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There are loads more to United Kingdom music festivals this summer that Maps Festival. From rock by the seaside at Edinburgh to folk and acoustic sounds at Cambridge, the UK’s festivals market place is in marvellous health. Tickets for old favourites like Hide and Seek Festival and Maps Festival continue to be snapped up like hot cakes, but with Black Eye Peas on On the Rocks Usher at V Festival and Jay-Z at Glastonbury the Britain’s festivals are appealing to a greater demographic range than ever before.

To ask, what do folk want from a music festival? Is it sensational dance music so folk can have a laugh all evening, ear bleeding heavy metal music for serious moshing or some breathtaking soft folk music while festival lovers lie in the lovely sun? What is further fundamental really is the type of ambiance that you are looking for, the line ups and the facilities, all of which at different festivals vary a lot. The main festivals goes into swing kind of at the tail end of March beginning of August they happen up & down the British countryside so there is always going to be a lovely festival that is close to you yourself. There are hardly ever any disappointments as one of course are obviously going to pick an astonishing festival that matches festival hunters and what festival hunters are looking for. Log online to buy Summer Festival Tickets for the biggest and best festivals in the UK.

The first time festival goers attend a fine festival from the second one walk in the grounds to erect your tent accommodation one might often feel this marvellous buzz. Festivals naturally seem to get funnier year after year. The only disadvantage that appears to get discussed year after year are the cost of kebabs and drink however this cant be helped. Folk are no allowed to take any of your own kebabs or vodka onto the festival site but folk are allowed to bring it into your campsite so it makes sense to eat and drink all festival lovers can before stepping into the ground this way festival hunters should be able to refrain from spending tons of money What makes a marvellous festival great is for obvious reasons the sunny weather, the pleasant atmosphere the bands and the fierce memories that festival hunters are obviously going to make along the way.

This article gives the essential basics for how to play the violin. Generally violins are quite commonly available instruments and it is reasonably easy to rent or buy a violin. Children may need smaller violins (from an eighth, quarter, half, three-quarters, seven-eighths up to full size) to accommodate smaller hands if they are going to be learning over an extended period.

The Basics

The bow is held in the right hand with the thumb bent underneath the frog to support it and the other hands loosely gripping the wood. There are many different holds and it its important to find one that suits your hand size and strength. The violin is held with the left hand, with the chin on the chin rest supporting most of the weight, and the fingers loosely coiled around the neck of the violin. The thumb should be relaxed but firm. The left elbow should be curved under the violin. The violin should be roughly horizontal and the right arm held high. The main methods of playing the violin are bowed and pizzicato.

Bowed

The bow should be drawn swiftly and smoothly across the strings, about halfway between the fingerboard and the bridge. A down bow starts with the hand close to the strings pulling across the string from left to right, and is generally used on strong beats. An up bow goes the opposite way, right to left, and is used on weaker beats and upbeats. However with practice down bows and up bows should be fairly difficult to distinguish. Slurs in music indicate that all notes within a slur should be played in the same bow movement. To play loud notes, the bow is pressed down harder on the string using the index finger or the bow is drawn across the string faster. To play more quietly use less pressure or draw the bow across the string slower. In classical music bowed music is indicated by the Italian term arco.

Pizzicato

To play pizzicato (often abbreviated to pizz.) the right thumb should be placed under the fingerboard and the index finger used to pull the string quickly upwards and across. For faster passages, the bow can be held while playing pizzicato, still using the index finger but without the support of the thumb. In more complex and advanced pieces, a small cross above the stave indicates the fingers of the left hand plucking the strings.

Fingering and positions

As there are no physical aids such as frets for violinists as there are for guitarists, accurate tuning comes with immense practice. On a full size violin, the tones are roughly two centimeters apart, but this is difficult to judge when playing since you are seeing from a different perspective. To aid tuning, it is very helpful to have a piano or other keyboard instrument when practicing.

The fingers of the left hand are conventionally named first (index finger) to fourth (little finger). When playing notes other than open strings (G, A, D and E), these fingers must press down hard, so that the string is shortened convincingly for a higher pitch. The standard intervals taught to beginners is tone, tone, semitone, tone (ie. G-A-B-C-D, D-E-F#-G-A, A-B-C#-D-E, and E-F#-G#-A-B). Of course the notes in between can be played by rearranging the hand position.

This is known as first position, where the first finger plays up to a tone above the open string. The next position usually taught is third position, where the first finger plays the note a perfect fourth above the open string (so, for example, third position on the A string would start on the D). All positions from first up to anywhere around tenth can be thus played, and two octaves on one string are considered fairly standard.

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The piano is an instrument that almost anybody can learn to play by simply playing by ear and produce some music. Achieving piano learning excellence is not something that just anybody can obtain. It starts acquiring a value for music before music theory; by planting the seed for future interest about the instrument; by recognizing the feeling and desire that awakes in one’s soul to know more. This feeling that becomes so strong and helps you, pushes you to become the best you can be, not better than others, but the best you can be.

It is said that “In music, a mistake is a mistake; the instrument is in tune or not, the notes are well played or not…. It is only by much hard work that a successful performance is possible. Music performance teaches and helps young people to conquer fear and to take risks. When the value of Music takes deep roots in a person, it will be with him/her forever.

Through study and continuous practice and love for music, students learn the value of sustained effort to achieve excellence and the concrete rewards of hard work. There are plenty of opportunities to get involved with music and piano learning activities now days. Technology is much more accessible now making it possible and affordable for anybody to study music than ever before.

Music is a peaceful manner and a means to achieve self-expression. It is a universal language that geographical boundaries that cannot contain, and it is automatically understood and felt in specific ways for anybody that is around it. Music study develops skills that are necessary in the workplace. It focuses on “doing,” as opposed to observing, and teaches students how to perform, literally, anywhere in the world.

Music stretches one’s imagination and helps us achieve greater things in life, but mostly builds nice memories now and for the future. You want to enjoy a great moments for life? Learn to play the piano.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jesse Fisher enjoys writing about interesting new developments in the music education world. Learn more about valuing music before theory to help you more in all your goals and educational pursuits.

The piano is an amazing instrument. So many notes, so many keys! That’s why the crossover or arpeggio technique is employed frequently. It allows the pianist to use much of the keyboard and the left hand.

The trick to using this technique is in the crossover itself. Usually, the left hands initial position will span an octave and then the index or ring finger will be used to crossover the thumb to continue playing more notes of the chord.

A good example of this is the piece “Thanksgiving” by George Winston. Here, a whole harmonic background is created by the left-hand crossover technique while the right improvises a melody line. And the results are a beautiful piece of music! Nothing complicated here. He just gets his left hand down using a few chords. This creates the backdrop for the entire piece - and the mood!

You too can create your own harmonic backgrounds. Once you learn how to do the crossover technique, you’ll find it to be something you’ll use over and over again. Why? Because of its capacity to use much of the keyboard and the beautiful sound you can get from it.

There are many variations to the crossover technique as well. In fact, you can actually use it to cover more than 4 octaves of the keyboard! You just keep crossing over with the left hand to cover as many notes as you wish. Another great example of this technique is the lesson “Morning Mist!” Here we use 4 chords and a simple crossover technique to create a light ambiance. We keep playing these chords in the left hand while the right is free to improvise a melody and we have created a beautiful piece of music!

Edward Weiss is a pianist/composer and webmaster of Quiescence Music’s online piano lessons. He has been helping students learn how to play piano in the New Age style for over 14 years and works with students in private, in groups, and now over the internet. Stop by now at http://www.quiescencemusic.com/piano_lessons.html for a FREE piano lesson!