Guitar

            Guitar is a plucked strings music instrument commonly with six strings. Of course almost all people know guitars. Guitar is a very famous music instrument all over the world. Guitar is a simple music instrument. You can bring it everywhere easily (not like piano). Guitar can also represented an orchestra.

           Guitar has improved a lot. There many kinds of guitar now, such as guitar bass with 4 or more strings, acoustic guitar with 6 strings, and some guitars have more than 6 strings. Technology has improved that cause guitar modified become electric guitar. The sound also can be modified become other sound. Even though the technology has improved, we still have to learn about the original guitar.

            There are two ways how to play guitar, strum or plucked. Mostly, people play guitar with strum technique, because it’s easier than pluck the string. Plucking is usually played in the classical music.

            Guitar is one octave bellow the violin. The standard open strings of guitar is E, A, D, G, B, E from the lowest to highest open strings. There are some other kind of tuning, sometimes the tuning would become D, A, D, G, B, E or E, A, D, F#, B, E for some songs depend on the arranger, composer or style of the song. You have to ensure that the guitar is tuned well. When the temperature changes, it would effect at the guitar strings tone.

            Guitar also can play a lot of kinds of music, such as Pop, Jazz, Rock, Blues Country, Classical, etc. They make some different variation in each kind of music.

            In the Pop music, guitar is very famous. Usually people play it with strum technique. Because it is very simple and easy to learn. But sometimes the songs are using plucking technique.

            In the Jazz, Rock, Blues and Country music, guitar is also useful. They can make some variations in the songs. The chord that they are playing is also varied and sometimes uncommon.

            In the classical music, guitar is commonly played with plucked technical. If you play classical guitar, you’ll have to pay attention to the way you sit at the chair, holding guitar, and you’ll need footstool for it. It is a little bit difficult to play it, it needs a lot of time to learn. You have to be diligent in order to be a professional classical guitar player.

            Guitar was made from the lute idea. But lute was famous at the baroque period music. So, the classical songs that can be played by guitar are usually from the baroque music.

            Guitar is a good music instrument to study chord and interval. To arrange a song for guitar is more difficult than arrange song for piano. You have to think about the fingering, and it’s really limited. Sometimes, people are using capo to change the key become higher.

            To strum a guitar, you can use your index finger in your right hand or sometimes using guitar pick to strum down and your thumb, index or pick to strum up. For Rasgueado technique, which is commonly used in flamenco guitar, we can strum it for more than a finger. To plucked a guitar, there are many technique, such as tremolo, pizzicato, vibrato, etc. There are 2 ways how to pluck the guitar, apoyando and al aire.

            And the last, there are two types of strings for guitar, the nylon and the steel. For strumming, people prefer the steel string to the nylon string. For plucking, it’s suggested to use the nylon string. Because the steel string could hurt your finger. For the beginner, I suggest you to use the nylon string. The nylon string also can be use for strumming. Nylon string is the recommended string for classical guitar.

            That’s all about guitar that I can tell you. I hope this article would be useful for everyone who read it. Sorry if I've got some wrong information, I tried my best to write what I know. Thank you.

By : Eric Loka

Piano

         

 

            Piano is a kind of music instrument that is played with two hands or ten fingers. Piano is a string instrument played with keyboard that makes hammer strike the tuned strings. Piano is a very famous music instrument in the world. There are a lot of people that can play piano.


           The improvement of the technology has caused piano improve to be a digital piano. There is also a kind of music instrument called electronic keyboard. It is also the improvement from piano. Electronic keyboard is usually used for accompanying the singer or music player. Even though the technology has improved, we still have to learn the original piano.

           Piano could represent an orchestra for some songs. It has 7 octaves with 88 keys with 52 white keys and 36 black keys in it. There isn’t any kind of instrument that could play more than that. A common music instruments usually can play only 3-4 octaves. Piano can play more than one note in a time, means that it can play chord.

            Piano also has three pedals. The pedals are usually played with our feet. The pedals will move the mechanic at the interior part of piano. The right pedal (sustain) is used to make the sound become longer. The centre pedal (sostuneto) is to make the sound become dimmed. The left pedal (una corda or damper) is to make the sound become soft. The sostuneto and una corda pedals are usually used to play the pianississimo sound (The mark: ppp). 

            In fact, the old piano (fortepiano) does not have these three pedals. These pedals are created in the modern piano. They were used in the romantic period. But these pedals are useful, these pedals make music become more smoothly.

            Piano was created in the end of 17^th century. It was made from the harpsichord instrument idea. It needed a good technology and creativity to make it. It became famous in the classical music period.

            There are two kinds of piano, the upright or the grand. The upright piano is usually used at our home. Then the grand piano is usually used in the concert. The grand piano is better than the upright piano, but it’s very big and expensive. You should have prepared a big space in order to buy the grand piano.

            Piano could be played for classical music, jazz music, pop music or any other kinds of music. Piano could be played for solo performances or accompaniment.

            It is nice to listen to the piano sound. Piano could make from the smallest sound until the biggest sound. Piano also can make a lot of technique. The weakness of piano is that piano could not play a technical named tremolo like other kinds of music instruments, such as guitar, lute, strings instruments, etc. 

            Many people said that playing piano could train your brain. Because you must play it with ten fingers with different way each hand. Then also your feet must step on the pedals sometimes. You should be able to read two staffs in the same time, and it’s very challenging for the first time.

            Piano's tone also can run due to the temperature change. It has to be tuned. Usually, we can ask for the piano tuning specialist to tune the piano.

            That’s all about piano that I can tell you. I hope this article is useful for pianists, musician, or all the people. Sorry if I've got some wrong information, I tried my best to write what I know. Thank you.

By : Eric Loka

Music

            Music is an art of the sound. Music can be said as an entertainment and it can influence your emotional. There are a lot of people who like to listen to the music

            In music, there are some elements like rhythm, pitch, and dynamics. Rhythm consists of tempo, meter and articulation. Pitch can make melody and harmony. Dynamic is the soft and the hard of the sound. There is also music notation which we use it to play the music. There are several kinds of music notation, but what I know is only the number notation and staff notation.

            There are a lot of kinds of music instruments. There are strings, woodwinds, brasses, plucked strings, keyboards, percussion, etc. The strings are violin, viola, cello/violoncello, contrabass, etc. The woodwinds are flute, piccolo, clarinet, oboe, bassoon, etc. The brasses are trumpet, tuba, horn, cornet, etc. The plucked strings are harp, guitar, mandolin, lute, ukulele, etc. The keyboards are piano, harpsichord, clavichord, organ, etc. The percussion are timpani, drum, cymbal, triangle, etc. Those are some examples of western music instruments. There are still a lot of kinds of music, such as Chinese music, African music, Indian music, etc. Each kinds of music have their own unique.

            For the western music, there are pop, jazz, rocks, classical, etc. The difference of each kind of music is the rhythms and style. Most people like pop, jazz, and rock music. But, the classical music is the best music learns and improves your music skill and technique. The best basic of music is classical music. If you can play classical music, I’m sure that other kind of music is not very difficult anymore.

            According to the experiment, listening to the classical music could boost your IQ, help people understand and learn quicker and also improve memory. For example, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Piano Sonata No. 16 K. 331 in A major, Turkish March and Piano Concerto No. 23 in A major. There are also other benefits of listening to the classical music. For example, It could cure your sickness, if you listen to the Beethoven’s song and Mozart Piano Sonatas. Music can make your mind become fresh, reduce stress or nervous and could cure mental sickness. But, these theories are not always correct according to some experiments.

            Music is useful. We’ll feel boring when we watch a film without music. At the party, we also listen to the music. So, don’t underestimate music.

           That’s all about the introduction of music that I can tell you. There are still a lot of things about music. Sorry, if I've got some wrong information, I tried my best to write what I know about music. Thank you for reading.

By : Eric Loka