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Articles by Mike Shaw

• The Rise Of Opera
  The first experiments in the construction of an opera had their origin in circumstances in themselves of no very great importance, and only remotely connected with music. In 1579 Bianca Capello was married to Francisco de Medici, son of Cosmo, Grand Duke of Tuscany. The wedding took place in Venice amid elaborately devised festivities, among which were dramatic representations accompanied with music.
  Published 11Aug2007, viewed 460 times

• The Renaissance - Part 2
  The great principles underlying all Renaissance work was that of faithfulness to nature, as opposed to faithfulness to tradition, which had been the sheet anchor of pre Renaissance art and letters.
  Published 08Aug2007, viewed 519 times

• The Renaissance - Part 1
  The compositions of Palestrina, and the reforms he was able to effect in Church music, may be said to mark the culmination of the early ages of Christian musical art. We have now come to an important turning point in musical history, but before going further, it will be useful to take a rapid survey of the period we are leaving behind.
  Published 05Aug2007, viewed 302 times

• Playing The Piano - Part 2
  The damper of the piano is the only means of stopping the string's vibrations, which would otherwise continue, longer than is wanted. In violin playing, the same stoppage of tone takes place when the player stops drawing the bow across the strings.
  Published 02Aug2007, viewed 301 times

• Playing The Piano - Part 1
  The peculiarities of the mechanism of any instrument constitute in all cases a law for the application of the energy to be expended upon that mechanism. In so far as energy is correctly applied, the machine or mechanism should give back an equivalent of work done; but if the power applied is lacking or weak, then the results obtained will also be the same.
  Published 29Jul2007, viewed 278 times

• The Key Mechanism Of The Piano - Part 2
  When a key on the piano is pushed down, and then kept down, it will be noticed that the tone continues sounding for a considerable time after the push has taken place, and ceases whenever the key is allowed to rise.
  Published 25Jul2007, viewed 309 times

• The Key Mechanism Of The Piano - Part 1
  The piano, while similar in some of its features too many other kinds of musical instruments, differs materially in several important points from all other kinds.
  Published 20Jul2007, viewed 289 times

• The Physical Action Of Playing The Piano
  In examining the nature of the hand, it will be necessary at this stage to exclude any consideration of it other than as something to be acted upon. It will afterwards, in its relation to the keyboard, be considered as an agent.
  Published 18Jul2007, viewed 336 times

• How To Play The Piano Expressively - Part 2
  But before any accurate observations can be made of what the hand is doing, it is necessary that the eye should know what to look for, as it can see only that which it brings the power of seeing. “No man can learn what he has not the preparation for learning.”
  Published 14Jul2007, viewed 320 times

• How To Play The Piano Expressively - Part 1
  The aim of these series of articles will be to help the piano student arrive at a clear idea of how to acquire that which is necessary in piano playing, namely, a good tone-production. It will be necessary for the piano student to observe, fully and precisely, as much of the mechanism of the piano as possible.
  Published 11Jul2007, viewed 338 times

• The History Of British Music
  Music in Britain prior to the seventeenth century, or at any rate the latter part of the sixteenth, presents itself under very much the same aspects as on the Continent. On the one hand Church music, on the other Minstrelsy and latterly, the rise of a secular art, secular in spirit but hampered with Church traditions.
  Published 07Jul2007, viewed 386 times

• Music History – The Troubadour Part 2
  If a noble was unlucky enough to be ridiculed by a Troubadour, he could be assured that within a short time every court and castle in Southern Europe would be laughing at him. In some cases, he may have to defend himself and his property against hostile neighbours.
  Published 04Jul2007, viewed 264 times

• Five Top Tips On How To Play MIDI Bass Pedals
  Arranger keyboards such as the Yamaha Tyros 2 and the Korg PA800 are becoming extremely popular since the massive decline in electric organ sales. These arranger keyboards provide automatic bass lines, which is fine if you are playing basic triad and seventh chords. With a MIDI pedal board you can divert the bass note in the auto chord system to the bass pedal note you want.
  Published 28Jun2007, viewed 596 times

• Music History – The Troubadour Part 1
  As Europe emerged from the barbarism, savagery and intellectual barrenness of the centuries after the fall of the Roman Empire. Music was available in two distinct types, which was represented by two distinct people of the time, the Monk and the Gleeman or Minstrel.
  Published 21Jun2007, viewed 310 times

• A Brief History Of Music - The Romans
  The Romans had little or no musical genius, and they were content to take their music, like every other artistic element of their national life, from the Greeks. The Greek was the child of nature, refined and educated through his own innate sense of beauty and fitness.
  Published 17Jun2007, viewed 428 times

• The History Of Music - The Greeks
  The musical history of the Greeks may be divided into two great periods, the historical, and the mythological. The mythological period covers the entire range of traditions and legends, and extends up to the time when the Greeks began to reckon by Olympiads.
  Published 06Jun2007, viewed 516 times

• Am I Too Old To Learn To Play The Piano?
  I have been teaching Keyboard and Organ for nearly thirty years, my youngest student was Four years old, and the oldest was Eighty years old.
  Published 01Jun2007, viewed 1583 times

• The History Of Music - The Egyptians
  Among the ancient Egyptians we find music at a somewhat similar pitch of development to that already observed among the Assyrians, technically, that is, but also having a far grander spirit, at least so one would imagine by comparing such works as exist of the musical life of the two peoples.
  Published 30May2007, viewed 544 times

• The History Of Music - The Assyrians
  In the sculptures found in what are thought to be the ruins of Nineveh are many representations of musicians and musical instruments. The latter appear to have been of very finished workmanship, and to have reached that stage of development where beauty and essential fitness meet on an equal footing.
  Published 28May2007, viewed 328 times

• Arranger Keyboards Are Killing The Electric Organ
  In my opinion, the organ is also more playable as a live instrument. Because of the bass pedals, you can play the organ without any auto chord or drum machine and get a very respectable sound. The keyboard on the other hand would sound thin, definitely lacking without auto chord/bass. Of course, arranger keyboards are considerably cheaper than new organs and take up less room.
  Published 25May2007, viewed 1188 times

• The History Of Music - Part 2
  Musical instruments are divided into three categories instruments of percussion, wind instruments, and stringed instruments. Very simple forms of these are known to every tribe on the earth, and in their simplest form may be said to lie ready to the hand of the savage
  Published 23May2007, viewed 465 times

• How To Improve Piano Sheet Music Sight-Reading
  As a club organist, you do not get a band call. In fact, you are lucky to get five minutes to scan through between 10 and 15 pieces of music. Some written in different keys, and every organist will tell you they hate it when they get the dreaded 6 sharps or 6 flats or even 7 sharp keys in a piece of music that just happens to contain a solo especially written for you.
  Published 21May2007, viewed 1511 times

• The History of Music - Part 1
  Music, like articulate, connected speech, must be reckoned one of the primary things or human life. It is almost impossible to conceive of the existence of a race of people unpossessed of at least some rudimentary form of music, and certainly no such race has yet been discovered.
  Published 19May2007, viewed 491 times

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