Kylie Minogue - Playing A Role In A Hollywood Movie

Filed under: Better Music — admin at 5:33 am on Friday, July 2, 2010
Australian pop frontman and actress Kylie Minogue has landed a role in a Hollywood movie after nearly ten years. The flick titled Jack and Diane is alleged to be a lesbian werewolf thriller, in which Kylie will be viewed as a tattoo-clad rock star. Minogue will be sharing screen space with the English actress Juno Church , Elvis Presley’s grand-daughter Riley Keough and Jena Malone. She’s allegedly in NY now to shoot for the film. Jack and Diane deals with the story of 2 Manhattan City teen girls and is scheduled to release next year. In the 1980s, the ‘Can’t Get You Out of My head’ frontman earned celebrity in the Australian series ‘Neighbours’. Since that point, she’s been offering plenty of hit numbers so launching an enormously successful singing career. In the 1990s, Kylie had appeared in the pictures like The Delinquents, Street Fighter and Moulin Rouge in 2001. The 42 years old pop singer was recently snapped with fake tattoos covering her neck, back and arms while she was shooting a cameo for the flick.
She was wearing ripped thin jeans and ankle boots. While talking to the media earlier in the month, Kylie voiced her need to return to acting. She announced, I have made this music world for myself being a pop star and naturally stay within it only. But now, I wish to work in some independent films. all of the best Kylie, for the newest venture ; fans are waiting to see you in your acting avatar again!

The British Invasion and the Advent of American Music

Filed under: Better Music — admin at 10:17 am on Monday, September 28, 2009
The world changed dramatically during the second half of the Twentieth Century, as the United States became the most powerful nation both politically and culturally. One American phenomenon that has left its mark in all corners of the world is pop music. The American music scene was helped by the British invasion of the 1960s. Here is a list of the most important pop songs of the Twentieth Century, in chronological order. Perhaps they were not the first, the best or the most original, but they were the right thing at the right time, and they changed history.
1. “Rock Around the Clock,” (1954). Bill Haley and the Comets. In the early years of Rock music, the inclusion of this song would be a no brainer. It was the first great Rock and Roll hit, selling 25 million copies. Nowadays, we may have a desire to right the record, and say that black performers like Big Joe Turner, Bo Diddley and Ike Turner were the real originators of the style, but the fact is that in the segregated atmosphere of that time, it was necessary for a talented white group to champion the music to a larger audience. The Comets were able to rise to the occasion.
2. “Only You,” (1955). The Platters. They became the personification of the emerging doo-wop style which was a blend of rock and roll combos and vocal styling that can be traced back to the Ink Spots and other performers of the Big Band era. Doo-wop was first successfully introduced by the Penguins a year earlier, with “Earth Angel,” but it was The Platters, a classy act from the West Coast that really established the genre. Their many hits, such as “The Great Pretender” and “My Prayer,” served as a standard of quality for other groups to strive for. With its popularity in the multi-ethnic society of the Northeast, doo-wop was the first racially integrated style, and it still has a devoted following to this day, thanks to the many brilliant vocal performances.
3. “Hound Dog,” (1956). Elvis Presley. In that year Elvis exploded on the scene with this hit, plus “Blue Suede Shoes”, “Heartbreak Hotel” and others. He was revolutionary in the McCarthy era age of conformity. The influence of Elvis Presley cannot be underestimated: he introduced national audiences to rockabilly music, white audiences to black rock and roll and his on-stage persona made venues accessible for the even more flamboyant acts like Little Richard, Chuck Berry and Jerry Lee Lewis. He created the Rock and roll version of the teen idol, updating the image from Frank Sinatra’s time.

Promoting Your Music at Amazon.com

Filed under: Better Music — admin at 9:47 pm on Tuesday, May 13, 2008

I remember a while back reading David Nevue’s book, “How to Successfully Promote Your Music the the Internet”. In it he threw out a cool suggestion for increasing the searchability of your band.

His suggestion was to write a review of CDs that you feel are similar to your style of music or CDs that inspired your music. The idea is if you promote traffic to this webpage, visitors will also see a review of your band, and check out your music.

I loved that idea so much that I was psyched when I learneda very simple and similar promotional idea on Amazon.com. Here’s what you have to do:

First, you need to sell your CD on Amazon.com OR at the very least offer a free MP3 in their Digital Music Network.

Second, do a search for a band or album similar to yours. In my case, my group, the Brobdingnagian Bards, released a CD inspired by the Lord of the Rings. So I went over to the “Fellowship of the Ring” soundtrack.

Third, scroll down and you’ll see either a link that says,

“Recommend an item!”
or a box that has
“I recommend ___ in addition/instead of this album.”

Fourth, grab the ASIN from your webpage. (The ASIN is the 10 charcter code listed in the Produce Details). All you have to do is insert you ASIN into this blank to make your recommendation.

Your music is now linked to the artist you consider yourself similar to. The beauty of this promotional idea is that it all takes place in the Amazon shopping environment.

This means, more than likely, they’ll go straight to your Amazon page. They’ll read about your album. They’ll listen to your MP3s. And hopefully, they will buy an album, and/or hunt down your band’s website where you’ll earn a new fan.

PS. The 2004 Edition of “How to Promote Your Music Succesfully on the Internet” by David Nevue is now available.

Bard Marc Gunn of the Brobdingnagian Bards has helped 1000’s of musicians make money with their musical groups through the Bards Crier Music Marketing and Promotion Ezine and the Texas Musicians’ Texas Music Biz Tips. Now you can get personal advice by visiting http://www.bardscrier.com for FREE “how-to” music marketing assistance.

No time to visit the site? Subscribe to the BardsCrier.com distributed weekly for Free. Just email subscribe@bardscrier.com

Learn To Play Guitar Chords: Learn To Play Turnarounds On Your Guitar

Filed under: Better Music — admin at 6:07 pm on Wednesday, April 23, 2008

Turnarounds are chord progressions with the last chord taking you back to the first chord thus making it possible to play these progressions over and over again as an intro to a song, an ending or between verses. Here are some nice sounding but easy turnarounds for you!

In order not to mess up the layout with the guitar tab staff I will not include left hand fingerings but I suggest that you choose left hand fingers carefully so you don’t get into trouble!

However, in order to learn to play these guitar chord progressions as intended I will say something about your right hand fingerings.

When you play these progressions on your guitar I suggest that you play the bass notes with your thumb and the first three guitar strings with you first finger, middle finger and ring finger.

Of course you can use a pick if you hate picking with you right hand fingers. If you strum the chords you will have to mute unused strings with your left hand fingers or otherwise you can pluck the strings with your pick using different patterns.

The first chord progression includes the guitar chords A F#m7 Bm11 and E7. You can use any right hand pattern you like as you play the chords.

1. —0—0—0—0—
2. —2—2—3—3—
3. —2—2—2—1—
4. ——————-
5. —0——-2——-
6. ——-2——-0—

Our second turnaround consists of the guitar chords Amaj7, F#7, Bm11 and E7. When you learn to play these turnarounds I strongly suggest that you follow my advice above about left hand fingerings.

When you have found the most effective fingerings for the guitar chords it is important that you stick to the fingerings so that you can learn the progressions by heart and be able to move between chords fluently.

1. —0—0—0—0—
2. —2—2—3—3—
3. —1—3—2—1—
4. ——————-
5. —0——-2——-
6. ——-2——-0—

Turnaround number three is a bit harder to play, at least the last chord which requires a bit of stretching. The chords are A, F#7+, Bm11 and Bb7add+11.

Try to move your fingers as little as possible when changing chords. To keep the fingers close to the fretboard will help you change chords smoothly. Here is the guitar tab:

1. —0—0—0—0—
2. —2—3—3—3—
3. —2—3—2—1—
4. ——————-
5. —0——-2—1—
6. ——-2———–

The last guitar tab turnaround consists of the chords Aadd9, C9, Fmaj and Bb9+11.

The most difficult and most important thing when playing chord progressions on your guitar isn’t to hold a chord but to change between chords.

To practice really effectively you can choose two consecutive chords and practice changing between them in a slow tempo.

1. —0—0—0—0—
2. —2—3—1—1—
3. —4—3—2—1—
4. ———–3——-
5. —0—3——-1—
6. ——————-

Now you can play four guitar progressions that of course can be mixed. You can replace the second chord in a progression with a second chord from another progression and so on.

I will end this learn to play guitar article by showing you a right hand pattern you can use with the chords. Use the pattern once for every chord in the progression. The thumb will of course be on different bass strings depending on the chord.

1. —a—a—
2. —m—m—
3. —i—i—
4. ———–
5. —p——-
6. ———–

There are many common turnarounds that are used frequently in pop songs like the old pop song Diana, Last Christmas and many more. To practice the common progression C, Am, Dm, G7 in different keys is a good way to learn how chords are related and also a good way to practice the art of changing between chords in a smooth way.

Peter Edvinsson is a musician, composer and music teacher. Visit his site Capotasto Music and download your free sheet music guitar tab and learn to play guitar resources at http://www.capotastomusic.com