The nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were particularly productive in the fields of Protestant music or hymns. In this article we will be exploring the biographies of some these hymns which are still widely sung in services to this day.

“Nearer, My God, to Thee” with words by Sarah F. Adams, (1841) and music by Lowell Mason in 1856 which he named Bethany.

Lowell Mason wrote that one night, while lying awake, in the stillness of the night while his eyes were wide open, the melody came to him. The next morning he remembered the tune and wrote down the notes.

In both the 1936 film “San Francisco” and the 1997 film “Titanic,” the hymn “Nearer, My God, To Thee” was played and garnered an Academy Award in the latter, and a nomination in the first.

There are also many inspiring true life stories associated with this hymn. Some Titanic survivors said it was played by the ship’s orchestra as the ocean liner went down (though other survivors said it was a different song, Abide With Me).

A Dr. Mann who was the attending physician at the death of President William McKinley in 1901, reported that McKinley’s last words were “Nearer, my God, to Thee.”

After five minutes silence across the nation, bands in Union and Madison Squares in New York City played the hymn in memory of the fallen president. That was on the afternoon of September 3, 1901. Another memorial service was subsequently held in Westminster Abbey, London. The hymn was also played at the the graveside service in Cleveland, Ohio, for the assassinated President James Garfield.

“The Little Brown Church In The Vale” with words and music by Dr. William S. Pitts (1857.)

Born in 1830 in Orleans County, New York, Dr. William S. Pitts was a school teacher for a short while in Rock County, Wisconsin, and then studied to be a doctor. After becoming an MD, he practiced in Frederiscksburg, Iowa for over 40 years, before dying in 1918.

Dr. Pitts recounted how he came to write the now famous hymn. After travelling by stage from Wisconsin, he first set foot in Bradford, Iowa in 1857. He remembered how, though there was no church there at the time, the spot where the Little Brown Church later stood, was a setting of rare beauty. The attractive site stayed with him in his mind, and upon returning home, he wrote the song “The Little Brown Church in the Vale.” He then put it away and out of mind.

After becoming a physician, Dr. Pitt settled in Fredericksburg, Iowa in the spring of 1862. Back in Bradford, the people there decided to build a church on the spot that Dr. Pitt had thought so fitting. By 1964 the new church was ready for dedication, and Dr. Pitt took his singing class there for an evening service in the following spring.

Although he had never performed the song in public before, that night he sang “The Little Brown Church in the Vale” to a very appreciative congregation. Soon after, on a trip to Chicago, he took the manuscript to a publisher, H.M. Higgens. Fron the very first, it became immediately recognized and adopted into the hearts of many people worldwide.

Soon after its publication the church at Bradford, which had been painted brown (for want of money to buy better paint, some say), became known as The Little Brown Church in the Vale. My hope is that it will stand for a thousand years and call the old man and his descendants to worship.

“Abide With Me” with words by Henry Lyte (1847) and music by William Monk (1861.)

Lyte was dying of tuberculosis when he was inspired to write this hymn. He finished it the Sunday he delivered his farewell sermon to the parish he had served for so many years. He left for Italy the very next day, hoping to regain his health; sadly he did not make it, dying en route in Nice within three weeks.

Abide With Me was sung at the weddings of both King George VI and later at his daughter’s wedding, Queen Elizabeth II. In a continuing tribute lasting over a century, the bells of Rev. Lyte’s church have rung out the notes of “Abide With Me” in the village of Lower Brixham, Devonshire.

The music used here, titled “Eventide,” is by far the best known of four different tunes used over the years. Mrs. Monk described the setting for her husband’s composition of the tune:

Quote: This tune was written at a time of great sorrow; when together we watched, as we did daily, the glories of the setting sun. As the last golden ray faded, he took some paper and penciled that tune which has gone all over the earth. End of Quote

Lets work backward in time to take a look at the most known synths to ever hit the market.

Numerous individuals wanted those spectacular sounds of the 1970/80s back. The problem was the price involved to purchase and preserve those old machines. And then luckily in 1995 along came the Access Virus. It comprised of lots of patch storage, effects and a vocoder. This truly was a new digital based virtual based analogue synthesizer.

Although first introduced in 1992 the Roland JV series came to be recognized. These’re the Roland workstation series of semi synths. It all started with the JV-80 and 90. Then progressed onto the JV 1080 and JV 2080. What these produced were brilliant in regards to extremely exact and entirely believable real instrument samples. It tested to be a ultimate money-saver for musicians. No longer did they require to depend on real instruments. They’re paced with expansion alternatives and polyphony so the JV series worked its way into the XV series that you see on the market today.

The most well sold synth ever known was the Korg M1 in 1988. This unique synth was a semi workstation synth. It had actual sound, a shiny look, and a great price. As a great traditional subtractive synthesiser sound, the A1 synthesis technique made this possible. When you combined this with the 16 voice polyphony and the many built in effects and sequencer, you had it all. Theres zero questions as to why this synth was so popular.

Some of you would be very familiar with the Roland D-50 from 1987, as it is still utilised today. It has a lot of polyphony and can be heard on a couple of the records of the 1980/90s. The new LA synthesis architecture never became a favourite item, but it fit in well with the 8 bit form of PCM sampling. It provided for special sounds that had never been experienced before.

In 1984, hope surfaced for those devotees of synthesiser that can just not afford to be required in the past. This was brought about because of the Roland Juno-106. It allowed hybrid DCO based synthesis technology to be used by musicians who had never had the opportunity in the past. Its limited to a single filter and oscillator, it had an essential chorus effect and sounds from the 80s that made it into a very popular item.

For those of you who could think back to the old Atari ST computers in 1989 you would remember utilising or hearing about the Digital Audio Workstation (DAW). Well needless to say, technology has come a long way since then in the music production and recording with comp programmes. The favoured terminology nowadays is VST Cubase. This is a programme that provides you all you need to get the sounds you are looking for. With this, you will be able to make your own CDS for distribution. To start with, the programme offers recording, producing and mixing. All the requirements for wonderful music productions.

With VST Cubase, you would have a complete virtual studio. One can only visualise the money savings from not having to buy lots of equipment, or rent space to hold it all. The extra bonus is your studio is right at your fingertips. You can select the hours you want to work day or night.

You are surely not going to become weary with the VST Cubase. You would be able to edit MIDI files. In addition you could change the raw audio tracks or the lyrics for illustration. Then once you become genuinely familiar with Cubase you’ll be able to compose a stereo wav file that could be burned onto a Disc. With this technology, it makes the dream of composing studio quality music a reality. Up until the cost factors made it impossible for the general musician to be able to cut a Disc. It most certainly has opened many doors to opportunity.

Say you’re an avid musician or even music lover then the term computer music implies a wide range of ways to compose your music. There’re three ways to compose music with your pc. There is hybrid digital-analog systems, a digital to analog conversion. Along with this, there is sign-bit extraction. Out of the 3, the most favorite is the Digital to analog conversation. It’s the best choice.

When it is time to pick out the VST Cubase you are going to have the chance to pick out from a variety of versions. To help you decide what’s best for you genuinely consider what it’s youre going to need. The Cubase VST3.o Machintosh came out in 1996. It allows up to thirty-two tracks. Has a couple of added features that any composer will undoubtedly use. There is one problem with it limiting memory but this was soon adjusted with a patch.

If you are looking for a good windows version then take a look at the Cubase VST3.5 Windows. It has tremendous features along with thirty-two tracks of digital audio and a good deal of equalisers.

The more popular choices are Cubase SX, Cubase LE and Cubase 3. The latest version of VST Cubase would be the Cubase four. one released in 2007. It has taken care of whatsoever of the bugs that’ve been found in earlier versions. If you wish to go one step further than the ultimate is the Cubase 4.5.2 released on September 11, 2008.

Join us as we take a look at a few key tips for learning how to master the guitar. You’ll learn how playing with no effects improves accuracy, how to get the most out of practice sessions with guitar backing tracks, as well as a few principles to apply to guitar practice.

Every aspiring guitarist who picks up a guitar has the ultimate goal in mind of being able to just pick up their guitar and blaze a solo, leaving impressed friends and family in a state of awed shock. The problem is that most people do not put in the effort that is necessary in order to master their instrument because they desire instant gratification. Although guitar is one of the most difficult instruments to master, anyone can do it if they put in enough dedication, effort and time and have a true passion for creative musical expression.

There are a few tips that are the key to unlocking success when it comes to mastering the guitar. One of the most basic tips to guitar success is to put in the time that is necessary to practice. As elementary as it may seem, a lot of people fail and give up the guitar because they expected instant results without putting in any work. Practice takes time, effort, passion, and work. There isn’t a single great guitar player in the history of music that didn’t sacrifice a lot of time to practice their guitar. Some would practice for five to eight hours a day. This doesn’t mean that you have to practice that long every day, but you have to give more than five minutes of your time if you want to see any real results.

Another great tip for mastering the guitar is to take it slow at first. This means that playing fast is put to the side for awhile. Take your time perfecting your chords and learning them. Learn all your scales, commit them to your mind, master these fundamentals first, and then you can begin to build on your speed. It’s important to remember that playing fast is not as important as playing with accuracy.

One tip for mastering accuracy and clarity in your playing is to play your guitar clean. Playing your guitar clean means no distortion and no effects. By practicing your scales and chords without distortion, you will have to play the notes clean and accurately in order for them to sound good. This will push your style and accuracy to the next level as you’re learning new techniques and scales.

An excellent tool to allow you put into practice all that you have learned are backing tracks for guitarists. These tracks are great for helping you take what you have learned and use it alongside other musicians. It makes guitar practice so much more entertaining and keeps your motivated! These guitar backing tracks are like practicing with an entire band, and will help you develop timing and rhythm during lead sections. They are excellent for helping you tap into your creativity and apply what you have learned to creating excellent lead improvisions.

Recording levels are of the extreme importance when youre producing your music. This pertains to the level for the racks or the mixes. There has always been a ordinary answer for this being to set the level at max just below the digital zero. Referring to the top of the meter. Unluckily, a few of the experts will most likely tell you this’s incorrect.

One of the many things you would want to keep in mind with this industry is not to believe every thing you hear. (No pun intended). There’re various individuals that’ll tell you anything just that you would purchase their products. Anyone that has been in the comp music realm would tell you that digital audio has just gotten to the point where sound quality is good.

Remember one primary component about your quest of composing music and that’s the purpose of recording sound. Which is naturally so we could listen and enjoy it. You need to learn and be able to determine what parts of the music must be louder than a couple others. For example, a pop ballad should be lower on track than a thrash metal. A guitar solo should be above the normal back ground playing.

Your 1st inclination would be to use just your digital meters and record these one by one. On the surface, it sounds reasonable, but as a matter of fact, you can end up with the very opposite results. Reason being the digital recorders utilise peak meters, where as music listeners use their hearing implying they utilize reasonable characteristics when judging the levels. If not done in the right way then it implies the listener will be forced to turn the volume down.

You can prevent your frustrations if you simply record every thing at the proper levels right from the starting. It will be right to share 1 track between two instruments at least. This should simply be done when the two specific instruments are not playing concurrently. So you would record these instruments at the exact level that they would be at when physically playing the song. Utilise your estimation qualities to get the results that’re correct. You wish to hear what the end listeners should heae. They will not be utilizing meters they’ll be using their natural ability of hearing.

Remain consistent with your whole album, say the listener has to keep getting up to adjust the volume you could bet they will not be too happy.

If you try and do your sound recordings according to all the data that different people give you then you’ll soon become discouraged. What may work in 1 song will for sure not work in another. Then there would be all the controversy to sort through. Learn the fundamentals, follow your judgment and trust your ears. Composing music is suppose to be an enjoyable event even if its your livelihood, if you didnt have passion for music its unlikely you will even be involved in computer music.

So you’re very interested in learning how to play the piano keyboard, but you find all those black and white keys and three pedals pretty intimidating? Don’t worry; they’re no cause for alarm. All you need to get started is to familiarize yourself first with all the parts of a piano keyboard.

The piano keyboard is made up of a total of 88 keys: 36 black keys and 52 white keys. The pitch of the notes ascend as you work your way up to the rightmost portion of the keyboard, indicating that your music’s octaves are rising. The white keys are the natural notes, which aren’t sharpened or flattened. Sharps and flats are sounded by pressing the black keys. For example, the black key immediately to the right of C is called the C sharp (C#). This C sharp key is the D flat key of a natural D. Simply put, a black key positioned at the right of a white key is the sharp, and the black key on the left is its flat.

That’s a short sample of how you can figure out the flats, sharps, and naturals of a piano keyboard. If you want to broaden your skill and knowledge in playing the piano keyboard, you have to be familiar with notes, scales, and chords. Having a piano or an electronic piano keyboard would also allow you to practice what you learn right away. In this case, you can either take piano lessons.

But if you don’t have the time or think you cannot afford the services of a private piano instructor, it would be best if you study on your own with the help of many online piano courses out there (yes, studying piano online is becoming a very popular option these days). Not only will online study help you go at your own pace, you also have a wealth of online videos available to you which will help you learn to play the piano keyboard.

You might wonder if you really will get to use all the keys on a piano keyboard–and the answer is yes, you actually will once you’ve become proficient in playing the piano. If you want to be able to play piano with fewer keys, consider getting an electronic keyboard instead. This doesn’t have as many keys and it will make it easier for you to focus on playing your music. Electronic keyboards will, however, limit your ability to practice playing music in numerous octaves.

There is a stigma these days that is attached to the whole idea of playing piano by ear. It’s probably because many people don’t know how to properly play by ear. It’s like the forbidden skill of the piano world.

I think that people don’t understand exactly what playing by ear is. Playing by ear is nothing a hard and it can add depth and in range to your piano play. It will have you playing songs that you never thought possible. Are you ready for that?

The first thing to understand when you learn to play by ear is that the piano is made up of a mathematical formula. It sounds technical but it’s really not. All I’m saying is that the piano in most aspects is a pretty predictable instrument. Everything’s laid out in patterns.

The key is understanding these patterns. If you look at a piano you’ll notice there’s why keys and black keys which have a certain two black, then three black keys repeated. This happens throughout the piano. It doesn’t matter whether you play it on the high keys or on the low there is always a pattern.

So how can you learn the pattern? Well you can spend years crying and hoping but that won’t help you. Maybe prayer will. Seriously, you just need someone to teach you. The problem is not many piano teachers teach how to play by ear.

So where does that leave you? But, there is an option. There are some online piano courses that are specialized in teaching you the skill. The great thing about these courses is the present you with audio and video to give you a full multimedia experience of learning.

I suggest you be careful. When searching for an online piano course, don’t be swayed by the pretty sales copy on a website. This is nice but you really want substance. There are some websites that have great sales copy and great substance. There are some that have horrible sales copy and are great.

That is why I suggested you really do in depth research on the course. I tell you this because I was in the same boat. Online piano courses are relatively much cheaper then piano teachers. With the right piano course you will learn to play by ear. I know this because I know how to play by ear. And I learned using this method.

You’ve all the neat soft-ware and every thing you need to create an astonishing pop song. You know how you want to compose it. Youve a state of the art computer and you are ready to go. But now what? You simply dont know where to begin.

When you performed your vst download you realised you will be up and composing within minutes correct? Well hopefully by the time youve finished this article you would be well on your way to producing your first piece of computer music.

If you have been trying to do several research, then you would be a little overwhelmed with the contradictory data on the web. Without doubt, you’ll come across a great variation of people who said to have learned the perfect sound. Remember one thing all you need to learn is the fundamentals that’re utilized on the charts nowadays. Theyre a proven success and this is what you require when you start to utilise your vst download.

To begin with make up your mind that if you want top class results youre going to have to spend several serious time at it. If you want something that you can just throw together, then just go and experiment whenever you have the time. The following info is engaged to assisting you get the most from your VST download.

You most likely have the standard multitrack that comprises of about eight drum tracks, at least one base track. Then along with this, a few instruments example key boards and guitar. Then your vocals. You may likewise have a couple of percussion tracks too. And you would need at least a traditional multi-channel mixed along with some other standard items too. Next step is to familiarise yourself with all that you own in conjunction with your vst download.

Step one Record what you need to record. That will be the starting point

Step 2 Now begin your initial mixing. Dont jump directly here to start. Do your preparation work as outline above first.

Step three Start utilizing your noise gates, which’s a device geared towards letting sound come through if it’s louder than the set amount.

Step 4 Work on the padding, check if you want this or you primarily want the lead instruments to do the work.

Step 5 Save your work and it is break time!

Step six Now move onto adding the essential parts. Use your vst download to the fullest extent to get the sound you’re looking for.

Step 7 Pay closer attention to your equalization and processing of the major parts of your music that youve accumulated up to this point.

Step eight If you are limited with the amount of tracks that you have, you could involve some tract sharing here.

From now onwards you should be well versed with all of your vst download. You should have composed a stunning good piece. Do not stop here, now continue on adding all the fine tuning that you think it needs. Strive for the supreme recording possible. Who knows you will very well be the next top composer.

If you are new to the piano and you’ve probably experienced boredom. Sometimes that happens when you continue doing the same thing over and over again. Things become a little repetitious. I will show you a couple things that will make your piano playing experience a little bit more bearable and maybe even fun.

One thing I like to do is fool around and try to find funky weird chords that I’ve never used before. You may have absolutely no knowledge about the piano but nothing is stopping you from sitting down and experimenting. You may think that you have no creativity.

Trust me, you do. You just need to try to bring out of you. The simple act of figuring out chords on the piano will open up your creativity level. It’s also a just plain fun. So what if your chords sound horrible. Mess around with them and tell they sound good to you.

Don’t think of the piano as a job and. Although you should be serious about learning how to play the piano, the piano still is a hobby. With that being said, you should enjoy your hobby.

Would you play your favorite game and not enjoy it even if it was a hobby? It’s the same thing with the piano. Just because you have to learn how to do things on the piano doesn’t mean you have to be boring. This may not sound like a huge step but just changing the way you look at the piano can change how you practice.

A skill that has helped me really enjoy the piano is the skill of learn to play by ear. You probably were expecting the conventional piano practice tips weren’t you? Well I’m going to give you some non conventional wisdom.

Try new things. Playing by ear is an awesome thing to learn. I use it myself with great results. All I do is listen to a song and pick out notes I think are the song. If it sounds hard, it’s not. You’ll have to get the songs exact. That’s not the point. The point is to be creative. Have fun. That’s the key to effective practicing.

Are you tired of practicing your instrument all on your own? If you have some songs learned and want to play them with other people, then I’m sure you’ve considered the possibility of playing in a live band. Working with other guitarists, singers, drummers and bass players in a live band is the next and best step to take after you learn how to play your instrument.

How do you go about starting your own live band? It’s as easy as locating other players that would like to join a live band they could call their own. There are many fine musicians who want to play music in a live band. All you have to do is seek them out.

How do you find other musicians interested in playing in a live band? The best place to look is at your local music store. Most music stores have a bulletin board where they allow musicians to put up free ads for the purpose of finding other musicians to play with.

A good idea is to ask the local music store for a list of music teachers that teach lessons on the instruments you are looking to have in your band. These teachers will usually be able to put you in contact with their students who are ready and looking to be in a live band. Then all you have to do is contact the students to see if they’re interested in being in your band.

Once you have a list of musicians to contact it’s time to start making phone calls. Make sure you’re clear about the type of music you want to play. It’s a good idea to have a list of songs you want to learn so you can make sure the musicians you contact are interested in playing the same music as you.

The next step in starting a live band is to get together with the other musicians and try playing some music. At first you just want to get together with one or two people at a time. Make sure you all have a song or two prepared to play and then simply try playing together. You’ll be able to tell quickly if you are going to be able to play together or not. If you’re not sure how many musicians you need, read my article about the typical live band lineup.

After you find a group of musicians who can play some complete songs together you’ll have the start of your live band. Have a few easy goals to work on right from the start. An important and easy goal is to learn to play two new songs on your own before you get together again. The next time you get together you can work on playing all the songs from start to finish.

There are going to be a lot of things that will go into making your live band work and become successful. The most important thing to remember is to have a common goal and to work together to reach it. Having a goal of learning new songs every week will keep you focused and your band will just keep getting better!