Chopin Liszt

The pun of the title of this blog (Shopping List/Chopin Liszt) was to suggest that I would bring you a shopping list of musical interest. Well then, it's about time I introduced you to the men who hold those names.

Frederic Chopin was a Polish composer from the Romantic period who lived out his 39 years of life in the early 1800's. Many consider him to be one of the best composers for piano of all time. At 5 he began to play piano and was discovered as a prodigy player and performed for the Tsar of Russia when he was only 11, and the prince at only 9. Though of Polish heritage he moved to Paris and because of the Great Emigration became a French citizen to avoid the confusion and the hassel of obtaining and using imperial Russian documentation to prove himself. At this point he performed much less and often played only at salons and gatherings, giving a public concert only once a year and dedicating the rest of his time to teaching.
Though he did compose a couple concertos as well as some chamber music most of the rest of his pieces were written for solo piano. His surviving works include:

Ballades (4)
Chamber works (3)
Etudes (27)
Impromptus (4)
Mazurkas (59)
Minor Works (21)
Nocturnes (21)
Piano Concertos (2)
Polonaises (17) [a patriotic Polish dance]
Preludes (27)
Rondos (5)
Scherzos (4)
Sonatas (4)
Songs (20)
Variations (7)
Waltzes (20)

Chopin was the one who invented the etudes for concerts as well as other musical styles. This is his Etude in C major:
Etude in C major

Franz Liszt was a Hungarian composer who lived a good 75 years starting in 1811 and is also considered one of the greatest pianists of all time. He was admired most for his amazing technical skill and spent his life composing, conducting, playing, and teaching. Franz began learning piano at age 7, composing at age 8, and giving concert at age 9. He then studied his music abroad with multiple famous teachers. Throughout his life he went back and forth between being settled and touring as a musician, often for causes such as the support of the Beethoven monument that was to be destroyed. In the end he died of pneumonia leaving behind a large body of work numbering well over 300, and while including a magnitude of piano pieces, varying in style more than that of Chopin.
This is his Sonata in B minor, written for Robert Schumann, and often considered one his greatest works for piano:
Sonata in B minor

Liszt himself even wrote a book on Chopin, describing him as a romantic performer and composer without equal, under appreciated in his own time.

Very Punny
I should really make a Lizst. I'll do it as soon as I get Bach from doing my Chopin.

If you have problems listening to the pieces linked, click in the address bar and hit enter to reload (refresh wont work) and it will play.

Sure They CALL Them Free....

Free Reed Instruments

Here's a term that might sound new to a lot of you. The free reed instrument. Now I have already talked about the reed used in the instruments called woodwinds (namely clarinets and saxophones) which is also called a 'beating reed', but these are a little different.

Free reeds are reeds that are surrounded by a plate that is just barely wider than themselves. When pressure or suction is applied to the reed it is then able to move up and down freely through the slot in the plate that surrounds it. In this way it creates vibration and thus sound. This is different from the other reeds I talked about because in those reeds, the air that is blown through them by the musician causes the read to 'beat' against the mouthpiece as it vibrates, causing sound that way.

Types of Free Reeds
There are two types of free reeds. The first type is the older kind and is called: idioglottal. This means that the reed and the 'casing' or plate are one piece. The surrounding plate will be cut out underneath the tongue of the reed so that it still can flex freely up and down but the reed is anchored to the plate simply because it was never cut away. The tongue of the reed will either be triangular or rectangular and often lies flush with the plate. This type can be played by drawing air or blowing air. To get different pitches from the reed the size must be changed and oftentimes the material of the actual reed. Lastly, this reed must be attached to some form of resonator to create audible sound.These reeds were used mostly in older Asian instruments like this Kobing from the Philippines:


The newer version of the free reed is used mostly in western culture and is heteroglottal. This basically means that the plate and the reed are two separate pieces. The tongue of the reed still hangs free over the slot in the plate but where it would be attached as one piece to the plate in the other type it is instead a completely separate piece that is attached via screw or other means. This type can hold many sized reeds with one plate or have one plate per reed-note. Instruments you might recognize that use this system include the harmonica or the accordion. You can see on the inside of the harmonica how these metal reeds are placed so that when the two pieces are put together they still have a large enough slot in which they can move up and down as air is drawn across them (notice also how they are fastened down instead of part of the reed-plate).

Very Punny

Some soloists are so bad they should sing tenor twelve miles away.

Tenative Top Ten

Now I've been asked what the best songs of all time are, not specifically for this blog, but just in general. How can I answer that when I know I clearly enjoy a hodgepodge mix of Johnathan Coulton, Foo Fighters, Switchfoot, and on while you may be singing the praises of Soulja Boy? So instead I headed to the Internet and looked for the best KNOWN songs of all time, because even if you don't like them, chances are you know them. Now another problem arises. How many top ten lists are there on the Internet? Try thousands. So after reading through more than 40 of these lists I have put together a list of you of the top ten songs. They are ranked here by the number of times they were mentioned in the numerous lists I found, even if they were never ranked first, because clearly if everyone chooses it, it must be pretty well known.
Because many appeared the same amount of times I then took into account their rating number and those with better overall ratings are therefore ranked higher than those with worse ratings that appear the same number of times.

Without further ado, the list of lists using everything from TIME magazine's to VH1's Top Tens:
1. Like A Rolling Stone by the Rolling Stones
2. Satisfaction by the Rolling Stones
3. American Pie by Don Mclean
4. A Day in the Life by The Beatles
5. Yesterday by The Beatles
6. I’m So Lonesome I could Cry by Hank Williams
7. Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen
8. You've Lost That Loving Feeling by The Righteous Brothers
9. Pretty Woman by Roy Orbison
10. Imagine by John Lennon

The runners up that shared the same number of appearances as the last two but scored lower (although they tied each other) were:
Good Vibrations by The Beach Boys
Hey Jude by The Beatles

I was severely surprised at the low appearance of the following songs:
Dust in the Wind by Kansas
Stairway to Heaven by Led Zeppelin
Smells Like Teen Spirit by Nirvana

Very Punny

When a jazz musician's clothes are all worn out it's ragtime.

Crazy Insrument Installment 3

So it has been a while since I've talked about a truly odd instrument, and because of this I dug up one with the most curious picture. It is called the Bikelophone and it looks a little something like this:

As you may have gathered by the name and a brief glance at the BlueMan-esque contraption in the picture, the keystone of this instrument is indeed a bicycle. Brought into the music world only 14 years ago for the sake of the The Lyle and Sparkleface Band, the Bikelophone can create sounds akin to a soft harp or loud and metallic like crashing cymbals.

The bike part of the mechanism works chiefly as an amplifier by way of magnetic pickups. Anything that is attached to the bike then becomes amplified and can be manipulated. This particular model includes: bass strings, scrap wood and metal, bowls, telephone bells, a mechanical foot pedal, and a touch sensitive tone generator.

Now if you are asking: "But what is a magnetic pickup?" then this next paragraph is for you. A Pickup in general is something that acts as a transducer, or rather something that converts one type of energy or physical occurrence into another for the purpose of information transfer(sometimes other things but mostly this). The pickup is used to capture the actual movement or vibrations caused by the strings of a stringed instrument that have been played in some manner. It then changes this mechanical occurrence into an electronic signal that can be understood by computers which can then record or amplify the sound produced. A magnetic pickup accomplished this by way of magnetic coil which is usually mounted on the instrument intended for amplification. The vibrations caused by the instrument are picked up by the magnetic circuit and transferred to the recording or amplification apparatus by way of cable. To put it simply.

To listen to the sounds of the Bikeolophone click: here

Very Punny
I tried to come up with a good flute pun, but I blew it.

Scales-not for fishies

So one of the questions was about the minor keys and to accurately answer that question I have to delve into the world of scales.
Each key has a certain set of notes that make it up. These notes can be strung together in a sequence called a scale. Each scale will follow the key signature of they key it is associated with. For example the Bb scale will have the Bb key signature and the C scale will have the C key signature. Knowing at what intervals to string the notes together makes a big difference.

First you have to know about half steps and whole steps. To get from one type of note (natural, sharp, or flat) to the next note of the same type is a whole step. To get from any one type of note to the next adjacent note, that is a half step. There are exceptions, however and that is best shown to you on a keyboard.

Looking at the keyboard above you can see that every black key is a sharp or flat and every white key is natural. A jump from one white key to the next is usually a half step (same with from one black key to the next) except where there are two white keys next to each other as it is with the notes E and F as well as B and C. With these notes a whole step would be to the very next black key. In short, a whole step will always be two pitch jumps and a half step will always be just one.

So in relating that to scales I can now tell you their structure. A major scale of a key is the scale that keeps all the notes that are designated in the key signature and it's pattern is as follows.

Starting on the base note of the key (C for the key of C) which is called the 'tonic':
Whole step Whole Step Half Step Whole step Whole step Whole step Half step
Listen to C major

Each scale will have eight notes, starting on the tonic and ending on that note one octave higher.

Every key has a relative minor key that shares its key signature. The difference is in the sound given off when played. Minor keys sound darker and more mysterious. How is this possible when they have all the same notes? The structure of the way their notes are put together is different. First of all is you look back at the relative minor keys you'll notice that they have different names than their major counterparts. For example: C major is A minor. What this means for the scales is that we will start on A instead of C.

So starting on its tonic, the minor scales is built as follows:
Whole step Half step Whole step Whole step Half step Whole step Whole step
Listen to A minor

Because of the different tonics and the different interval construction, the two relative keys are able to share the same key signature but sound pretty different. I hope that answered your question.

Very Punny

A dead writer of music is de-composing.

Q&A

I have a list of random music questions that I have gotten and today I am going to answer them. Uunfortunately as very few people read this there are very few questions so please feel free to ask me something and I will answer it. Here we go.

Q: Are they called Barbershop Quartets [be]cause they sang in actual barbershops?
A: Yes, actually. They were also known for singing at parties and on street corners (like you see at Disneyland). This last also earned them the associative title of 'curbstone harmony'.

Q: Where can I get free sheet music online?
A: Ok first why are you asking me this? This is an informative blog not a place to pick up illegal merchandise. Second, shoo.

Q: What can I use to convert my midi into usable sheet music?
A: You can try 8notes.com, Midillustrator, or a program called Noteworthy Composer. There are a lot of programs out there designed to handle just this function so you will have to look through them to see what will work best for you. Also, try visiting this site. It has a list of converter applications as well as many other useful tools.

Q: You mentioned minor keys, what are those for?
A: Ok yeah that is pretty much a whole other blog but basically the minor keys that are shown inthe image of my previous post share the key signature with the major key they are listed with. As in, those notes will all be played with or without those sharps or flats. The difference is in the sound. Minor keys tend to be more solomn and haunting, while major keys are brighter and more jovial sounding. This is accomplished by changing the intervals in the scale for that key. And because I've completely confused you I will make scales my next post. (=

Q: What is the biggest insrtument ever?
A: Well I am going to go ahead and tell you the largest operating instrument and it may come as a slight dissapointment to you because the answer is not an instrument that anyone will ever have to try and cary around. It is infact and organ. It is owned by the Macy's store and resides in Philidelphia. The monster organ contains 28,543 pipes and sounds a little something like this.

Q: My friend just showed me this thing where they have cats and dogs singing Christmas songs. You should do a post about that!
A: Ok not a question. And no, no I should not. If you want to watch the kitties sing then go here, not here.

Very Punny
If you break a string on your guitar don't Fret.

Key Signatures

So as promised in the very first post I am now going to explain key signatures to all y'all out there. The key signature is present at the beginning of any piece of music and resides between the clef and the time signature. There are a few things you need to know about what the different spaces and line of the staff represent before I can start the key signature explanation.

Staff Lines:
The lines of the staff each represent a different note.

Staff lines in the Treble Clef are as follows:

To remember these the acronym Every Good Boy Does Fine is often used.

The spaces are as follows:

This one is easier to remember as it spells out the word FACE.

Staff lines in the Bass Cleff are as follows:

To remember these the acronym Good Boys Do Fine Always is often used (though admittedly more awkward than its treble counterpart)

The spaces are as follows:

To remember these the acronym All Cows Eat Grass is often used.

Any note placed on one of these lines will be played as the note letter notated(no pun intended). To make is more confusing each one of these notes as three basic forms: sharp, flat, and natural.

Natural is notated with a natural sign: to the direct left of the note along the same line or space or if a note has no signs next to it. This is the base pitch of the note.
Sharp is notated with a pound sign to the direct left of the note along the same line or space. This will cause the note to be played a half step higher (slightly higher) than the natural.
Flat is notated by a lowercase 'b' to the direct left of the note along the same line or space. This will cause the note to be played a half step lower (slightly lower) than the natural.

All of these signs effect every note on the same line that come after the marked note and lasts until the measure is over.

Because it would be boring to play the natural of a note every time and notating every single sharp or flat pitch would become messy and hard to read we have key signatures. The key signature's job is to dictate a note's sharp, flat, or naturalness for the entire piece (or until a new key signature is introduced). These combinations of set flat, sharp, or natural notes are called Keys. For example the simplest key would be Concert C. In the key of C every note is played as its natural value and any variations from this key will be placed within the music using the sharp, flat, and natural signs.

These are the keys:


Each key has a certain number of sharps of flats that come with it. All of the notes that are on lines or spaces that represent a note that the key signature has deemed sharp or flat will be played that way through the entire piece if they are unmarked. Only if there is a natural sign next to them or the key signature changes will they be played at their natural tone again. As you can see in these diagrams every key has a relative minor key that shares its key signature. Don't worry about those for now. Hope this helps (=

Very Punny
Musicians need a leader because they don't know how to conduct themselves.

Come Again?

Today I'm going to talk about Repeats.
Often in music you will hear a theme repeated and while sometimes the music is actually written out twice (or again at the end in) what you may not know is that the musician's actually have a lot less music in front of them than you think.

Bar Line Repeats:
First of all I will show you Bar Line Repeats. This is the most common form of a repeat sign and is a large solid vertical line next to a thin vertical line with two filled black dots resembling a colon up against the thinner line. If the dots are facing to the left then this indicates the end of a section to be repeated. The player, upon seeing the left facing dot-repeat sign will not continue forward in the music but instead will jump back to the beginning of the piece and play the entire section again. Once played through a second time the repeat sign facing left is ignored and the music continues. A difference occurs when there is also a right-facing repeat sign. If this is the case the right-facing sign will always appear before its left-facing counterpart. The result of this is that instead of jumping back to the beginning when the left-facing repeat sign is reached the player will only jump back to wherever the right-facing repeat sign appeared. Once again after the repeat is completed the music will continue. Here is an example of a repeated passage with just the 'closing' repeat sign.

That would be repeated back to the beginning.

Here is an example of a repeated passage with both repeat signs:


Single Measure Repeats:
Single measure repeats may last for much long than the measure and its repeat. The main meaning behind the title is that it is the same measure repeated over and over again without change. This type of repeat is notated with a slash with a dot above and below. It looks like this:

In the example shown above the passage that is written out will be played three more times directly after the initial playing. Here the measures are numbered for convenience but they are not required to be.

In-Measure Repeats:
There are also repeats that take place within a measure. These are rarely used in music because writing the same beat twice is not enough of a hassel to have these be worth it, but just so you can see them this is what they look like:

The notation will change for sixteenth notes and thirty-second notes. Sixteenth note phrases will use two dashes instead of one and thirty-second note phrases will use three.

Very Punny
Musical composers can use lots of Note paper.

Not So Crazy Intrument Installment

So inspired by an old rerun of 'How It's Made' and with a friend who is just learning how to play them, I have decided to grace this blog with a small overview of (in my opinion) one of the most interesting sounding instruments:the Steel Drum (also known as a 'Pan').

The SteelDrum or Pan is actually very newly invented as far as instruments go, showing up in the 1930's. The Drum first made its appearance in Trinidad:

which was under British rule since the 1800's. In an attempt to keep the native people from communicating rebellion effort amongst themselves, the British outlawed the use of hand drums and later, other methods that they began using, all dealing in rhythmic percussion. Finally the Trinidadians, as they were, turned to something called 'Iron Bands'. These bands were made up of instruments composed of various resonating material found as garbage and were marched down streets. One such piece of 'garbage' with a dent in it is said to have inspired the creation of the Steel Drum

The origional drum was actually domed shaped instead of concave and a man by the name of Winston Simon was said to be the first person to create one:

Later, a painter by the name of Ellie Manette changed the shape to a bowl and the drum took the form that is has today.

The Pans have a variety of types like any instrument, ranging from the Tenor(or lead) type drum down to the Twelve Bass and are often used heavily in Calypso music although they can play pretty much anything you can think of. Take a listen:
I Can See Clearly Now
Maryanne
Morning Dance
Girl From Ipanema

Very Punny
When a musician plays a scale on a newly cleaned piano, he goes from C to shining C.

Brass of the Day

In a previous post I talked about reeds and how they were used to help most woodwind players create sound with their instruments. Today I will be looking at the other end of the spectrum: the brass mouthpiece. Unlike the woodwind mouthpiece which has three separate parts (the mouthpiece, reed, and ligature) the brass mouthpiece is one solid aparatus which is inserted into the back of the instrument.

Parts of the Mouthpiece:
Even though the brass mouthpiece is one solid object there are different parts of it that take on somewhat different shapes depending on the instrument and the type of playing they are intended for.

The parts are as follows:

1. This is the 'Inner Rim' of the mouthpiece. The smaller the diameter the higher the pitch, the large the diameter the lower the pitch. For example, a tuba mouthpiece will have a larger inner rim diameter than a trombone, a trombone will have a larger inner rim than a trumpet, and so on.
2. This is the 'Rim'. The rim of a mouthpiece dictates the amount of pressure put on the lips while playing. The wider the rim the less pressure and thus the ability to play more longer. The larger rim will, however, decrease the player's control or for example the ability to achieve crisp articulation on quick passages.
3. This is the 'Rim Contour' and can be either flat or rounded.
4. This is the 'Bite' and also plays a part in durability and control. The sharper the slope of the bite the more control the player will have but at the cost of being worn out faster. The more rounded the curvature of the bite the longer the player can last but acute control is sacrificed.
5. This is the 'Cup'. The cup has two important parts, the depth and the shape. Deep cups are used for low ranged instruments like the trombone, bass trombone, baritone, and tuba. The deeper cup gives them a lower range and a fuller sound. Shallower cups are used for instruments like french horns, trumpets, and cornets. The shallow cup allows them a much higher sound and a brighter tone. Shape-wise, the semi-spherical cups will give the instrument a sharper and higher sound than the conical cups.
6. This is the 'Throat' and is used for 'tone definition'. The sharper the incline of the throat of a mouthpiece the more it will modify the instrument's already established tone quality. For example: Brighter and louder for trumpets while fuller and rounder for tubas.
7. This is the 'Backbore' and is also in charge of dictating the type of tone quality produced. The more cone-shaped it is the fuller and richer the sound will be, the more cylinder-shaped the brighter and sharper.
8. This is the 'Shank' and is the covering for the backbore. It is also the part of the mouthpiece that is inserted into the instrument.

There is also a special kind of mouthpiece called an asymmetrical mouthpiece for the very reason that the cup is purposefully asymmetrical and looks like this:



This type of mouthpiece is often used for playing in Jazz emsembles or bigbands because it allows the musician to play higher and louder than he would on a normal mouthpiece. Tone quality, however, is often sacrificed.

Materials:
Brass mouthpieces are, needless to say, brass (for the most part). The coating on a standard brass mouth piece is silver because it is cheaper than it's gold alternative. Plating one's mouthpiece in gold will cause it to have a warmer and less bright sound than a silver plated mouthpiece and it will also erase the possibility of tarnish that the silver one's have.

Plastic mouthpieces are also available and are cheaper than their brothers. These mouthpieces are very durable and are often used in places like Drum Corps or Marching Bands where the diminished tone quality will not be a problem. Another advantage is that temperature changes that will drastically alter the pitch of the metal mouthpieces will have a much smaller effect on this one.

Very Punny
A music store was robbed. The thief made away with the lute.

Homemade Instruments Installment 1

Well I was going to describe the Brass player's mode of making music as opposed to the reed for the majority of the woodwind players but I find that I will not being doing that because there is something far more important. What is that? Homemade instruments what else? Because these instruments are so very amusing I am giving them a category of their own and calling this Homemade Instruments Installment 1.

In an attempt to bring some sort of factual content or learning material to this blog again I am first going to do a very quick overview of a well known instrument that most of you probably already know the basics of, namely the bagpipe. A common misconception of the bagpipe is with the air being blown into the bladder or the 'bag' of the instrument. While the air is needed to produce the lovely nasal sound that makes the pipes so unique (take that as sarcasm or not whichever you prefer) the musician does not have to be blowing air at the time that the note is actually sounded. In this way you will see bagpipe players take breaths even as long strands of notes are being played. The canter and most likely a drone (named for the sound it makes, usually a sort of bass line to the canter's notes). These are pipes fitted with one or two reeds that are attached to the bagpipes and fed air from the bag in order to vibrate the reeds and create sound. The musician uses his or her arm to put pressure on the air-filled bag in order to force it through the pipes. The unfortunate part of this system is that a cut-off is rather hard, though not impossible.

So why am I giving you a brief overview of a bagpipe? Well in understanding a little bit of the basics it becomes clear that the bag part of the instrument really only needs to be a compressible container of air correct? This is where our Youtube friend comes in with his homemade bagpipe, enjoy:

Very Punny
Some musicians can be sharp, which is not natural.

Haken Continuum

In a way I guess this is an interesting or crazy instrument installment but I am not going to call it such because unlike the last two entries this one is used more frequently and more functionally and it, in fact, makes no actual music of its own. The 'instrument' is called the Continuum Fingerboard or the Haken Continuum (named for the inventor). What makes it so special is that it is what can be classified as a "continuous music controller". The keyboard itself makes no noise (unless of course you bang it on something I suppose) but is instead used to mediate the sound coming from a synthesizer. Even cooler? This keyboard is continuous in three 'directions': pressure pushing down on the keyboard, the movement of left and right across the keyboard, and the movement up and down on the keyboard can all be programmed to handle different commands or parameters. The keyboard can handle digital and analog synthesizers and can 'produce' both monophonic and polyphonic sounds. Polyphonic meaning multiple sounds that in this case are produced at once and monophonic referring to singular individual notes.

Here is the Fingerboard in use:


Now for something really cool. If you weren't around to read my post on musical Tesla Coils you can read it here

But for those of you that have, someone has combined those coils and this keyboard to bring you this:

Very Punny

There's a repair shop for baroque musical instruments.

Reeds

Well because last time I talked a lot about different instruments and how they made the sounds we identify them by I thought I would tell everyone here the difference between the wind instruments. There are two main subcategories when looking at standard orchestral instruments that you blow air through to create sound and they are the Reed instruments (or woodwinds-though there are flutes which use mouth/blow holes instead) and the Brass instruments.

Today I will be talking about the Reed instruments and we will  be ignoring the flutes for the time being (they got a lot of attention last post). Now before I start I must divide the topic once more into two subcategories that we are going to classify as Single Reeds and Double Reeds (there are also Free Reeds but we are not going to explore those at the moment).

Single Reeds:

Examples of single reed instruments are clarinets and saxophones. These instruments use a flat, rectangular piece of wood (usually Cane but they can also be synthetic) in their mouthpiece. The mouthpiece is a conical type structure with one open side where the reed will be fastened by something called a ligature to cover the hole. The reed is actually only completely flat on the side that has to press up against the mouth piece. The other side of the reed starts thick and tapers off until it is very thin at the tip. When blowing into the instrument the player causes the reed to vibrate against the plastic (or wood) of the mouthpiece. This vibration is then carried through the horn and modified by the depressing of keys.

A single reed:

A ligature:

A reed fastened to a mouthpiece via ligature:


Double Reed:
A couple examples of common double reed instruments are the Bassoon and the Oboe. Double reeds do not use a mouth piece like the single reed instruments do. Instead of vibrating one reed off of the mouthpiece, instruments like the oboe and bassoon use two reeds that vibrate off of each other. Two reeds (usually made from Arundo donax cane) are fastened together at the bottom with an opening between the two reeds at the top to allow for air passage and vibration.

Frontal view of bassoon double reed:

Top view of an oboe double reed:

While either type of reed can be handmade most double reed players are much more strongly encouraged to carve their own reeds. The double reed instruments are also usually portrayed as much harder instruments to play.

Very Punny

"Carmen get it!" Bizet yelled as he pulled out his Chopin Liszt.

Crazy Instruments Installment 2

In one of my previous posts I mentioned an instrument by the name of the "Fiddle-dee-doo" and one of my friends asked if I was just making a point or if it was actually a real thing. Truth be told it is indeed a real instrument and will now be the topic of Crazy Instruments Installment 2.

The Fiddle-dee-doo is a "Globu-tubular horn with goatskin resonator". What? So first I will explain "Tubular" and "Globular"horns. The simpler to describe of the two is the tubular. A good example of a tubular instrument is the tubular flute, show here:

(Recorders also fit into the tubular flute category)
The flute is a long cylindrical tube through which air passes. The air is made into a column and modified by keys or holes in the flute that are depressed or covered by the player to change the length of the tube and create different pitches. The placement of the keys or holes are essential as the length of the air column will dictate the note being played.

Tubular horns include most brass instruments such as trumpet, trombone, french horns, and so on. The bodies of these instruments are still just tubes (though they are shaped and bent) like the flute but they are classified separately (as horns and not flutes) because instead of blowing air across the top and effecting a column of air through the apparatus that way, they use the vibration caused by the buzzing into the mouth piece to put the air in motion and create sound.

A Globular instrument works on a different principal. For example, a globular flute would be an instrument where air was blown into a spherical chamber with holes or keys positioned around the globe. The musician would open and close these holes to change the amount of air in the chamber to change the pitch. The actually positioning of the holes or keys makes very little difference, the SIZE of the holes, however, makes all the difference in the world. The more air is let out the more the note will change and vice versa.A good example of a globular flute is the Ocarina (and yes for you Nintendo fans, it's the same instrument), shown here:


Now globular horns are a bit harder. While they exist in the world they will not be found in your local orchestra and this is probably why:
Example
While interesting it really does not lend itself to most people's view of popular music. What is happening is that the horn is utilizing the globular chambers to resonate and the musician is buzzing his lips into the tube like he would into one of the other horns. Globular horns, while not very common here, are more popular in many African cultures.

Now, as you may have guessed, a globu-tubular horn combines the aspects of both of these types of instruments. This means that there is both a cylindrical shaft and a globular chamber where the air and sound will be resonating. The globular part actually will often significantly lower the pitch of the entire instrument depending on its placement.

The Fiddle-Dee-Doo is actually a fiddle-horn, renamed the Fiddle-dee-doo by Barry Hall:

The part classified as the 'tubular' part of the horn is the long cylindrical piece under the strings. This part also acts as the 'fingerboard' or what the musician will press the string against to determine the length and therefore the note. The globular part of the horn resides at the bottom and is made from goatskin (hence the 'goatskin resonator'). This part also acts as the 'soundboard' for the string part of the instrument (where the sound is produced). To play the instrument one buzzes (because it's a horn) into the open hole at the end of the tube and plays the string at the same time making for a very strange sound indeed.

Very Punny

When writing music for some instruments it is hard to piccolo note.

Owl City

In the last post I talked about amateur musical groups that get their work to the world via the internet. While I differentiated them by who had record labels there are also groups out there that are becoming well known without the record labels. These groups are making a bridge between that which I earlier described as amateur bands and professionals.

For example, bands like Owl City have become serious music producers that put out professional sounding soundtracks, offer band merchandise, and have their songs for sale on itunes. Here's the catch: Owl City is actually one guy by the name of Adam Young who writes all his own music and records it in his bedroom. His homepage is even on myspace. So where do we put this kind of music?

When asked Young says:
"I'm the farthest thing from a pro but I have fun and that's far more important to me. I just like making songs. Writing music is like tasting the sky. It keeps me dreaming in color."

That's all for today, I just had to acknowledge the middle ground between the two parties I talked about last time. To listen to Owl City check here:

Owl City

Very Punny
Sign on a music store window: 'Come in and pick out a drum -- then beat it!'

Boredom

Among the many musical access points around the internet are band sites. Pretty much any band name can be typed in to produce a homepage dedicate to the group and their music. There is, however, another form of groups out there that are just as abundant. Amateur groups have been able to record and upload music onto their own sites with the quality of the professionals with the equipment and programs available to the public today.

I say amateur only to differentiate them from those officially under a record label because while they might not be recognized by the music consumer industry many of them contain musicians graduated from high end music academies who's talent rivals and often surpasses those of popular culture bands. On the flip side of that coin however, there are those who, while they love music, would never get anything they ever played or wrote listened to at all without the free-ness provided by the internet. Of course there are all those who are in between the two extremes as well (let us never forget them for I fear it is what I have become).

Even leaving the actual musician's out of the picture, the sites themselves seem to have a much more free range of being. Many of the 'professional' band and group websites seem to follow a basic pattern: Home page with some sort of logo and usually a sample of their most recent song playing upon loading broken up into tabs that will let you buy things (souvenirs or music etc.), listen to things, track their next performance, or comment. The 'amateur' sites, however, become more creative and personal. For example they can be anywhere from extremely serious (people actually looking for someone to discover them) to pure fun where the people involved just post what they love in an attempt to share their passion.

The example that I will give you is a site from the latter of those two example categories and is actually one that I have had some small interaction with. The site is called www.TrumpetBoredom.com and is run by my friend Matt with the amazing talents of both him and my other friends Collin and Joe and their buddy Byron. The four of them (all trumpet players except for Collin on Bari-sax most of the time) play popular songs which Joe arranges by ear and all of them record in one of their homes.

This particular site doesn't have anything to sell but offers all their recordings free for the listening and downloading. The site is for your enjoyment and theirs and while occasionally cracked notes and strange screeches sneak their way into a recording you can really hear their true talent and their love for what their doing show through. (Hey some of the pieces posted were recorded with one mic hanging somewhere in their near vicinity-I'm amazed at the sound quality they got). No digital enhancing-it's just them.

Here is an example of some of their music:

http://www.trumpetboredom.com/sounds/Trumpet%20Boredom%20-%20Gummi%20Bears.mp3

http://www.trumpetboredom.com/sounds/Trumpet%20Boredom%20-%20The%20Office.mp3

http://www.trumpetboredom.com/sounds/Trumpet%20Boredom%20-%20The%20Circle%20of%20Life.mp3

http://www.trumpetboredom.com/sounds/Trumpet%20Boredom%20-%20Come%20On,%20Eileen.mp3

http://www.trumpetboredom.com/sounds/Trumpet%20Boredom%20-%20Now%20I%27m%20a%20Believer%20Demo%20Final.mp3

And if you're up for it here's their theme song sung by Matt and Collin (and one of my personal favorites):
http://www.trumpetboredom.com/sounds/Trumpet%20Boredom%20-%20Rubber%20Duckie%20(lyrics).mp3

Very Punny
I bought a metronome for 20 bucks. You can't beat that price.

Knee Slappers

I was going to describe an intricate musical term to you today  but about halfway through I gave myself a headache with all my backtracking and defining. So! I am going to rewrite it better for you at a later date, promise ;) For now I would like to share with you something that musician's everywhere are familiar with.

No matter where you go there is a certain rivalry between instruments. Rivalry is kind of strong but it is the closest I can come to describing it. For example there are the basics: Winds vs. Strings (though this often goes unnoticed because outside of the professional world they rarely have to deal with each other), Woodwinds vs. Brass, and High end vs. Low end. Within each section there is always the one instrument type that gets picked on-the nerd of the bunch if you will. For strings it seems to be Viola and for winds it seems to be either of the double reeds (bassoon mostly and sometimes oboe).

As much as these divisions are part of the musician's world so are the music jokes. There are standard ones that can be used again and again with different instruments each time such as:

What's the difference between a (insert instrument here: most commonly Bassoon or Viola) and a trampoline? You take off your shoes to jump on a trampoline.

But there are also ones that are specific to their instruments such as:

How do you get two piccolos to play in tune? Shoot one. (hahaha-ug).

Certain instruments get joked about for different things. Flutes and piccolos: out of tune or divas, Trumpets: huge egos, Trombones: loud and unemployable, Drummers: Unable to keep time, Saxophones: horrible sound....and the list goes on.

But whatever the joke and whatever the instrument the punch lines are worn out, well know, and a part of the music world. So I present some of the classics to you tonight, enjoy (and keep in mind I have nothing against any of these instruments and that often the instruments in these jokes can be switched out for others):

Why is a bassoon better than an oboe?
The bassoon burns longer.

What's the difference between a saxophone and a lawn mower?
Lawn mowers sound better in small ensemles.
The neighbors are upset if you borrow a lawnmower and don't return it.
The grip.

What's the difference between a Trumpet player and the rear end of a horse?
I don't know either.

What's the difference between trumpet players and government bonds?
Government bonds eventually mature and earn money.

How can you tell which kid on a playground is the child of a trombonist?
He doesn't know how to use the slide, and he can't swing.

What is a gentleman?
Somebody who knows how to play the trombone, but doesn't.

What's the range of a tuba?
Twenty yards if you've got a good arm!

Why are orchestra intermissions limited to 20 minutes?
So you don't have to retrain the drummers.

Very Punny

He tried to play the shoehorn but got only footnotes.

Crazy Instruments Installment 1

So I have seen my share of crazy looking instruments from a Fiddle-dee-doo to a Gravikord, but today I'm going to tell you about something that most people wouldn't think of as an instrument at all. The Tesla Coil.

For those of you who aren't familiar with what a tesla coil is, it is basically a transformer. In the simplest terms it takes electrical energy and transmits it from one coil to another resulting in a changing current which in this case creates really high voltage, low current, and high frequency electricity. The deal with Tesla coils is although they are sometimes used as igniters after modification they are basically used for entertainment. What's entertaining? How about the massive amount of electric discharge that results in lightning-like streaks from the coil's top? Frequencies given off by these coils have also been harnessed to create music of a sort and thus these crazy coils have jumped the gap into the instrument realm.

The coils, while already giving off sound, have been found to work better for the musical pursuit if the coils are vacuum-tube tesla coils, also referred to as SSTC or Solid State Tesla Coils. The reason for this is because the tesla coil's output is much more controllable with these kinds of coils. Even crazier is the modification that they do on the SSTCs themselves.

For example, one can change the Amplitude Modulation (referred to as AM). If one changes the amplitude so that there is a constant output of the plasma flame (the lightning-type discharge mentioned earlier) then the volume of the sound produced by the tesla coils become much more controllable.

The other main modification has to do with the pulse repitition frequency. Simply put: a tesla coil will have a set amount of times that is produces sparks (again the lightning discharge) per second. By changing the frequency at which this happens they can alter the frequency to match that of a musical note that they want played. Thus they have notes and volume! Crazy!

As an example, please enjoy the coils in action:

These specific coils, built by Steve Ward and Jeff Larson, are 7 feet tall, 18 feet apart, and controlled by a laptop which has assigned each coil one midi channel.

Very Punny

What do you mean you can't tuna fish? Just adjust its scales.

Out of the Blue

Last time I gave you a very basic introduction to some of the most fundamental musical terms and notations. This time I am going to be showing you something from the opposite end of the spectrum.

Just like in most creative disciplines (art, dance, theatre) people tend to question what music is. Very often you hear people who are opposed to Rap music claim that it's not music-just a bunch of words and noise. Sometimes you will also hear people bag on pop music that is circulated in the teen-girl section of society saying that it's too corny, too cookie cutter, and just plain horrible.

Personally, my iPod full of polar opposite music is reserved for my ears alone and other people can feel however they want about whatever styles of music they like. However, in the interest of challenging your idea of what music might be I am inviting you to listen to a musical group called F'loom.

This group was introduced to me about three or four years ago by a fellow band member who burned me a random mix of their songs from his collection. The group is an A Capella 'singing' trio that does something that they call "language music".

The first piece I ever listened to was this one entitled: Ghi Terakita

This one is more standardly musical that some of the other ones because of a pretty steady meter (or rhythm) that is maintained throughout the song. There are even pitch changes that suggest a song-like quality. The odd thing about this one is that the vocals are used in a purely instrumental function without any semblance of coherent words. This is something they have come to call "polyrhythmic mouth-percussion".

The second piece I heard of theirs, and one of their most popular is called: 10 Possible Outcomes of Gnegg's Paradox

This one is more language based than note or rhythm based-it even follows a constant story line (though many songs do this so that is not really a cause to call it unmusical). The vocals here are used both as lyrical and non-lyrical devices as the song contains words and odd background noises.

Lastly is this kind of piece: Just for a Few Minutes

This one contains almost nothing but words. The fact that it is close to pure nonsense (they do have other ones where it is simply words being strung together without sentences to portray a feeling such as hot or cold) held together only by the word 'JUST' being repeated in each scenario almost makes the sounds of the words into a song in itself.

They teach Master Classes at Manchester College and have appeared with many famous artists.
So what do you think? Music?

(click on any of the song titles to hear a small segment of the song-more can be found at their website)

Very Punny

If you can't find anyone to sing with you have to duet yourself.

Welcome

Something that has always been important to me is music, whether playing it or listening to it it's something that is part of my life every day. So in an effort to expand the knowledge I already have and in a hope to bring a little bit more information to the random reader I have created Chopin Liszt, a Shopping List of music tid bits ranging from odd instruments to simple definitions. Have a question about something musical? Let me know and I'll try my best to get the answer for you!

Back to the Basics

So I started out with something interesting. A cool musical ornamentation(almost a decoration to a series of notes if you will) that isn't well known but has a cool little sound. While it is an interesting piece of knowledge I found myself having to backtrack and define term after term just to make it understandable to people who don't have to deal with these things on a normal basis. Thus I have come back to the beginning and decided instead to do something very basic this time in hopes that it will help me bring you even more interesting things next time and in more times to come!

Here are some basic things that are helpful to know (and you can impress your non-music friends with when you see them on things)

Basics:

The STAVE or the STAFF

Mostly referred to as the staff it is composed of five lines and four spaces that each represent a different note, or pitch, that must be played. As I am not teaching you to read music at this time but instead am just trying to familiarize you with the terminology I will leave the lines unnamed, but feel free to look into it more if you would like. 

Bar Lines and Measures

The staff is then split up into separate sections with bar lines (vertical lines that cross all the horizontal staff lines at a right angle). These sections are called measures and their importance comes into play with the next term.

Time Signatures

One of the other basic building blocks of a piece os music before the notes are added is called the time signature. Time signatures are shown by one number on top of another at the beginning of a piece of music and right after the clef (which is explained next). They look something like this:

These numbers tell the musician how many beats(kind of like one tick on a metronome or clock) are in a measure so that they can keep the correct tempo and rhythm of a piece. 

The top note will tell the reader how many beats are in each measure (defined above) and the bottom note will tell the reader which type of note (given as a fraction of the whole note) counts as one full beat

HUH? 

For example, in 4/4 time (also called Common Time and notated with a C-just to confused you) we know by looking at the bottom number 4 that the quarter note counts as one full beat because it is 1/4 (note the 4) of a whole note. Then when we look at the top we know that four beats must happen in the measure before it is over.

Clefs

There are more than just these two but the main clefs that you will come in contact with (unless you play Viola) are the Bass Clef and the Treble Clef.

The first one show here is the Bass Clef (also referred to as the F-clef) and in general is used for lower instruments as well as the bottom half of the piano.

The second one shown is much more commonly seen around the non-music scene as a way to denote musicality in general. Often you will hear people refer to it as a note. It is not. This is the Treble Clef (or G-clef) and is generally used to higher instruments as well as the upper half of the piano.

Clefs are used to tell the musician the pitch of the notes written on the staff or stave. For example. The Bass Clef is also called the F-clef because the two little dots are on either side of the line that represents the note F. When an actual note is placed on that line the musician will play an F. From that starting point it is then possible to figure out what all the other notes are, but again I am not teaching you that right now.

Notes and Rests

Lastly are the notes and rests. A piece of music is made up completely of sound and silence and each are equally important. A note is used to tell the musician which pitch to play and how long to play it. Which pitch depends entirely where the note is place on the staff that we saw earlier (along with some other fun little things like accidentals and key signatures which I will go into later). The length, however, is shown by the note (or rest) itself.

This is a whole note. This long note will always be hollow and never have a stem. It counts for four beats in Common Time (4/4 time).
This is the whole rest-the counterpart to the whole note. It counts for four beats of silence in Common Time.
This is a half note. This note will also always be hollow but unlike the whole note it has a stem. It counts for two beats in Common Time. It will always be half the length of the whole note.
This is the half rest-the counterpart to the half note. It counts for two beats of silence in Common Time, or half the length of the whole rest.
This is the quarter note. This note has a stem like the half note but will always be filled in. It counts for one beat in Common Time. It will always be one quarter the length of the whole note.
This is a quarter rest-the counterpart to the quarter note. It counts for one beat of silence in Common Time, of one quarter length of the whole rest.
This is an eighth note. It counts of one half of a beat in Common Time. It is filled in and has a stem like the quarter note but it also has what is called a flag at the end of the stem. It will always be one eighth the length of the whole note.
This is an eighth rest-the counterpart to the eighth note. It counts for one half of a beat of silence in Common Time, or one eighth the length on the whole rest.

Key Signatures

Hahahaha-sorry. I'm not going to try and explain those right now but just know they are very important! In order to explain them to you I would need a whole other post-which I may indeed do sometime but for now I will leave them alone.

And that is all for now. I don't intend for this blog to be a learn-to-read-music site but I thought it would be nice to get a very basic how-to post out there for inquiring minds. Hope you enjoyed!

Very Punny

He often broke into song because he couldn't find the key.