Posts Tagged: Take

When children are assigned a musical instrument to play while taking classes in the school band, they are introduced to the equipment in a hands-on method that some are not very happy with. The student will be tasked with carrying the musical instrument with them for several days at a time, and during that time, the musical instrument could be subjected to numerous bumps along the way.

The musical director will spend many days explaining how to play certain notes. A great deal of instruction will go into finger placement and the amount of pressure that is needed to depress the keys correctly. The director will be concerned that some students are not listening because he will view them handling the instrument roughly and know why the instrument does not sound right on specific notes that the band is practicing.

When this type of activity is observed, some music classes will cease. The rest of the day will be spent teaching students on the care and cleaning instructions that will be needed for each instrument. The director will probably explain to the students that taking care of the musical instruments can sometimes be a hassle. The director will also elaborate further to the students that the results of better treatment will be well worth the effort when it comes time to play a concert or practice each day.

Every aspiring musician will be responsible for the care and cleaning of the instrument they play each day. A clean musical instrument can be a joy to play, but a dirty instrument will become difficult to play. Choosing the right time to clean the instrument can be very hard on some kids, because they always seem to have children milling about that makes the cleaning process difficult.

Most children have found that taking the instrument outside to clean works better, but most parents will recommend that the instrument be taken to a professional that works at the local music store. The music store might be where the instrument was purchased and these professionals know every crevice of the instrument and the correct way to use cleaners and other cleaning accessories. A child can learn to clean the instrument properly by watching the artisans work their magic in the store.

Many instruments come with cleaning cloths and solutions that are perfect for a particular instrument. A clarinet player will find items such as cleaning cloths with special weights attached to it. Poles will often serve as cleaning tools that will fit nicely in tubular instruments such as flutes, and brass polishes might be needed if a child has been tasked with cleaning a tuba.

All of the cleaning products for each musical instrument can be found at music shops and other musical instrument retailers, and with a gentle touch and a little effort, musical instruments will always be ready to play because they were maintained in tiptop condition. Repairs can be made to all musical cases because they take the brunt of damage done because the musical instruments have to be carried. A musician can keep musical instruments clean by not storing them in hot spaces and maintaining a cleaning regimen that will ensure that the musical instrument is cleaned and polished each time it is used.

The classical guitar is a gift to the guitarist who wants to sit down and play a “complete” piece of music – melody, bass and chordal accompaniment on one guitar. Alot like the kind of freedom that piano players have. If you are thinking of taking classical guitar lessons you have a tradition of composers and guitar players who have made full use of the incredible versatility of the guitar. Many classical composers played and composed for the guitar. Niccolo Paganini is a famous example even though his guitar compositions are a little on the ordinary side for modern music lovers. Much more substantial compositions were written by Antonio Vivaldi, Dionisio Aguado and Domenico Scarlatti.

So, apart from a hefty heritage left from the Baroque, Renaissance and Classical periods we have the ongoing work of twentieth and twenty-first century classical guitar players who are devoted to making the acoustic guitar an expressive instrument endowed with a natural beauty unaided by electronic wizardry. A classical guitarist aims at training his body to bring a range of forces to bear on the guitar so that he has a range of subtle techniques at his disposal to enable him and his guitar to say whatever they want.

All guitar players who take their instrument seriously have an ability to create and interpret music. This musical ability is a product of the time and effort put into practicing their guitar playing and experimenting with different ways of playing music. In a sense a rock or jazz guitar player is on an equal playing field with a classical guitarist as far as the ability to interpret or create music is concerned. The rock or jazz guitar player will even have an advantage over the classical player as far as improvisation goes. Classical guitar lessons will not help you to improvise.

The difference between a classical guitar player and a plectrum player is the groups of muscles used to play classical guitar music. Somebody like Eric Clapton works alone at copying blues artists and in a few years he is a professional guitarist and in about ten years he is one of the greatest electric guitarists of all time. A classical guitar student might just be finding his voice after ten years of playing. There is much more blood, sweat and tears involved in classical guitar lessons.

A classical guitarist needs to cultivate his fingernails. Or his fingertips. Whatever is on the ends of his fingers is where he makes physical contact with the guitar strings. There are ways of shaping them so they sound just right. There are secret potions for making them impervious to cracking. And there is a whole art to playing the classical guitar without the benefit of nails. The attack made by nails on guitar strings is similar to that of a plectrum. The flesh of the guitarist’s fingertips gives a much softer tone. This is achieved over time and with much work. Callouses will eventually form on the fingertips which will lessen the discomfort felt by the guitar player and help him make contact with the strings.

There are books available for anybody who wants to teach themselves classical guitar but it is much better to learn from a seasoned classical guitarist. If you insist on learning from books, Frederick Noad’s “Solo Guitar Playing” is probably the best of them.

For the 100 song titles and artists, check out www.brodiecumming.com I plan to put together tab for the transpositions and adaptations used in the medley video and will post it on my web site. Send me an email with the subject TAB 100 riffs and Ill return it with a link when the tab is posted. Brodie@BrodieCumming.com This video was put together as a fun “stunt”, intended to give my guitar students some cool song ideas to work on and music to explore.

Yesterday I started collecting pop can tabs to make a wheelchair, and i need to know how many i have to collect to make one. Does anyone know?

I’ve been skating for about 2 weeks now and i’ve been trying to learn the pop shove it for about 4 days practicing about 2 hours each day.. I’ve been improving but I can’t seem to get it. I just wanna know how long it took everyone else to do it.

I’ve never been able to eat one without biting it in half. Anyone ever try and succeed? How many licks does it take to get to the center of a tootsie pop?

How many licks does it take to get to the center of a purple Tootsie Pop?

Well it depends how hard or gentle you lick. I licked medium lick. And so i got… *drum roll* 400 licks. Actually I licked a little hard but YA!!! Someone needs to let me know how many licks with a big Tootsie Pop.

Go to your local grocery store and purchase a tootsie roll tootsie pop and challenege yourself a game of how many licks it takes you to get to the center of the tootsie roll tootsie pop. And then come back with a good answer but don’t just lick it 3 times like the owl did and crunched it, but I challenege you to try this out as a fun activity!!!

My horse was lame last Tuesday and the vet came out Wednesday to look at it. She said it was an abscess, but she couldn’t find it to pop it. She said to soak with Epsom salt and wrap with animalintex, which I have been doing. The vet said it would probably pop out of his coronary band. How long is going to take to pop? It’s already been 6 days.