Josh Groban - Modern Classical Sensation
Josh Groban, an extremely popular Classical and Pop singer, has done amazing things with his music, being nominated for various awards and having his album "Josh Groban" go double platinum, which is quite a musical feat. Josh was born in 1981 and although he is only 26, he is already enjoying a very successful musical career. While many people are familiar with the enchanting music performed by Groban, there are many who are not familiar with some of the lesser known facts about this popular singer.
Early Debut
What many people do not know about Josh Groban is that he actually first debuted many years ago when he was only in the 7th grade. While he was already showing amazing vocal talent at this time, his grades began to slip and he went back to school full time to get his grades back to straight A's, which he feels helped to enhance his creativity and his entire musical career.
Under Foster's Wing
Josh Groban has excellent vocal and instrumental talents; however much of his success can be attributed to being taken under the wing of David Foster. Foster has won multiple Grammy Awards and has his own record label, which is called 143 Records. Foster loved Groban's pop sound but also loved the Classic's that Groban loves to sing. Foster produced Josh Groban's very first album, and was very instrumental in helping Groban's musical career take off.
Television Appearance
In 2001, the creator of Ally McBeal invited Josh Groban to appear on the season finale of the series and even created a character for him to play on the show. Not only did he appear in the show but he also performed the song, 'You're Still You,' which was a big hit. Groban was such a hit on the show that thousands of fans wrote to the show asking for Groban to appear again, so he appeared again in the next season's finale and performed the song, 'To Where You Are.'
Worldwide Appearances
Not only has Josh Groban become popular in the United States, but he has been able to perform and gain popularity around the world. In 2002, Groban sang at the Winter Olympics and performed the duet, 'The Prayer,' with Charlotte Church. Later he performed in Oslo, Norway at the Nobel Peace Prize Concert, singing both 'The Prayer' and 'To Where You Are.' That Christmas, he was in Venice, Italy and he performed at the Vatican with other musicians including Sting, The Corrs, and Lionel Richie.
To this point, the young singer, Josh Groban, has enjoyed an exciting and successful career in music, and his latest releases show that his career is far from over. Groban just released his third album in November of 2006 and he is now planning a world tour for the year 2007. With his excellent voice and the amazing choice of music, we are sure to hear more from this brilliant musician.
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A Mix CD - A Very Personal Gift
In this age of CDRW drives and digital music, it's easier than ever to create a CD of various songs for your friends. This is a lot of fun, because not only can you bring a smile to your friends' faces with a thoughtful gift, but you also expose each other to bands and songs the other may have never heard before.
However, there is a certain "art" to creating a good mix CD, and here are some tips to help you:
MAKE A PLAYLIST FIRST
You may find you didn't choose your song list or order as well as you could have. If you've built a playlist before burning the CD, you can listen to it a few times to make sure the flow is what you were aiming for. You'll also save money and the environment by not having to throw away a bunch of CDs if you change your mind.
DON'T REPEAT THE SAME BANDS
Unless you're making a "best of" compilation for a specific group, it's best to only have one song per unique band per CD. Unless all of your chosen songs are particularly short, you'll only get 15-20 songs per CD anyway, so there's really no need for repeats.
VARY THE TEMPO
Think of a movie soundtrack. It usually starts out with either a fast-paced or upbeat song, slows down, and then picks back up again. Your mix should do the same. This allows the listener to ride the "wave" of emotions and will increase its chances of being listened to repeatedly.
NORMALIZE THE VOLUME
If you've ever made a mix CD before, you may have noticed that newer songs always seem louder than older songs, even if you extracted them from their CDs with the same program, computer, and settings. It can be somewhat annoying to the listener if he or she has to keep adjusting the volume while the CD is playing. Various CD burning and MP3 extraction software have a setting to keep the volume the same between different tracks. You can also use a separate utility, such as MP3 Gain to adjust the music files themselves.
START THE CD WITH A MOVIE OR TV SAMPLE
Using a recorded piece of dialog from a movie or television show can really set the mood for the entire disc. For added effect, you can add samples throughout the CD or as the final track.
MAKE SURE YOUR SONGS LEAD INTO EACH OTHER
Don't shift genres or pacing too quickly between songs. You can almost disorient your listener by going from a slow country ballad, to a fast-paced speed metal song, then following that with a classical piano piece. With some well-chosen songs in between, you can pull off having all three of these types of songs on the same CD, but it takes a lot of thought in order to do this successfully.
You'll find that making mix CDs gets easier each time you do it, so don't fret if you think you're spending too much time getting it together. If your friends love and appreciate it, it'll be worth every minute you spent.
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Selecting Music for Healing and Wellness
Choosing the correct, or most appropriate music which is conductive for alternative healing therapies - and for overall wellness - is of the utmost importance. Music has been used for healing, or as an aid to healing for thousands of years. The Bible tells us that David played his harp to cure King Saul's depression. Egyptian records dating from over 2,600 years old point to music being used as cures for infertility and arthritis.
In fact, one of the most ancient techniques, now finding a revival in modern culture, is in ancient Greece where the Pythagoreans believed that music was a gift from the Gods, and reflected mathematical perfection. It was widely believed that diseases and afflictions, both mental and physical, were simply disorders that could be improved or even cured by the proper application of music.
When you do choose to use music for healing, it is thus extremely important that you select the most appropriate music for the particular problems you are treating. This isn't nearly as simple as it may appear, however. Allow me to cite you an example of the complexities in the correct selection of music.
Let us say that you are depressed in your life and about to select music to make you feel better. Your first instinct is going to be to listen to music that is also depressing, or has a depressive effect. However we know from experience that this only serves to make the listener more depressed or melancholy. On the other hand, if you were to play happy or upbeat music, you may also find yourself more depressed as your brain compares your current situation with the music you are hearing. And few of us are in the mood to listen to enthusiastic music of any kind while we are feeling down.
Therefore you must find a way to move around this apparent "Catch 22". One simply way of doing that is a progressive movement of mood from your current state to your desired state. So if you were in fact dealing with depression, you would then first listen to a recording that is the epitome of depression and sadness to you. Once listening to that, move up a step and listen next to another recording, this time of slightly lighter mood and tone. Keep improving the mood and base emotions of the music you are listening to while your mood falls in sync with the music.
Music that you use for healing should be geared towards this use. New Age Music, Classical Music, Meditation and Relaxation Music, music with nature sounds in the background, and other such compositions. You can also find music especially geared towards music healing, using modern versions of the Pythagorean music healing techniques, such as the music of Classical New Age artist Daniel Kobialka. The music should soothe and calm you, rejuvenate and refresh you, not cause excessive excitement or distractions.
The music you choose does not have to be boring to you either! The music you listen to should evoke emotion, and cause you to feel the music completely throughout your body. Respond to the music in whatever way is most natural for you. You may move your body with the music, use visualization techniques, sync your breathing with the music or any other method of expression.
While the critics of music healing state that there is no conclusive evidence that it works, science has proven the power of sounds again and again. For example, not only can sound affect emotions, it can also have a physical impact on our surroundings. Lithotripsy is the medical term for the removal of gallstones using sound where a special machine generates sound waves to shatter stones. You most likely have also seen in media the effect of an opera singer shattering a glass with the power of her voice alone. If music can be used to destroy, it can also be used to heal.
When using music in healing therapies, the word "harmony" is the most important goal to keep in mind. In both of the examples above of the impact of sound, we are speaking about "resonance", which is - simply put - the occurrence of one object or force "getting in tune with" another object. All matter is made up of molecules, which all have their own vibrational frequency, or rate of movement. If you remember your basic science, you'll note that molecules that vibrate at the highest speeds make up gases, molecules that vibrate moderately are liquids, and the slowest of course are solid matter. However all molecules are constantly attracting each other and in movement.
The idea of using music to heal is therefore the idea that we can project a harmonious sound at a person who is in "dis- harmony" (having an affliction or problem to be solved), and move them back into harmony, and thus heal the individual. It is a very realistic and feasible effect that continues to help and assist millions of people across the globe. Using music in healing should be considered a viable and useful alternative healing method.
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The Power of Music
Music's power influences the human spirit and emotions should not be underestimated. Music has a great influence in all cultures and religions. Who has not had the experience of suddenly humming or moving to the rhythm of a tune heard for the first time long ago?
Many of the most important events in our lifes are commemorated with music. Those who have served in the military never forget the stirring cadence of a military march. Even decades later the sound of a military band will take the old veteran back to the days when his step was sure and strong and his new found confidence in his ability to defend his country and his buddies from harm knew no bounds.
Tunes often are associated with important events in our lives. Perhaps it is the song that you danced to at the high school prom with the person who later became your lifetime partner that still fans your passions. Perhaps it is the tune that was playing as you danced with your new spouse at your wedding party. It may be a song or two that was sung by a famous entertainer whose performance you were lucky enough to hear on your 30th birthday.
I still vividly remember seeing Elvis Presley perform near the end of his career. It was my friends birthday present to herself. I was her date for the evening and never expected to be so moved by 'The King's' performance. But I was, and am still grateful to my friend for asking me to escort her to the live show.I wasn't that much of an Elvis fan prior to his performance but had a far greater appreciation of his talent after seeing the master at work. What a show!
The Internet has created a new important venue for music. Lyrics to just about every song that has ever been written have been archived and can be easily accessed with an Internet search. The sharing of music files has been controversial all be it widespread. Legal means of gaining access to any type of music from Internet sources are under development and have lead to an entirely new growth industry.
The power of music can be a strong unifying force in a world that badly needs unification and cooperation on issues that affect us all. Peoples of the world should rejoice in the rich heritage that music brings to every culture. The sharing of ideas and music over the Internet only adds to the significance of music as a universal medium of communications.
People all over the world love their music. You can bet there is as much enthusiasm for a new Eminem rap song among Eminem fans as there is for classical jazz or a classical piano performance among more conventional music fans. There are different strokes for different folks as they say in Dixie and nowhere is this better illustrated than in the field of music.
However varied musicial tsstes may be amoung individuals we should consider the common thread that music weaves between all peoples and build upon that common ground to achieve a better understanding of how we are connected in our humanity.
People the world over have common basic needs and music is one of them.
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Josh Groban: The New Boy Wonder Of Voice
Hailed as the "New Boy Wonder of Voice" by the New York Times, the American classical and pop singer Josh Groban"s (full name Joshua Winslow Groban) rise to stardom has been nothing short of spectacular. Born on February 27, 1981 in Los Angeles, Josh Groban had his first brush with stardom at age 17 when he sang the song "All I Ask of You" for the Grammy-winning producer/arranger David Foster in an inauguration event organized by him for the Governor of California, Grey Davis. Shortly after this, during the 1999 Grammy rehearsals, he was asked by Foster to stand in for Andrea Bocelli to sing the song "The Prayer" with none other than Celine Dion herself.
With his mature and versatile lyrical baritone voice, the young and dashing singing sensation became an instant heartthrob of millions of Americans when his multi-platinum debut album Josh Groban, produced by David Foster, was released in 2001, followed by Closer in 2003 and Awake in 2006. Apart from Foster, Josh has worked in close collaboration with famous musicians like Walter Afanasieff, Italian composer Ennio Morricone, Charlotte Church, The Corrs and Eric Mouquet of Deep Forest. Josh has also composed some of his own songs, like the ballad "Remember When It Rained", while working in close association with Eric Mouquet.
Though Josh had been busy with his singing at various events, he wanted to complete his graduation. But within just one year after joining the Carnegie Mellon University, he had to leave when he was offered a recording contract at Warner Bros. Records through Foster"s own 143Records.
Although trained in classical music and musical theater, his music reflects diverse influences, not fitting into a particular mold. When asked what style suits him the most, Groban"s answer was: "People might want to classify me as operatic I suppose, but I won't even be touching Arias for a long time. I want my voice to mature. I hope to look back on my career five or ten years from now and see that I continued to grow as a singer. I would never want to be pigeonholed." In addition to English, he has sung in Italian, French and Spanish, as well. With inspirational and soul-stirring songs like "To Where You Are" (2001) and "You Raise Me Up", Josh established himself in the classical crossover genre. He has also sung the song "For Always" for the soundtrack of "A.I.: Artificial Intelligence" with Lara Fabian and the song "Remember" for the soundtrack of "Troy" with Tanja Tzarovska.
Josh has also appeared in the 2001 season finale of the hit television program Ally McBeal, performing the soulful song "You"re Still You" (from his debut album) at his character's high school prom. The response to this episode was so great that Josh was asked to return to the show and was featured on the holiday episode of Ally McBeal in which he sang "To Where You Are", another track from his new record. Josh also sang "The Prayer" with Charlotte Church at the Closing Ceremony of the 2002 Winter Olympics.
Apart from these, Josh Groban has performed in numerous charity events along with the likes of Elton John, Stevie Wonder, Robin Williams and Don Henley. His appearance in various television chat shows like the Rosie O"Donnell Show, The Oprah Winfrey Show, Jay Leno, Larry King Live, 20/20 and The Today Show, among others, further added to his soaring popularity and fan clubs, so much so that his fans have coined a special term "Grobanites" to identify themselves. Long live Josh Groban and long live Grobanites!
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Country Music: The Sound of Music
Country music (also known as country and western music or just country western), is a blend of popular Southern US musical. With its roots deeply set in folk music, Celtic tunes, blues, and gospel music it evolved rapidly in the 1920s. The term Country Music began to be commonly used in the 1940s and was fully accepted and embraced by the mass in the 1970s, while the use of terms like country and western declined. However, country music is actually a one-size-fits-all category that embraces several different genres of music like the Nashville sound, bluegrass, a fast mandolin, banjo and fiddle-based music popularized by Bill Monroe and by Flatt and Scruggs; Western, which encompasses traditional Western cowboy campfire ballads and Hollywood cowboy music made famous by Roy Rogers, The Sons of the Pioneers, and Gene Autry the list can go on forever.
Whatever be the style, each is unique in its execution, its structural chord and its use of rhythms and many songs have been adapted to the different country styles and cater to different tastes and palates. One example of one tune used by many in different styles is the tune Milk Cow Blues, an early blues tune by Kokomo Arnold that has been performed in a wide variety of country styles by everyone from Aerosmith to Bob Wills to Willie Nelson, George Strait to Ricky Nelson and Elvis Presley.
In the 80 plus years of country music history, the chords, sound and style has changed dramatically, at least in some respects. In its infant years, it was the honky-tonk sound from the likes of Ernest Tubb and Hank Williams that made up the genre of country music. It was a crowd puller in roadside pubs and meeting houses throughout Oklahoma and Texas that were packed every Friday and Saturday evening with fans and curiosity seekers alike, anxious to listen to the fast-rising sounds of steel guitars and drums. Those pubs were popular not just for the latest craze in American music, but the repeal of prohibition in 1933 also relaxed the minds of many when it came to public drinking; now the audiences could enjoy their favorite music and alcoholic beverages at the same time.
Although Tubb and Williams had their share of popularity with the honky-tonk tune, it was Al Dexter who cut the first label with the words honky-tonk in 1936. Tubb's single, Walking the Floor Over You, released in 1941, would go on to sell more than one million copies quite a feat in any form of music even now. Your Cheatin Heart, cut by Williams in 1953, is perhaps one of the best-known records of the honky-tonk era. It was not his only hit though; in his lifetime Williams went on to record more than one hundred songs.
While honky-tonks were filled with its fans, theatres were filled with fans of the cowboy songs made popular, again, in Texas and Oklahoma. The often-romanticized and thrilling life of the cowboy; heroic but lonely, drifting, fit in perfectly with this style of music that took its sound from the hills of Tennessee and the bayous of Louisiana. Those days, more often than not at least one part of the western song would include a lonesome whistle from the flute or other mellow sounding wind instrument. This went on to be known as the country western style.
Some of those famous for this western style were Gene Autry, Americas singing cowboy, and Roy Rogers, who later teamed with wife Dale Evans to become a famous due of the genre. Rogers also had been a part of The Sons of the Pioneers, a band that brought the frontier sound to over 80 westerns between 1935-1948.
Mix n Match of these styles always resulted in something interesting. Country music morphed once again in the early 1950s with a sound that became known as rockabilly a mix of the southern hills music and the blues. This sound was made popular by many performers who developed staying power in the country music industry. They include the Everly Brothers, Jerry Lee Lewis, Conway Twitty, Carl Perkins, and, of course, the king himself Elvis Presley.
This form of country, with its faster paced sound and constant rhythm, quickly worked its way up the record charts as Americans, too, found themselves living a lifestyle that was a much quicker pace than the generation of their parents.
Today country music is perhaps at its highest peak of popularity the road to success paved by Cline, Tubbs, Williams, Wells, and others is now treaded upon by mega-stars like Garth Brooks, the team of Brooks and Dunn, Reba McIntire, Vince Gill, and dozens of others who are quoted with their thanks and gratitude to the pioneers of the sound of country music. The Sound of Music goes on and on.
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How To Benefit From Music
In an effort to stay fit and healthy, people nowadays are becoming more and more conscious of their food and diet. They are also doing more exercise to maintain their health and. The benefits of the healthy food and exercise are well known. However, there is one more fact that people are not aware of. It is the positive impact of music on health. Young or old, music is an effective means of managing stress and hence can be an important and effective tool to facilitate healthy existence. Music can play an important role throughout our lives. Music is based on sound waves that lie between our voice and the meditative brain wavelengths and as a result it can be a medium that can connect us with our higher conscious thereby relieving us of anxiety and tension.
Educationists have long known the benefits of music. The ability to play a musical instrument and make music improves our analytical abilities. In the process of learning music, the reading of musical notes and musical notations works towards stimulating the processes linked with solving mathematical and analytical problems and do extremely well in sciences.
The minds of young people are filled with eternal hope, which reflects in their musical creations. This can be clearly seen while watching them learn to play musical instruments and when they are performing. The combination of young minds and music evokes joy and hope. Unlike the people who have earned gray hair, the music of young people serves as a reminder to the fact that nothing is impossible.
There have been a lot of studies conducted on the influence of music. In the elderly people, music has been shown to not only reduce tension and anxiety but also helps reduce the feeling of isolation and solitude. And a surprising revelation of this study was that the subjects enrolled for this study showed an increased production of human growth hormone, which has a positive effect on the side effects of aging like wrinkling, osteoporosis, general aches and pains and even sexual function.
Health practitioners can draw an important inference from this study. It shows that group activity and interaction with others is important for staying healthy and having a better standard of living. It proves the long held belief that music is a means to link with our higher selves and thereby help us lead a healthy life that can be enjoyed to the fullest.
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Relax With Your Favorite Music Style
All of us like listening to music and each one of us has our individualistic preferences. We have at times listened to the Go-Gos in a car or sang the Melody; ourselves at our graduation. We may have listened to Ode to Joy at a wedding and heard Bruce Springsteen or Madonna while in college. Even though tastes differ, each one of us listens to music and has a favorite type of music and a favorite singer or band.
Music is not only fun but also gratifying. It has a soothing effect on the listener and calms the nerves. Music touches our lives in various ways that are sometimes conspicuous and sometimes subtle. And that is the reason why it is uncommon to find someone who does not listen to any kind of music.
Dentists play music in their waiting rooms and clinics. Many operation theatres have channel music running. Drivers prefer to drive through a maze of unending traffic while listening to music and even baseball players have been known to hum along during warm-up. These days most corporate houses have unobtrusive instrumental music playing in their offices all the time. This reduces job stress.
It seems that the reason why music has a comforting effect on us is because it reminds us of the first time we heard it in our mother's womb. Thus it provides us with a sense of security and well being. Many researches have been done on the physiological aspect of music and it has been discovered that Celtic or Native American music wherein the flute dominates is most relaxing. The serotonin in the body increases with the effect of music and this provides us with a feeling of elevation. Music also is known to reduce the heart rate and increase body temperature. In fact it has also been found out that any kind of music performed in person helps to put the left and the right brain in sync. Those performing also go through a cathartic effect and get a sense of accomplishment.
There are ways in which one can enhance this effect of music. The best way to de-stress yourself is to lie back with a pair of headphones and become a part of the music. Select music that has a pace slower than 72 minutes per minute. This will ease your heartbeat and relax you. Combine music with your morning walk and you will feel doubly rejuvenated by combining the goodness of exercise and music.
Sounds of nature are music to the ears and they can have a similar effect. Sit back on the garden bench and hear the music of the birds, the cricket, the wind and the rustling leaves. You can also find the sounds of the woods or the ocean captured in a CD these days.
Choose any kind of music that you like for relaxation. It is important that you enjoy the general hum and beat of the chosen music to be able to extract the maximum benefit. In our normal lives, we tend to get too busy in our past paced lives to take enough advantage of this cathartic effect of euphony.
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Did You Know That Music Is Based On Natural "Laws"?
Did you know that music is based on natural "laws" -- like gravity -- and by learning to understand how those natural laws work we can actually understand what we are doing when we play -- we don't have to be at the mercy of what someone else has written on a piece of music?
How many of these facts do you know about music & piano playing? Test yourself and then check the answers at the bottom of the page:
Did you know that by learning just 3 chords you can play hundreds of songs?
Did you know that there are only 12 major keys you can play in, but you only really have to master one key to play most popular songs?
Did you know that it is possible to easily match any melody note (tune) to a chord, so you can harmonize any note?
Did you know that Beethoven's Fur Elise and the blues song "Summertime" uses the exact same chords for the theme of the song?
Did you know that it is quite possible to predict what chord comes next in a song with accuracy approaching 85%?
Did you know you can use the same chords to play boogie, blues, new age, gospel, pop, rock, jazz, country - anything except classical music? (And even some classics!)
Did you know that guitar chords are the same as piano chords -- the only thing different is the instrument and the resulting sound?
Did you know that hundreds of songs use exactly the same form, so by learning that form you can know what's coming next in a song?
Did you know that by coming in through the backdoor of piano playing -- chords -- you can start making wonderful and satisfying sounds on the piano in just a few days instead of a few years -- even if you don't know Middle C from Tweedle Dee?
Answers to piano playing music questions:
True. That's because there are just 3 primary chords in any key -- like family members: Mom, Dad, Child. Get to know those 3 and you've got it.
True. It's like languages. It's great to be able to speak several, but you can get by with just one. I'd love to speak other languages, but I can get by with just English.
True. Every note is part of several different chords. So it is easy to harmonize any song once you know the secret.
True. Yep. They both use the A minor chord and the E7 chord in their themes.
True. I know that's hard to believe, but remember that music is based on math. Once you understand a thing called the "Circle of 4ths" it's a piece of cake. In fact, I can tell you right now that 85% of the time the G chord comes directly after the D7 chord. So next time you run into the D7 chord, you have an educated guess of 85% that the next chord will be some form of the G chord. (G, G7 etc.) If you're into amazing your friends, that'll do it!
True. Apply different rhythms to the same chords, and you have many styles of music! With the very same chords I can play boogie, jazz, rock, pop, gospel, new age, ragtime.
True. Chords are chords. Once you know them, you can apply them to any instrument.
True. Musical forms such as "AABA" and "ABA" are the basis of thousands and thousands of songs.
True. Understanding chords and how them form the skeleton of music accelerates the learning curve exponentially.
The bottom line is this: music is based on natural law and is mathematical in nature. Understanding is the key to both rapid learning and getting more enjoyment out of the process.
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