If you create your own podcasts then you will certainly need great music to accompany your fabulous new show.
There’s actually a great choice of music available on the Internet for podcasters but there’s two vital things to watch out for: is it legal? and is it good quality?

To be sure that your podcast music is “podsafe” or legal, you really need to buy music from a royalty free music library or independent musician who specifically gives you the rights to use his or her music.
The SMARTassMusic standard license gives you the right to use our music as much as you like in your podcasts and many other projects too!
And did I mention….there’s free tracks too and yes, you’re welcome to use these in your podcasts absolutely free.

The other important point is that of quality. Our music is crystal clear audio quality and available for instant download as both WAV and high quality MP3 files (192kbps).
You shouldn’t sacrifice quality for bandwidth when producing your podcasts and any audio compression less than 128kbps containing music, is going to be noticably poor.
Good luck with your podcasting!

 Today I’ve posted a more advanced tutorial on harmony and in particular the harmonic extensions and voicings used in Jazz.
The “pretty notes” as Charlie Parker called them, are the higher notes of the chords (9th,11th,13th) which are vital to contemporary Jazz but also familiar to classical musicians from the works of Debussy and Ravel.

download jazz harmony pdf

It’s important to be able to instantly recognize these larger intervals in every key as well as to utilize them properly by means of good “voicing”.
To Jazz and commercial musicians “voicing” is the way that one places the notes of the chord across the keyboard (or among the instruments if arranging) and really, is of more importance than the simple choice of notes in the chord.

Learning harmony can be daunting for many musicians but I believe that if you understand harmony well it simplifies most musical styles so that you can gain a greater understanding.
It’s also invaluable for Jazz or commercial musicians.

You can download the PDF introduction to Jazz hamony below. Understanding this single sheet is probably more important than any of the more advanced lessons that you may come accross. It’s easy to skim over this thinking that you know it, but beware, you must understand it!

download “Basic Harmony” PDF

This sheet deals with the naturally occuring diatonic (major scale) chords (3 note chords) as well as the 5 qualities of chords that we encounter in Jazz playing (based on 4 note chords).

Thinking in numerals (or Roman numerals as here) is important because you can change key easily with refernce to only a single chord sequence (II-V-1 as opposed to Dm7-G7-Cmaj7)

 
I’d like to start a series of piano/jazz/harmony/arranging tutorials so I thought it would be best to start off with the basics.
You can printout the PDF below which is all major scale for practise at the piano. Here I’ve organised them in groups of fingering rather than keys. There are 3 groups and it’s easier to learn a particular finger pattern and apply it to the group rather than learn each scale seperately.

Download piano major scales pdf

My own study of piano technique began after my initial rapid progress (from 0 to Grade 8 in 1 year) began to subside and I needed to go back and cover much needed groundwork and really understand how to control the instrument, my muscles and my thoughts!
In the following years I came up against various dead ends and numerous technical methods which in my opinion, are flawed. I now possess a reliable technique with a good tone which (on good days) is completely effortless - so that my concentration can be entirely devoted to hearing the music (which is a difficult enough task!) 

 The article below (re-printed with kind permission) is written by Canadian pianist ALAN FRASER who has developed an approach to technique which I wholeheartedly endorse. His thinking is based upon sound scientific thinking and over 30 years research and performing experience.
For further reading and many, many fascinating articles (look out for the one on Horowitz!) please visit:
www.alanfraser.net/
www.craftofpiano.com
www.maplegroveproductions.com
www.pianotechnique.net 

The Craft of Piano - an Introduction
Why yet another piano method?

Countless excellent methods exist today - but some pianists still fall short of their full potential. Many pianists play with unquestionably beautiful tone and expression, but fewer possess the big, orchestral sound that was the trademark of the Romantic virtuoso. The mark of each artist’s personality is less visible than it was in a bygone era – and there’s a hidden underlying cause: limitations in one’s physical organization.

Craft of Piano also effectively addresses another pressing concern: performance injury.

 What makes this method different?

Recent insights into the nature of human movement offer new opportunities for improvement. We know more about how the brain uses the sensory-motor feedback loop to control the muscles and bones, fine-tuning a movement’s accuracy literally dozens of times a second. More is known about the hand’s innate structure, and how its natural grasping function is hidden in virtually all finger actions. Craft of Piano links these developments in kinesiology to piano technique, creating a focus on the physical that enriches personal expression rather than sterilizing it.

What are the basic components of the method?

Instead of defining a particular movement as good or bad, Craft of Piano enriches the sensory picture of your hand, allowing you to find the best way of moving in any pianistic situation. In Craft of Piano, old terms take on new meaning – for instance, relaxation is no longer an end in itself but becomes a means to greater activation of the hand. And new terms are introduced, such as skeletality: how the bones would move if you were a skeleton and nothing more. You learn to make your bones do more of the work, your muscles less. Freed from the need to stiffen or take over the work of the skeleton, your muscles can now fine tune movement, leading to a new level and quality of control - more refined and more powerful.

Craft of Piano analyses whole body actions such as standing, walking or running, then creates a pianistic analogy to give your hands the sense that they are really starting anew, learning from scratch, with the exciting possibility of leaving old counter-productive habits behind and developing new combinations of grace and power, sensitivity and brilliance.

At the piano we first look at legato, the foundation of piano technique. We discover the structural integrity needed in the hand to create a legato that really joins notes together but avoids stiffening physically – the combination of structural stability and moveability that your hand needs to do the job. We then examine other types of finger action before moving on to the role of the arm in this complex and multifaceted process. Every physical step is linked to listening: to the aural result any particular physical organization will obtain.

How can one put it into practice?

- Learn to sense your own structural power. Lessons in Feldenkrais Method © can help you experience the incredible release of muscular tension that happens when you access the skeletal power of your body.

- Learn how to stand, walk and run skeletally at the keyboard. The Craft of Piano Playing video and book will guide you in developing these qualities in your own playing.

For further reading please visit:

www.alanfraser.net/
www.craftofpiano.com
www.maplegroveproductions.com
www.pianotechnique.net

If you search through many royalty free music libraries it won’t take long before you come across cheap midi sounds from the past 20 years of computer recording. With the sophisticated virtual instruments available today this need not be the case and with enough care, these instruments can sound impressive, musical and even move you.

Here’s my tips to getting the most from virtual instruments:

Always Think of How The Real Instrument would Play :
You should learn as much as you can about the real instruments that you are emulating. Think of how the musician might physically play a certain phrase as well as the range of the instrument and which register sounds weak or particularly strong? What type of articulations suit the instrument and perhaps where it may be positioned on stage. You should include the inaccuracies that might occur with real instruments. It’s easy to make computer music sound too precise and in real life, this isn’t always the case. The individual instruments of a string section won’t start or end a phrase at exactly the same time-it shouldn’t sound messy, but it should include a human element.

Realistic Strings:
In order to create an effective string section, it’s essential to record each string line separately (violins 1 and 2 (at least) and Viola, Cello, Double Bass) making sure that each line works melodically in it’s own way. Export the files individually to audio and carefully blend each string line together and send these tracks to a separate mix bus.

Now try recording the whole thing again using a string quintet, using solo string samples as opposed to samples from a string section. Export the quintet files to audio and send the quintet to another mix bus. You can now blend the more individual, closer sound of the quintet, in with the full string section. The string section can now be processed in the same way as if the real instruments had been recorded. This kind of attention to detail simply wasn’t possible using midi sounds and while this will never replace the beauty of a real string section, it can produce truly impressive, moving music.

Authentic Piano:
If you have a solo piano or a piano that’s prominent in the mix then try exporting multiple audio tracks and blending them in a similar way that a real piano would be recorded using alternate microphone positions. Export a stereo version with room ambience and another with no room sound at all and in addition export 2 mono files (left and right, with or without room sound). You can now mix them subtly together and pan the mono tracks wider than you hear in the stereo export. Again, send all these tracks to a single mix bus so that you can control them easily and with the subtle use of compression and reverb, you have a truly authentic sounding piano.

Bigger Kit Sounds:
A very effective production effect for the kit is the “New York compression” trick. This involves sending the kit (and possibly bass) to an FX channel and compressing the sound by 10db or more. Add some high end (6-10db around 10khz) and low end (6-10db around 100hz) to the compressed signal (not the kit channel) and now bring the fader of the compressor up so that you can just hear it alongside the original kit mix. This has the effect of padding out the drums subtly and making them sound a little bigger than they were.

Reverb:
It’s well worth investing in a good quality reverb. The cheaper one’s do tend to sound inferior. Once you’ve spent your money, don’t overuse use it! An immediate sign of an inexperienced producer is the overuse of reverb. Remember what would happen in reality when adding artificial reverb. Close sounds would have little, or no reverb, while instruments that are further away would have more. Remember that you can EQ the reverb to alter the tone.

Compression and EQ:
An essential piece of hardware that has made life easier is the Focusrite “Liquid Mix”. Packed into the size of a hardback book it has 20 classic EQs and 40 compressors. With onboard processing, giving your computer a much-needed break you can call up desk emulations from famous studios from both sides of the Atlantic. As well as sounding great and cutting the time down for mixing. The essential ingredient for modern music is compression but be careful not to overuse it.

If you’re after that modern “in your face” sound then a multiband compressor is essential.
This acts on the stereo master signal and compresses different frequencies as if they had they’re own compressors acting upon them. The effect is to bring the apparent volume of the entire track up and make it sound much more alive and colourful. In my mind this is the single most obvious difference between a professional mix and an amateur production.

You can see from these recording tips that there’s just no excuse for tired, old royalty free music sounds. It all depends on the effort that goes into it.

======================================SmartAssMusic.com producing written music arrangements, transcriptions, production music and royalty free music.

www.smartassmusic.com
www.smartass-royalty-free-music-music.com

James Treweek is a freelance pianist, arranger and composer and has worked with most of the UK’s top Jazz musicians. He runs

Every musician would love to be better but when we’re learning it’s difficult to know exactly how to go about improving, aside from simply practising for hours.

These tips come from years of experience as a professional musician and are intended to cut out wasted hours of practise and make the best of your natural ability.

To become a good musician takes a tremendous amount of hard work and dedication.
Here’s 10 ways you can make yourself a better musician and as well as cut the practise hours!

Here’s my tips to making the most of your natural ability:

1.Transcribe Music: Most musicians groan at the thought of transcribing music and it can be a tedious task but it’s probably the single most important skill you can develop, apart from practising your own instrument- in fact, it might even be more important! Since all your muscular movements are guided by your ears when playing (or should be) it’s vital that your ability to recognise pitch, rhythm and structure are as good as you can make them.

Over time, transcribing music will refine your ears and your ability to understand music. It will make you more confident when you perform, as you’ll know exactly what’s going on just by listening. My advice is to get a simple audio editing program so that you can easily loop a bar (measure) at a time and then listen with headphones and notate each note that you can hear. When you’ve finished you need to go back and fill in any gaps.

2. Know How to Practise: This may sound obvious but very few music students actually practice properly or efficiently and it’s not as easy as you might think. Practise should be approached in two different ways, firstly, very slow practise, where you are aware of each nuance and detail - although it’s very important to keep the flow.

Secondly practise “playing”. By this, I mean that you should play as though you have an audience so that you cannot stop. It’s important to NOT THINK-just play. Allow yourself to be absorbed by the music and enjoy it. It can take quite some time before you can easily slip into the correct mental frame of mind for each type of practise.

3. Listen to All Music Styles: Any musician that only listens to one or two styles that they like, is a poor musician. My own specialty is Jazz but I felt that I really learned a great deal about how to play Jazz from listening to modern pop music. This may sound strange but it helped me pinpoint what was missing in my Jazz playing because certain elements were far more obvious in pop. Also my ability to play classical piano was greatly improve when I tried to use the same mental approach that I use when I play Jazz. Ignore the fashions and only listen to good music, no matter what it is.

4. Play with other musicians: Most aspiring musicians are only too happy to get together to play whether there’s an audience or not. You really want to be playing with people that are slightly better than you. As you improve you’ll find that either your fellow musicians improve with you or you’ll meet other, better musicians who’ll want to play with you.

5. Learn the Piano: The piano is a vital instrument if you want to understand harmony. You don’t need to develop a great technique but you should put time into learning harmony. Most musicians I meet that don’t play the piano, really regret it.

6. Practice for no more than 4 hours per day: This is important- I spent a lot of time when I was younger, practising 8 hours a day but I really think that 50% of that was a waste of time and possibly detrimental. Your practise needs to be concentrated but then you need to leave music alone and do something else in order to forget about it. During this time your mind can relax and the mental images tend to fix themselves in your mind like an image fixes itself on a photographic plate. Anything more than 4 hours a day is likely to be detrimental to your muscles, your mind and your social life.

7. Keep going!: When I was first starting out as a musician I felt that I wanted to give up on many occasions. What surprises me is that when I’ve spoken to some great professional players, they also had similar thoughts about their own career. I couldn’t believe that such gifted musicians would have wanted to give up but what’s more important than raw ability - is hard work and perseverance.

8. Learn to read music: The amount of great musicians I know that can only play by ear is frustrating because they minimize their opportunity for work. These musicians always regret the fact that they didn’t learn to read when they were younger.

9. Learn to play by ear: The amount of great musicians I know that can only read and not play by ear is also frustrating because they minimize their opportunity for work.

10. Enjoy you Music: Let’s face it - music should be though provoking, uplifting and enjoyable- so enjoy it. Focus more on getting the feeling across to the audience and less on playing the right notes and I guarantee that you’ll probably make less mistakes and the audience won’t notice the ones that you might make!

SmartAssMusic.com,
SmartAss-Royalty-Free-Music.com

James Treweek is a freelance pianist, arranger and composer who has worked in London’s West End Theatre, played with many of the Uk’s top Jazz musicians and written arrangements for top UK chart acts. He runs recording production music and royalty free music as well as producing written music arrangements and transcriptions.

SmartAssMusic.com