Posts Tagged: major

JOHANN CHRISTIAN BACH (1735-1782) Duet for two pianofortes in G major Op. 15 1. Allegro Performed by Christopher Hogwood Christophe Rousset, pianofortes *Johann Christian Bach was a composer of the Classical era, the eleventh and youngest son of Johann Sebastian Bach. He is sometimes referred to as ‘the London Bach’ or ‘the English Bach’, due to his time spent living there. He is noted for influencing the concerto style of Mozart. Johann Christian Bach was born on September 5, 1735 to Johann Sebastian and Anna Magdalena Bach in Leipzig, Germany. His distinguished father was already 50 at the time of his birth, which would perhaps contribute to the sharp differences between his music and that of his father. Even so, his father first instructed him in music until he died. After his father’s death, when Johann Christian was 15, he worked with his second oldest brother Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach, considered at the time to be the most musically gifted of Bach’s sons. He enjoyed a promising career, first as a composer then as a performer playing alongside Carl Friedrich Abel, a notable player of the viola da gamba. He composed cantatas, chamber music, keyboard and orchestral works, operas and symphonies. Bach lived in Italy for many years starting in 1756, first studying with Padre Martini in Bologna and later with Giovanni Battista Sammartini. He became an organist at a cathedral in Milan in 1760. During his time in Italy he converted from Lutheranism to Catholicism. In 1762 …

Playing the keyboard is not as difficult as a lot of piano upstarts think. In fact, the piano is the perfect instrument for music beginners, as, unlike other instruments, its layout is straightforward and easy to understand. Plus, in contrast to instruments like the guitar, to play the keyboard doesn’t require a lot of unnatural hand contortions — at least until you get to more advanced pieces, but by then your fingers will be buff.

When learning how to play the keyboard, the basics are quite simple. Looking at the piano, there are two types of keys — white keys and black keys. As you may already know, the musical scale consists of the letters A through G with some sharps/flats mixed in. The first important fact to learn is that the white keys represent the letters, while the black keys represent the sharps and flats.

Before going any further, you must find your piano’s middle C. You will find it in the middle of the keyboard. Most pianos have the name of the company that made them printed above the keyboard. In many cases, the first letter of the name is directly above middle C. If you still can’t find the middle C, consult a diagram.

When starting out, you might as well tell yourself that you’re not going to touch the black keys for the first few lessons. For now, focus on the white keys, which make up the C major scale.

To play this scale, place your thumb on the middle C, with the rest of your fingers on the next four successive notes — D, E, F, and G. Essentially, you’re going to play eight notes, beginning with middle C, and ending with the C that is one octave higher.

When you play these eight notes in order, you’ll notice that it sounds quite familiar. Even though you may not know it, the C major scale is something that you’ve probably heard hundreds of times in your life, from various sources. If you do it correctly, to play your first scale should feel pretty satisfying. This is partly because the major scale is designed to musically resolve itself in a nice way.

Piano teachers have specific ways that they recommend playing scales. My teacher, for instance, taught me the standard way of playing the C major scale upwards, which was to play the first three notes with my first three fingers, then cross my thumb under and play the rest of the scale with all five fingers. Whether or not you use this particular method is up to you; the important thing is that you find natural ways to play the scales. As your ways of playing will soon be internalized, you want to find the best ways to play the keyboard.

Once you become good at playing the C major scale with your right hand — both up and down — it’s time to learn the same thing with your left hand. Essentially, the C major scale with your left hand is the mirror image of the one you’ve already learned; place your thumb on the middle C, and play all the white keys down to the next C, then go back up.

After you learn how to play the C major scale, it’s time to learn chords. Soon after that, it will be time to learn some other scales. For now, though, practice the C major scale as many times as it takes to sound smooth and even. It may be boring, but once you get this down, everything else in the future will be a little easier.

Basically, when learning how to play the keyboard, mastering the piano’s C major scale is the bridge toward bigger and more ambitious things. So, practice that scale until you can play it in your sleep.

Pachelbel – Canon in D Major. Played by Miss Denise Hewitt on Technics Electronic Keyboard wearing traditional white wedding dress.

Music gear are stage speakers, sound equipment, DJ equipment, amplifiers, microphones, speakers, etc. Actually music gear includes both musical instruments and equipment. There are various major companies and labels that serve different regions and markets like Yamaha, Gibson, Marshall, Roland, Crate, Fender, Crown, Pearl, etc. Let us have a look at some of these major players in music gear industry.

- Roland corporation:

Roland Corporation is a Japanese manufacturer of musical instruments. It was founded in the year 1972. It is now one of the leading manufacturers of electronic musical gear. The major products this company manufactures are synthesizers, electronic percussion, digital pianos, and home keyboards.

It is also famous for its microphone models. The various models that this company manufactures are DR 80 C, DR 50, and DR 30 types of dynamic microphones meant for the stage and the studio while CS 15 is a stereo microphone kit.

As regards monitors and speakers, MA 15D, and MA 7A are stereo micro monitors that have the capability to deliver high quality sound in confined recording environment. MA 1EX is incredibly small USB powered speakers. The chief characteristic of the headphones of Roland is that they are flat, and that they provide accurate sound quality and sophisticated visual manifestation with aluminum housing plate.

Yamaha Corporation:

Yamaha Corporation was founded in the year 1887. It was then a piano and reed organ manufacturer under the name Nippon Gakki Company. Yamaha has grown to become the largest manufacturer of musical instruments around the world.

The various Yamaha speakers are an enormous success in the digital music world. The microphones include 3 way, 2 way, large, small, high power, medium power, and other variations. There are also switch able, single amp and bi amp drive models.

Shure Inc:

Shure Incorporated, based in the United States and founded in the year 1925, mainly manufactures microphones and other audio equipment. Initially the company was under The Shure Radio Company named Sidney Shure. Till 1933 the company manufactured only radio systems. Their field expanded when they started manufacturing microphones, phonograph cartridges, mixers, digital signal processing and most recently headphones. They are also known for winning the Grammy award.

The SM and Beta series of dynamic and condenser microphones manufactured by Shure are very well known in the music gear industry. The SM series microphones are used world wide for live vocals, and vocal reproduction for guitar, drums, bass instruments, etc.

The KSM series of microphones are mainly used in studio recording. The microphones of Shure are popular because they are comparatively inexpensive, sound good and extremely durable. The 55SH series II microphone that was manufactured in the early fifties is still popular among musicians and radio personalities.

Mackie

It is a brand for professional music and recording equipment like mixing consoles, loudspeakers, studio monitors, digital recording equipment, etc. Mackie is probably best known for its mixers. It provides the full surround mixing and monitoring capabilities, professional digital production console with selectable operation, built in control for pro tools, etc.

The list of brands is very extensive in the music gear industry. But the ultimate goal or objective of every company is to provide good equipment at a very low rate.

5 yrs 10 mos.

Well-Tempered Clavier, Book 1: Prelude and Fugue No. 3 in C# Major by Johann Sebastian Bach.

Classical music for your day.

Up next is some various piano works by JS Bach.

-Prelude in E major BWV937 – 1’31″
-Prelude in C major BWV933 – 1’36″
-French Suite 5 BWV816, Allemande (first move.) – 2’51″
-Prelude in C minor BWV934 – 2’09″
-Prelude in C major BWV943 – 1’39″

performed by: Angela Hewitt
label: Hyperion

Duration : 0:9:48

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