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From a professional standpoint, if you want a career in singing, there is nothing quite like taking good private singing lessons, to improve the quality of your singing voice. Even for someone with a natural born singing talent and ear for harmony, there is always something to be gained from taking private professional singing lessons.
While not everyone who takes professional singing lessons becomes a world-famous singer, they certainly will help your chances. Eventually, singing is not merely to memorize the words of the song. Beside control your breathing, you have to control your singing volume and tone as well. There are many other things you can learn from taking professional singing lessons as well.
Taking professional singing lessons is very easy to do. The most common way has always been for you to either go to the office or home of the teacher or for them to come to your home. These kinds of meeting are normally arranged at specific time with certain duration of meeting. Professional singing lessons of that sort tend to be a bit on the expensive side, but they can be well worth it if you want a career in singing.
If you are looking for a less expensive and more flexible option, you can try finding yourself some singing lessons on CD. In this electronic age, almost anything can be learned online or by CD, including singing lessons. Singing lessons on CD have several good points. The first is that they tend to be cheaper than an actual instructor. The second is that you can take them any time you want, so they can easily fit into your busy schedule. And the third advantage is that you can play back the singing lesson CD, and repeat it as you want.
The Aeolian Company was a combination of several big piano companies that took advantage of the marketing for the different pianos being built throughout the area including what are now known as antique upright pianos. Harry B. Tremaine became president of Weber Piano Company in 1903. He organized the Aeolian, Weber Piano and Pianola Company. He had studied the business elements of the piano industry, learning well the potentialities of mechanical appliances for musical instruments and how to develop them.
Likewise the Kohler and Campbell pianos are evidence of thorough workmanship in all details of the piano and they produced an excellent antique upright piano at reasonable prices for the time period. Charles Kohler established the Auto-Pneumatic Action Company in 1900. The devise he used was one in which the wippen of the piano action is attached directly to the player mechanism, which eliminates the harshness of contact and imparts elasticity without interfering with the function of the piano action. The Auto-Pneumatic Action Company was perhaps the largest producer of player mechanisms. John C. Campbell of New Jersey was a mechanical genius. He studied the scientific piano construction but he died of a young age. Charles Kohler was his partner. He was the organizer and business man of the Kohler and Campbell piano making company.
Many of the early antique upright piano makers came to the trade from organ makers. Schumann was connected with the pedal pianos. The keyboard for pedaling was under the keyboard, twenty nine notes, and special soundboard all built into the case.
This is from Schumann who wrote some of his best music for this instrument.
History is made for the west by Schumann and other piano companies, famous for the manufacture of high-grade instruments.
Michael Jackson’s mother was overwhelmed by emotion and appeared to need support at the end of the ceremony, while his daughter Paris was one of the many in tears throughout the Los Angeles service.
The King of Pop was laid to rest in front of a tearful congregation comprised of family and close friends.
Around 200 mourners gathered at the Glendale Forest Lawn Memorial Park to pay their respects to Jackson - a man whose music provided a soundtrack for generations. The star was also paid tribute to by his fans when a record breaking crowd danced to the Michael Jackson Thriller video.
The ceremony began more than an hour late as guests including 77-year-old Dame Elizabeth Taylor waited in temperatures of 32C (90F) for the Jackson family to arrive.
Guests fanned themselves with service programmes to counter the effects of a humid Californian evening.
The programme for the service contained pictures of the Thriller singer alongside some of his quotes. It opened with words taken from Jackson’s book Dancing The Dream: “If you enter the world knowing you are loved and leave the world knowing the same, then everything that happens in between can be dealt with.”
Speakers at the event included civil rights leader the Rev Al Sharpton, while soul singer Gladys Knight sang at the service. The star’s brothers carried the flower-strewn coffin into the marble mausoleum at Forest Lawn, Glendale.
AFRICA is a continent of rhythm and dance. Before it was
colonised by the European nations in the 17th and 18th
centuries, it was divided into different empires and kingdoms.
Each had their own traditions, songs and drums. The DJEMBE
(jem-bay) was the drum of the the Mandinke people, from the
great West African Mali Empire of the 12th century, situated in
the present-day countries of Mali, Guinea, Burkina Faso, Cote
d’Ivoire, Senegal and Gambia. It has become the most widely
played of all African instruments.
Today, as before, it is used to celebrate times of importance in
village life such as baptism, weddings, full moons, harvest etc,
and through the popularity of world music, it’s appeal is
spreading on a daily basis.
The DJEMBE is a “goblet” shaped drum with a skin (usually
goat) stretched over one end. It is played with the hands as
part of a group of drums. The other drums in this group are
cylindrical and have cow skin heads. Played with a large stick,
they come in three sizes and are called the kenkeni (smallest &
highest), the sangban (middle) and the dundunba (biggest and
lowest). A bell is played at the same time, completing the
ensemble.
Traditional West African Rhythms are normally “polyrhythms”.
This means that there are 4 or 5, and sometimes even 6 or 7
different parts that go together to make each rhythm, and they
are often accompanied by singing and a dance. Most rhythms are
played for specific occasions, some are mask dances - others are
played only at football matches!
Rhythms include: Kakilambe, Liberte, Dimbadun, Soko,
Soca, Koukou, African Rhumba, Tiriba, Babobo, Yankadi, Kpanlogo,
Yole, Cassa, Sorsonet, Mandiani, Doundounba, Fanga, Diagbe,
Fankani, Marakadon, Soli, Abondon. - Plenty to learn, you see!
Other drums from Africa include: Sabar, Bougarabou,
Frontonfrom, Atumpan, Apentema, Apetia, Bobo, Brekete, Atsimevu,
Sogo, Kidi, Kagan, Kroboto, Totodzi, Kpanlogo, Oslama, Kete,
Kurukutu, Sakara, Togo, Bada, Bata and Talking Drums.
For additional information on Drum Circles, click to visit the
Natural
Flow Drum Circles Page.
How to play the djembe.
There are three main notes played on the djembe.
1) The BASS, played with the flat of the hand in the middle of
the drum - a deep “booming” sound. 2) The TONE, played with the
bottom pads of the fingers towards the edge of the drumskin,
fingers outstretched - a “thick” note. 3) The SLAP, played by
striking the edge of the drum with the palm of the hand and
allowing the fingers to “flap” into the drumskin - a “sharp,
dry, cracking” sound. Like the tone, this takes a while to get
right.
Most West African djembe rhythms are a combination of these
three notes. The arm bends at the elbow and not at the wrist.
This gives more power and greater control. Don’t forget to take
rings off first!
The CALL is played by the lead djembe player. As the name
suggests, it calls everybody into the rhythm, shows them where
to start and at what speed they should play. It is also used to
draw the song to a close, and sometimes to bring a change of
rhythm in the middle of the song.
The other thing to bear in mind is the tempo, which can change
dramatically during the song. Usually, we start slowly and speed
up either gradually or at a given point. This is called the
échauffement (literally “heating up”), and can result in some
very fast playing towards the end!
Above all, the most important thing about African Drumming is to
have FUN. You hardly ever see someone playing drums without a
big smile on their face. It’s something you can do on your own,
or in a group (or “circle”), loudly or quietly, fast or slow -
it doesn’t matter. Once you get the knack of playing, you won’t
want to stop. And the more you play, the better you’ll get.
So ENJOY YOURSELF!!
Rhythm Notation.
Traditionally, West African rhythms were passed from generation
to generation by word of mouth. More recently, various ways of
writing down rhythms have been devised. All show the order the
different notes are played in, but my favourite shows which hand
to use as well. If you are left-handed, just change left for
right. Here’s an example.
African Rhumba.
B - Right hand bass b - Left hand bass T - Right hand tone t -
Left hand tone S - Right hand slap s - Left hand slap x - Gap
Djembe 1 b x T t B x S x b x T t B x S x
Djembe 2 x x S s x x S s x x S s T t S s
Dunduns - Only Dundunba and Sangban in this particular song.
D - Dundunba S - Sangban ☺ - Bell
D x x x S x S x D x x x S x S x
Bell x ☺ x ☺ x ☺ x ☺ x ☺ x ☺
x ☺ x ☺
Call - Djembe Ss x S s x S x s S x T t T t x x
Simon G Spare C/o Northfield Bungalow Farnham Lane Langton
Green Tunbridge Wells TN3 0DJ 01892 862452 07905 469295
simon.spare@virgin.net