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Top 50 Music Quotations

⊆ September 5th, 2008 by Smiley | ˜ No Comments »

Discover the phenomenonal complexity of music and reflect on the way it can positively influence your life with this sound collection of riveting quotes…

  1. “Music, the greatest good that mortals know, And all of heaven we have below.”
    – Joseph Addison

  2. “Music was my refuge. I could crawl into the space between the notes and curl my back to loneliness.”
    –Maya Angelou

  3. “Music is either good or bad, and it’s got to be learned. You got to have balance.”
    – Louis Armstrong

  4. “Music washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.”
    – Berthold Auerbach

  5. “The aim and final end of all music should be none other than the glory of God and the refreshment of the soul.”
    –Johann Sebastian Bach

  6. “Music is the mediator between the spiritual and the sensual life.”
    – Ludwig van Beethoven

  7. “Music - The one incorporeal entrance into the higher world of knowledge which comprehends mankind but which mankind cannot comprehend.”
    – Ludwig van Beethoven

  8. “Music can change the world. “
    – Ludwig Van Beethoven

  9. “Music can name the unnameable and communicate the unknowable.”
    – Leonard Bernstein

  10. “Music has to breathe and sweat. You have to play it live. “
    – James Brown

  11. “Music is well said to be the speech of angels.”
    – Thomas Carlyle

  12. “All music comes from God.”
    – Johnny Cash

  13. “If you learn music, you’ll learn most all there is to know. “
    – Edgar Cayce

  14. “Music is nothing separate from me. It is me… You’d have to remove the music surgically. “
    – Ray Charles

  15. “Good music is good no matter what kind of music it is. “
    – Miles Davis

  16. “There is no feeling, except the extremes of fear and grief, that does not find relief in music.”
    – George Eliot

  17. “You are the music while the music lasts.”
    –T. S. Eliot

  18. “We need magic, and bliss, and power, myth, and celebration and religion in our lives, and music is a good way to encapsulate a lot of it. “
    – Jerry Garcia

  19. “Music is the language of the spirit. It opens the secret of life bringing peace, abolishing strife.”
    – Kahlil Gibran

  20. “When people hear good music, it makes them homesick for something they never had and never will have.”
    – Edgar Watson Howe

  21. “Music expresses that which cannot be said and on which it is impossile to be silent.”
    – Victor Hugo

  22. “The history of a people is found in its songs.”
    – George Jellinek

  23. “Music is the vernacular of the human soul.”
    – Geoffrey Latham

  24. “It requires wisdom to understand wisdom; the music is nothing if the audience is deaf.”
    – Walter J. Lippmann

  25. “Just as certain selections of music will nourish your physical body and your emotional layer, so other musical works will bring greater health to your mind.”
    – Hal A. Lingerman

  26. “Music is the harmonious voice of creation; an echo of the invisible world.”
    – Giuseppe Mazzini

  27. “Music is a beautiful opiate, if you don’t take it too seriously.”
    – Henry Miller

  28. “I started making music because I could.”
    – Alanis Morissette

  29. “Music helps you find the truths you must bring into the rest of your life. “
    – Alanis Morissette

  30. “Music is spiritual. The music business is not. “
    – Van Morrison

  31. “Like everything else in nature, music is a becoming, and it becomes its full self, when its sounds and laws are used by intelligent man for the production of harmony, and so made the vehicle of emotion and thought.”
    – Theodore Mungers

  32. “Without music life would be a mistake.”
    – Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

  33. “In music the passions enjoy themselves.”
    – Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche

  34. “Music is your own experience, your own thoughts, your wisdom. If you don’t live it, it won’t come out of your horn. They teach you there’s a boundary line to music. But, man, there’s no boundary line to art.”
    – Charlie Parker

  35. “Music should be something that makes you gotta move, inside or outside. “
    – Elvis Presley

  36. “It’s the music that kept us all intact, kept us from going crazy. “
    – Lou Reed

  37. “The music business was not safe, but it was FUN. It was like falling in love with a woman you know is bad for you, but you love every minute with her, anyway.”
    – Lionel Richie

  38. “Music should never be harmless.”
    – Robbie Robertson

  39. “Give me a laundry list and I’ll set it to music.”
    – Gioacchino Antonio Rossini

  40. “All music is important if it comes from the heart. “
    – Carlos Santana

  41. “Music is the key to the female heart.”
    – Johann G. Seume

  42. “The best music… is essentially there to provide you something to face the world with. “
    – Bruce Springsteen

  43. “All I try to do is write music that feels meaningful to me, that has commitment and passion behind it.”
    – Bruce Springsteen

  44. “In music one must think with the heart and feel with the brain.”
    –George Szell

  45. “When I hear music, I fear no danger. I am invulnerable. I see no foe. I am related to the earliest times, and to the latest.”
    – Henry David Thoreau

  46. “For heights and depths no words can reach, music is the soul’s own speech.”
    –Unknown

  47. “Most of us go to our grave with our music still inside of us.”
    –Unknown

  48. “I believe in the power of music. To me, it isn’t just a fad. This is a positive thing.”
    – Eddie Vedder

  49. “Music at its essence is what gives us memories. “
    – Stevie Wonder

  50. “There’s a basic rule which runs through all kinds of music, kind of an unwritten rule. I don’t know what it is. But I’ve got it.”
    – Ron Wood

Resource Box - © Danielle Hollister (2004) is the Publisher of BellaOnline Quotations Zine - A free newsletter for quote lovers featuring more than 10,000 quotations in dozens of categories like - love, friendship, children, inspiration, success, wisdom, family, life, and many more. Read it online at - http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art8364.asp

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Tips for a Great Recording Session

⊆ April 19th, 2008 by Smiley | ˜ No Comments »

You know your songs are great (and so does your girl/boyfriend, family, pets etc), and you finally decided to record an album in a real studio. That’s great! But what actually happens when you get there?

When you finally do pick the perfect studio, one that you feel comfortable at, there is a certain routine that must be followed in order to get the best performance and the best recording for your budget.

1. Tune Your Instruments. This also includes your drums and any tunable percussion instruments you may have. There is absolutely nothing worse in the world than to have a perfectly written song with a perfect performance be ruined because someone didn’t take an extra 2 minutes to check their tuning. Tuning takes a few minutes; a recording lasts forever.

2. Be Well Rehearsed. You’ll be surprised how many bands suffer shock when they get the final recording bill. The main reason for this is because they confuse rehearsal time with recording time. Rehearse at home, in the garage, at your uncle’s house; anywhere but at the recording session. When you arrive at the studio, you should know your songs inside-out and be ready for the red light.

3. Practice with a Click Track. A lot of drummers aren’t able to play with a click track. Make sure yours can. A click track is essential in getting a good basic rhythm track that the rest of the band can lock in to, and to sync-up loops and delay times.

4. Be Early. Many studios start charging their clients from the exact time agreed to in the contract. Just because you decide to show up late, doesn’t mean that the studio should give up that time for free. Be early and be ready to go.

5. Get the Sound Right. Never, ever try to “fix it in the mix”. It doesn’t work like that. Take an extra few minutes to tweak the sound before recording it. Turn that knob, tighten that string, have another sip of water. Remember again, tweaking may take an extra minute, but the recording will last forever.

6. Know When To Quit. Recording often leads to diminishing returns. Spending 20 hours in a row at the recording session isn’t going to make your song twice as good as spending 10 hours. This rule also applies to mixing. If you’re tired, call the session and come back the next day fresh and ready.

7. Record Alone. Don’t bring your friends, family, parents or anyone else into your sessions. As fun as it may be, you are there to do a job and record the best music possible. If you are a millionaire, then by all means, have a party at the studio, but don’t count on getting anything done.

8. Mix and Match. After letting the engineer do the first rough mix alone (which he should) do an A/B comparison of your mix to some of your favorite CDs. Remember that the production CDs you are listening to have already been mastered. But it’s a good way to compare levels and panning.

9. Bring Spares. Always bring spare strings, drum heads, bass strings, water bottles, throat lozenges, etc to a session. You’ll always need the one thing you forgot to bring, so bring it all and leave them at the studio until your recordings are finished.

10. Have Fun! This is THE most important point of all. Creating and recording music isn’t rocket science. Although there is a science involved, you should let the engineer worry about that. If you’re not having fun, then you’re in the wrong business!

© 2004 Richard Dolmat (Digital Sound Magic)

Richard Dolmat is owner and engineer for the Vancouver based recording studio Digital Sound Magic. Visit his site at: http://www.digitalsoundmagic.com

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