http://www.musicalcosmos.com/blog From Beethoven to binaural beats, Musical Cosmos explores my interest in writing and performing music, favourite artists/bands and styles, and the influence of music and sound on consciousness and the physical world. Sun, 01 Jun 2008 17:24:26 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en I'm setting up some music-related lenses on Squidoo. The first is about HIM - click here to visit! There's not much on it yet, but I'll add more soon. I'll also be setting up lenses on songwriting, music composition, various artists and musical instruments, and more. Squidoo is kind of addictive! http://www.musicalcosmos.com/blog/2007/09/23/musical-cosmos-is-now-on-squidoo/ When playing the guitar it's important to memorise the positions of all the notes on the fretboard. While you can 'get by' to some extent without doing this, it really helps if you want to play fluently, without having to stop to figure out where the notes you need are ... http://www.musicalcosmos.com/blog/2007/08/21/guitar-training-tool-memorise-the-fretboard/ Well, I took a week off from my new flute practice plan - I won't bore you with the details, but it wasn't planned! Still, at this stage, it hasn't set me back too much, and I'm now back into it. I'm currently playing through lessons 2 & 3 each ... http://www.musicalcosmos.com/blog/2007/08/19/flute-progress-week-4-summary/ "Writing about music is like dancing about architecture." - Laurie Anderson This is sooo true. Which is ironic, since this whole site consists of writing about music, but it's still true nonetheless. I write about it because it's fun to do so for me, but I have no illusions that anything ... http://www.musicalcosmos.com/blog/2007/08/10/music-quote-laurie-anderson/ I got into Siouxsie & the Banshees when I was 11 - they were the first band I really liked, and have had a huge influence on my own music. So it's good to see that Siouxsie is now back, with her new solo single Into a Swan. You can see ... http://www.musicalcosmos.com/blog/2007/08/07/new-siouxsie-single-into-a-swan/ I have been playing through lesson 1 and the first half of lesson 2. It is all just simple exercises and melodies, using Bb4 - G5. I can play them all quite fluently, although my intonation isn't too good yet. I have been playing for less than 10 minutes ... http://www.musicalcosmos.com/blog/2007/07/30/flute-progress-week-1-summary/ Welcome to the first 'Basics' series. This initial series covers the piano. Over the coming weeks a variety of piano-related topics will covered, and this information is primarily aimed at those who are new to the piano, or who are thinking of learning to play, but don't know much about ... http://www.musicalcosmos.com/blog/2007/07/28/piano-basics-1-introduction/ Part of my interest in music is in exploring how it (and sound in all forms) can influence consciousness. This is of interest partly because it's fun to explore altered states naturally, and partly because I know from my own experience that my consciousness creates my reality. I see everything ... http://www.musicalcosmos.com/blog/2007/07/27/abraham-who/ Many people who are new to music (I'm thinking here of non-classical guitarists, since the electric guitar is one of my instruments, so I'm familiar with the attitudes of many players), not only don't bother to learn to read traditional notation, but even seem to take pride in that inability. ... http://www.musicalcosmos.com/blog/2007/07/26/should-you-learn-to-read-music/ "Music is the movement of sound to reach the soul for the education of its virtue." - Plato Lol - I wonder what Plato would make of today's pop charts! Somehow I don't think most modern songs are too concerned about creating virtous souls in their listeners. Still, I like the ... http://www.musicalcosmos.com/blog/2007/07/25/music-quotes-plato/