3 Reasons Why you should explore Different Genres of Music

Everyone has a favourite genre. A genre that you most relate to, enjoy and go back to every time you are in the mood of listening to some songs. However, there are millions of artists and many good ones whom you can’t put under a single genre. So should you be ignoring them just because they don’t play your kind of music? ABSOLUTELY NOT! Give it a chance! You never know what surprises and inspires you. 

Every genre has different elements in their construction and if you are a musician, exploring genres is perfect way to improve your playing by learning the different tricks and techniques involved in the song. Here is our take on 3 major reasons you should explore different genres of music.

1. Genres are like languages

Different genres make you feel different emotions. Country will make you feel at home whereas Metal will make you feel pumped up, get your adrenaline going. So it is important to understand as many languages as possible to aid your playing, to present your story in different ways. It will add depth and attitude in your playing style, which is very important as a musician to stand out. The dynamics of pop style music and rock style music are very different, so to understand the difference and execute the nuances in your playing, you have to listen to a lot of songs from both genres. May it be vocals, guitar, drums or piano/keyboard, every instrument plays different roles in different genres. So if you play in a band, all the more reason to explore different genres to spice up the music you are playing.

2. Explore artists

Although genres give you an idea of what to expect from the music, it is better that you listen to music keeping the artist in mind. Understand their take on music, how they apply their craft and creativity, explore their backgrounds. If there is a video, sit and take in the way they use music theory in their playing. Copy their melody and try to decipher the way they have used scales and different techniques and apply it yourself to benefit the most out of every small detail that you can take from an artist. There are many free streaming services such as Spotify, Soundcloud, Youtube etc. where you can discover new and old artists of the same genre, also the fresh independent artists. Listen to as many of them as you can and develop an ability to enjoy every kind of music. It will enhance your knowledge on music and give you different perspectives.

3. Be Up-To-Date

If you stick to one kind of genre, you might have no idea what is the world listening to! If you are someone who wants to put out music, you have to be familiar with what world is listening to, even in your genres. Every genre evolve with time with new artist changing the complexion of what music was with new elements but also keeping in mind the effectiveness of some old techniques as well. So as much as we learn throughout our music journey, keeping up to date and learning new things to adapt to any change in style with new techniques and creativity is essential. The only way to gain these kind of knowledge and perspective is to listen to as many artists as you can and also following the new and upcoming artists regardless of what they are playing. Just explore, absorb, take in the details, execute it in your instrument or vocal style if you liked any of the elements in the song or just leave it be to enjoy it some other day because some of the genres can be acquired taste such as jazz music and progressive music. So maybe give it time you will find the reason to love it. So don’t discriminate on the basis of genres and listen away any artist you can come across.

BlueTimbre is a unique Music Company that provides Music Education and  Recording Studio services. BlueTimbre also works with schools to provide end-to-end Music Education solutions for schools. 

The BlueTimbre team comes with decades of cumulative experience in running Structured Businesses, Music Curriculum Development, Music Education and Performance.

4 Reasons Why, Listening To Music, is an Important Part of Music Education

Is practice becoming constant or too monotonous? How can you break this monotony and yet improve your knowledge on music? The answer is quite simple. Listen to music. Discover as many artists as you can or listen to your favourite song again and again. Being connected with music motivates and inspires you which will make your practice sessions a little bit more exciting. You can even try to pick up some easy songs if you are a beginner which will give you a motive to practice. Here are the 4 reasons why listening to music is a must process in your learning.

1. Understanding Music Concepts

All the theory and techniques you are learning is useless if you can’t apply them in context. The best way to understand the use of them is to find songs that require you to apply the theory and technique you are practicing every day. It will give you the motivation to practice as you understand the importance of it and how it applies to making music. Also, try to understand the way they are using the theory in their playing which will help you to grow as a better musician.

2. Developing a habit

Yes, we all listen to music but as learners of musical instruments, are we doing enough of it. We should set a specific time which is assigned to listening music. You can even club it with some of your daily chores if you don’t have much free time. It is very important to develop a habit of listening to music , especially the young learners who can have the tendency to take up instruments as a daily chore. Yes, they should practice daily but should not be a mundane task which ends up with them losing interests. It should be fun, so parents should sit down with them and listen to music and have conversations about what they liked and what kind of music they would prefer to listen. You can even exchange your playlist with each other and discuss the differences in music of old and the music that comes out now. They should also be given freedom, though to discover their own music and develop their own taste for it.

3. Experiencing the Music Scene

The best way to experience the power of music is by attending live concerts. Try to attend as many live concerts as you can live the experience of performance and the joy that music brings. Listening and watching live shows can inspire you tremendously and you finally see what you are working for. Some of you might not be learning to take it up professionally but just the sight of being on stage or just being on a stage performing your instrument can boost your confidence which is very important to grow as a musician. Also, you meet people that are involved with music which can expand your knowledge of music immensely.

4. Ear Training

Ear training is a very important part of your music learning and there is nothing better than listening to songs. Train your ears to understand melodies and even try to identify the key or the chords they might be using. You won’t be accurate immediately but once you continue and keep at it, it will get better which will help you a long way if you choose to continue with music. There are times when you listen to songs just to enjoy and have a peace of mind but sometimes, sit down to break down the song with conscious concentration and see the depth of the music that is being played.

BlueTimbre is a unique Music Company that provides Music Education and  Recording Studio services. BlueTimbre also works with schools to provide end-to-end Music Education solutions for schools. 

The BlueTimbre team comes with decades of cumulative experience in running Structured Businesses, Music Curriculum Development, Music Education and Performance.

How to Utilize things Around you to make yourself a Practice Pad

Drums and percussive instruments are the heartbeat of any song. It keeps the song alive and on time. Without it, the song might just fall apart. However, learning them come with a few challenges. The most common is that students learning drums don’t have a drum kit because of the money involved in buying the kit and also the space required to fit the whole set. So, in this blog post, we present you with some solutions to still practice your exercises even if you do not have a drum kit.

Before we proceed, as a student of drums, it is a must that you buy at least your drum sticks and a kick-drum pedal. Now, the most common solution is that you buy a practice pad and go through your exercises there, still, there are many instances where a student cannot afford the practice pads as well. We will tackle this by finding solutions to build your own practice pad with things you find around you. Let us discuss some of the ways that you can have your own practice pad.

·       Making a Practice Pads: If you are someone who likes to make their own things, then you can make  a practice pad out of plywood and gum rubber. There are many tutorials on how to build a practice pad out of these two. You can always take help of the internet and build your own practice pad which will cost you very less.

·       Using household Items as Practice Pads: If building a practice pad is not what you are looking for, you can use some of your household items as practice pads. What makes drums so accessible is that one of the fundamental techniques you have to learn as a beginner student is perfecting the art of stick control. So you can do your sticking exercise anywhere, like in a table or in a chair or in a pillow or a mouse pad.

·       Pillow for Stick Control Practice: As a beginning student, these are actually the perfect tools as you concentrate on polishing your technique rather than just making noise on the drum kit without any proper direction. Pillow is a great object to practice your stick control as it doesn’t offer you rebound. Thus you have to pick your stick up which strengthens your wrist movement which is a very important technique to have.

·       Experimentation: Second fundamental element you should improve is to understand different percussive sounds. Drum is not just about hitting your kit, it is about building rhythm with different percussive sounds. So experiment with the practice pads made out the household objects and experiment the different percussive sounds it produces. For eg; a table will make a different sound than the mouse pad or your chair. So experiment the sounds and practice it by starting with one object and once you are familiar with the sounds coming out of different object, practice your rudiments or sticking patterns over the set of different objects.

·       Practice Rhythm: Practice has to be done all the time if you are aspiring to be a professional drummer. Thus the best way to do that is to practice in your thighs which is ever present with you and you don’t have to drop a sweat over what should be your next practice pad.

·       Practice Kicks: The next thing to do is to practice your kicks. As it was mentioned before it is a must that you buy a kick-drum pedal if you are a sincere drum student. To practice your kicks, find a flat surface for the beater of your kick to hit. Make sure you don’t hit the wall directly as it will damage the wall, so use a rubber sheet on the wall.

Now that you know how to utilize things around you to practice your techniques, you should not have any excuses about not having a kit or a practice pad. Even though it doesn’t feel like a real drum kit, these exercises can teach you a lot of things from strengthening your technique and muscles to understanding different sounds and the ability to use them in different ways. Keep practicing and one day you can finally apply all that you have learnt on a drum-kit that is surely to come your way if you are interested about the instrument.

BlueTimbre is a unique Music Company that provides Music Education and  Recording Studio services. BlueTimbre also works with schools to provide end-to-end Music Education solutions for schools. 

The BlueTimbre team comes with decades of cumulative experience in running Structured Businesses, Music Curriculum Development, Music Education and Performance.