Imagine you are on holidays in Barcelona. Imagine a beautiful forest, the flowery smell, the warm sun on your face and the sweet sound of the birds among the trees. The soft green grass under your toes as you walk barefoot towards the mountains. Suddenly you realize something is missing. What could possibly make this moment even more magical? Yes! Music! What if you had an ukelele or guitalele right next to you?
Most guitar players that come to Barcelona are worried about their precious guitar getting damaged on the plane. Imagine turbulence as you descend over the Pyrenees bumps and scratches your favorite guitar! And you didn’t insure it! A nightmare for musicians! This is why finding other options than traveling with your guitar can be a smart idea.
Here are some benefits of choosing an ukelele or guitalele as your travel instrument of choice:
1# Size and weight: The ukulele and guitalele are small enough for taking inside the airplane and are easy to transport, making them the perfect instruments for travel. Extremely lightweight and easy to transport, they fit perfectly in the overhead luggage compartment in an airplane. Small and easy to carry, but offering a similar sound to the original guitar.
2# To socialize: Because of their small size and weight, both instruments become a great way to make friends and meet people. The great thing about them is you can take them everywhere! You can easily play the ukulele or guitalele on barceloneta beach, perform on Barcelona streets or jam in the most popular pubs and bars around town. The joyful sound of both instruments easily attracts peoples attention and you will often find yourself surrounded by smiley faces. People love singing along to todays favourites played on a cheerful little instrument.
3# Price: You can get any of this two instruments at a very reasonable price and not worry if they get damaged. While traveling its easy for our instrument to get damaged by the sun, bumps or too much use. So better not take your expensive guitar on the road! You can easily rent or buy an ukelele or guitalele and not worry so much if something happens to your little buddy.
So why not give it a try! You can rent one for a month or two and see how it goes or buy one at a reasonable price.
If you are coming to Barcelona and want to rent or buy an ukelele, please contact ishine music rental .com for more details.
If you are coming to Barcelona and want to rent or buy a guitalele, please contact shine music rental .com for more details.
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Looking for an educational holiday in Spain? Maybe study while you travel or learn music in Barcelona? Yes, you have found the right spot. If music is your thing, you can hardly find a better place to indulge your passion than Barcelona. From small winding streets painted with music to the best concerts of the year. Also offering music courses with some of the most qualified teachers in Spain. Wether you are a foreigner looking to do a study holiday in Barcelona or an expat living in Barcelona, you will find all kind of music courses in english at Shine School of Music. At the end of the course you will discover that learning to play an instrument can be real fun.
Shine School of Music offers a large range of intensive and extensive courses in both english and spanish. Guitar, saxophone, singing, drums, bass guitar, piano and more. The most popular instruments for expats are usually guitar and Flamenco guitar lessons in English. You don’t need to bring anything to class, only your musical soul.
Classical guitar lessons are usually taught by Milos Sajin and Gian Carlo Scevola.
Milos Sajin: taught for many years by his father, Strahinja Sajin, Milos went on to study blues and jazz with Tony Russel (South Africa) and flamenco with Rafael Canizares (Cataluna, Spain). He completed his formal Music History Studies at the University of Witwatersrand (Johannesburg) and obtained his Guitar Teaching Qualification with the Associated Board of The Royal Schools of Music (London).
Gian Carlo Scevola: born in Chile (1982) Gian Carlo graduated from the Catholic University of Valparaiso, where he studied classical guitar with Daniel Diaz and obtained the Diploma for the best graduate in his class. In 2007 he moved to Barcelona and in 2009 obtained a Master in “Musicology and Music Education” at UAB. Subsequently, in 2011 he performed his Graduate Piece by guitarist Guillem Pérez-Quer in classical guitar at the Conservatory of the Liceu in Barcelona. He has attended courses of musical interpretation with Hopkinson Smith, Marco Socías, Armando Marrosu, among others. He has also received electric guitar lessons with Orestes and Ismael Eduardo Cortez.
Flamenco guitar lessons are usually taught by Cesar Munera: born in Colombia in 1982, where he received his first guitar in 1987 at age five, learning folk music and blues. In in 1999 he went to University of Antioquia to learn classical music. In 2008 Cesar played the Concierto de Aranjuezwith the Eafit Orchestra, and won a scholarship to study Flamenco guitar in Barcelona-Spain in the Conservatori del Liceu.
Now he lives in Barcelona, regularly playing concerts and teaching flamenco, classical and blues guitar.
Why can a soundproof room in Barcelona be helpful? Different people come round The Music Room looking for a place to work, record, practice, have a private meeting or even teach. Things around the globe have been changing really quickly and most people find it difficult to find a spot to focus, especially co-workers who don’t have their own private office.
So, why can a silent or soundproofed room be useful?
Work and concentration. Lot’s of people have created their own online business and many others have become freelancers. Where do these people work? At home? Difficult, too much noise and distraction. It can also become quite lonely to work at home. This is why co-working spaces are becoming very popular around the world. So if you have become a co-worker, that’s great! Now, what happens when you need your own space to really concentrate? This is when a soundproof room can be the best option. No distractions, no music, just you and your ideas! A perfect place to really, really concentrate.
Recording. Most musicians and artists find it really difficult to record at home. Also people who work in different areas but need a quiet space to record audio tracks for their business. So a silent room can also be the best place for recording.
To practice. Yoga, meditation, music, tai-chi, any hobby you have chosen that gives you real pleasure. A silent spot to practice guitar, piano, your painting skills, writing, can be a wonderful idea.
Private meeting. You have a private meeting or skype online meeting but don’t know where to do it. A soundproof room can also be really helpful if you find yourself in this situation.
To teach. You are a teacher and have student’s but can’t find a place for your one to one lessons. Could be music, languages, script writing, etc. Also a cozy place to teach at an affordable price.
If you find yourself in any of these situations our soundproof room at The Music Room could be an excellent idea.
If you are already a flat rate member (40E month) you are invited to use the soundproof room for 1E an hour.
If you are not a member yet but want to book the room for one hour, it’a also available for 8E an hour.
Both options include unlimited hand made coffee and organic tea!
More information at http://themusicroombcn.com/
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If you’re looking for an exercise that’s fun, interesting, and will work out your entire brain, grab an instrument and start playing.
When you play music, the entire brain lights up because you’re using almost every region of the brain. Specifically the regions dedicated to audio, visual, and motor functions. Naturally, those regions are strengthened as you practice and play your instrument more and more, and that leads to many benefits outside of music. These benefits include a better attention to detail, stronger planning and strategic skills, and a better memory.
Researchers at Northwestern University found that people who play a musical instrument generally have a greater memory, attention span, and ability to convey emotions. Such activity can also help develop enhanced speech and language skills. According to the researchers, the brain builds new neural connections (paths for information to travel through your brain) while learning to play music. This increases the brain’s ability to adapt and change.
The influence of music on society can be seen clearly from modern history. Thomas Jefferson played the violin for hours at a time while in the process of writing The Declaration of Independence to help him relax enough to write. Albert Einstein, recognized as one of the smartest men who has ever lived, was very fond of music as well and played the violin and piano. Not only was music relaxing to Einstein, but it also helped him with his work on his theories. He would go back and forth from working on a theory to playing a few chords on the piano, jotting something down and then returning to his study. In both cases, music has influenced these well-known people in history, specifically helping them to focus and relax when trying to perform a task.
I remember speaking with David, one of Shine’s best teachers about the bass guitar. He said proudly that the bass guitar is for real music lovers, for those who don’t want leadership or to stand out from the rest of the group, but become the body of the group, bringing all of the other instruments together. “This is why bass guitar players have to be really passionate about it, because they become both body and soul of any band”, he said.
The pedagogy and training for the bass varies widely by genre and country. Rock and pop bass has a history of pedagogy dating back to the 1950s and 1960s, when method books were developed to help students learn the instrument. One notable method book was Carol Kaye’s How to Play the Electric Bass. Although the best way to learn is always learning from a good bass teacher. You can find excellent teachers at Shine Music School in Barcelona.
Very often people ask themselves what’s the real difference between a guitar and a bass.If you are an absolute newbie to music you may not even understand the basic differences between guitar and bass. The two instruments are more similar than you probably realize. The electric guitar is a six-stringed instrument, and standard tuning is: EADGBE. That means the lowest string is tuned to the note E, the next to the note A, the next to D and so on. But knowing the notes isn’t really important right now, as much as understanding how the guitar and bass are related.
The standard bass guitar has only four strings, and is a slightly larger instrument. The tuning of a bass guitar is the same as the lowest four strings of a regular guitar, except one whole octave down in pitch. Therefore, the strings of bass guitar are tuned EADG, just like the lowest four strings on a regular guitar. In many ways, the bass is exactly the same as the guitar, except with two fewer strings and lower tuning. The same scales, chords and music theory you might learn on one carries over to the other. The two instruments are directly related. This is important to realize, because many players think they have to learn one or the other when first starting out. Realizing there is a direct correlation between the two might make your choice seem a bit less stressful. What you learn on guitar will apply to bass and vice versa. You can make the switch at any time.
Keep in mind, there are all kinds of different tunings used on both instruments, and all kinds of variations of each instrument. There are 7- and 8-string guitars, and 5- and 6-string basses. Don’t let any of that worry you. Once you understand the basics of one instrument, the rest is easy to figure out.
One thing many young musicians wonder is why a rock band ever needs a bassist. They’re just in the background, and many bands are so drum and guitar-heavy on their albums that you can’t even hear the bass. This is especially true now that so many guitarists are detuning down to the frequencies once occupied only by the bassist. In truth, while average bass players may be content with taking a backseat, a good bassist knows that his or her job is to carry the band. They provide the backbone that holds up the other instruments. In genres like jazz and blues, this means settling into a groove and working with the drummer. In metal and hard rock, it means supplying the meat of the guitar riff, that part of the sound that puts the audience through the back wall.
Good bassists are indeed very valuable, so if bass is the path you decide on, then wear your choice proudly!
Ok, let’s be honest. It’s actually pretty easy to play bass. You only have to play one note at a time, you can just stand in the back and chill, and if you make a mistake, you just call it a “passing tone.” But the insider trick to know is that if you play in-time and play the right notes most of the time, you are keeping the song moving melodically and rhythmically. You, my friend, are the most important part of the song. The bass player is the perfect mediator in the band. He (or she) keeps the other players in line and holds everything in place. Without the bass player, everything would fall apart and be a big mess.
I’ve heard many musicians say that one of the hardest things to do is to find a good bass player. So if you’re a good bass player, you’ll get work. You don’t even need to be great. You just need to play the right notes in time.
Electric bass guitar, when played acoustically, is probably the quietest instrument that exists. A bass player can plug in headphones through a Bass Pod™ and mixer and sound like he’s playing in a stadium in his ears, but to the people around him, pretty much nothing is happening.
Can you think of a quieter instrument? Right. Bass is it.
Also, a bass player will always be a great friend. A bass player is patient. A bass player loves what he does, and knows that the most important job is to ensure that people feel something. That they dance. That they lose themselves in the groove.
If you decide to give it a try, you can contact Shine Music School for face to face lessons or online lessons.
You might want to listen to some of the best bass players of all times and see what they sound like : Flea, John Entwistle, Cliff Burton and Victor Wooten.
“When I heard BB King’s ‘Sweet Sixteen, I knew I wanted to play bass because that was the thing that made that record: the bass player.”
Donal Dunn
Posted in Guitar |
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