Last Reminder for January Entries and a Surprise

Hello everyone! I was fortunate to have a half snow day today (or unfortunate seeing this is the 2nd orchestra rehearsal in a row that was shut down from "Uncontrollable Acts of God") but I decided to use this time wisely and post a reminder to everyone that THE DEADLINE FOR THE JANUARY CONTEST FOR THE $15 iTunes GIFT CARD ENDS WEDNESDAY AT 11:59:59 PM! For those who aren't aware the link to the official post can be by clicking here, but here is the summery.

-The contest is about sending us your thoughts and opinions about the site before the New Year's post. Think of it as a review of the reviewers.

-The only requirement is a minimum of 100 words. In most cases, that's a brief paragraph. For example, that is how many words are in the intro paragraph and the first bullet of this post (113 to be exact). Trying to keep things easy on everyone.

-You can submit it to us however you want to, whether its over the Facebook page, the Twitter page (links above) or email it through our "contact us" email. Just make sure that someone confirms it when you submit it.

- The winner will be notified on the 31st via a post on here and an email/PM (depending on how you sent it in) with the iTunes code.

Now for those whom have been wondering about my other such as the researching campaign with Research Is Magic guys, I am posting a clip from both posts I've been on thus far. For those whom aren't aware, I made a series to finish out last year with called "Thoughts, Opinions, Rethinking and Proposals" which is summery was a series about summarizing the activist ideas I had been researching myself and reporting them to everyone whom reads the blog. The first post was on a group of people called Bronies, or the fans of the show "My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic" that aren't considered their target audience and contribute to a very unique fandom. Since the post received the most acclaim from any of my articles besides the post showing off Steven Chen's Cello & Piano Nocturne piece, I decided to continue on this path off the site.

Recently, the Research Is Magic team consisting of Kurt Baer and Jason Nguyen, both on the way to getting their doctorates in ethnomusicology (the study of music in culture). They have created this ethnographic study through Indiana University to study bronies and how they interact on an artistic level. I have been asked to join them in a couple of discussions and I thought I would share the previews for those whom are interested.

The first is a sample from a discussion I had with the both of them back at the beginning of the month on "trolling" and "fan pandering".  It isn't as much arts activist then it really is explaining perspective and why bullying is bad however I hope someone out there will love to read this, so here's a sample:

"J: Okay, to broaden the scope a little bit: there are moments when the impulse to troll by people on the Internet is a source of great amusement to me, I fully admit. I wrote last month about the 4chan campaign to send Justin Bieber to North Korea, which is in some ways the source of the “___ is best pony” meme, and while doing that research, I was really tickled by the way these guys mobilized themselves to play this naughty prank on the Internet. I’m not sure whether I would call that trolling as well, but it comes from a similar place. From where you’re sitting and having just gotten trolled by a bunch of random folks (though seemingly less sophisticated than anon in their tactics), what’s the difference?

A: Honestly, I feel like they are very similar but the difference between “trolling” and “bullying”, trolling being more of a gag thing than only trying to gain something from it. I will admit that at one point I would consider myself a troll, but not towards one group of people. It was more of a “how to be a smart ass but make sure everyone laughs” sort of thing and that’s how I have gone about defining trolling. The incident we are discussing may be seen more as bullying and trying to instigate something against us.

J: Yeah, and it seems important in a lot of ways to be able to make that distinction, because so much of the fun we have as a fandom includes skills and posturing that can look a whole lot like trolling or bullying if used in particular ways. I’m thinking in particular about the Twilight becoming an alicorn thing and the fairly vicious way some members of the fandom ripped into the creators for doing the worst thing ever to their favorite show. A lot of those actions could be seen as a kind of trolling–perhaps even bullying in some cases–but then it also turned into one of the greatest ongoing gags ever…THANKS M.A. LARSON!

A: (Laughs hysterically) I know! I think that was a bad idea of them to do to but I understand that they are (or at least SHOULD BE) tending towards their target audience and not serving to us. However, going beyond that point and actually heckling or harassing the creators isn’t the way to go. As you were saying though, I think that her becoming an alicorn could be partially a troll to us as well but it’s all about if you want to see it from that perspective or if you want to see it from “Is this what our target fan base wants?” "

If you would like to read more about this talk (don't worry, its a lot more entertaining on their site) then click this link to view the entire conversation. The other post I wanted to mention in this "update" of sorts was the tag blog post I submitted and was posted a little bit ago from when I wrote the update. This post was a follow up to Kurt's post on the fan music, and was about how the more famous fans should spread their knowledge of the professional world with the lesser experienced people and turn the fandom into an arts hub. Here's a sample from this train of thought:

" After reading Kurt’s previous post several times over and not knowing how to continue on I had to think about what I should write about. It took a long 5 hours (well, not really 5 hours, but it felt like it!) of wall ball and talking to friends on Skype but it finally hit me: Talk about what I know best. Being an activist for a few years now on my home blog, and now the more recent addition of Team Young Spark, this is the prime example of what we look for in that field. For those whom are unaware, arts activism is the act of pushing for continuation of an art or the arts in general. In my case I push for all arts from drawing and sketching to music and story writing so forth, nearly anything they can come up with. When I say nearly anything, I mean anything. The brony community is known for its artistic creations, good and bad. We have a lot of people whom are very creative and can create a lot of stuff out of almost nothing. This group of artists range from fan music, creating new stories from show characters and drawing their favorite ponies to creating pony themed meals, dance routines and even laser light shows based on the show.

The people in this fandom are very creative, and as I stated before the creations range in variety and quality. I love the meme that Kurt posted about the non-brony hearing “pony-step” and think it was professionally done because sometimes that is the case. The “actual” DJ-Pon3 (not Vinyl, though she is good too!) is a professional DJ. He was before the herd and used the herd to hone his craft to then propel his talent. The same can be stated about Gabe Newell and Markus “Notch” Persson (creators of Half Life and Minecraft respectively), both being professional game designers and bronies. Stephen Colbert, actor and the host of The Colbert Report amongst other shows, is also considered (or was, depending on how you prefer to look at his mentions to the herd) to be a brony.

The point I’m trying to get at is we need more people whom are famous and are bronies to help the younger ones try out what they want to try out. The way I personally perceive “the herd” is a plethora of people that create a very unique community that encourages arts and creativity. "

For a full read, click here. If anyone would be interested in doing a tag blog idea for the site then I am open to the idea. If we get enough people interested in the idea then I'll make a tab dedicated to it. Anyways, I think I've ranted enough so have a good night and be safe tonight to those in this nasty snow storm!

The Foundations: Early Greek to Early Church

This last week has been a fairly scattered one for me. Between packing up and moving to a new place and the daunting task of trying to find my theory workbook and sheet music in all the boxes, I haven’t had a lot of time to spend meticulously organizing this article.

That said, it’s been a fascinating couple of weeks in MUSC 2290, once I managed to get ahold of the textbook that UPS conveniently misplaced. We started with very early Greek music and have just barely made it past 1000 A.D (or C.E. for those of you who like to be politically correct). As I go, I’ll very likely be throwing some odd terms at you. If you see a word in boldface, you should be able to find its definition pretty close by.

The ancient Greeks were some of the very first to actually notate music. What it looked like at that points was just a normal wall of text (literally, sometimes) with little dashes or triangles over the various syllables to indicate pitch and/or rhythm. The melodies were very simple, and completely monophonic. Until 500 years ago or so, all music was made up of a single line of melody, no harmonies and definitely not more than one moving part.

One very unique thing about this early music was that it more than likely included quarter-tones. For those of us who have been struggling for years to get half steps and whole steps in tune, can you imagine having an even smaller interval to fine tune! This is also the point in history when writers began dividing music into modes. In modern western music, we only have 2 common modes, the major scale and the minor scale. But in the early Greek and Roman music, there were over a dozen.

Not all modes are created equal, however! Philosophers of the day had very strong opinions about which modes made you lazy, which ones inspired warfare, and which ones were only suited for children. I guess this was the beginning of music genre racism?

As the early church organized and became a larger part of the culture, it also became the catalyst for the evolution of music. By 600 A.D., Pope Gregory was in charge, and although he did not actually compose any music, his consolidation and codification of the church music gave rise to the term Gregorian Chant. At this point, the number of modes had dwindled down to 8, in pairs of 2. Each mode covered a single octave, and had a specific final and dominant. The final referred to the cadential tone, or the note used to finish a piece written in that particular mode. Dominant, in this case, isn't linked to the dominant chord function. Instead, it's the main note that the chant revolves around.

One of the reasons that early music was so simple was because of the fact that it was mostly a setting for religious text. The church believed that the text was supreme, and any elaborate accompaniment would be a distraction. St. Augustine even included this discussion in his famous Confessions. He praised the music for stirring up greater feelings of devotion but lamented the fact that if the music was particularly pleasing, it took his mind away from the subject matter.

                                                                                         Image credit: www.mscperu.org

This is also the reason that instruments were forbidden for church music. However, although there is no record that instruments were ever used in services, we have reason to believe that it was actually quite common. What we do have records of is more than a few edicts censoring the use of instruments. Somebody had to have been breaking the law for it to have been restated so often!

Most of the early chants were melismatic. This means that they were actually very short texts set to long meandering melodies. Certain syllables of the words were drawn out over sometimes a dozen notes. The perfect example of this is the Kyrie. The text was as follows: "Kyrie eleison, Christe eleison, Kyrie eleison." (Lord, have mercy; Christ, have mercy; Lord, have mercy.) This short prayer would be set to any number of longer chant melodies. 

These chants were mostly step-wise, with maybe 1 or 2 jumps of a 4th or a 5th in the whole song. These rules persisted for quite a long time. Notation was at first similar to the Greek method, with symbols placed over the text. These days, they're often seen in a 4 staff notation cobbled together from several various medieval notation styles. The Kyrie is an example of this notation.

Eventually, the monks and congregations got tired of singing Ky-ri-e---------------, and decided that it was time to make the texts more interesting. That however, is a story for another day. As always, if you have questions or input, or something you'd like to hear more about, send us a message or leave a comment! Don't forget--the contest is still running. Read about it here! Faith, signing off. 

Music Theory 101 #1: The Basics of Sound

Hello everyone and welcome back to not only the newest episode on ASMTB but to the first episode of my new music theory lessons series.  As I had mentioned in the announcements post at the beginning of the month, I have been planning a lot of new changed from feedback I have received saying some things need to be simplified. Being a person who tends to over think things, I have been thinking of a way to do just that: simplify (I smell an oxymoron). This time around I will make theory less “dense” of reading than before in order to make sure you understand what I am trying to convey to whomever is reading this because let’s face it: Music theory can be hard to understand. It has a moment or two where you can look at it and it makes perfect sense, and then look again and our understanding has vanished completely. With that said, should I not explain something very well, then feel obligated to email me, Faith, or leave a comment below to see if someone else can help you. We want to help ensure that you get a well explained understanding of how theory should be, especially if you’re taking the time to read this. With that said, let’s continue onto the beginning of this discussion.

For time’s sake, I’m going to skip over a very detailed understanding of what sound is but basically sound is a type of energy that our ears pick up through the ear drum. Whenever we interpret sound energy, there is a wave of energy from a source that is picked up by our ears. This wave can be altered in four (4) ways: pitch, height, length and shape. These four things will play a big part into understanding music in a moment.

Example of Frequency
Source: TutorVista

Pitch; better known as frequency, is the variable that gives us the sound of the note you hear. For example, play a note on any instrument such as playing a key on a key board, plucking a string on a stringed instrument or hum a pitch.  Whatever that note is, it has a certain Hertz or number of wave cycles that go past a point per second. So if you take A 440 then it means there are 440 wave cycles going to your ear per second. By jumping down to C 262 or middle C then we have 262 wave cycles per second. Every note has it's own hertz and repeats as you go up or down a certain number of cycles. Though this is the most obvious part to music, this will play a big role in understanding music.

Example of Amplitude
Source: The Physics Classroom

Height, also known as amplitude controls the volume behind the tone. The louder the sound is, the higher the wave's height will be and the more force it will have behind it. Softer sounds are represented as expected, smaller wave height will be. This one is really as obvious as it sounds. Duration is the same way. Duration is the measurement of how long the sound can be heard and is a measurement of time.  The longer the wave is the longer the sound can be heard.

Example of Timbre
Source: Swasti's Design Blog

Finally there is the shape of the wave, known as timbre (pronounced tam-bur). Every instrument has its own timbre and also its own wave pattern. For example, a piano looks one way while a violin looks another. Every variation changes the way the music sounds to our ears. It’s just like taking a computer and running a “sine wave” or a traditional wave like U and n’s, a sawtooth wave (which as the name sounds, looks like the teeth of a saw or W’s) or a piano's wave pattern, which is shown to the right.

That's all for today, and I hope this style is easier to understand. Next time I'll pick up with why you should know these terms and how they apply to music. As always, if you haven't subscribed then please do by filling out the email link to the right (don't worry, it only emails you when there are new posts on here). If you already follow us then thank you as always and thanks for reading!

From Monks to Metal: A condensed history of western music

Well, maybe not quite as far as metal. That’s a story for another day, and probably another writer. But we are going to start with monks. When Sulli asked me to think of a series, we spent a couple of late night hours trying to brainstorm and getting nowhere. Then I looked to my upcoming class schedule for inspiration. Theory IV... not a good place to start. Aural Skills IV? Can't exactly teach solfege in a blog post. Class Piano and Recital Class are completely off the table. Then it hit me. Starting next week, I’m beginning a 3 semester journey through the history of western music. And before somebody starts to freak out and think and I’m talking about country-western, this term refers mostly to European sacred and art music from the common practice period (roughly 1550-1900). 

I love history, I love music... and its a subject that would be fairly easy to translate into something fun to read while still being useful and information. So here you have it. This is the first post in a series that could potentially last a year and a half.

The foundation for this type of music was laid in the church music tradition dating back to the inception of organized Christianity. Our studies will take us from the early church modes moving through the Baroque, Classical and Romantic periods to the Contemporary styles. We may even touch on some of the post-modernistic writing going on today.

Every two weeks, I will take what I have learned and condense it into a post for you all. By time it’s finished you and I (hopefully) should be able to ace any college level music history exam. That being said, today’s post will be fairly short for two reasons. First, because this is only an introduction to the series and second, because I haven’t actually learned anything in my class yet. Unless of course you count course policy and evacuation procedures.

                So what exactly are we going to be learning? Yes, there will be birth place and death dates of the important composers for each period, but that’s not really going to be the focus. Instead, we will discuss the melodic and harmonic rules of western music, and how they are added to, modified, or scratched completely as music has developed over the last 500 years or so. There will probably be a discussion of Johann Fux’s rules for counterpoint that he wrote down in the early 1700s (and don’t worry, it’s pronounced ‘fooks’), and of course the various church modes that date back to the 600s A.D.

                We’ll also find out why old chants sound mysterious and Romantic music sounds… well, romantic, and what it was about Stravinsky’s “Rite of Spring” that was so revolutionary that its first performance included a riot started by offended concert goers. Also, we’ll see how events and trends in history were reflected in the music of the day, and sometimes even vice versa. And of course, there will be a discussion of compositional forms and their conventions and unconventional digressions.

                If none of that means anything to you, don't worry! I'll do my best to make it as user friendly as possible. And if you have questions, or want to know more about a certain subject, well that's what the comment section is for! Glad to have you along for the ride.

Contest announcement for January 2014

Hello everyone, it's time for the first contest of the year and of the site! After deciding that the first contest should be special, we have a $15 iTunes gift card up to give away! For those whom may not be aware, it's a gift card that can be used for music, apps, and much more! The plan is to have one a month for the remainder of the year, varying in prize size and prize itself. If you want to suggest a plan for later, then feel free to submit ideas to our email; sulliadm2@ gmail.com. 

Now, the contest is as I announced before: send us a 100 word review on our site thus far. You can approach it any way you would like to approach it. As long as it's 100 words and in a review format then that is fine. Also, for the YouTubers I know whom like to do reviews, the review should be around one minute long, as long as it's around 100 words as well. All submittions must be messaged to us (either copy/pasting the review or a link if yo choose to do a video) by email at the above address, sent to us at Facebook or send to Twitter (links to both in the header). We will confirm your entry ASAP, and will judge from them. One entry per person, however if you want to write several only one will be judged. As of now, repeated wins can happen unless we change it which we have the authority to do. Deadline is Wed., Janurary 29! Have fun and don't forget to submit!

New Years Update: Nearing the end of the 2nd year, and a contest idea

Time to discuss some things I've been needing to discuss. First off we'd like to say happy new year to those whom are reading this on New Years day, or happy day for those reading and it's not! There appears to be an end to the computer problem in sight! After a few two weeks of headaches and frustrations over having a failed hard drive, I have someone working on it for me. Hopefully within the next few days, I'll be able to finish the final discussion post from my previous series so I can post the finale and move on to the next series. Because of this delay I am starting up a new safety protocol for blog articles via backing up on a DropBox and on SkyDrive.

There is a new look in store for the site as well. Here is the new official logo for ASMTB which was given to us by Clayton Daniels. Link to his deviantArt by clicking here. Go look at his manga stuff, it's really impressive. I love his style and his shading technique for his art. There may be a collaboration with him in the future. ;) There will be a new background up once I finish reinstalling everything back to my computer.

ASMTB's 2014 logo

Speaking of collaborating, we are giving an open invitation to anyone who would like to collaborate with ASMTB staff. We have done it before with Hit Me With Music's Anu Pattabiraman and Uni Bram. We are willing to work around whatever you are wanting to do. For example, Anu and Uni wanted to do a theory lesson, so they posted a sample of their book and a link to their KickStart. If you would like to apply for a collaboration then send us an email through our blog email or  a message to any of our social medias (all links in the header bar).

I have been working on bringing back some old classics for everyone to enjoy along with setting up a new series. The first I am bringing back is the music theory lessons! As the name of the site implies, there needs to be a music theory series in a site founded on music theory. Starting at the end of the month, I am going to begin the music theory lessons again. Things will not be the same as before however because I am going to experiment with types of delivering theory lessons in preparation of some projects in hiding. Secondly, I have decided to bring back the practicing tips series along side Faith. This will not be back anytime soon, but before the end of this season of ASMTB (March 2014) I will have them started back. Lastly, I have decided to try a series on only reviews. Once a month, I am planning on writing reviews on things that either I come across and want to give a shot or you recommend and review them. At this time, I am planning on reviewing CelloBello.com by the end of the month. Soon to be followed by "Hit Me With Music" as a copy was graciously donated to me by Anu Pattabiraman (Just so you know Anu, the reason is because I've decided to save it for a very special post but it'll be here soon! Plus I want to make sure I review it as best I can. ;) ), a review of "The Music of the Temporalist" by Andre Pogoriloffsky along with the Free Metronome and ProMetronome apps by EMUlabs.com. Beyond this however, I am out of ideas. This leads me into an idea that I am going to implement.

For those who have topics, items you want reviewed, or any ideas that you would like to share with us we would like to hear them! We at ASMTB pride ourselves on the quality of material that we post and share with you and in order the ensure this quality, we are asking for feedback. We really appreciate feedback and sharing of this site and our other sites (this page, FB, Twitter, SoundCloud and our affiliated groups' website/socials at Team Young Spark). To help promote this request for feedback and getting to understand our faithful readers, we are going to begin a contest series. The will not be an exact day that it will appear but there will be one a month. The prize will range from contest to contest however for the first one, it will be a $10 iTunes gift cards.  I am open to suggestions for more prizes but there will not be a guarantee I will do it. Official rules for this contest will be later in this month but the question will be to review us. Write a review of this site from whatever angle you want. The only requirement is there should be a minimum of 100 words, but should you feel contempt to write more then go ahead. As I previously stated, we pride ourselves on our quality of work and our easy to understand context with our lesson-based writings. This is also why I took forever to replace our last writers, and why I chose Faith to join the team. You have one month to do start so get to writing!

Along with feedback, it would really be appreciative to us and for the people who are wanting to start advertising that you subscribe to us through Feedburner. It is as simple as clicking on the information box on the top right that asks for an email and entering it. We do not spam your inbox nor do we have news letters. Feedburner is here to keep you up to date with our posts and as a tool for us to use for research purposes. So if you like what you've read (minus this... unless you like this then awesome!) then please enter your email.

Advertising have been a rather popular question related to the site. At this time, we are beginning to start a BETA run for advertising (I'm a musician, not a technician or a magician so I have to learn how to code in the ads so I know the stats and etc.). Once I finish this BETA testing and it appears to work, I will open it up to whomever wants to pay for it. I was hoping on not going to the point of charging however life has come to the point of needing to find a job and since I want to make this succeed, the easiest way is to start ads. I will make sure that there will not be a charge for the information we teach or share. Also, there will be a limit to ads so it will not look like a page of ads from a newspaper. I will limit them to a handful of ads at a time, more than likely three or four ads on a page. Donations, however are always open if you feel moved enough to donate. If anyone is moved enough to donated towards this project (say $20+), then we can set up a thank you wall or work out a way to show our appreciation for your contribution.

Anyways, hopefully there was something that interested you in this update. There will be another one to celebrate the success of two years and the welcoming of our third year! Don't forget to share with social media and follow us via email/feedburner and on the social medias if you have one!