History of violin

For thousands of years musicians have used many different kinds of instruments which are strings, such as harps and lyres. Around the 1500’s, the first violins and viols emerged in Italy. They evolved from earlier bowed instruments. For many years, violins and viols developed side by side, each helping each other grow. By the late 1600’s, musicians favored the violin family, and viols dropped out of use. This was the time when in the small Italian town of Cremona, three famous families made violins.They were the Amati family, the Guarneri family, and the Stradivari family. Antonio Stradivari was trained by the Amati family, and he perfected the art of violin making. Today, violins made by Guarneri or Stradivari are worth millions of dollars.
From the 1600’s to the early 1800’s, many excellent violinists were the main composers for the violin. Its tone became more lively and penetrating, and attracted many composers.
The violin plays an extremely important part in the orchestra, but is the smallest of the string family. It plays the main melody in most orchestral music. The violin has lots of parts.They consist of the peg box, tuning pegs, neck, fingerboard, bridge, chin rest, tailpiece, belly, bass bar, soundpost, sound holes, and back. The violin is strong for its size since it weighs less than a 1 pound but resists 65+ pounds. While the piano has 88 sets of strings, the violin has four. The strings travel from the tuning pegs (the top) down the neck over the fingerboard, and past the sound holes, elevating to the bridge and diving down where they connect to the tailpiece, finally stopping.
The violin isn’t very useful without the bow. The bow is drawn back and forth across the strings, just like a singer learns to take and hold his breath. The violin may also be plucked, or played pizzicato.The violin has a greater range than any other stringed instrument, except for the harp.
Violin music is written so that each player will move his or her bow up and down at the same time as the other string players. Can you imagine what would happen if they didn’t? Leopold Stokowski thought it would be better if each musician moved his bow up or down whenever he pleased. They ended up hitting each other with the tip of their bows, but the music was smooth and graceful—completely slurred together. This is now called "free bowing".
Do you know what a "second fiddle" is? The violinists who sit to the left of the conductor are called the first violinists, and play most of the melody. Second violinists sit to the right and play the accompaniment. It has become a joke (or perhaps sore point) that they don’t play as well, but this is not true!

Violins to buy

I can not see how anyone could say " All Chinese violins and no good". I am sure that they have never tryed playing violins from ALL Chinese violin Makers!!!I have spent years going all over China looking for the best violins ( I have been to China about 30 times in 8 years.) . There are very bad one and very good ones just like you would see in cars made in America! Not all are good ,not all are bad!!I will say for Violins up to about $6,000.00 ,I can find a better violin for the money In China, than you will in any other contry in the world. I buy student violins to sell . I have not had anyone in the last 8 years show me any other violin company that is not in china ,that has better violins for the same price.The brand I sell is the "Pearl River". They make violins from new student to semi-pro. I have people call me about my violins, after finding out that they are made in China. Many people will not even look at them. I have sold violins and the costomer has told me the violin has a better sound than friends of theres that payed $2,000.00 and even one told me there violin teacher told them the pearl river violin had just as good a sound as her own violin that was a $7,000.00 violin made in Italy.All violins even from the same maker are not as good. I will say one out of 10 that I get I don`t like to much. But at the same time about 1 in 10 will very good.Best if you can try the violin out befor you buy!!!

Famous musicins life

Your band is starting to take shape, finally. You’ve recorded a demo and have had a little airplay on your local college radio station. You’re starting to regularly play shows, and although the band’s not headlining yet, you feel like your playing is solid. Shopping that demo around isn’t doing much for, because none of the labels have ever heard of you. And while you have a close-knit group of people who come out to your shows, most of them are personal friends, or friends or friends. So what’s next? How do you start chipping away at gaining exposure? Here are a couple of tips for promoting your band.Use online communities - Websites which are great tools that I think all musicians should be taking advantage of. The musician’s sites allow bands and artists to sign up and basically receive their own free web space. You can post MP3 files, videos, show dates, and sometimes even post blog entries. This allows you to keep your fans up to date on what’s going on with your band, introduce new songs, and basically engage people that you normally wouldn’t be able to. If the musician’s community you utilize has a message board or forum, definitely get on and participate. One of the greatest things that the internet has to offer musicians is the wealth of knowledge other users have, go ahead and tap it!2. Maintain a website – In addition to musician’s communities, go ahead and start a website for your band.But if you are not very internet savvy, hire a web designer to do this all for you. You can use your website as a base of operations on the internet. Post sample tracks, music lyrics, photos, and show dates. It’s like using a musician’s community, except the only limit to what you can do, is what you can imagine.Flyer shows / Pass out business cards – If your band is serious about gaining ground in the music industry, you’ll need to treat it like a business. So, I would definitely recommend having business cards printed up, with your contact info, and your band’s website address. When you go to your local record store, drop a stack off. When you go out to clubs to see bands play, leave some there. Pass them out to people on the street. Do whatever it takes! An alternative to a traditional business card is the CD business card. This is a wallet sized CD that has all of your business card info printed on it, and also contains files. You can place song samples, photos, whatever you want. Most places that manufacture audio CDs also offer CD business cards at affordable prices.Getting your band from the garage to a major label is not easy by any means. It is a combination of hard work, dedication, and pure luck. But that doesn’t mean that you should not have a focus and a strategy. Like I said earlier in the article, a successful band is run like a successful business. You know your goal, and to reach this goal you need to use every tool at your dispense. These tips are of the many tools that will help you further your music career.

Nepali Music Instruments

Nepalese musical instrument has a very strong relationship with Nepalese culture and religion. Nepal has a lot more tunes and rhythms of its own to share with the rest of the world. The musical traditions of Nepal are as diverse as the various ethnic groups of the country. The most complex musical culture in the Himalayas is that of the “Newars“ in the Kathmandu valley and the “Damai” in the other part of Nepal, which in the course of the past 2000 years has absorbed mostly Indian influences in shaping a unique musical tradition. In Nepal music has been flourished by mainly these two groups of people.
Newar’s culture flourished during the late Malla dynasty from the 15th century up to the 18th century. The Malla kings of Kathmandu, Patan and Bhaktapur were devoted patrons of the arts and competed with one another in the beautification and cultural achievements of their kingdoms. Many of these Malla kings themselves excelled as musicians, dancers, poets and town planners.
The Newars live in a Buddhist-Hindu area where the two religions coexist along with a strong influence of Tantric practices and local traditional cults. In the complex Newar caste system both Hindus and Buddhists have found their place. Many of these castes perform their own characteristic musical repertory and ritual duties during festivals and processions. Newar music and dance are always related to ritual and locality. A portion of Newar music is secretly performed during esoteric rites.
Bhaktapur, a Newar farmers’ town at the eastern part of the Kathmandu valley has been able so far to preserve its traditional heritage. In 1989 there were still more than 200 music and dance groups performing regularly. With the influx of tourism and western and far eastern technologies this picture changes rapidly. It is conceivable that these living cultural treasures may vanish within one generation. For the future there needs to be an effective method for the preservation of traditional music and dance.
The other group that has historic touch with Nepalese music is “Damai”. From the prospects of indigenous Nepalese rituals, culture and musical anthropology, the linkage of traditional musicians seems to be tied with the invention of "DAMAHA" (a flat drum generally structured by wood or metal and sometime even by roasted soil especially in "TABLA”, another type of flat twin being used in Nepalese music.)
In Nepalese society, special group plays musical instruments in ceremonies, occasions, etc. to perform the rituals and tradition. These traditional musicians are known as "DUM" as well as "DAMAI".The Nepalese cultural way of perceiving things and words and explaining and naming them, the word "Dum" seems to be derived symbolically after the sound of the traditional Nepali musical instrument "DAMAHA" in the sense that if we listen to the beat of the "DAMAHA" the sound produce is more or less like "DUM". Similarly, the other word "DAMAI" denotes the functional linkage between "DAMAHA" and the person who plays it. The word "DAMAHA" is originated from "SANSKRIT" language. In "SANSKRIT" the person who plays "DAMAHA" is called "YAHA DAMAHA BADYATE". As per the traditional way of synthesizing the long sentences in Nepalese society the above three worded SANSKRIT sentence seems to be synthesized and joined as "DAMA+YAHA" to indicate the drummer and thus this word might have been converted as "DAMAI" in Nepali language.
The early "DAMAIS" later invented another traditional instrument like "sahanai". "DAMAIS" have been playing these musical instruments like sahanai for the generations in special MUHURATAS (time) of special sacred ritual ceremonies like "BRATABANDHA"(a Vedic Brahmanic ritual).
Still today we can see “Damais” playing musical instruments like “damaha”, “sahanai”, “tanpura”, “panche baja”, “narsingha” etc. in special occasions like marriage ceremony, bratabandha, festivals, etc.
Nepalese musical instruments have great importance in Nepalese culture and society. Nepalese musical instruments are played in special ceremony like wedding, bratabandha (a Vedic Brahmanic ritual), and welcome ceremony and in any other ceremony or festivals. Different musical instruments are found in Nepal. Most of them are produced in Nepal. Musical instruments like “madal”(Two sided drum), " sarangi" “damphu”, “damaru”, “basuri” (Flute), “sarangi”, “pancha Baja”, “ghunguru” (Ankle Bells), etc. There are several Nepali instruments, which are unheard, untouched and unexplored and Sarangi is one among them. sarangi musical instrument is played by sarangi. Nepalese musical instruments are enjoyed by all the Nepalese people especially on the occasions, festivals, or any other ceremonies

Nepali pop

Welcome to Nepali Pop Hits, most popular songs from second generation pop singers from 90's. Pop songs in Nepal originated in mid 60s itself with singers like Om Bikram Bista, Harish and even Kumar Basnet. With expection of few notable songs, POP songs (even called western music) couldn't make its presence felt due to heavy dominance of modern songs both by old and new generations of those days.
It wasn't untill early 90's when Crossroad made their debut with Naya Mode, the second generation of Pop music amazingly rose to its pinnacle. With Maya Meri Maya, Sanjay Shrestha and his band brought new wave in the music industry. Following the bagdwon were Sanjeep Pradhan, Bhim Tuladhar, Babin Pradhan, Nepathya, Deepak Bajracharya and many more.
New breed of Rock Bands made their presence felt with introduction 1974 A.D., Mantra, Robin and Revolution, Cobweb, etc. While pop bands like Karma and Uglyz made their way in 2003. Solo 1MB bands are still rocking the charts like Sabin Rai, Adrian, Dipesh Kishore, Sugam Pokhrel, RAju Lama etc.

Indian music

The music of India is one of the oldest unbroken musical traditions in the world. It is said that the origins of this system go back to the Vedas (ancient scripts of the Hindus). Many different legends have grown up concerning the origins and development of Indian classical music. Such legends go a long way in showing the importance that music has in defining Indian culture.However the advent of modern historical and cultural research has also given us a good perspective on the field. This has shown that Indian music has developed within a very complex interaction between different peoples of different races and cultures. It appears that the ethnic diversity of present day India has been there from the earliest of times.The basis for Indian music is "sangeet". Sangeet is a combination of three artforms: vocal music, instrumental music and dance. Although these three artforms were originally derived from the single field of stagecraft. Today these three forms have differentiated into complex and highly refined individual artforms.The present system of Indian music is based upon two important pillars: rag and tal. Rag is the melodic form while tal is the rhythmic. Rag may be roughly equated with the Western term mode or scale. There is a system of seven notes which are arranged in a means not unlike Western scales. However when we look closely we see that it is quite different what we are familiar with.The tal (rhythmic forms) are also very complex. Many common rhythmic patterns exist. They revolve around repeating patterns of beats. The interpretation of the rag and the tal is not the same all over India. Today there are two major traditions of classical music. There is the north Indian and the south Indian tradition. The North Indian tradition is known as Hindustani sangeet and the south Indian is called Carnatic sangeet. Both systems are fundamentally similar but differ in nomenclature and performance practice.Many musical instruments are peculiar to India. The most famous are the sitar and tabla. However there are many more that the average person may not be familiar with.All of this makes up the complex and exciting field of Indian classical music. Its understanding easily consumes an entire lifetime

West African Music

Of music the world over, African music has been the least well-known and the most devalued, which is certainly disconcerting. In the past, it was thought that this music propagated only vague cries and had nothing at all to do with science and art. It is true that the keys to a better understanding of this music were elusive: music and life being intimately connected, it was difficult to separate the various elements. This was a world that did not separate daily life from artistic activity: this interweaving became such that it discouraged analysis, and in the past, it made any attempt at understanding fruitless. An overall anthropological approach must be implemented, in which the social life unveils the musical life, and in which the latter follows from the system of the former, which complicates the approach even more.
To make music in Africa, it suffices for someone to begin in order for a second person to come in unexpectedly by tapping on a makeshift instrument, which can be just a bottle. Then a third person joins in, without doubt a passer-by who happens to come along. This person will trace a few dance steps. Then another person arrives, then still another. Each person fulfills an exact function that is never formulated. Everything happens as if a lesson related to myth were being rehearsed at the subconscious level. For example, it is known that one person will initiate an isochronous rhythmic formula, the basis of the system. Another will vary it, and a third will embellish it. Nevertheless, although this scene suddenly bursts forth full of bonhomie and general mirth, the resonant sound gives the impression of extreme disorder or of performers stamping their feet in place. This has made some think that Black Africa surges more from primitive speech rather than from being aligned in the concert of nations as Africans claim. Furthermore, it is an oral tradition in which history fades into the background. It is also true that the notion of form is a very disconcerting thing in Africa. It never begins at the point where one could expect it. It can fly off somewhere in its development. This music unfolds according to the principle of continual by cyclic variation. One always comes back to the point of departure, which is never the same for each interpretation. Yet in many cases, a certain functionalism dictates African music, however improvised it may be. It obeys well-defined reasons rooted in the social system. It has a role to fulfill, and despite the upheavals of this century, this music still keeps its mark of originality that also confers upon it all of its mystery.