Archive for September 2010
Discover A Hobby That Can Keep You Engaged In Your Retirement
A hobby is something that you enjoy doing in your spare time. It is an interest, a recreation or activity that you spend time on for pleasure and for relaxation.
When you retire from work you will have time to indulge in your favourite hobby or pastime that will help to overcome your boredom. You may also want to try out new hobbies and learn new skills.
You can learn most of the skills from books, DVDs or attend classes that teach them.
Here is a list of 10 popular categories of hobbies you can try.
1. Arts and Crafts – creating objects for functional and decorative purposes such as making candles, ceramic plates and executive toys, jewellery making, making porcelain figurines, glass sculpting, quilting;
2. Collectibles – collecting art, paintings, antiques, beautiful dolls, memorabilia, model scale cars and trains, vintage wine, unique cars, stamps, ancient coins, number plates;
3. Outdoor activities – gardening, bird watching, angling, train and plane spotting, horse riding, cycling, camping, scuba diving, white water rafting, mountain climbing, treasure hunting, trekking;
4. Culinary activities – cooking, making fruit preserves, bread making, baking cakes and cake decorating, making dumplings and pastas;
5. Dancing and music – ballroom dancing, line dancing, hip hop dancing, flamenco, belly dancing, tap dancing, karaoke singing, learning to play a musical instrument;
6. Sporting activities – golfing, martial arts, figure skating, skiing, sailing and boating, gymnastics, darts and snooker, bowling;
7. Indoor activities – sewing, embroidery, knitting, quilting, painting and decorating, plumbing, reading and writing;
8. Paper crafts – making paper mache masks, origami paper folding crafts, making paper flowers, making paper lanterns, making cardboard boxes and folders
9. Cultural activities – theatres, concerts, cinemas, eating out and fine dining, museums, partying and socialising, pub crawling
10. Travelling – golf trips, fishing trips, theatre breaks, city breaks, cruise packages, beech vacations, ski vacations.
Many people, while enjoying their favourite pastimes, have also turned their hobby into a business and supplementing their retirement income by writing books about their hobby or selling their products locally or on eBay.
For instance, if you enjoy going on golf trips or going on cruise packages, you can write a book on your golf trips or the interesting places you’ve visited during your cruises.
You can also run your own classes to teach others the skills you learned from your favourite pastime. If you enjoy baking cakes or making fruit preserves, you can sell your products in your local market.
This is a great way to earn extra retirement income while having fun.
Choosing The Right Musical Instrument For You
If music is your middle name, then musical instruments are sure to adorn your room. Music is an excellent way to get rid of the blues. And if you are the creative type, then you can compose your own songs with musical instruments.
Musical instruments are mainly categorized by the way they generate sound. All musical instruments fall under one of the following – string, wind, percussion and keyboard, though there may be further divisions and sub-divisions. Examples of string instruments include guitars, violins, ukuleles and cellos. Wind instruments include pipes, sax, clarinet, flute and such other types. Drums, bongos, cymbals and bells fall under the percussions category. And keyboard instruments include pianos, harpsichords, organs and accordions. Over 1000 musical instruments are available across the world, including folk instruments.
If you want to play on your own, then it is better to start with a musical instrument you like, and then gradually master the instrument by joining music classes. If you like music in general and are not interested in specializing in any particular type of instrument then a keyboard can be the perfect choice. Electronic keyboards nowadays can produce all sorts of sound ranging from guitar tunes to drum beats. A variety of DJ equipments are also available on the market nowadays, which provide creative sound mixing options for the wannabe DJs as well as for the experienced disc jockeys.
On the other hand, if you were thinking of organizing a band then you would need different types of musical instruments. A band normally includes a couple of string instruments, percussions and preferably a wind instrument.
You can purchase your musical instruments online. Choose your favorite instrument from the various websites that you will find on the internet. They often offer discounts if you buy their package deals, which include various types of musical instruments. This can be your best option if you are planning a band with your friends.
Musical instruments can be a costly affair, especially if you are planning to buy the best available on the market. These can set you back by anything from 0 to over 000. A good Yamaha or Roland electronic keyboard may cost almost 00. Used musical instruments are often a good choice, especially if you are learning to play a new instrument. For beginners it is advisable to invest in musical instruments in the lower price range.
Musical instruments can also be made at home with items of daily use. Homemade musical instruments mainly fall under the category of percussion instruments. You can make almost anything, from shakers and jingle bracelets to drums and tambourines. You can also make wind instruments such as comb harmonica or kazoo. These help your child to be creative and can keep them busy. And you can now have your own band at home.
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A Bob Dylan CD Shouldn’t Be Performed As Background Music But Listened To Properly
My favorite musical artists are singer songwriters, particularly those who write wonderful lyrics. A Bob Dylan cd may be very often on my participant, both new and outdated releases. Some albums stand out over others but I never tire of the gravelly voice and words stuffed with metaphor. Take the music away and the songs get up as poems, holding their very own with the other nice poets.
In the Sixties, Dylan was revered as a protest singer, a label he did not really like. He refused to be boxed in and didn’t wish to be hijacked as a spokesman for any movement. He identified more with the hobos and wandering musicians similar to Woody Guthrie than with political doctrine. There are nice political songs after all, akin to With God On My Facet and Masters of War. He’s equally able to producing a young love tune like Simply Like A Girl or Lay, Woman Lay.
He went to New York as a younger man and performed within the people clubs in Greenwich Village. Meeting his heroes and drawing inspiration, he honed his skills as a songwriter and musician. The first Bob Dylan cd was simply called Bob Dylan and the legend was born. He popularized acoustic music and developed a following that eclipsed different folk singers like Pete Seeger. His information reached the pop charts and the world was at his feet.
Dylan then did one thing that shocked the folk purists when he performed on stage with an electrical guitar. He needed to develop his sound and produced the first plugged in Bob Dylan cd. This lost him followers and gained others but there was no turning back. No matter folks thought of the musical technique, the lyrics have been just as good. Typically they had been savage insults they usually had been often beautifully lyrical.
My favorite Dylan tracks are ones that completely mix phrases and melody into a chic whole. A better of Bob Dylan cd should feature Gates of Eden, Boots of Spanish Leather and It’s Alright Ma, I’m solely Bleeding. He could have gone in and out of fashion and alienated some followers together with his various phases however he remains one of many true geniuses of music. A Bob Dylan cd shouldn’t be performed as background music however listened to properly. In this world awash with mediocre manufactured pop, he is a poet and deserves our respect. There are those who are better than the sum of their parts and Bob Dylan is a member of that stellar few.
To watch the full piano lesson go to www.piano-play-it.com Legato, Staccato, Legatissimo and Stacatissimo are the four main ways to connect between to piano keys. In this free piano lesson we’ll learn to play them on the piano and to create beautiful musical phrasings. Other free beginner piano lessons and piano tutorials are available on www.piano-play-it.com This piano lesson was made by David Yzhaki I hope you’ll enjoy this piano lesson… See ya in the next one! David from http
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Piano Lesson: Learn Piano Improvisation Through Classical Piano Music
Piano improvisation in a classical music way is an interesting complement to ordinary piano improvisational practicing. Let me suggest a way to practice!
Piano sheet music is a means and not an end. It’s a way to notate what to play on the piano.
You will find a lot of interesting passages in classical piano solos. These solos can help you collect improvisational material to work on to make your piano improvisations more interesting.
How to develop your classical piano improvisational skills?
I would suggest that you begin with an easy piano solo with just one voice in your left hand and your right hand.
Learn a phrase with a few bars by heart. Play the melody over and over again changing the melody slightly without losing the classical touch.
One advantage of using classical piano music in piano improvisation exercises is that you will find many interesting melodic bass lines in counterpoint style that you can use to enhance your piano improvising.
The use of playing separate melodic lines together this way to create music is known as counterpoint. Counterpoint is a musical technique involving simultaneous sounding of separate musical lines.
Classical piano compositions are filled with wonderful licks that you can incorporate in your playing.
What can you do with a classical piano composition to improve your piano improvisational skills? Here are some examples:
1. Study different ways used to play left hand bass patterns. Play around with the patterns and try to transpose them into different keys.
2. Study interesting chords, experiment with them, change keys and positions.
3. Find chord progressions to develop.
4. Find interesting passages with unusual musical material.
5. Many more things.
As I can see it there are two different approaches to learn and work with the material mentioned before:
1. You can memorize the classical material and start a growing bank of chords, unusual melodic phrases, chords progressions and other classical piano oriented material you’ll find in the piano compositions for further use in your piano improvisations.
This approach will of course develop your skills but it will also be a very time consuming and maybe overwhelming if you can’t devote all your time to piano playing. Who would that be?
Another drawback is that you might lose interest in this type of piano skill development because of the stress involved in learning so many different skills and maybe the joy of playing piano will diminish.
2. Another approach is to use the before mentioned methods in a more laid back way without learning everything by heart. Let me give you an example from my childhood:
When I was quite young I used to read a lot of books on popular science from the public library. I had a bunch of books laying beside me as I lay comfortably on my bed with pillows and just having a good time.
I never felt compelled to read a book from cover to cover or to read in a certain way. The only thing I did was to read the things I was interested in, looking at pictures and enjoying what I did.
I know I learned a lot from these nice reading experiences. If I had a goal it was to feel good and I was reading out of curiosity.
I think you can do the same with the classical music you play. If you enjoy discovering the secrets in the piano sheet music the way I have mentioned, you are sowing seeds that will sooner or later manifest themselves in your playing.
The classical music will creep out in your fingers and you will feel new ideas coming up in your piano improvisational endeavors!
E2M2 www.bpmusic.com Bobby Prince “This song was inspired by watching Adrian Carmack, the lead artist at id Software, while he was touching up the artwork on the Spider Boss in Doom. Adrian conceived the demons in Doom. He starts out doing a pencil sketch. The sketch is then either transferred into computer art by hand or it is made into a model which is then digitized. The digitizing of the model sounds simple, but there is much that has to be done before digitized artwork can be used. A good “bit level artist” is worth his/her weight in gold when it comes to superior game art work. Starting about 1 minute and 12 seconds into the song you will hear a musical technique that helps to keep a song interesting without being obvious. What the composer does is change the feel of the downbeat. There are many ways to do this, but in this case, I started playing the bass drum/snare drum parts an 8th note later than it had been played up to that time. This makes the music feel like it is pushing ahead while seeming to rotate or turn around. It’s almost the same thing as causing a car to start spinning out of control. At 1 minute 36 seconds, the “car” all of a sudden jerks back out of the spin”.
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All of the rentals on myaspenrental.com offer many amenities, including large screen TV, gourmet kitchen, deluxe bedding and more! The town of Aspen offers exceptional mountain recreation and ample opportunities for skiing, snowboarding and sleigh rides. Upon arriving in Aspen, you will be greeted by a friendly town surrounded by the peaks of the Rocky Mountains. This is a mountain paradise where you will find fantastic activities in the summer as well. Hayrides, hiking and plenty of great fishing are just some of the spring and summertime fun you will find here.
Whether you choose our Aspen house rentals or a condo rental, you will look forward to your evenings as much as you do the spectacular daytime activities. Our lodging choices offer sophisticated style, comfort and affordability. No matter what you prefer, we have a rental to suit your family’s flair and budget. In the evenings, you will find many places to enjoy yourself and relax from the excitement of the day. Music is abundant here, and there are many bars, restaurants and clubs that offer fine dining in a relaxing atmosphere. If you visit during the summer, you may get the chance to attend our summer music festival that features top name entertainment in every style of music.
Some of our deluxe Aspen house rentals include fireplaces, pools, hot tubs and private garages. It makes for the perfect place to feel at home when you’re away from home! The kids will love our charming town as well. They can take sleigh rides, mine for gold, or hike our scenic trails. Isn’t it time to book your vacation or family getaway? We offer premium lodging packaged with amenities at prices you can afford. Book yours today.