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  • February5th

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    How to Choose Music For an Afternoon Wedding

    Posted in: Articles, Events, Guest Post, Inspiration, Jazz, Jazz Musician, Jazz Singer, Local

    How to Choose Music For an Afternoon Wedding

    Author: Errol Livingston

    Weddings are unique events. Each wedding breakfast and drinks reception will have a different combination of guests, venue and entertainment requirements, so finding a perfect musical match can take some time!

    You might be wondering what kind of music your guests would enjoy, and how you can make that work with your budget and venue. Fortunately there are a huge number of options available, so we’ve written this guide to take you through some of the most popular – and more surprising – choices our clients have made for their special day, and show you how to fit great music in with all your other plans.

    What’s the best style of music?

    Live music in any genre makes an event special, and can be as much of a reflection of your personal taste as what you wear. The choice you make depends on what you would like the music to do for you. Do you have a lot of very young guests who would love some entertainment while they’re waiting for the cake? Would you like some gentle background music as a soundtrack to a formal meal or drinks reception? Or would you just like to hear your favourite sounds and share them with your friends?

    Jazz bands are one of the more versatile options, available as everything from solo pianists to big bands. They can provide a selection of time-tested classics that everyone will recognise, or draw on a more esoteric catalogue to impress serious aficionados. If you like your jazz a little spicy, a Latin band can give your drinks reception a groove to remember, as well as an entertaining show!

    Classical music is a wonderful way to enhance an elegant reception or wedding breakfast, and the pieces the musicians play can vary a great deal. While all string quartets, wind trios and other classical groups will have a repertoire of classical favourites, some will extend their range to include pop hits and medleys of folks songs. All of them list their repertoire on their profile pages, and it can be worth speaking to the musicians themselves for more information.

    Guests always enjoy traditional music, with many couples still choosing klezmer and dhol for Jewish or Asian weddings. The increasing popularity of world music means there is a wider range of music available than ever before, so why not try something original and exciting? Steel bands and bluegrass bands are ideally suited to outdoor events, providing great music as well as visual entertainment.

    If your budget is fairly modest, but you still want the magic that live music can bring, how about a soloist? A cocktail pianist, harpist or solo guitarist can provide gentle sophistication and a musical background without being intrusive. The swing revival has brought a flood of tributes to Rat Pack-style singers who can draw on the glamour of a bygone age to create a classy accompaniment for your food and drink.

    If you’ve already booked a wedding band it’s worth checking to see if they can provide a smaller line-up for earlier on in the day, such as an acoustic guitarist/vocalist, a cocktail pianist or a jazz trio. Using the same musicians for the whole day could save you money and help keep stress levels to a minimum!

    Choosing an act

    Once you’ve decided on a style browse acts on the relevant music section on our site. Each act has a profile page featuring a biography, photos, audio samples of their playing, a repertoire list and testimonials from previous clients. Some also have video clips to view online.

    Dealing with the venue and equipment

    Make sure you get in touch with any musicians you have booked well before the actual day, so that you can explain the arrangements to them and they can make sure you’re happy with the music they plan to play, giving you the chance to specify any special favourites. Wedding musicians always have to work around the rest of the day’s events, so will be keen to hear about your plans and what you’d like them to do. They usually provide all their own equipment, so you won’t have to worry about organising this – though it’s always worth checking with them beforehand!

    Some venues are designed with live music in mind, and some can easily accommodate it. Others might be a little more difficult because of noise or space restrictions, but you can work around these kind of problems. It’s easy to keep the volume down by using an adjustable backing track, or save space (and money) by using fewer people. Good wedding musicians will have experience of many places, and will be able to adapt to your requirements with enough notice, so make sure you tell them as much as you can about your venue.

    Function Central makes booking wedding music easy

    Function Central is a wedding music agency specialising in wedding musicians who have been hand-picked for their talent, professionalism and reliability. We take over 600 wedding music bookings a year and get great feedback from our clients. We make choosing and booking your wedding entertainment easy, providing support and advice right up to the day, and even a 24-hour helpline.

    Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/music-articles/how-to-choose-music-for-an-afternoon-wedding-2629435.html

    About the Author

    Carl Liver
    Marketing Manager for Function Central
    Wedding Bands
    Wedding Bands in London

  • October24th

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    Jazz Musicians And The Art Of Transcribing Jazz Solos

    Posted in: Guest Post, Jazz, Jazz Artist, Jazz Music, Jazz Singer

    Every great jazz musician has, at one time or another, transcribed jazz solos from recordings. Since jazz is an art from that is aural in nature, it makes complete sense that listening and copying the improvisations of earlier jazz masters helps one become a more consistent and skilled jazz improviser.

    Transcribing a jazz solo involves the repetitive listening and notation of a recorded jazz solo. To get maximum benefit from the process, the person studying the solo through transcription should memorize and internalize every note and every inflection played by the improviser. “Transcribing” refers to the activity of notating on paper the exact notes and rhythms played by the improviser.

    Evolving Technologies of Transcribing Jazz Solos

    Charlie Parker could arguably be called the most influential jazz artist of the 20th century. His inventive jazz improvisations changed the face of jazz and ushered in one of the most exciting eras of jazz: the bebop era.

    Charlie Parker was born with a huge amount of natural talent, but that does not mean Charlie never worked hard at his honing his craft. History reveals that Charlie spent almost a year early on in his music career memorizing – note by note – the jazz solos of Lester Young from 78 RPM recordings.

    Before jazz became widely available on 78 RPM recordings, musicians relied on listening and learning in “real time”. The only way to learn jazz improvisation in the early days of jazz was to listen to live musicians and pick up what you could from what they played. Once played however, the music was gone forever. Read More | Comments

  • August30th

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    Tips on How to Learn and Play Jazz

    Posted in: Articles, Guest Post, Jazz, Jazz Music, Music

    Tips on How to Learn and Play Jazz

    Jazz is truly a great music genre and is featured with an exclusive style thereby making a large number of people the true fans of this music type. If you are really looking forward to learn to play jazz, what better option can be than to start it online. These online learn to play jazz lessons involve teaching how to play different musical instruments of jazz such as guitar and drums.

    There are online jazz music schools which contribute a lot in helping the interested people to learn to play jazz and that too in a really easy manner and without involving much time. This online mode of learning jazz music online is gaining huge popularity both among the youngsters as well as the adults who desire to know each and every section of jazz music genre. The best part about these online jazz classes is that the students can learn their favorite music type by enjoying the comforts of their homes and at any point of time when they are free. Read More | Comments

  • August19th

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    Big Band Jazz Music – Mesmerizing Mind, Body and Soul

    Posted in: Articles, Guest Post, Jazz

    Big Band Jazz Music – Mesmerizing Mind, Body and Soul

    Jazz music has become universally popular as it sounds mesmerizing to the ears. It follows numerous rhythmic patterns of music, including blues, reggae as well as swing patterns. In particular, the call and response pattern used in jazz is its USP and attracts major attention of music enthusiasts. And when the entire assembly gets connoted with jazz music, it emerges into the big band jazz music. This ensemble is also referred as jazz orchestra, jazz band and jazz ensemble.

    The most amazing part of big band jazz music is that music combo notes are prepared in advance and only sometimes created spontaneously. They are the rich cultural blend of African as well as American music. This is because jazz music has its origin in African nations and once experimentally it was mixed with American music themes. It ended up successfully and since then it is being used with both mixes. Thereafter, its influence spread all over the world and it became one of the most popular music bands across the globe.

    Big band jazz music generally comprises 12-25 musicians in order to play different musical instruments, including trumpets, trombones, saxophones, rhythm section and guitar to name a few. Although, the jazz music was associated with interests of elite groups, but with the easy availability of jazz midi files, it has reached almost every corner of world. This is because of the fact that jazz midi files can easily be downloaded from the internet for free. Even you can buy jazz cds at a cost effective price. So, people take a full advantage of this privilege and have complete access to the music of their choice.

    Jazz music is gaining gradual prominence so much so that people are learning different forms, including practice jazz bass lines, guitars, and jazz pianos. All these popular forms have found strong ground in the hearts of music lovers and that is why they tend to learn and practice jazz bass lines to a large extent.

    If you are interested in learning jazz music, you can also buy karaoke cds which have the basic essence of jazz as they play pure form of big band jazz music. So, learn your favorite band of jazz music and play it throughout your life.

    Myself webmaster of http://www.studiobypass.com – find tools for learning jazz music, intermediate jazz tools, Big Band jazz music, jazz midi files etc play about jazz music.

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  • August1st

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    GREAT JAZZ PIANISTS and their CONTRIBUTIONS to MUSIC

    Posted in: Articles, Guest Post, Jazz, Jazz Music, Jazz Musician, Music

    DUANE SHINN

    AUTHOR:: DUANE SHINN

    Some of the greatest piano players in history became known for their proficiency in jazz. Technicality and a heavy reliance upon the ability of the musician to improvise makes jazz piano one of the hardest styles to learn. That does NOT mean, however, that it can’t be learned, but to get to the highest rungs a pianist must have lots of talent, a great ear, and the ability to improvise.

    The birth of jazz music in the early 1900s was a significant period in musical history. Many of those who are considered among the greatest jazz pianists of all times were pioneers of the genre during this period. Jazz evolved from musical styles that African slaves brought to America. Therefore, its inception can largely be attributed to the early African-American community. African-American pianists, such as Scott Joplin and Ernest Hogan, are considered to be among the fathers of ragtime music. Although the ragtime era only lasted a few years, it was a precursor to, and contemporary of, the jazz era.
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