Archive for February, 2010
Digital Music – Maximum Sound In Minimal Space
Posted by: | CommentsTime was that you had to visit a record store to get the music you wanted. Later, a membership to Columbia House meant you could easily order music from the comfort of your own home, but you had to wait. Technology advanced and media got smaller, delivery faster. Vinyl records were replaced with magnetic tape, cassettes and 8-tracks, then compact discs and even smaller compact discs. Silly me, I thought other than making the disc smaller what could possibly replace CD’s? Well, as usual, technology has kept the pace and left me flailing in it’s dusty wake. Digital music has revolutionized the way we acquire and listen to music. Now when you want an album or even a single song, it’s as easy as pointing and clicking, waiting a few seconds for the download and you’re rockin’ and rollin’. Or groovin’ to the tunes. Or gettin’ down with the beat, etc., etc.
Oh, and check your downtown area for a local music store. You’re more likely to see a Starbucks or 7-Eleven.
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Music – Medicine For The Heart
Posted by: | CommentsThe power of music to integrate and cure. . . is quite fundamental. It is the profoundest nonchemical medication. – Oliver Sacks “Awakenings”
Music as a healing force goes back several centuries. Apollo was worshipped by the Greeks as the god of both music and medicine. Healing and sound were considered a highly developed sacred science in the Egyptian and Greek education systems. Soon after World War I and World War II, community musicians of all types, both amateur and professional, serenaded veterans, suffering both physical and emotional trauma from the wars. The medical profession is now embracing the value of music in the healing or palliative care of a wide variety of patients: the chronically or terminally ill, the disabled, the neurologically impaired, and the mentally challenged. Music therapy programs are popping up in hospitals and treatment centers around the country.
Heart disease is the primary cause of death in the United States. Those who suffer from heart disease either die prematurely or suffer a marked decrease in quality of life. Increasing evidence is proving that music is soothing for the heart. Marconato and collegues reported in the Arq Bras Cardiol. in 2001, decreased stress levels and increased personal satisfaction, higher consumption of fiber-rich food, lower cholesterol intake, and a better perspective on life in people on receptive music therapy . White in the American Journal of Critical Care in 1999 showed that in patients with an acute heart attack, music therapy was associated with reductions in heart rate, respiratory rate, and myocardial oxygen demand. Guzzetta went further and reported in Heart Lung in 1989, that the incidence of cardiac complications was found to be lower in patients admitted to the coronary care unit with a presumptive diagnosis of heart attack, if they were subjected to music and relaxation therapy. Thorgaard and associates reported in the European Journal of Cardiovascular Nursing in 2004 that specially selected music had a positive effect on the well being of patients and their opinion on the sound environment during invasive cardiac procedures. Other studies have demonstrated health benefits of music during and after cardiac surgery.
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Musical Soundtracks
Posted by: | CommentsMusical soundtracks became very popular in the 1940s through 1960s, around the same time musicals became worldwide hits. Moviegoers flocked to see screen-based adaptations of popular stage plays, which were perceived to be more accessible than their Broadway counterparts. This trend seems to be resurging, with the success of such Hollywood musicals as Moulin Rouge and Chicago.
What’s in a musical soundtrack? First, the title song. Most musicals have titles that are based on their main song. For example, the musical “The Sound of Music” is titled after the song of the same title. The same is true for “Jesus Christ Superstar,” which also had a song with the same title.
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Steve Vai – Rock Star and Mystic
Posted by: | CommentsEverybody wants to be a Jimi Hendrix or an Eric Clapton, but June 6th, 1960 saw the birth of one of those great America guitarists that can combine the skill of a true guitar player, possessing a depth of understanding of his instrument that few rock guitarists have, and the zest of a heavy metal rock star that can stand on the same stage as the best of them.
Steve Vai was born to Johnny and Theresa Vai, and his life, like that of many of the famous, began in his teens when he revered guitarists such as Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin. Or that is what you read, but it really started when he was twelve and he informed his dad that the accordion was not for him, and that his future lay with the guitar: which is just as well since Steve Vai, accordionist, does not have the same ring.
