Tag: TV

Home karaoke systems have been around for at least ten years, but with “American Idol” consistently garnering record-breaking televisions ratings and shows like “Don’t Forget the Lyrics!” and “The Singing Bee” trying to grab a bit of the action, it’s no wonder that they are enjoying an upsurge. With everyone wanting to get to be the next Taylor Hicks or Carrie Underwood, and even so-so singers getting their Fifteen minutes of fame, it’s completely acceptable to sing your heart in front of your friends or within the privacy of your own home.

Enter the home karaoke machine. Everyone from young children to people in middle age and beyond are picking up the microphone and crooning for their favorite tunes. When you are looking for a home karaoke music player, though, how do you know which to select?

You will find four main kinds of home karaoke music players. The first is the traditional singing machine that accompany a microphone and shacks up to your television. You insert a karaoke CD or cassette to the player and it displays the lyrics towards the songs (and maybe video) on your television. You sing along towards the music while using microphone and hear the results through either the tv speakers or through built-in speakers in the karaoke machine. This type of home karaoke music player is quite cumbersome and not very portable.

The second type of karaoke machine is really a stand-alone model. It typically includes a small black and white screen (about five-and-a-half inches), speakers, along with a microphone. It may also have a small camcorder built in. With these home karaoke music players, read the lyrics on the small screen. If you turn it on for your television and VCR, you can use the recording camera to superimpose an image of the person singing to the screen and record their performance to tape. While this kind of machine could be fun for parties, the small monochrome screen is a major drawback. Another disadvantage of the standard singing machines and the stand along models is the fact that you’re limited in the songs you are able to play. Quite simply, you have to watch for popular tunes to come out on karaoke CDs or cassettes before you start singing them. By now, songs are generally out of date and never as much fun.

The 3rd type of karaoke is packaged as only a microphone. It comes with around three dozen songs preloaded, due to you may also load MP3 downloads. Although this type of home karaoke music player is more portable and it is intended to be connected to your television, there is no mechanism with the lyrics. This means that your musical performance has to be that – a performance where you already know the words towards the songs.

Your fourth kind of karaoke player is probably the hot new gadgets hitting the market. It can best be described as a cross between a music player along with a MP3 player. These specialized Audio players permit you to buy MP3 downloads, load them into the player, and input the song lyrics. Then proprietary software enables you to take away the original voice track in the song and record your own voice over the background music while reading a display of the lyrics.

This kind of karaoke player is definitely poised to brush the market. It’s portability is unprecedented – essentially, it’s a handheld karaoke MP3 – for the reason that you don’t have to be anywhere near a TV to use it. It also has got the advantage of having the ability to play any song – even top 20 Billboard hits.

Of all the karaoke music players on the market, the cutting edge MP3 karaoke player is the someone to beat.

For the independent artist, sounding great isn’t a luxury only available to big time artists anymore – it is a necessity. Music sales may have diminished, but that doesn’t mean that recorded music is on its way out. Far from it. More music is being consumed on more devices by more listeners than ever before in history! Musicians are making their music available on internet and satellite radio, online music streaming services such as Pandora, Spotify, Rdio, Deezer, and YouTube, selling on direct-to-fan sites such as CD Baby, Bandcamp, and ReverbNation, and still pushing sales through -traditional’ online retailers such as iTunes and Amazon MP3. Let’s face it, there is no excuse for an artist to release sub-par recordings.

For some people, audio engineers are still mysterious. To others, they are -evil’ manipulators of music, creating false, auto-tuned, machines out of terrible artists. This, however, is far from the truth. Every record, no matter the type, gets taken care of by a tracking engineer, mixing engineer, and mastering engineer. The recording engineer uses many of microphones and technique to accurately capture and record the artist’s performance as it occurs in the recording studio. The mixing engineer takes all of the separate audio tracks and crafts the music to sound great and convey the song’s emotion. He sets proper levels, panning, EQ, compression, and adds creative effects where possible to complement the musician’s vision. Lastly, the mastering engineer uses unique gear and highly trained ears in an acoustically accurate room to subtly polish and prepare the track for final release and ensure the recording translates to a variety of playback systems. “While many audio techniques can enhance the final production, we engineers are not magicians and can’t replace a poor performance or terrible recording,” says Scott of Virtual Mix Engineer.

Recorded music is more often used as promotional vessel for musicians. The real money currently is in touring, publishing, sync placements, and merchandise. When a listener connects with an artist’s music, they’ll listen to their music, tweet, and share the music with their friends. The fans want to support the artist and buy tickets to their shows, purchase apparel, and follow and interact with the artist through social media. As the musician grows in popularity, their music may be chosen for sync placements in film and TV, which not only provides great exposure, it also pays quite well. To make it to this stage however, it all begins with a great song and polished recording.

The rise of do-it-yourself recording has led to more musicians releasing music than ever before. With a powerful PC, some microphones, a digital audio workstation, and a little know-how, anyone can create and release music. One area where many artists fall short is failing to recognize their weaknesses in mixing. An experienced mixer has the right tools, but most importantly the knowledge to make a recording reach its full potential. Though it can be difficult for an artist, letting go and trusting your mix engineer will take your recordings to the next level and help you stand out from the others. Fans are instantly attracted to a well-written and performed song that sounds like a hit.

Spend the proper time in pre-production, ensuring your song and arrangement are as solid as possible. Then and only then, book time in the best studio you can afford to record your basic tracks. Connect with a local or online mixing engineer within your budget whose work and personality you gel with, and tweak the mixdown until you’re satisfied. Lastly, send the songs off to mastering for that final touch. Once your production is finished, you can get the music into multiple venues and into the ears of your listeners and fans.

Copyright 2006 Deborah Torres Patel

All you need to do is visit the kids audio/video section of your local CD shop and you will be bombarded with a multitude of educational enhancement products to buy. You may find Baby Einstein or Brainy Baby and an abundance of similar merchandise to make your child smarter. These types of goods can be a wonderful way to introduce music to your children before the age of three. However, nothing can replace private music lessons for a 3 to 9 year old.

The brain develops at a rapid rate between birth and three and is an essential window for the development of neurons. Therefore, encouraging musical exploration is an easy way to promote intellectual development.

Before the age of three, toy instruments can be an excellent introduction to the real thing and group musical play classes can prepare a child for later study. Singing at any age is highly beneficial and linguistic & musical awareness can begin as early as the fifth month of pregnancy when the fetal brain and ears are wide open to receive stimulus.

From the age of 3 years old, a childs brain circuits are mature enough to begin instrumental and/or vocal lessons. Voice is probably the most important instrument because singing is a tremendous gateway to confident communication and full self-expression.

The piano is usually the best musical instrument to start with because it does not require any specific fingering to play. However, children should choose instruments to play by the sounds they like. Kids will practice more if they like the sound of an instrument.

If your child chooses the piano, inexpensive electronic keyboards are a good way to begin because they are very affordable and portable. Many brands on the market today will display the notes on a digital screen while music is being played. These types of keyboards can greatly assist a child to begin to read musical notes and symbols. They also often have built in rhythm and song functions that make singing and dancing along with the music easy.

Since Howard Gardners Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences in 1983 and Gordon Shaw and Francis Rauschers Mozart Effect in 1993, there has be much debate and research into whether or not music study can be linked to better academic performance.

You will find thousands of books, products, articles and websites discussing the advantages of studying music. For your convenience, the top 20 benefits reported for vocal and instrumental music study are listed below.

1. Music training has been linked to spatial-temporal reasoning skills. (I.e. ability to read a map, put puzzles together, form mental images, transform/visualize things in space that unfold over time, and recognize relationships between objects. These skills are often helpful in science, math, and chess.)

2. Musical symbols, structure, and rhythmic training utilize fractions, ratios, and proportions, which are all important in mathematical study.

3. Increases problem finding/solving, logic and thinking skills like analysis, evaluation and the linkage/organization of ideas

4. Optimizes brain neuron development & circuitry

5. Assists motor development especially coordination of hands, eyes and body

6. Expands multiple intelligences and helps students transfer study, cognitive and communication skills from subject to subject in any syllabus

7. Group orchestra or ensemble activities help promote cooperation, social harmony and teach kids discipline while working together toward a common goal.

8. Music augments memory. For example, most people learn their ABCs by singing them. Repeating a tune in a predictable rhythmic song structure makes memorization easier.

9. Singing is a great way to aid/improve reading ability and instruction. Karaoke is a perfect example. Children may learn a song by ear (auditory) but words on a TV or computer screen provide a simultaneous visual anchor.

10. In vocal music learning rhythm, phrasing, and pitch greatly enhances language, pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary skills. This is especially noticeable when using songs in first and second language study.

11. Improves critical reading and writing

12. Raises test scores, decreases performance anxiety, and teaches kids how to handle/manage stress during standardized exams

13. Helps children channel unexpressed and/or negative emotions in a positive way

14. Boosts creative thinking

15. Reading music and performing memorized pieces help children to think ahead

16. Improvisation helps people to think on their feet

17. Solo performance is connected to self-esteem & self-efficacy. (concept of self capacity) Children learn to reach for their very best.

18. When kids prepare and consistently practice for recital or performance, they work to sing/play without errors. They generally apply similar determination and perseverance to many future endeavors academic or otherwise.

19. Improves understanding of homework and enables a higher levels of concentration

20. Children who study music usually have a better attitude, are more motivated and are less intimidated by learning new things

Strong music reading, writing notation, sight singing (solfege), music theory, literacy, and moving the body to music are solid, transferable skills. Learning is a two-way street. For example, one can assume that mathematics can also develop music. Academic achievement links positively with musical achievement and vice versa.

As early as the 19th century, the visionary Dr. Maria Montessori included music and arts into her worldwide school curriculums to greatly enhance and accelerate learning.

Lorna Heyge, Ph.D., says: “While educational leaders turn to early childhood music because it promotes brain development, they will stay with music because of the joy and stimulation experienced in actual music making. Music learning requires total involvement-that is why it appeals so much to young children”