Rant: How hypocrisy and shallow mindedness is destroying positive web culture (and music)

I rarely rant on Piano & Synth, but a couple of articles have really riled me, and since they mention music (possibly in an attempt to gain a bit of popularity as I can’t see much specific reference to music) I felt compelled to mention it here.

The first “article” which made me mad was about Reason 4 shipping. Reason is a fine piece of software, so I am irritated (as I am sure the developers are — probably an understatement) when I read statements like “It is noted that some people still wish it had VSTs and Linux support, and of course audio recording.” after “Propellerhead Reason 4 Now Shipping (and available on bittorrent sites with a serial keygen).”

People, there’s usually a reason (ahem) why requested features don’t make it into a product, and illegal software downloads is one very big reason. Propellerhead Software are NOT Microsoft, and they don’t have the margins to absorb the impact of the illegal used of their software.

That wasn’t even the rant.

This is…

In an artlcle entitled Avoid the Destruction of Positive Web Culture (and your music) we’re “treated” to a tirade of abuse against a number of web sites and “corrupt people using the net starting as recently as 3-4 years ago”.

Apparently, the social bookmarking site DIGG has articles which are always “posted to make you fear or hate something even if its benign”. Apparently, Slashdot is a better alternative. The writer has obviously never read the tons of vitriolic abuse that the owners of websites featured on Slashdot have to put up with, or indeed the in-fighting in the comments section.

Google is apparently “barf inducing”, though I doubt the writer minds getting listed in the search engine.

Weblogs Inc is apparently “shit”, and apparently only focused on technology, even though when I looked at their home page I found a number of non-tech sites…

And so on.

All this “positivity” (ha ha ha) is supposed to encourage you to “Make music you really care about please. Don’t fall into the cultural contamination in the same way. Companies will come at you with corrupt tactics, marketing, and hype. They will make shitty electronics & software for you to buy. Information affects your brain forever. Pretty soon you could be thinking like them and make shitty music about it. To avoid all the BS in the world you just have to make your own path and don’t look back. Just express yourself, and don’t get hooked onto someone else’s crap.

Take your culture back and start making positive music again!!”

Yes, that indeed is the only part of the article supposedly about music. I wasn’t aware that I had begun to make negative music, though after reading that tirade I think I might just have to.

After all that, the author’s idea of “positive web culture” includes The Pirate Bay. Yes, folks, apparently it’s just A OK to go grabbing whatever content you like, for free, without caring one iota for the content owners. Woo. Yeah, that’s so positive, man.

Having ranted about all of that, I’ve noticed that a lot of the content of “The Chip Collection” is bordering on being a splog, lifted verbatim from other sites. Hypocritical? Yep.

Apologies that this article wasn’t really about music, but that really irritated me.

Tips for working as a freelance musician

Peter Moser has written an excellent article on working as a freelance musician that covers freelance job roles, workplace, equipment and transport, skills development, fees and finance, insurance and professional support, promotion, and lifestyle, plus the advantages and disadvantages of being a freelance musician.

A worthwhile read.

Britain’s Top 10 Favourite Classical works revealed

A poll by UK classical music radio station Classic FM has revealed the nation’s favourite ten pieces of classical music:

1) The Lark Ascending Vaughan Williams
2) Cello Concerto Elgar
3) Piano Concerto No 2 Rachmaninov
4) Clarinet Concerto Mozart
5) Piano Concerto No 5 Beethoven (”Emperor”)
6) Enigma Variations Elgar
7) Violin Concerto No 1 Bruch
Symphony No 6 Beethoven (”Pastoral”)
9) Symphony No 9 Beethoven (”Choral”)
10) Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis Vaughan Williams

Interview with Dr. Galina Mindlin on ‘brain wave music’ at MSNBC

MSNBC have published an interview with Dr. Galina Mindlin about ‘brain wave music’:

Researchers can turn a person’s brain waves into music notes using a computerized mathematical formula. Some experts say that those notes can heal. When you play the “relaxing” file on your brain music CD, your brain tells your body to relax. When you listen to your “activating” or “energy” file, the theory is that you’ll feel more alert. Called brain music therapy, this treatment has been used by thousands of patients worldwide to treat anxiety, insomnia, even depression.

MSNBC.com: How do you turn brain waves into music?

Dr. Galina Mindlin: Brain waves are translated into music digitally with a special algorithm. It took many years and the effort of a multidisciplinary team of clinicians, researchers, mathematicians and musicians led by Dr. Iakov Levine to develop this algorithm. Once the brain waves are converted into musical sounds, they are placed on a CD with a relaxing file and activating file and instructions on how to use them.

MSNBC.com: What does it sound like?

Dr. Galina Mindlin: It sounds like classical piano music.

Read

Resonant rice

Here’s a little off-topic video I found on YouTube - well it’s to do with sound frequencies so I’ll pretend it’s synth-related.

Watch how the rice creates different patterns based upon the frequency being played through the speaker.

Admin note [boring]

Because certain sections of the web community can’t be trusted, and insist on coping entire chunks of RSS feed and claiming it as their own, I’m disabling full RSS feeds from now on.

This means more work for me, and frustration for those of you who like to read full news in your RSS aggregator.

More work for me, because I will try to write a meaningful excerpt of the piece (rather than just supplying the first few lines of the article) that will hopefully help you to know whether it’s worth clicking through to the site to read the entire article.

I do hope you’ll stick with us here, either via feed or by visiting the web site. Things have slowed a bit recently due to other commitments and a short bout of ill health, but we aim to bring you the best in piano and synth news, views and reviews every day.

If any of you are interested, we still have writing opportunities at Piano and Synth.

“The Piano Student of Mrs McAlfrey” teaches children to practice piano

“The Piano Student of Mrs McAlfrey”, created by Kalamazoo pianist and arranger Rich Ridenour, is a new child-friendly musical whose primary message is that to get from “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” to George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody in Blue”, and beyond, you have to practice, practice, practice.

In the one-hour program, geared for children ages 5 to 12, the piano student (Ridenour) loves baseball and sports. But then he discovers that playing the piano can be just as much fun as hitting a home run with the bases loaded.

“Our goal is to turn kids on to playing the piano and expose them to the different levels of learning,” Ridenour said. Youngsters who attend the program will get a head start on stardom by receiving a free starter packet of piano music.

Read the full article: Show aims to encourage young music students

Advice: Don’t dance on pianos

Just don’t.

Any make you like, as long as it’s Yamaha…

How big does a music store have to get before it will showcase an unbiased range of digital pianos?

Don’t get me wrong, I love Yamaha keyboard instruments, and they do have a large share of the market, but they aren’t the only players out there.

In my town, one music dealer has an exclusive deal with Yamaha, and the other probably has a 90% stock of Yamaha gear.

What about Casio, M-Audio, Technics, Roland, Korg?

I’d actually quite like to get my hands on a ProKeys 88 just to see if it really does sound and feel that good, for half the price of a P140, but I can’t.

There are probably massive showrooms in Central London, but it would be nice to have a decent showroom locally.

Yes, we can buy equipment online, and this is great for getting a good financial deal, but there is no substitute for trying out the instrument first. In fact, I won’t buy any keyboard that I haven’t touched.

So come on retailers - let’s have some genuine competition here. A lot of people will still buy Yamaha because they are good, but there are plenty of alternatives and we keyboard players want to try them out!

Anyone else face this? Do guitarists get this problem?

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