to learn more techniques and tunes.

Learning new guitar licks and techniques has become one of my favourite pass times. Often when its raining I’ll stay indoors and learn a new tune or two from Youtube. Its safe to say that my guitar playing has progressed more in the past five years, thanks to Youtube, than it did in the previous twenty years.

Another thing to remember is that the system is interactive. If I find a video of someone playing a piece that I like I can easily make it one of my favourites and maybe leave a comment for the performer to see. I will often ask a question or two and the video maker will generally come back with a helpful answer. Its a bit like having any number of great guitarists as personal guitar playing consultants.

These days I find myself feeling a little bit envious of the young people learning guitar with all these great resources available to them. I like to fantasise that if I had been learning to play using all of these excellent resources who knows, I might have become the next Eric Clapton.

Technorati Tags: electric guitars, guitars, tuition, tutorials, youtube

This year's concert is set to be a hit with the local community as Leona Lewis' popularity has literally gone through the roof.

The concert will also feature Kelly Clarkson and Miley Cyrus who is returning after a five year absence in the music industry. A VH1 spokesman said to a local newspaper that the four women involved in this year’s event are an amazingly talented group of singers and this is one of their most exciting years of the event.

The show is a fundraiser for the ‘Save the Music Foundation’ which will be live on the music channel in the US on 17th September. The non-profit organisation was initially created to promote musical education for young kids in school. The entire event takes place at Brooklyn Academy of Music and local kids from school get free entry.

This concert has hosted such stars as Mariah Carey and even Tina Turner which has generated massive amounts of income in the past. This is easily the most crucial time in Leona Lewis's career and it is a very exciting time. She recently won the notorious hit music TV program, X-Factor and since then her popularity has really gone out of control (in a good way).

This musical event started in 1998 and since then it has been donating musical instruments to local schools some of which have been worth in excess of £26m.3m have been donated to 1,600 schools in over 100 cities. Anything from acoustic guitars, electric guitars and classic guitar.

Many schools across the world have always benefited from this concert and people have since developed a lot of interest in the yearly show. This year's line up is slightly different now that two British girls are involved in the line up.

This has always been a big event for any rising music super star and it is a fantastic way to help raise awareness for schools and the younger generations passion for music.

Technorati Tags: acoustic guitars, cher, classic guitars, diana ross, electric guitars, Mariah Carey, music, tina turner

The replica or tribute phenomena in music can be taken in different ways.Some tribute bands are manned by decent musicians, in a few cases probably better than the originals they mimic.That’s almost certainly true of the dozens of Status Quo tribute acts out there!Replica guitars are also a burgeoning music industry business.  Some tribute acts take things to the extreme of insisting on using their hero’s original instruments if they’re still available, or getting replicas if they’re not.

Guitars are more than just a musical instrument.They are also cultural symbols, fashion statements and badges of personality.Replica guitars have a mixed reputation and many people don’t want to see further than the logo stamped on the headstock.  Cheap Chinese copies have flooded the market and their quality is certainly dubious.However, very high quality replicas of vintage guitars are also available. Fender is a favourite target for these lovingly created copies, based on the 1951 Telecaster (nee Broadcaster) and the 1954 Fender Stratocaster.
In its prime, the Strat had a contour body of swamp ash, one piece maple neck and three pickups.  In 1960 Fender bodies changed to alder as standard and the slab board necks were manufactured up until mid 1962 when a curved board was offered. In 1964 the curved board was replaced with a veneer when the CBS Corporation purchased the company leading to a well documented decline in quality. So replica Fender guitars made today may actually be better quality than post 1964 originals!

The Tanglewood RVB-2  60s Beatles style violin bass is another good example of just how good replicas can be. Based on Hofner’s 500/1 ‘Beatle Bass’, The RVB-2 recreates that semi-hollow tone perfect for ’60s style pop/ rock, blues and jazz, without breaking the bank! It has the same vintage features as the Hofner, including rosewood fingerboard with pearloid dot inlays, maple neck, floating wooden bridge and pearloid pick guard. Of course, the pickups aren’t the Hofner stamped ‘Staple’ humbucking pickups, but the two toaster appearance mini-humbucker pickups work just as well in achieving that Beatles un-EQ’d classic pop sound.  So don’t dismiss electric guitars just because they are replicas.Just like the tribute bands, sometimes these guitars can be as good as, if not better than, the original.

Technorati Tags: electric guitars, Fender Guitars, guitars

So, your obsessed with guitars to an almost unhealthy point - there the first and last thing you think about during the day. For every day you dont play you become grumpy and youve cut down on the food bill just to afford your new guitar. Now you want to have a crack at building your own all dancing all singing guitar -so what work will go into making it?

• The expense of building it. This wont be cheap -think about the prices of the good wood for the guitar, then the prices of the electronics if building an electric and then the paint job. Think about the tools you are going to need do build your dream guitar, as special tools will be needed for cutting out the body.
• Practice. If you’ve never held wood cutting tools before, practice is really something you should be considering. You wont be great straight away, so dont start on expensive wood- let that come later when you’ve had some experience. By getting to grips with the tools and cutting on cheaper wood you’ll save time when you come to do it for real. Because once you get to the cutting part, you’ll be thankful that the practice paid off.
• Wiring. Primaily a point for the electric guitar builders out there, as once youve completed work on the body, you’ll get to the electrics. Getting electrocuted may become a factor once the guitar is built and you go to play it, so take extra care with wiring it. Get a experienced electrician to look over your work before you insert it into the guitar and ’send it live’.

These are just a few things to consider, but if thats too much work you can always just buy electric guitars from these guys.

Technorati Tags: electric guitars, guitars

Yamaha guitars have been made for over 60 years and the company itself is more than a century old.   Yamaha started out making organs, pianos, harmonicas, even furniture and early phonographs before they got round to making their first acoustic guitar in 1942. It was only in 1965, a year after the Beatles broke in the USA on the Ed Sullivan Show,  that Yamaha began to make solid body electric guitars with electric bass models appearing a year later.

By 1970 Yamaha was being noticed by major exponents of guitars as the lead instrument of a generation such as Carlos Santana and Bob Marley.  That same year they introduced the dovetail neck joint to their guitars which provides the best neck to body contact and helps to resonate vibrations from the neck to the body, producing the balanced tone and response that Yamaha electric guitars are famous for.

Blending different kinds of wood is also extremely important to produce a great sound where the guitar player has complete control of the note texture.  Another important factor in the construction in Yamaha guitars is the types of lacquer they use so the guitars can look great and have a chance to breathe.

Yamaha guitars have achieved a good reputation in the electro-acoustic field as well as in bass guitars.   The Yamaha RBX170 for example is  amazing value for money  yet the quality is everything you would expect from a Yamaha bass. The solid agathis body, sleek, wide-cutaway contours allow easy access right to the top of the full-scale neck which carries a genuine rosewood fingerboard.

Yamaha is the guitar of choice for many famous artists, and one of the most popular makes for session men in the recording studio. John Denver, John Lennon, Bob Marley, Brian May, Paul McCartney, Jimmy Page, Carlos Santana, Bob Seger, Billy Sheehan, Paul Simon, Bruce Springsteen have all gigged with Yamaha at some time in their careers.

Technorati Tags: bass guitars, electric guitars, guitars, Yamaha