Blog Archives
Friday, July 31st, 2009 | Home and Family |
Feeling guilty about not volunteering enough at my son's
elementary school this year, I signed up to chaperone their St.
Patrick's Day party, a.k.a. "Irish Disco". Of course, my young
daughter wanted to come along. I never thought I'd be taking my
kids to their first dance at the ages of four and nine!
I hardly saw my son during the whole party. He was hanging out
with the boys, and 'too cool' to sit with his mom and little
sister. But it didn't bother me in the least - I enjoyed two
hours of ...
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Thursday, July 30th, 2009 | Relationships |
When two people - destined for each other, come together, there
is often an incredible amount of combustibility. Combustion
occurs when two or more substances react chemically together,
resulting in the giving off of heat and light; often called
burning. In the same manner, two people joined together by God
can spiritually set each other on fire.
However, after being married a while that sense of
combustibility can easily be lost if the spiritual life of the
marriage is not cultivated. But, a ...
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Wednesday, July 29th, 2009 | Art and Entertainment |
This is a true story. It was told to me by a guy I met on a
Riverboat. That's how I know it's true; who could doubt the
veracity of a River Rat? He didn't use any backup singers when
he told it to me, but I thought since this is going out on the
Internet and all, I should shine it up a bit.
I spared no expense to fly these women in from Nashville. They
are, I am proud to tell You, the same backup singers who did all
that 'Wah-ooo' stuff on C.W. McCall's records.
I am laboring under a serious ...
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Tuesday, July 28th, 2009 | Education |
Playing by ear is the ability to play a piece of music (or,
eventually, learn an instrument) by simply listening to it
repeatedly. The majority of self-taught musicians began their
education this way; they picked up their instrument and began
playing an easy melody from a well-known song, slowly picking
out the notes as they went along. And even after these musicians
master their instruments or a particular song, playing by ear
still plays a large role. Many pop and rock bands don't play ...
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Monday, July 27th, 2009 | Hobbies |
This article is the result of a conversation I had with a
magician about his website. He wanted to know if I could build
him a nice looking site that had his name and contact
information on it. I explained to him the purpose of having a
website and what you want visitors to do when they land on your
site.
Why Do You Have a Website?
The number one reason magicians have websites is ego. They want
to be able to say to people, "You can visit my website at
www.bite-me-hard.com." When the person ...
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Saturday, July 25th, 2009 | Education |
Will listening to music make you smarter? Will learning to play
a musical instrument make your brain grow larger than normal?
Questions like these ones have been popping up all over the
place in the past few years, and not just in scientific journals
either.
In recent times the media has been fascinated by the research
surrounding brain development and music, eagerly reporting on
the latest studies to the delight of the music-loving parents of
young children.
But all this information - and some ...
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Thursday, July 23rd, 2009 | Education |
Hello! Welcome to the wonderful world of music. Have you always
dreamed of being able to learn how to play the piano, keyboard,
guitar or any other instrument? Well, your dream is just about
to come true with this Free Music eCourse. This dream of yours
is not something so far away that it cannot become a reality in
a very short while.
Did you know that pianos in some form have been around for over
500 years? Some of the first instruments of this kind were
called clavichords. They had a very ...
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Wednesday, July 22nd, 2009 | Home and Family |
Christmas is celebrated by almost all of Christendom uniformly
throughout the world. The origin of this celebration was
instituted by the Catholic Church centuries after the death and
resurrection of Christ. No one but the church fathers is
responsible for this holiday. It is not something called for in
the bible nor ever taught by Christ or his apostles. Regardless
of this fact it is what it has become that is more in question
than how it began.
Some sects of the church do not observe ...
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Tuesday, July 21st, 2009 | Education |
While most students want to know when to play certain notes and
chords, it's equally important to know when not to play. For
example, I had a student who knew how to improvise and play in
the New Age style. What he didn't know how to do was to allow
for breathing space. I tried to teach him that you don't have to
play note upon note but allow for some pauses.
Eventually he got it. He learned how not to rush and that the
pauses between notes are as important as the notes themselves -
especially ...
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Monday, July 20th, 2009 | Hobbies |
When we were searching for a method of re-creating a national
pastime favorite, the fun of caves and artificial rocks, we
resorted to experimenting with our own concoctions and landed
with a process that is fun, easy, and surprisingly durable, with
the best part being economical. CaveRock has been met with
incredible appeal and in the short time we've offered it, the
customer response has been overwhelming.
CaveRock is the closest thing to a real stone structure you can
create on such a large ...
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Saturday, July 18th, 2009 | Home and Family |
An old porch swing has a unique charm, providing an abundance of
relaxing, down-home country atmosphere regardless of where one
happens to live. Some of my fondest memories revolve around the
old, worn swing that used to adorn the front porch of my
childhood home.
I vividly remember my mom sitting in that old porch swing as
twilight settled in, carefully watching over us kids as we
scampered around the yard chasing "lighting bugs" and listening
to our own squeals of delight several times as ...
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Friday, July 17th, 2009 | Education |
Have you ever dreamed of performing a piece you created for
others. Imagining that they are captivated and held spellbound
by the music? If you have, you know that it can be a long road
from actually coming up with something, practicing it, and then
giving it to an audience. In my own case, I had a good
opportunity to perform. It was in a coffeehouse that already had
a decent piano.
The problem was that I was playing for people who had come to
listen mostly to guitarists on open mike night. ...
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Saturday, July 11th, 2009 | Home and Family |
Fernanders earliest experience with Spiritual music were written
on his little not pad in crayon. His unique style was refined by
his Heavenly Father into a sound personifying prolific, which is
contained in Fernanders' explosive debut album, Acts of Love.
Acts of Love showcases Fernanders Spiritual journey with his
Lord and Savior Jesus Christ embodied in a mixture of gorgeous
lyrics and splendidly done vocal arrangements. This urban/pop
contemporary album fall nothing short of ...
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Friday, July 10th, 2009 | Spirituality |
A Desperate World in Need of the Pure Gospel!
Billions of people are living in poverty around the world. About 2.8 billion people are living on less than two dollars a day. Millions are dying from starvation and diseases in the Third World. The global financial crisis has caused millions to lose their home and the world has probably just seen the beginning of a major global crisis that not even the financial experts could have foretold. The threat of nuclear war is hanging in the air and the ...
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Thursday, July 9th, 2009 | Education |
Do you ramble on endlessly with your improvisations? If so,
good. This has its place in music making and in new age piano
playing in particularly. Just listen to Michael Jones's music to
hear an example of this kind of free-form improvisation.
Now, some of you want to create something that will give the
listener a slightly more cohesive experience. How is this
accomplished? By forming the music into a shape - an ABA shape
for our purposes here. To give form to music does not require as
much ...
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Wednesday, July 8th, 2009 | Home and Family |
Would your child rather watch television and play video games
all day than move an inch? Children are battling obesity and
inactivity at alarming rates. It's time to get our kids in shape
now, before they face serious health problems in the future. But
how?
As you can guess, the plan includes lots of fun. Any time you
can add excitement and laughter into an activity, you've got a
winner. Let's take a look at some of the ways you can help your
child not only become healthier, but enjoy the ...
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Tuesday, July 7th, 2009 | Home and Family |
Asbestos is a mineral used in the construction and manufacturing
sectors owing to its heat-resisting properties. Researches have
proved that prolonged exposure to Asbestos can cause many lung
related diseases including mesothelioma cancer. The need for
safe asbestos bag disposal methods is crucial to reduce the
exposure and resulting effects.
The government had made safe asbestos bag disposal a mandatory
requirement. The New Jersey Department of Environmental
Protection has issued guidelines ...
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Sunday, July 5th, 2009 | Education |
Have you ever dreamed of penning your own compositions? Writing
music has been a dream of mine for the longest time. And it's a
dream I am fortunate enough to have realized.
The idea of having a finished piece of music in front of you is
exciting to say the least, but many students rush the process
and end up with music that is less than what they originally
thought of.
The way around this "compostion trap" as I like to call it is to
be able to sit down at the piano or keyboard and be able to ...
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Friday, July 3rd, 2009 | Education |
Some people think composing is this miraculous thing that only
genius's do. What a myth! It's a skill that can be learned. What
can't be learned is the intuition that guides the creative
force. What can be learned is the technique. And the most
important part of composing technique has to do with THINKING IN
PHRASES.
A musical phrase can be 2-bars long. It can be from 4 to 8-bars
long as well. It is a unit of music that composers use, along
with repetition and contrast to create ENTIRE ...
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Thursday, July 2nd, 2009 | Home and Family |
African young girls are always on the go at the earlier age of
about 9 years. Loving blindly without taking into account the
consequences:
The argument over abortion is rarely waged with much reference
to reason. Our courage and determination usually make as
illogical. When the issue at stake is whether to legalize it,
many argue the moral issue rather than the simple legal question
of who should make the decision. The story I am narrating avoids
much of this debate and in steady homes in on ...
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Wednesday, July 1st, 2009 | Art and Entertainment |
The transition from 2004 to 2005 has been electrifying. The
international ramifications of the deaths of so many people, and
the wrecked livelihoods of multitudes of survivors, has brought
about an international outpouring of concern and aid in the wake
of the massive earthquake and tsunamis that destroyed the
coastlines of many nations in the southeast Asian region. This
response, even toward an area of the world which of late has
exhibited antagonism toward Christians and Jews, is ...
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