Keyboard Technique - Sustaining Pedal in Romantic Period Music

The Romantic period can also be dubbed the Era of the Sustaining Pedal. Almost every piece by a Romantic composer depends at one point or another, and sometimes throughout, on the use of the sustaining pedal.
The basic reason for this change from Classic period music was the gradually increasing sonority of the piano itself. With greatly enriched harmonics of the new instruments, close-position chords in the bass, whether broken or unbroken, no longer sounded tolerable. Composers therefore opened out the chords, playing their notes successively instead of simultaneously, and used the pedal to sustain what could not be stretched by a single hand.
This was really only a development of an existing device: Broken chords had long been used to provide both rhythmic interest and a sustaining effect in keyboard music. What was new was the epiphany that the pedal now permitted spacings which were not only beyond the reach of a single hand, but also noticeably suited to the fleeting tones of the piano. New and beautiful keyboard textures evolved, whose immense potentialities were developed continuously up to the time of Debussy and beyond.
Two basic types of chords evolved to accompany pedaling. In the first, the chord is spread out in single notes. In the second, the chord is divided into smaller chords, or a combination of smaller chords and single notes. Pianists should be on the lookout for such architecture, and their combinations, because while they depend entirely on the right hand pedal for their effect, they are not always marked by the composer in the score. When there are no marks, the best way to determine the pedaling is to reduce the open-textured chords to their closed position. The pedaling will then usually coincide with the changes in harmony. Additionally, harmonic factors should be taken into consideration so as not to create an over-thick sound and lose the true bass.
Another reason for modifying the harmonic pedaling is the complexity of the right hand part. The lesser sustaining power of the treble as compared with the bass will generally take care of this. But at times the sound must be thinned out by means of a kind of half-pedaling that leaves the more resonant bass notes still party audible, and in extreme cases the bass should be abandoned altogether and left to the listener's ear so the music is not muddied.
One example is Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata, where the entire first movement is played senzi sordini (without dampers); i.e. with the right hand pedal held down unchanged from beginning to end. On the modern piano, the results are hopelessly muddied. But with a third pedal, we can approximate the effects Beethoven intended fairly closely by depressing the lowest notes in the piece with the middle pedal kept down by the left foot throughout the movement. The right hand pedal is used in a normal manner, and changed as harmony dictates. This allows the undampened lowest strings to act as sympathetic resonators, so that they vibrate continuously and produce a faint but perceptible haze of sound from beginning to end, through which the singing of the right hand can sound, as Beethoven himself reported,

Top 5 Distortion Pedals

There's a lot you can with just an electric guitar and an amp, but there is going to come a time in a musician's development where they are going to want to try out new sounds. The easiest way to do this is get distortion pedals that will allow you to change your music in an almost unlimited number of ways. The tricky part is finding one that will give you a killer sound with out breaking the bank.
With that in mind, here are the top five distortion effects for under a hundred bucks:
Boss DS-1
This is pretty much your beginning level distortion pedal. It's very cheap, essentially indestructible, and can give you anything from a light distortion to full on heavy metal growling. It's also super simple to use with three, count them three, knobs: tone, level and distortion. This was the pedal used by Kurt Cobain to record Nevermind, and if you're looking for a no frills pedal that will stand up to lots of use, you can't go wrong with the Boss DS - 1.
Line 6 Uber Metal
This actually just nudges on to the list, not because of quality, which is great, but because of price. The Line 6 Uber Metal has a suggested price of about $180, but you can almost always find them on sale for half of that. This is a more advanced distortion pedal than the Boss DS - 1, with a lot more flexibility. It's built in high gain levels include Metal, Insane and Pulverize, which should give you some idea what the pedal is capable of. It's a little pricey, but this tough little pedal gives you a lot for the money put into it.

Electro Harmonix XO Metal Muff
This is one of the best sounding distortion pedals, and if you want a more refined sound, this is probably the way to go. You can get anything from a warm distortion that just enhances your guitar playing to ridiculous super distortion that makes you sound heavier than heavy metal. This pedal also has a high gain boost switch, which means that you don't have to switch pick-ups when you go high for your solos.
Digi Tech XMM Metal Master
A very tough, very gnarly distortion pedal. This thing will give you an almost endless range of distortion types, and it has a morphing ability that allows you to flow seamlessly from distortion type to another, which will vastly expand the range of sounds that you've got. It also offers a clean signal out as an option and it's virtually noise free, which gives you a cleaner sound.
Cool Cat Metal II
This is a very cheap distortion pedal, pricewise, but it gets the job done. For about thirty bucks, you get a tough distortion pedal with the basic distortion effects. You don't get the bells and whistles you would from the more expensive models, but it gives a great clean sound and has a true bypass, so when you switch it off there is no loss in quality. Good for beginners and people who only need a distortion pedal for a limited number of things.

The Violin: How Silent Are Silent Violins, and Should I Buy a Cheap or Expensive One

In this article I am going to discuss, contrast and compare the relative merits of two "silent" violins. What is a silent violin? Well, these are electric violins that come with headphones and enable you to be able to practice without disturbing neighbours and family. Even if you can play an acoustic violin very well, if you are practicing a piece of music and going over it again and again, it can really annoy people in close proximity. Let's face it, the finished product may sound great, but the effort to get there may at times mean your playing is not at its best. My long-suffering family are now very used to me wandering around the house practicing my violin but even they draw a line at me sitting with them watching television whilst learning a violin tune.
So how silent are silent violins? If you put a bridge mute on an acoustic, it doesn't really make it silent but just mutes some of the vibration, thus making it a bit less noisy. An electric violin is basically a piece of wood that gets it sound from a "pick-up" which is then channelled into some form of amplification. If this amplification is a pair of headphones, then all people in the vicinity will hear is the rather squeaky sound of the bow drawing over the strings. To put it another way; it is still annoying to people in the same room, but go into a room on your own, close the door and put on your headphones and you will not disturb anyone. Here are my two choices for silent violins; one cheap and the other more expensive.

The Harley Benton silent violin comes in at about £130.00 and comes complete with case, bow, rosin and headphones. The headphones plug into a separate socket in the violin and because the pick-up is active, you need to insert a battery to play. The violin itself is not too bad but the headphones were cheap and totally useless. I used an expensive pair of my own, and this really improved the sound, though it was still a bit "dead" I eventually fed the violin through some effect pedals and a mixer desk and listened with my headphones plugged into the mixer desk, which gave me a very acceptable sound. The point here is, that I could have done this with any electric violin so I really didn't need one with a specific headphone socket.
The Yamaha SV 130 costs about £500.00, and is a professional instrument, and as always with Yamaha products, has quality stamped right through it. This particular model when using headphones is very quiet and you are able to play at high volume in your headphones whilst people in your house or neighbours will be oblivious to the sound. Because the violin has a built-in reverberation unit the headphone sound is fantastic, so you don't need other effects pedals or mixer desk. The beauty of this violin is that you can take it to a hotel and play at high volume in your bedroom without disturbing anybody.
So should you buy cheap or expensive? In my opinion, if you have the money, always go expensive, because in the end it is better value.

Guitar Loop Pedal - Top Ways to Unleash Creative Havoc

A guitar loop pedal has many benefits. The first benefit it has for guitarists is that it allows you to capture your creative ideas on the spot. If you have ever forgotten a great lick or riff because you did not record it. A guitar looper is great insurance for long term memory loss.
The second great benefits of guitar looping stomp box is that they allow you play lead over rhythm backing tracks. If you are primarily a lead guitarist and are fed up with many of the lame backing tracks on the internet or on guitar instructional CD's, then a looping pedal is for you. Many looping devices will allow you to play at least five different loops at one time.
The third benefit of looper effects device is that it will help you fulfill your creative vision on the guitar. If you enjoy writing songs you may feel limited with only one guitar. In addition, if you currently have a band you can have multiple guitars going at one time without the need of a second guitarist. This is good if you feel that adding one more egg to the basket may disrupt your band's chemistry.

The fourth benefit of guitar looping stomp boxes is that you can capture your favorite riffs from your music collection and put them on your looping device. This will allow you to slow down your favorite riffs or licks so you can master them quickly and with more ease.
The fifth benefit of looping pedals is that many of them have a mic input on them. This will allow you to loop everything from vocals, keyboards, TVs, radios and other devices. This is a great option for people who perform psychedelic or post rock music.
In conclusion, a guitar loop effects pedal has many benefits that should take your guitar playing and creativity to a whole new level. They allow you to record ideas on the spot and should help to fulfill your creative vision on the guitar.

6 Of The A lot of Accepted Guitar Furnishings Pedals Explained

Guitar furnishings pedals, which are aswell alleged barge boxes, are acclimated by the artist to change the complete of their guitar. Barge boxes get their name because of the "stomping" activity bare to accomplish the aftereffect work. When the pedals are off, you are arena with the guitars apple-pie (unaffected signal) complete advancing out of your amp. When you footfall on it to about-face it on, the arresting that goes to the pedals are afflicted creating the adapted effect.

You can aswell affix added that one furnishings pedal to your guitar. Simply use application cables (short cables) to affix them to anniversary added application the imput and achievement jacks. You can alone ascendancy which furnishings you wish on and off at any time just by axis (stomping) them on or off. When a pedal is off, the arresting will bypass it and go through anyone that is angry on.

For the best accessible sound, you should abode your accretion and accent based furnishings at the alpha of your band of pedals. Accretion and accent based furnishings cover distortion, volume, wah and EQ. Next you should put the pedals that change the angle or blush of your sound. Again at the end of your chain, you can put the pedals that affect your timing such as delay, reverb and flanger.

If you accrue a ample bulk of furnishings pedals, you can accumulate them all organized and adequate by application a pedal board. Pedal boards are basically a collapsed lath that all of your pedals can be placed on all affiliated together. You can even get them with covers, transformers and ability cables to accomplish it a breeze to backpack up and move from gig to gig.

One affair to be acquainted of is that abutting too abounding pedals calm can could cause a lot of bustling and exceptionable noise. To fix this botheration a babble aboideau pedal can be used.

With so abounding altered types of pedals on the bazaar today, I couldn't possibly account them all. So I'm accomplishing the next best affair and will explain some of the added accepted ones.

Distortion:

Distortion is acclimated in abounding accepted agreeable genres abnormally metal, bedrock and harder rock. The baloney pedals job is to blow the signal, giving it's adulterated sound.

Chorus:

Chorus pedals accord you a blubbery and abundant complete by accompanying your aboriginal sound; abacus some adjournment to it and again bond it aback with your aboriginal signal. This ends up authoritative your guitar complete like a agglomeration of guitars or a "chorus of guitars" if you will.

Flanger:

Just like the Chorus pedal, the Flanger duplicates the signal, adds a abbreviate adjournment and again mixes it aback with your aboriginal signal. The aberration actuality is that the Flanger's adjournment includes several repeats that get best and beneath at a abiding rate. This produces a thicker complete compared to the Chorus pedal.

Wah-wha:

The Wah-wha pedal affectionate of looks like your cars gas pedal and you bedrock this pedal aback and alternating to acquiesce lower and college frequencies to canyon though. This again produces the "wah-wah" sound. Jimi Hendrix in the backward 60's and alarm music in the 70's fabricated this aftereffect famous.

Reverb:

The Reverb aftereffect emulates accustomed acoustic spaces by bearing an answer authoritative your accent complete like it's getting played in a big concert hall.

Talk Box:

Last but not atomic is the Talk Box. The Talk Box pedal has a baby apostle in it that plays the arresting audibly up an closed baby artificial tube. This tube is taped to the ancillary of the microphone area it sticks out just abundant to be able to forward the complete into the guitarist's mouth. The guitar amateur again makes shapes with their aperture to change the sound, which is again best up by the microphone. Abounding performers accept acclimated the Talk Box over the years but one of the a lot of acclaimed was Peter Frampton who acclimated it on his song "Do You Feel Like We Do" off his Frampton Comes Alive record.

Hope you accept enjoyed my explanations of some of the guitar furnishings pedals that are out there. This is just a baby atom of the furnishings that are accessible to you. A acceptable tip would be for you to do a little analysis on some of your admired guitar players and acquisition out what furnishings they use that accord them "their sound" the most. For archetype if you were into harder bedrock or abundant metal, it would be a acceptable abstraction to alpha off with a baloney pedal. Bedrock On!

Getting the Perfect Guitar Tone

Guitar playing can generally be condensed into two categories. Your technique and style, and your tone. In this article we're going to be talking about tone, and the importance of refining it.
I see too many guitar players who have a zillion guitar effect pedals, and I try not to open my mouth, but then they start playing, and its absolutely unbearable. Guys, seriously, don't compensate with toys. Take the time to improve your playing, because all the goodies in the world won't make you a better guitar player.
Also, using too many pedals and effects can be bombarding to the listener, and it also kills the strength of your overall sound. If you spend most of your time playing through a clean setting on your guitar, don't think for a moment that you are not affected by this.
I've witnessed a lot of clean guitar players who are bad for this as well.
If you can find the discipline to limit yourself a little bit, then you will see just how awesome a tone you can get. For instance, deciding to build a pedal board is a great way to tackle the problem of guitar pedal self indulgence. Sure, you could buy a pedal board brand new, but they are expensive, and many won't fit your needs.
Building your own pedal board is fun, rewarding, and helps you to get a good idea of how you're going use your tone. Remember, when you're building a pedal board, you're also building your tone, because you'll need to determine what goes where, and what goes before what.

Invest part of your time into becoming a smart consumer. Don't just settle for any old pedal off the shelf, and don't ever assume that because a pedal is really expensive, that its the best and is the best for you.
Try out all sorts of pedals, and you'll find that the oddest effect pedals compliment each other. In example, using a clean setting with a very light amount of delay (really short delay) can give you a nice and rich "creamy" sound for chords.
If you experiment, you'll find all sorts of tricks like this, which helps you to determine the layout of your pedal board. Don't forget to put this down on paper first, and certainly don't forget to measure the dimensions of the pedals, and account for the space needed between each one for your cables.
Now I'm not saying that building a pedal board is the only way to do this, but it does help to nudge you in the right direction, because if you do something like this and find that perfect sound, you'll probably freak if anyone so much as breaths in the direction of an effect pedal knob.
So make sure that you ask questions of yourself. I'm sure that you have your own opinions about what sounds good to you. Perhaps you like a touch of the flanger, or maybe a little wah, or some chorus action in their. Regardless of what it is that you want, refine and come up with a plan.
Final Advice