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Impress yourself and your buddy with these recording studio techniques

From: Malene Brune 
11:25 PM

Hi,
My name is Malene, I’m a sound engineer and I’ve made a funny little PDF  I would like to send you.  I have given it the very creative name “Home Studio Recording Reference Guide”
Yes, it is a reference guide, filled with killer recording studio stuff. But that said, it’s not a boring one. There are pictures, stories and also some of my fancy studio setup drawings! So if you want it, then make sure you enter your email below( or to the right side→) and I´ll send it to you right away!
Here’s some of the things I’ll discuss in this PDF book.

• What gear you need and how to pick the right one in this jungle of microphones, monitors, headphones, recorders/software, plug-ins etc.

• How to set up and wire your studio
  

• Plus I´ll give you some quick and easy tips that I wish someone would have shared with me when I first got started

Look, I´ve been to school learning these things and also worked as a sound engineer for some years. And I REALLY want to help you get started. But you gotta take a little action to get off the ground.
Enter you email below, read this free e-book and start learning.
You can thank me later!
I´ll send you the funny little PDF here:

Give the game down below a shot! And try if you can get on the high score list! Chose your preferences and hit start.

Some of the training topics in music theory games include:  Voice training, Learning key signatures, the circle of fifths, time signatures, beats per note, rhythms and more
And best of all, many music theory games are free!!!!!
They are a viable alternative to learning music theory in a class, or even in a video tutorial.  The graphics and sound effects are fun, great for young people (or young at heart), and allow you to pick certain parts of theory to learn about, so you can go at your own pace.

Ear Training Games
Help you learn by hearing intervals over and over. While some have a natural ability to hear and identify intervals and notes, others need training.  Even for those folks, it is easy with interactive games.  Ear training games are set up so you can select the interval and/or notes you think you’ve heard, and immediately find out if you got it correct.  Using these games, you will notice both your singing and instrumental ability improve.

Guitar Chord Games
You can find detailed lessons to learn the basic guitar chords and guitar tablature.  Games that are more intricate show fingering of chords, and enable you to look up any chord–then you can see it as written on the neck of the guitar, and hear it’s unique sound. You will be able to for example, hear a chord and know whether it is a G major 9, or whatever the case may be. Fingering for forming the chord is also shown and explained.
This is handy if you have a song with just the name of the chords above the music staff. Once you play the game, you can go back any time you are learning a new song, to look up any chord you don’t know how to play.  This way you can play from either sheet music, guitar tablature, or lead sheets–which have just the name of the chord written above the staff.

Key Signature and Scale Games
This is extremely helpful; teaching you not only to identify what the key is by the number of sharps or flats, but also the relative minor scale.

Rhythm and Timing Games
Learn the duration of notes by their appearance; learn how pauses in music are shown on sheet music, aka rests.

Many music theory games have been designed for use by music teachers, suitable for use in the classroom.  There are a variety of games to suit skill levels and age groups, from 1st graders on up.  They grab students’ attention with colorful graphics and sound effects.
The value is the interactive quality of the games.
Everyone can enjoy this experience, unlike hiring a music teacher, which is cost prohibitive for many parents, and adults wanting to learn.

Just think, if the chance goes by and you hear your song idea, only slightly different, on the radio Top 40, how you’ll be plundered into deep regret…you failed to act on the thing that could have made all the difference in your life.

Know what else?  It not only makes a difference for yourself, but millions of people who could benefit from what you have to say in your music.

Just think, where would we be if there were no Cole Porter, giving us that lush romantic music to fall in love to? No John Lennon to help us “Imagine” what the world can be like when we chose to love, not hate?  None of the present day songwriters to nourish us with musical commentary of our times:  wars, economic meltdowns, technological overload…helping us to make sense of it all.

So you are determined to make music your life.  You start all fired up, record some tracks, and aren’t thrilled with the results. Fine, no worries, just revise, redo, edit, till it truly shows you at your best.

Do you know the crucial factor differentiating musicians who make it and those who don’t? Think it’s talent? A great big N.O.  Luck?   Not hardly.  It is stick-to-itiveness. Perseverance.

Persevere until you are tired, falling asleep at your guitar if necessary, to get those licks down…

Get out of bed when that song idea rolls in from the ether, and write it down or record it, 3 a.m. …be sure to invest in headphones so you don’t wake the sleeping.

Call people across the globe to set up tour dates when it’s 3 am for you, but a work day at 9 a.m. for them.

Surf the net to find reputable online promotion opportunities to get music heard by the public or industry insiders.

Read what you need to learn to record professionally so you don’t bastardize your fantastic music with substandard recording techniques.

As you may have heard many a performer or songwriter say, “I eat, sleep, and breathe music.” That means they stick to it come hell or high water.  They don’t ask anyone whether they should or not.  If you have to ask, you are not sufficiently determined for the luminous field of making music.

Indeed, whether you live like a pauper or a king or queen, does not matter.  Provided you are on the right track you’ll derive the joy from music that you want and need, if not the monetary rewards. Music nourishes the soul, and you can always get some bread to nourish the body.  What else do we really need?

From the heart, when I make my own music, all else that is worrisome fades to the background; I sore like the songbird I was born to be. How about you?

In essence, the movie musical was made up of a series of videos compiled into one film.  Didn’t they have the art down, really?  The great movie musical producers were and are masters of juxtaposing music with a visual story in song.

First came musical shorts in the early 1920s.  They featured singers, dancers and musicians.  Sound anything like MTV?  Then in 1927 came the first film to mix music, dance, and story line, The Jazz Singer staring Al Jolson.  Musical films in full Technicolor soon followed.

From the 1930’s to late 1950’s the movie musical enjoyed huge popularity, showcasing such stars as Bing Crosby, Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers and Judy Garland.

In the 1960s, movie musicals were widely paned. The exception was Richard Lester’s’ A Hard Day’s Night, a precursor to what was to come. Following that, Ken Russell gave us the sizzling hot Tommy. Until the late 70’s, other than Grease and the Disney adaptations, there were film musicals to speak of.  Fast forward to 1975:  Queen made some of the first music videos; David Bowie’s Ashes to Ashes was huge, created by videographer David Mallet. Madness also etched a place in the history with their 16mm music video production of The Prince.  And of course, 1979’s Another Brick in the Wall by Pink Floyd was a seminal event.

Public Enemy, U2, Alice Cooper, Madonna and Michael Jackson have made significant contributions to music and culture, although that’s so……. far from a complete list. It’s noted by the producers of New York’s annual video event that with Hip Hop videos shown along side Janet Jackson’s dance pop or the rock of U2, a great comingling of cultures– and an understanding there of–occurs.

And were it not for the music video art form this would not be the case.  MTV and other video channels in the 80s, 90s, and on, have shown another side of life, the inner city, black culture turmoil, drugs and crime.  These realities had been largely glossed over by feature films, favoring a Pollyannaish version of these sad to tragic sides of daily life.

That is the definition of art of depth – that which expresses the life, the feelings of a people, and gives others an outlet and the ability to acknowledge a life less than sublime, that they may take action to right the wrongs. The history of music video production leads to a place in history of this art form, significant, poignant, and every bit as important and relevant as the works of literature from Yeats to Jack Kerouac.  It will be part of world history for generations to come; A smart people knows, you must look back to understand and adjust on the path to a better future.

Get Your 3 Free “Learn Music Recording” Videos

Impress yourself and your family with these super easy music recording techniques.

From: Malene Brune
0:25 AM

Hi,

My name is Malene and I´ve made 3 music (sound) recording videos I would like to send you.

If you’re already a pro, then you won´t need these…. but if you´re just starting out, then make sure you enter your email below( or to the right side) and I´ll send you new videos over the next few days.

You´ll learn how to get started doing recordings using a free music recording software. Plus I´ll give you some quick and easy tips that I wish someone would have shared with me when I first got started

Look, I´ve been to school learning these things and also worked as a sound engineer for some years. (Yes, I must admit that this is sort of a fulfillment of my dream). And I REALLY want to help you get started. But you gotta take a little action to get off the ground.

Enter you email below, watch these freebie videos and start learning.
You can thank me later!

I´ll send you videos here:

Why don’t you pick up your instrument and play some pentatonic scales? See how they fit with your songwriting, and note how easy it becomes to find lots of riffs or melodies when you know that the notes could be fall within the pentatonic; particularly in rock, blues, R and B, and old Negro spirituals!

Unlike the major scale in music, i.e. do-re-me, etc, etc., a pentatonic scale has only five notes. It originated from Africa, the Far East, among native American Indians and in the music of black slaves in the early history of the United States. It is the same as the major scale, except you leave out the “half tones”. Half tones are the 2 places on the piano where white keys are not separated by a black key, ie. B to C and E to F.

The 2 scales used most in popular music are the major and pentatonic. Some songs based on pentatonic tones include:

Susie Q (C.C.R)
Purple Haze (Jimi Hendrix)
Man in the Box (Alice in Chains)
Play that Funky Music (Wild Cherry)
Low Rider (War)
Born Under a Bad Sign (Cream)

These are just a tiny example of the hundreds of pop, rock and blues songs with a predominant use of the pentatonic scale. You can hear it in artists and bands such as the Stones, Nelly Fertado, Sublime, Black Sabbath, Patti Labelle, Dire Straits and Duane Eddy.

Mind you, these examples don’t use only pentatonic scale. Some use it in a certain lick, intro, phrase, or just in the bass guitar part. But the music that uses the pentatonic scale almost exclusively is Black or Negro spiritual.

One school of thought, articulated by Whitley Phipps of the US Dream Academy, a charitable organization for children of inmates, is explained on his You-Tube video above.

Black spirituals such as “Swing Low”, “Amazing Grace”, and almost all spirituals can be played using only the black keys on a piano (and only the pentatonic scale tones):

Start at the three black keys next to each other, followed by the next two:

Play F # — G# A# — C# — D#. This particular group of notes is a major pentatonic scale in the key of: F# (also called pentatonic Gb — because F# and G flat are the same note).

You don’t even need to know the names of the keys to hear a Negro spiritual and pick it out on the 5 black keys. Then you can move up and down the keyboard and play the same notes in higher and lower octaves. If using the 5 black keys only, it will be in the key of Gb/F# pentatonic.

Mr. Phipps describes the pentatonic scale, just those five little notes, as the source of “the power and pathos of the Negro spiritual”, called the slave scale back when white folks had slaves in the US.

Mr. Phipps contends that the scale we know of as “Do-Re-Me…” was not in the musical vernacular of slaves from Africa, thus the music built on just 5 notes.

This explains why black or Negro spiritual songs have those haunting melodies evoking so much feeling.

Just as with the major scale, the pentatonic scale can be played in many different keys: It is the intervals between notes that make it distinct regardless what key you play it in.

Many chord choices fit with pentatonic scales, such as major 7th, 6th, minor 6th, minor 7th and 7th chords.

Keep learning more about scales and theory, from country to jazz, at our music making blog.

Knowing progressions, using chord numbers (i.e. I chord, IV chord etc) and their predictable interconnectedness enables you to:

Write chord charts
Easily recall songs
Possess a better useful knowledge of scales
Play “by ear”
Compose songs or improve your composition skills

In fact the main reason for a songwriter to learn chord progressions is to be able to know what they are hearing when a song pops into their head, so they can reproduce it on their instrument and write a “chord chart”, without endless trial and error searching for the sounds they hear in their head or imagination.

Triad chords in major keys

The triads are an easy starting point for learning progressions. Although they are far from the only chords, we will focus on them in this blog.

Each key or scale has seven tones or notes. Each note can be the root of a chord so you have 7 triad chords in the major scale, starting with a one Chord, and up to a seven chord.

To create the triad, start with any note in the scale (from one to seven).

That note is the “one”, in the 1, 3, 5 or triad configuration. The one is called the ROOT. The root note is used to name the chord if you are using the letter name (versus the number system).
Add the notes 3 and 5 steps above the root. These are called the 3rd and the 5th.
So a triad chord consists of the root, 3rd, and 5th.

Using this process to build chords within any major scale, you will end up with some chords that are major and others that are minor or diminished.

Using the numbering system, regardless of what major key you are in, the numbered chords will always be the same. The Roman Numerals are used, with the major chords written in upper case, the minor or diminished chords in lower case. The one odd ball, if you will, is the seventh chord, which is diminished, signified with a small “o” written above the letter or numeric chord name, like this:

viiº or Bº. It can also be written as B dim.

The seven chords in a major scale are as follows:

I = major
ii= minor
iii= minor
IV= major
V=major
vi =minor
vii = diminished (because the 5th is flatted, it makes it a diminished chord)

Here are some ways to apply the numeric system and chord progressions:

Suppose you write a song and when you put the chords to it, you discover it is either too low or too high for you voice. Knowing chord progressions, you can transpose it to a lower or higher key using the same chord progression, when you know the relationships of chords and their progressions.

Or, if you want to match chords to a melody, either one you made up or one you know from the radio, etc. the chord progression knowledge will make it much easier to hear which chords below where in the song.

Another time chord progressions come in handy is when you are improvising, what some people call “noodle-ing around” on your guitar, piano or what have you. You can generate “on the spot” music from a basic chord progression, making up words as you go, or simply making up lead licks and chord changes that sound cool…

You can join in a jam session and be able to predict and play along with others, even on songs you have never heard before.

Below are examples of the triads I through vii, in the keys of C and D.

Although it may not make complete sense if you have not studied any music, you can ask anyone who does have some theory about anything here and how to apply it; you’ll see that it’s easy. Music will be more fun, not harder, when you learn this background information. Chord progressions are but one of the tools in music that will make playing more fun and successful. Enjoy your music!

What it’s for determines what should be one it. It should contain your style of music; jazz, blues, country, original or whatever you do. Here we discuss some general guidelines that pertain for almost any purpose:

Use snippets, not full songs. Place the best stuff soonest, as most will not listen to the entire thing. Snippets allow the listener to hear a spectrum of what you are capable of — usually a mix of up-tempo, medium and ballads. The snippets can be about 30 seconds each, about 5 total. If you opt for full songs, limit it to 3, with your best song first.

If you do snippets, simply use the recording software to fade in and out of part of a song, rather than just recording for 30 seconds. Think of it as cropping a photo. You take the whole landscape, then crop off the part that isn’t the most exciting. Zero in on the magnificent element within the photo. In the song, the highlight you’ll save is the part with the hook, that song element that people wait for, that tugs on the emotions and brings the message home. The hook can be musical, such as a hot guitar riff, or lyrical, when a rhyme zings in and grabs the listeners’ attention. The best is both a musical and lyrical hook.

Package your demo as professionally as you can with your budget. Today you can buy a CD label kit, used with your computer and printer. It’s less than $20.00 and makes a professional label that will stick onto the CD. Take the time to do attractive art and a text layout, or have a friend or graphic artist do this. The package even comes with the preset size to insert the front and back panels into a CD plastic case.

Another option is the MP3: It may be your best choice if the recipient is very tech savvy. It’s all done on line in this case. If you’ve got an older person doing the decision making they may like to hold the music in their hand and play it on their own music equipment. In any case, the best way is to have both available.

The MP3 can be used on your website, MySpace or similar marketing vehicles. It can also be sent as an email attachment. If you simply say, “Please visit my website to hear my demo”, they may not get to it, so attaching an MP3 or providing them a CD is preferable.

And be sure to aim the material and it’s presentation to the target buyer or decision maker. If it is for nightclubs they seek a sound that will make customers stay in the club, creating an ambience in which they can dance or chat with friends. If it’s for a concert venue, they seek a sound that will captivate an attentive audience. There are of course many other types of audiences. Consider recording a demo for each of your hoped for venues, if you want as many gigs as possible.

Have fun producing your demo. If this is the first one, you will make many more. As your focus changes, so will the process of recording a demo. It will reflect your current repertoire or/or other types of venues, as well as your ever increasing talent and proficiency as a musician.

No matter what your age, whether you want to start your own band, play a solo act, or just for enjoyment and relaxation, you can become adept at music theory, online, without having to attend classes and rearrange your schedule. If you work, have children and other responsibilities, you can still save 15 minutes late at night or before the family wakes up in the morning, and you can learn theory.

Whether you have no prior music training, want to learn just enough to enhance your present knowledge, or learn advanced music theory, including classical music, there are resources for you. Many resources are free of charge. It just depends how far into it you want to go.

If you have basic theory knowledge and want to brush up or expand your knowledge, there are sites like Dolmetsch.com that cover the information. But what if you’re starting from scratch? The best tools online to use in this case are interactive or video types, such as Musictheorymadeeasy.com , Yupp! They´ve got a free video for you!

So you may wonder, what topics in music theory should I learn first? Do I have to learn everything? How long will it take?

Here are some things you’ll need for a strong foundation:

• Names of key signatures (and which notes are sharped or flatted) of the major and minor keys.

• The key of each song on your set list or repertoire. You need to accurately tell other musicians the key, or they won’t be able to play with you. The exception to this is musicians who play by ear.

• Chord names, how they are structured and how they relate to a song’s melody.

• Chord progressions that are used in hundreds of songs, with a few variations. When you learn the commonly used progressions you will be able to play hundreds of rock, pop, country and bluegrass/folk songs.

You will also want to become familiar with various types of written music, and when and how each is used.

These include:

• Lead sheets – used when impromptu musicians are called to play a gig. The lead sheet is just the melody on a music staff with the key, and above the melody line are the chord names.

• Sheet music – used by some pianists and for classical music. You should know what is on the sheet music but you don’t need to be able to play from it for pop, country and so on.

• Fake books – similar to lead sheets but they contain hundreds of songs and some include chord diagrams for guitar.

Once you’ve learned these elements of music theory, you will be ready to join or lead a band, or teach yourself songs from sheet music, fake books or downloadable lead sheets.

It may surprise you that most famous musicians and singers who’ve made it in the music field have learned music theory, usually long before they ever became famous.

You do not have to learn everything, just enough to take you to the level you need to be to do what you want in music. You should not forgo your dreams of making music or writing songs because of lack of musical training.

Some styles have more chords and keys, and require a bit more knowledge. It does not take long to learn the basics of music theory — online resources are available to fit any area of music you want to pursue.

So, now there is no reason not to pursue your musical dreams. In fact, many people who learn music are amazed that it can lift them out of a low point in their lives, even depression. They begin to see the whole world as a sunnier place with a new purpose.

Take a song from any genre and see if you can sing it and make it your own.
For example, the song “White Christmas”. What genre best fits you? Country, rock, jazz, R & B? Something else? Pick the one or 2 that fit you, and meditate on how White Christmas would sound in those styles. Now sing it. Does it feel like you own it?

Can you truly say “I Make My Own Music”?
What are your values? Only do what feels right in your heart. If a song makes you feel like a phish out of water, take it off your set list. Use the songs that draw out your special musical and poetic gifts.

Make Your Values Part of Your Own Style:
Think about what’s happening with the crowd, and avoid doing the same thing.

Explore a look; from clothes to hair, jewelry and so on, that exemplifies your values and style as an individual.
Think about your mannerisms and your personality. How does that fit with your music style? If it doesn’t, you need to change one or the other. You can change and form new habits. Remember, whatever you think about and put your attention on, you will become.

Say to yourself, “I can make my own music, and I can bring out the person I truly am inside.” Then you will know what clothes, what personality goes with it. This is far from being phony. If you didn’t have your style pinpointed, you were a non-personality. With that uniqueness coming out by your own choosing, you are being more real, not less real.

Sometimes, the ego of the artist won’t allow them to be who they really are.
They get praise for sounding like someone else and then they get hooked on that praise. But that’s a career killer because they will buy the albums of the person you sound like, not you.

This happens when you don’t have an identity of your own. You have not dug deep inside to find your own values and core beliefs that are your true purpose for singing your music.

To make millions and just feel good all the time is not a real reason to go into singing.
Those who achieve the level of stardom so many seek, are concerned about delivering the song and message, not on using music to show off their vocal gymnastics.

Sing each song selflessly, with your ego out of the way, and your focus on doing what is best for the song. Not over singing.

An Exercise for Exploring Genres with Your Vocal Range
Try to adapt a song to your vocal style and not push your voice to sing in a range or feel that is not natural for you. This will protect your voice from the damage that occurs when you force your voice to do things it cannot do effortlessly. And you force your voice to do unnatural things when you are trying to sound like your idol, or another artist.

Take a song from any genre and see if you can sing it in your own genre, make it your own.
For example, the song “White Christmas”. What genre best fits you? Country, rock, jazz, R & B? Something else? Pick the one or 2 that fit you, and meditate on how White Christmas would sound in those styles. Now sing it. Does it feel like you own it?

If not then you picked a style that really isn’t your own. You don’t have to use “White Christmas” to do this exercise. It can be any song, but make it one that’s been done across genres, so it’s not identified with only one genre or singing star.

Keep experimenting till you feel right with the music. And your voice does not strain to do any part of the song.

Pick a repertoire that fits your vocal range, which you are truly happy singing, that illustrate your values– the message you care deeply about that you have to tell the world– and pick songs that you can do well. If you do these three things, you will soon be able to say, “I make my own music, and I am one of a kind.”