I found another very interesting site that teaches music through some very well produced Flash tutorials. For instance, I didn’t know there was an algorithm to produce scales. Now that I know, I can do a correct scale starting with pretty much any key, something I had no clue about 15 minutes ago. Anyway, here’s the site:
And by the way, the algorithm is whole step, whole step, half step, whole step, whole step, whole step, half step.
So I haven’t given my big podcast spiel yet and how I don’t listen to broadcast radio anymore, I listen to podcasts (almost like my TV viewing is decreasing as I find more and more video podcasts). Anyway, more on that later…
I ran across the Native Music Podcast from a promo played at the end of one off my regularly listened to podcasts (the MacCast). I haven’t listened to an episode yet, but the promo sounded very interesting and something some of us might enjoy.
Yo Ho, Yo Ho a Pioneer’s Life for me!
We walk and we ford and we fix wagon wheels,
Drink up me hearties Yo Ho (I mean don’t).
We camp and we sing and use flour for meals,
Sing up me hearties Yo Ho!
We don’t chew tobacco, don’t drink and don’t swear.
Sing up me hearties Yo Ho!
Hate Iowa mud but we love mountain air,
Sing up me hearties Yo Ho!
We’re walking cross country ‘cuz the Church is true.
Sing up me hearties Yo Ho!
When we can’t find wood, we burn buffalo poo,
Sing up me hearties Yo Ho!
We’ll push and we’ll pull if we’re stuck in a rut.
Sing up me hearties Yo Ho!
If we get really hungry we might eat your mutt
Sing up me hearties Yo Ho!
We like to use oxen, not horses, or mules
Sing up me hearties Yo Ho!
If we wanna get blessings we’ll follow the rules
Sing up me hearties Yo Ho!
We’ll walk till we reach the Salt Lake Valley
Sing up me hearties Yo Ho!
If we pushed on much farther we’d be in Cali
Sing up me hearties Yo Ho!
The trail can be rough, just like the terrain,
Sing up me hearties Yo Ho!
When we get to Utah we should build a train
Sing up me hearties Yo Ho!
Yo Ho Yo Ho a Pioneer’s Life for Me!
Here’s another one for all you closet Uke fans. Jake Shimabukuro, an apparently extremely talented Uke-ster, can be seen in a live performance at CollegeHumor.com.
If you’re interested, don’t forget to visit his personal site at jakeshimabukuro.com. You can also find his music at the iTunes Music Store.
I recently was looking up information about some songs that Dad had on iTunes and came across some sites that I said I’d send to Dad and anyone else who may be interested. They are basically just websites for the Dillards, The Kingston Trio, and John Stewart.
Long time Macintosh writer and Macworld columnist Anyd Ihnatko displayed a very cool instrument this past week at Macworld Boston. It was a ukuele with a built in USB port to hook directly up to a computer without the need for any other external devices. Dubbed the iUke, it was built for him by the folks over at Brian Moore Custom Guitars/iGuitar. You can read the story behind the iUke’s creation as well as see a picture of the instrument at the following link:
Welcome to iUke on Flickr – Photo Sharing!
The iUke works perfectly with GarageBand. Just plug it in, fire up GarageBand, and play away. Andy says he will post sample audio from the device on his personal site shortly.
This goes right along with the two banjo ebooks I wrote about earlier. The authors of those books are offering virtual banjo lessons in mp3 format. There’s a catch however (from their Plunkthumping website):
“The catch here is that after the each workshop goes online we will not post the next one until at least five people send us audio files of themselves playing the “homework†assigned at the end of each lesson.”
Here’s the website:
Virtual Frailing Banjo Lessons
Rather interesting idea. I don’t have a banjo handy, but if anyone tries these lessons out, please leave a comment.
Anyone know who Bill Tapia is? I didn’t until today. He is a long time folk singer. His instrument of choice is the ukulele. I came across an mp3 file today of a live performance he did of Stars & Stripes Forever (control-click or right-click the following link to save to your disk):
Bill Tapia: Stars & Stripes Forever
And if you’re interested in knowing more about Mr. Tapia and his music, you can visit his website.
Taken from ezfolk.com:
“Patrick Costello has recently released two of his popular old-time banjo books under a Creative Commons license, allowing them to be distributed freely on the Internet. These books are outstanding resources for all beginning banjo players and the online versions are completely FREE.”
I thought Justin and all you other aspiring banjo players might enjoy this.
BBC Radio is making its radio program series, The Beethoven Experience, avaiable for download. It is going to cover all nine of Beethoven’s symphonies. Read the info and download the songs. Symphonies 1-5 are already available for download and the schedule for 6-9 is posted on the web page. Note, the downloads will take a long time (even with a fast connection) as the server they are hosted on is very slow.