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Articles by Mike Shaw
The first experiments in the construction of an opera had their origin in circumstances in themselves of no very great importance, and only remotely connected with music. In 1579 Bianca Capello was married to Francisco de Medici, son of Cosmo, Grand Duke of Tuscany. The wedding took place in Venice amid elaborately devised festivities, among which were dramatic representations accompanied with music.
A Brief History Of Renaissance Music - Part 2
The great principles underlying all Renaissance work was that of faithfulness to nature, as opposed to faithfulness to tradition, which had been the sheet anchor of pre Renaissance art and letters.
A Brief History Of The Renaissance - Part 1
The compositions of Palestrina, and the reforms he was able to effect in Church music, may be said to mark the culmination of the early ages of Christian musical art. We have now come to an important turning point in musical history, but before going further, it will be useful to take a rapid survey of the period we are leaving behind.
The Physics Of Playing The Piano - Part 2
The damper of the piano is the only means of stopping the string's vibrations, which would otherwise continue, longer than is wanted. In violin playing, the same stoppage of tone takes place when the player stops drawing the bow across the strings.
The Art Of Playing The Piano - Part 1
The peculiarities of the mechanism of any instrument constitute in all cases a law for the application of the energy to be expended upon that mechanism. In so far as energy is correctly applied, the machine or mechanism should give back an equivalent of work done; but if the power applied is lacking or weak, then the results obtained will also be the same.
The Piano - Key, Hammer And Damper - Part 2
When a key on the piano is pushed down, and then kept down, it will be noticed that the tone continues sounding for a considerable time after the push has taken place, and ceases whenever the key is allowed to rise.
The Piano’s Key Mechanism – Part 1
The piano, while similar in some of its features too many other kinds of musical instruments, differs materially in several important points from all other kinds.
The Physical Action Of Playing The Piano Keyboard
In examining the nature of the hand, it will be necessary at this stage to exclude any consideration of it other than as something to be acted upon. It will afterwards, in its relation to the keyboard, be considered as an agent.
Learn To Play The Piano With Expression - Part 2
But before any accurate observations can be made of what the hand is doing, it is necessary that the eye should know what to look for, as it can see only that which it brings the power of seeing. “No man can learn what he has not the preparation for learning.”
How To Play The Piano With Expression - Part 1
The aim of these series of articles will be to help the piano student arrive at a clear idea of how to acquire that which is necessary in piano playing, namely, a good tone-production. It will be necessary for the piano student to observe, fully and precisely, as much of the mechanism of the piano as possible.
Music in Britain prior to the seventeenth century, or at any rate the latter part of the sixteenth, presents itself under very much the same aspects as on the Continent. On the one hand Church music, on the other Minstrelsy and latterly, the rise of a secular art, secular in spirit but hampered with Church traditions.
Music History – The Troubadour Part 2
If a noble was unlucky enough to be ridiculed by a Troubadour, he could be assured that within a short time every court and castle in Southern Europe would be laughing at him. In some cases, he may have to defend himself and his property against hostile neighbours.
Five Top Exercises To Help You Play MIDI Bass Pedals
Arranger keyboards such as the Yamaha Tyros 2 and the Korg PA800 are becoming extremely popular since the massive decline in electric organ sales. These arranger keyboards provide automatic bass lines, which is fine if you are playing basic triad and seventh chords. With a MIDI pedal board you can divert the bass note in the auto chord system to the bass pedal note you want.
The Romans had little or no musical genius, and they were content to take their music, like every other artistic element of their national life, from the Greeks. The Greek was the child of nature, refined and educated through his own innate sense of beauty and fitness.
The History Of Music - The Greeks
The musical history of the Greeks may be divided into two great periods, the historical, and the mythological. The mythological period covers the entire range of traditions and legends, and extends up to the time when the Greeks began to reckon by Olympiads.
Am I Too Old To Learn To Play The Electric Keyboard?
I have been teaching Keyboard and Organ for nearly thirty years, my youngest student was Four years old, and the oldest was Eighty years old.
Among the ancient Egyptians we find music at a somewhat similar pitch of development to that already observed among the Assyrians, technically, that is, but also having a far grander spirit, at least so one would imagine by comparing such works as exist of the musical life of the two peoples.