BLAST ME WITH BRASS - TRUMPET

Well, trumpets can blast very loud, but they can also play some sweet and mellow tunes. While the saxophone is a newer instrument comparitively, the trumpet is one of the oldest instruments, dating back to 1500 BC! Wow, I just learned that myself, that is really old!

The most common trumpet is a Bb (B flat) trumpet, which is pitched in Bb.

Early trumpets did not have valves, but the modern trumpet has three valves. Trumpet playing during medieval times was a guarded craft, and trumpeters within the military were the most heavily guarded, because they were needed to relay messages to various sections of the army.

In classical playing, trumpet parts in the music are often paired up with the percussion section. Both sections can be loud and have sharp attack. When these sections are paired together, the effect can be intense!

At Earthtone School of Music, we love jazz, and now we would like to show you what you might achieve by learning jazz trumpet. Here is one of the most smokin' trumpet players today: Roy Hargrove...

Take some lessons at Earthtone School of Music and follow us on Facebook.

Tim Kurteff-Schatz

VOICE, THE ORIGINAL INSTRUMENT

Before there were any instruments made by the hands of humans, there was the original instrument, our voice. Our voice is possibly the most emotional of all the instruments. To be more specific, I think the voice has the greatest ability to stir emotions within the listener. We can all immediately identify with a voice, rather than a man-made instrument. Plus, the voice can actually make words that have meaning. This is just my humble opinion. Some people say that music that is played without words is the best stirrer of emotions, due to the fact that the man-made instrumental sounds can express things beyond words. I can understand that point of view too. Here is one of my favorite singers, Jeff Buckley. Let's see if this song strikes a certain chord with your emotions...it does for me.

To develop a good singing voice, here are some things to consider. These are techniques that most vocal instructors will work on: Vocal exercises - Vocal exercises have several purposes, including warming up the voice; extending the vocal range; "lining up" the voice horizontally and vertically; and acquiring vocal techniques such as legato, staccato, control of dynamics, rapid figurations, learning to sing wide intervals comfortably, singing trills, singing melismas and correcting vocal faults.

The voice is an amazingly adaptable instrument. One thing that cannot be said about most man-made instruments is that they can play in any genre. The voice can sing in any genre of music, although there are different techniques to be learned depending on the style you want to pursue.

To learn more about singing, take some lessons at Earthtone School of Music.

Also, check us out on Facebook.

Tim Kurteff-Schatz

PIANO - THE HEART OF MUSIC

Piano is the heart of music for many reasons.

First, the piano keys are laid out in a very logical order, and this can help students learn music quickly. What do I mean when I say the keys are laid out in a logical order? There are seven pitches in a major or minor scale. The simplest major scale is C Major, which has the following notes: C, D, E, F, G, A, B. Here is how the keyboard is laid out - if you look right in the middle of this keyboard image (on the white keys), you will see C, D, E, F, G, A, B. That is the C Major scale:

So, people often say the piano is easier to learn than its chordal (being able to play more than one pitch at a time) friend, the guitar. The guitar is not laid out in a linear and logical way like the piano. This is one reason the piano is so often used for songwriting. Even musicians who do not play piano as their main instrument, can sit down and plunk out (even if it is slowly) some chords and notes, and then have an actual pianist play their tune later.

Take a look at what pianos looked like when they were first invented. They were called fortepianos. They were smaller, and were used by Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven for writing music.

With the advent of large orchestras during the classical period (1750-1830), the piano as we know it today came to being. The reason for the invention of the modern piano is that the orchestra, music halls and audiences got larger, so they had to create this amazingly strong behemoth we know today as the piano. Some of the classical pieces that were being written demanded that the pianist bang the heck out of the piano...it had to take a beating, and it could, with it's metal frame and thick metal wires.

We like classical at Earthtone School of Music, but we really love jazz. Check out two of the greatest jazz pianists ever right here (Chick Corea and Herbie Hancock), and learn to play like them, at Earthtone School of Music. Also, check us out on Facebook.

By Tim Kurteff-Schatz

ELECTRIC GUITAR - THE EPITOME OF ROCK!

The reason I say electric guitar is the epitome of rock is because I think it is the instrument most associated with rock and roll. Rock images most often include a shot of the guitarist leaning out over the crowd and burning up a solo.

Like the electric bass guitar, the vibrations are turned into electrical signals, and then amplified out to the player and audience. Of course, electric guitar is not only used in rock - it is played in jazz and probably every other genre of music you can think of.

One big reason the guitar needed to become amplified in the early part of the 20th Century, was due to the increasing size of big bands, and an acoustic guitar just couldn't get enough volume out into the audience.

The electric guitar is different from the electric bass guitar, in that the electric guitar typically has six strings, and the electric bass typically has four strings. The overall pitch range of the electric guitar is higher than the bass.

Les Paul (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Les_Paul) was one of the early innovators of the electric guitar. He helped perfect the solid body construction of the guitar that is most widely used today (in rock). Jazz guitarists often still use a hollow body electric guitar.

Learn how to play all styles of electric guitar at Earthtone School of Music.

Or, check out Earthtone on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/EarthoneMusic

And now, I leave you with a great guitar solo by one of the great rock guitarists: Jimi Hendrix, playing a tune called Red House:

BASS GUITAR, AKA THE FUNK STICK!

Ok, well, the bass guitar doesn't always play funk music, but I happen to love that nickname: funk stick. I am going to write about the electric bass today, as opposed to the stringed stand up basses you often see in jazz or classical music. Look below to see what a typical electric bass guitar looks like:

In the 1930s, an inventor named Paul Tutmarc from Seattle, invented the first electric bass. The main differences between Tutmarc's bass and the upright bass are the following:

• The electric bass is much smaller and easier to transport
• The electric bass is held horizontally rather than vertically
• The electric bass is electrically amplified
• The electric bass has frets, which makes it easier to stay in tune

Typically, the electric bass has 4 strings, but there are variations with 5, 6 or 7 strings, which allows for more range than a 4-string.

The bass has a much lower range than the standard 6-string electric guitar, and is also played differently for the most part. Most of the time, bassists will play with a pick or pluck the strings with their fingers. 6-strings can also be played with a pick or fingers, but bassists tend to play one note at a time more often than chords, which 6-string guitarists do all the time. If you listen carefully though, you can hear bassists playing chords once in a while.

Now, check out one of my favorite bassists, Les Claypool, who does a lot of advanced and interesting techniques...and he grooves hard at the same time. Achieving technique and great groove to keep the people dancing is one of the highest goals for musicians to reach. Check out Les here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAkvBqp8R8E

...and learn to play like Les by taking lessons here: http://www.earthtonemusic.org/

Also, check out Earthtone School of Music on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/EarthoneMusic

Tim Kurteff-Schatz