What always goes hand in hand with live music? Dancing of course! There have been many unique styles of dancing that have gone hand in hand with the evolution of popular music. This video is funny to watch because it’s an accurate demonstration of how certain dance styles are instantly recognizable when paired with the music of that era. (more…)
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Live Musician Central – Weekend Album Picks 1-24-09
Every week at Live Musician Central I pick some of the top new releases available for you to download from both iTunes and Amazon.com music service. These new release choices reflect the heaviest music industry marketing. There are two reasons I post up the most heavily music industry marketed albums. First, by checking out these releases you’ll be able to keep a finger on the pulse of the mainstream music industry. It’s still a very powerful business that heavily influences peoples buying choices. The second reason is that a large number of people are going to know these albums. So if your band is looking for new music to put in your bands setlist these would be good choices simply because your chance of people knowing the songs at your shows will be very high. You’ll also look very on top of things and current with your knowledge of music. So these albums are a great resource for your song selection. I will also post up links to top selling albums of all time for the reason of song selection as well.
I use links to both iTunes and Amazon.com. iTunes is now the top music retailer in the U.S. so it goes without saying that people are going to be downloading their recommended new releases. I put links up from Amazon.com because their music service is an incredible bargain and their MP3’s are DRM free. You can save a bundle downloading entire albums from Amazon.com over iTunes. Amazon.com MP3’s are also ripped at an excellent sounding 256kbps and since they’re DRM free you can play them on multiple MP3 players including iPods and iPhones. The new Mariah Carey album is out! Well, it’s not really new music but it’s filled with her #1 hits so if you’re looking to learn some Mariah Carey tunes, this would be an excellent album to own.
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Meat Puppets Concert Review Salt Lake City 1-22-2009
Meat Puppets I had the opportunity to hear one of my favorite live bands of all time, the Meat Puppets on January 22, 2009 at the Urban Lounge in Salt Lake City, Utah. The Meat Puppets are a band that changed my entire way of approaching music when I was introduced to their music by a friend in 1986. The Meat Puppets taught me that you don’t have to be perfect to be great and that having a personal style was more important than being the fastest guitar player on the planet. My favorite album by the Meat Puppets is “Up On The Sun” which was released in 1985. That year my ears really opened up and I became able to deconstruct the music that I listened to and understand how all the parts meshed to create a sum that was greater than individual parts. The Meat Puppets were very instrumental in the formation of my personal musical vocabulary. So I was very excited to see them perform in Salt Lake City.
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Current Promotion From Musician’s Friend
Musician’s Friend is really good about keeping their special offers and discounts current. Every live musician I know loves to save money anywhere they can. That’s why I try to keep all you readers of Live Musician Central updated on the best offerings from Musician’s Friend and other great online music stores. Today I’m going to link the latest great offer from Musician’s Friend which is currently the Earn Up To $150 In Bonus Bucks promotion. This promotion runs from 1-20-2009 to 2-3-2009 so make sure you get your orders in now! Click the banner below:
There’s another great ongoing promtion at Zzounds.com as well. Click on the banner below to see some of the fantastic deals at ZZounds.com:
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Celemony Melodyne Studio 3 Video Demonstrations
Yesterday on Live Musician Central I wrote a post about the excellent software Celemony Melodyne Studio 3. The software is simply fantastic and it’s almost impossible to do it’s capabilities justice simply by writing about it. So today I’m posting up a couple of very informative YouTube videos discussing Celemony Melodyne Studio software. So if you have a few minutes, it’s really worth watching these videos just to see the amazing capabilites of Celemony Melodyne pitch correction software.
Melodyne – Direct Note Access
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Advanced Vocal Pitch Correction With Celemony Melodyne Studio
Celemony Melodyne Studio 3 Screenshot Collage A while ago I wrote a post on Live Musician Central about working with Celemony Melodyne Uno to pitch correct your vocal recordings. Melodyne Uno has been a great tool for fixing out of tune notes on my studio recordings. I have really enjoyed working with Melodyne Uno but I finally decided I wanted more features and the ability to work with multiple tracks simultaneously. So I went ahead and upgraded to Celemony Melodyne Studio 3.
Melodyne Studio 3 has been fantastic to work with. As I said, my main motivation for upgrading was the ability to work with multiple tracks simultaneously. It does this perfectly and the ability to work with multiple tracks at the same time means that my recording projects get completed a lot faster. It’s so nice to be able to compare two, three or more harmonies together while having the ability to shift individual notes in any of the lines. Being able to bounce between tracks instantly and then being able to hear how the harmonies play back is really a huge time saver. (more…)
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Download Free Cyber-Twin SE Preset Patch – LMC Triple Delay
Fender Cyber-Twin SE Amplifier Here’s another great Fender Cyber-Twin SE patch from Live Musician Central for all you Cyber-Twin SE owners out there. I’ve always been a huge fan of using timed delays on my guitar. I’m a huge Brian May fan and also a big fan of The Edge from U2 both of whom are masters of using delay on their guitars. Just check out Brian May’s guitar solo on the Live At Wembley Stadium DVD for a great example of working with a triple delay for some really fun guitar harmonies.
That brings me to todays preset patch for the Fender Cyber-Twin SE. The Cyber-Twin SE has a killer tape echo setting that is perfect for creating timed delays that have a beautifully chorused sound as well. Fender has incorporated a great simulation of tape head Wow and Flutter that gives a sweet detuned chorus effect along with this delay. So I’ve used that feature to great effect in my Triple Delay patch. (more…)
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Sunday Funnies – David Lee Roth Runnin’ With The Devil Vocal Clips
David Lee Roth – The Devil Ahhhh yeah! Runnin’ With The Devil is seriously classic Van Halen. Now you can enjoy all the ohhh’s, uhhhgh, whistles and whooohooo’s right at your own computer. That’s right, somebody got ahold of the solo vocal track from the Van Halen song, Runnin’ With The Devil and turned the best parts into flash enabled sound clips. You gotta play it to believe it. I think that David Lee Roth isn’t just runnin’ with the devil, after hearing these clips I think he just may be the devil!
You gotta check out the David Lee Roth solo vocal track clips.
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Live Musician Central – Weekend Album Picks 1-17-08
Every weekend at Live Musician Central we put up some of the most heavily marketed new releases in the music industry. These new music releases aren’t necessasarily my personal favorites but they are being pushed extremely hard by the industry. The reason I post these up is so that we as live musicians can stay on top of what’s going to be thrust into the public eye. Two of the biggest challenges of being a performer is to play music that is current and that the audience is going to be familiar with. I know I hate it when my band takes the time to learn a great new song only to play it live and have everyone in the audience sit there with a dazed look on their face because they don’t know the song. If you pick songs from these heavily marketed new releases you will have a better chance of playing music that people will know.
I’m sure that you’re aware that Apple’s iTunes is now the biggest retailer of music in the United States. Today I’m going to put links up exclusively for albums from iTunes. iTunes is pushing these releases extremely hard so it’s a good idea to for us as performing musicians to be aware of them.
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Having A Jam Session Songwriting Session
Shufflin' Noah In The Jam Room I am a songwriter as well as a live performing musician. I’ve been writing songs since I was about 15 years old and I have an extensive catalog of completed music. I write songs a lot of different ways. Sometimes I’ll sit down at the piano or with a guitar and write an entire song with lyrics, start to finish. Sometimes I’ll come up with a riff or chord progression and I’ll have to turn it over in my mind for a few days until I feel like I can finish a song with it. Another thing I’ll do is write with my band by getting together and actively writing a complete song. These are usually great songs because everyone adds something to them. Today I’m going to talk about one of my all-time favorite ways to write songs. That’s by having a jam session and just letting things happen while we record everything we play.
