All posts in musics

Boogie woogie pianist Johan Blohm (born in 1962) is a Swede who spent his youth listening to his father’s country and rock -n’ roll records. The imprint of Jerry Lee Lewis, his musical idol, may indeed be noticed as part of his singing and piano style.

Could you tell how your discovery of boogie woogie music was?
My earliest encounter with truly authentic boogie woogie was once when I watched a historical video recording on television showing Albert Ammons with Pete Johnson jamming a fabulous duet, the actual track was -Boogie Woogie Dreams- and I was mesmerised with the grove combined with the power that came out of these two pianos. Since that day I have been an absolute Boogie Woogie fanatic.

Did you already play the piano before that day you heard boogie woogie sounds?
You bet, I did indeed play piano for a few years before I discovered genuine Boogie Woogie music. I began playing piano when I was about six years old and right up until I became about thirty years old I performed rock -n’ roll as well as country from the style of Jerry Lee Lewis, Charlie Rich and Mickey Gilley. And this is what I continue to play most of the time but these days I spice it up slightly playing boogie woogie.

What boogie woogie written music books did you benefit from whilst mastering this specific music genre?
I haven’t ever used any specific written music books, I taught my own self to perform boogie woogie. I really can’t understand written music. I paid attention to the ancient pianists such as Albert Ammons, Amos Milburn, Pete Johnson and Freddie Slack and gained techniques and also inspiration through them.

I taught myself everything I play, almost everything I perform is more or less improvised and doesen’t sound the same every time. The flipside of teaching your own self is that you don’t get every aspect correct though the good thing is basically that you get a unique style, haha!

Who were your big examples in music in general and also boogie woogie specifically?
My personal boogie woogie idols are the players I mentioned before. My all-time musical idol is Jerry Lee Lewis, no person will ever come near him in terms of playing rock -n’ roll piano and/or performing. Hank Williams, Gram Parsons, Charlie Rich, Patsy Cline along with Merle Haggard are also good examples of my musical heroes.

Do you have dreams for your own work and if so, what exactly are these?
On a basic level I will be satisfied if I am able to play my songs and make a living with playing until I am very old. But I also want to be able to do concerts around the globe and have my music extend to everyone who love piano rock -n’ roll as well as boogie woogie. And I wouldn’t mind If I could easily earn some income along the way as well!

What makes me more than happy happens I perform a show for an crowd that is genuinely excited about my music and that’s really being attentive experiencing and enjoying the concert. Often times I’ve found myself performing in a bar where nobody is there to listen to the music, they simply have to get drunk and don’t care about the music. If only I were playing more often for genuine boogie woogie fans and do less of the uninspiring performances in bars but in reality it’s important to take what you can get, everybody has bills to cover.

What can recreational boogie woogie pianists do in order to arrange their first concert? To be honest, I actually don’t have a very good solution, I’m afraid. In my youth I used to be looking for locations myself, I called all of them and made an effort to convince these folks to book me. Once every 10th attempt or so the managers did. Eventually I got tired of this and I got connected with people in the industry who were far better at organizing gigs than I would ever be. I feel the key is to get yourself a booker who is able to help. However it’s a struggle, nobody really wants to book you when you’re unknown and also you won’t get known if you don’t get any gigs.

Bellus Music Shop has released a few interesting offers on its official website.

The website of the Bellus Music Shop is constantly up-to-date with interesting offers that give visitors the chance to purchase music instruments online and at affordable price.

Having the school just begun, the offers of this month have been conceived for children and kids. In order to view all the products at discount prices, you only need to click on the banner -School offers- that you find on the homepage. Visiting the section of the website dedicated to the school offers, you will notice that the Bellus Music Shop offers a wide range of musical instruments at affordable price, and everyone can choose the instruments and accessories that best meet their needs.

To the list of the products that are on offer these days belong both simple accessories and complex instruments, and each product is accompanied by a detailed description. To order the product you are interested in, you only need to select it, add it to the cart, and pay it (of course you need to sign up first). You also have the chance to get to know more about each product by clicking on the entries that accompany each product description, i.e. producer, useful tips and assistance. Moreover, from the page dedicated to each product you can ask a question to know more about (you only need to fill in the form that you find in each page), share the content of the page on your Facebook profile (so that other can see what you wish or what you have just bought) and print the product details.

Here are some of the products offered by the Bellus Music Shop for the school beginning: musical instruments like guitars, digital pianos, digital accordions, clarinets, flutes, trumpets and saxophones, but also amplifiers and accessories like tuners, music stands and metronomes. Very interesting are also the jumpstart packs offered by the shop, which give beginner musicians the chance to buy all the necessary to start playing their music at once: an Ibanez IJRG Jumpstart Pack, for example, includes a guitar, an amplifier, a tuner, headphones, a bag, a shoulder strap, plectrums and an accessories holder. You can buy the pack also paying by instalments.

If you do not find the product you are looking for in the section dedicated to the school offers, you can visit the section dedicated to the offer of the day, or browse the website and see the complete product catalogue of the music shop.

For more information please visit batteria elettronica
Music Shop Bellus Srl
32100 Belluno
Press release by Francesca Tessarollo
Prima Posizione Srl – web marketing agency

Creativity has never been everybodys cup of tea and so has been establishing in the art industry. It always required a thick mantle to survive and the music industry is no exception. The best survival trick is to be able to deal properly with the disappointments, take lessons and keep moving in order to achieve your goal, without getting swayed away.

Few of the issues and concerns in the music industry are as follows:

Demo disappointment Its, indeed, one of the most common problem with every second struggler in the music industry. So what do you do when you just dont get any response on your demo? You might choose to get frustrated on realizing that there is no one interested in your stuff or your demo is not at all worthy enough. Or you might decide to take a positive approach and believe that it takes time to get the right sample to the right person for independent artist. A more pragmatic approach would be to figure out petty tribulations that might be there in your demo and make conscious efforts to put them right. There is a lot of information and guideline available on the net on how to improve you demo. The other activities advised to handle such a situation are:

Continue playing shows so that your profile keeps building up continuously.
Aggressively pursue the press coverage of your shows.
Stay updated on your internet marketing tools like your blog, MySpace etc.
Maintain upgraded information in your promotion package about your latest activities.

Non-availability of Distribution after reaching the stage when you decide to release your own record, getting distributors for your first release becomes the biggest problem, given, the fact that every distributor eyes on established brands and labels which can pull huge loads of advertisement money at their offices. The solution is simply to take care of a few things in your record which can help make the distributor(s) believe that the stuff is going to work in the market:

You should show up a decent list of releases of different independent artist so that the risk gets shared evenly.

A proposal having a schedule of your future releases to assure the distributors that you plan to stay, at least, for a while.

Catch hold of a distributor who keeps, in general, all labels so that the supply (when your music is in demand) is easily met with.

Do efforts by promoting your music not only through the press but also by visiting music stores etc.

These steps can, in principle, improve the market status of your music and provide you the leverage that you have been striving for quiet long.

EQ (or Equalization) is a fundamental part of dance music production. This tutorial will analyse the use of EQ to solve some common production problems.

If you solo the individual parts in a dance music piece, it becomes very obvious to the human ear where the particular fundamental frequencies lie on the sonic spectrum. Basslines may have a large concentration of low end frequencies at 60 Hz, whereas other percussive elements commonly have a presence at 1-6 kHz. Percussive sparkle is found in the 8-12 kHz area, which is a range not typically occupied by bass. Making sure that instruments do not overlap their frequencies is key to producing a balanced sonic landscape.

Unmasking the Frequencies

Parts that share certain frequencies can cause serious problems when mixed together. Commonly called ‘frequency masking’, this can result in sounds losing their structure and an introduction of unwanted gain.

In order to effectively counter the unwanted side-effects of frequency masking is to apply EQ to strip away the problem frequencies from one or more of the instruments. This will help to carve a space in the sound spectrum frequencies that may then be occupied by other parts.

A common example of frequency masking is when a bass instrument and kick drum overlap on a beat. It is not uncommon for two parts such as these to share bass frequencies which can cause problems when they are played simultaneously. If this issue cannot be resolved by changing the programming of the notes, a degree of Equalization can be applied. Reducing the volume of the bassline at approximately 60 Hz by using an Equalization cut could prevent the frequencies of the kick drum from being masked by the bass at around 60 Hz in the mix.

Using EQ in this manner can help to achieve greater sonic balance in music productions, as every instrument is given its own space to exist within the frequency spectrum.