Director of McGill University’s Laboratory for Musical Perception, Cognition and Expertise and best-selling author of “This is Your Brain on Music,” Daniel Levitin blends cutting-edge scientific findings with his own experiences as a former record producer and still-active musician.
News
That’s what she said: Quotes from Famous Female Songwriters
Quotes from Famous Female Songwriters: We all have someone to look up to; these can be people who are part of our daily lives, or someone we’ve met briefly but left a lasting impression. They can also be someone famous like a celebrated musician, composer or vocalist. Let’s read and learn from these inspiring quotes […]
Health: Music and the Mind
I seem to hear more and more everyday how music helps to heal people. Maybe one day then musicians and music therapists will be as rich as the drug companies! I doubt that will ever be the case but it seems a little odd to me that music treatments haven’t become more mainstream. The article […]
Exploring Classical Indian Music
Sitarist Alec Brogan will bring his vast knowledge of Indian classical music to the Grosse Pointe Music Academy in Canton for a workshop exploring Classical Indian Music. Please join us on Monday, February 27th for this unique event and learning experience. Monday February 27th from 6pm-8pm Alec Brogan has studied classical Indian music between two […]
Seaquence.org
With the upcoming songwriting workshops being hosted by Grosse Pointe Music Academy, I thought it would be appropriate to post something about this new website called Seaquence.org. It’s a pretty cool site for composing a musical organism and listening to it play over and over in a loop. You can create multiple musical organisms and […]
Balduck Mountain Ramblers
Greetings Everyone! Ben Steel will return to the Wildwood Friendly Tavern this coming Saturday, the 11th, from 8 pm to 11 pm. As always, this venue […]
What makes instruments sound different from one another?
When you listen to music, there are generally multiple instruments playing at the same time during part of or all of the song. Sometimes there might be two different instruments such as the guitar and piano, both playing the same note in the same octave at the same time. Each instrument has a unique sound […]
Temperament: Information for real musical nerds
You would think that the ideal way to tune your piano would be to make each of the consonant intervals sound exactly in tune, so that no beating could be heard. Indeed, many musicians have long regarded this as sort of ideal, but it doesn’t work out very well on a keyboard with only twelve […]
Band in a Box
Yesterday I talked for a bit about the mid-nineties device call the PMA-5 by Roland. The program on that little gadget is similar to what someone working with “Band in a Box” might experience today. Band in a Box is essentially a musical engine that generates music based on what you specify for the style, […]
Songwriting Workshop
Throughout the course of a musician’s journey usually comes a time when they are intrigued with songwriting. Modern day technology has made it possible for people to write songs using an app on their smart phones. We live at a time where the average person has production tools right at their fingertips. Famous composers like […]
Don’t cut music and art from our schools.
It seems like I hear every couple days that a school somewhere in Michigan just cut all of their funding for the music program and the art program. I understand that decisions have to be made and people often assume that music and art are not subjects that are necessary. I am someone who has […]
Guitar Theft – Protect yourself.
We all love and cherish our instruments. Musicians often feel a unique connection with the instruments that they play. That is why it is such a tragedy to us when we have an instrument stolen. Having anything stolen is a terrible thing, but having something as personal as one’s guitar taken from them so callously is […]
Eight Year Old Plays Stratosphere On Guitar
It’s always impressive to see young children to play with virtuosity on their electric guitar, acoustic guitar, piano or any other instrument. The 8 year old in the video has some very remarkable talent on the electric guitar. There are many young musicians who play masterfully, but I was still astonished when I saw it. […]
Can I convert my guitar to left handed?
In most cases a right handed instrument can be easily converted to a left handed instrument. In fact, on a classical guitar, the conversion may be as simple as restringing it. The saddles on classical guitars typically have no compensation angle, and the nylon strings are close enough in diameter that the nut slots are often […]
12 Violinists Known for Something Else
The violin is considered by many to be the thinking man’s instrument, famously played by the likes of Albert Einstein and Arthur Conan Doyle’s fictional genius Sherlock Holmes. Here are 12 other celebrities who fiddled around in their spare time: 1. Charlie Chaplin played the violin (and the cello) in a unique way: backwards – specially […]
GP Music Academy in Canton
GP Music Academy in Canton Township is quickly becoming a popular place for music lessons in the western wayne county area. The original location in Grosse Pointe Park expanded to offering a 2nd location which currently features Guitar Lessons, Bass Guitar Lessons, Drum Lessons, Violin Lessons, Viola Lessons, Voice Lessons, and Music Together classes. Private […]
Releasing tight or stuck bridge pins
Often times a player will go to restring their guitar, and discover that the bridge pins wont budge. This can be a frustrating experience, and can turn a simple procedure into a struggle. Luckily, there are a few tricks that can be used to make bridge pin extraction as painless as possible. The first thing […]
A quick fix for a bone nut
Have you ever seen a bone nut with a chunk missing or a chip in it? This is a fairly common situation. When this occurs, players often choose to replace the nut entirely, and there is nothing wrong with this. In fact, it is the best scenario. However, sometimes clients want a quick inexpensive fix. […]
More about Tablature
Now that Wikipedia is done with it’s 24 hour blackout I had a chance to research more about the topic of tablature. I know how many of you were absolutely enthralled with yesterday’s tablature article so I’ve decided to write another one. The first known occurrence in Europe is around 1300, and was first used […]
Tablature
I often get asked the question as to whether or not a guitar student should learn to read guitar tablature or bass tablature. Many people have the notion that tablature is a new thing that guitarists use to short-cut their way to learning to read music. After studying both standard notation and tablature for a […]