The Cold Turnkey

Rihanna has just recently made public that she has got an interest in starring as a 4th Angel in the 3rd installment of the “Charlie’s Angel” series. Though showing her enthusiasm in joining Drew Barrymore, Cameron Diaz and Lucy Liu, the Rude Boy music hitmaker indicated that her busy schedule may obstruct her from taking the task.

“I’d like to be a Charlie’s Angel,” the 21-year-old vocalist told In Touch mag. Still, she explained, “I’m targeted, not only on music, I am an exceedingly creative person, so I love to find other outlets , for example fashion as well as movies”. She added, “I would like to get into that. But right now we’re targeting the tour and after that I am going to get into other stuff.” The statement came out following reports that “Charlie’s Angels” producer Nancy Juvonen had voiced her interest in casting the Barbadian frontman as the 4th Angel back in Jan . “I’m having a Rihanna fixation myself,” Juvonen told Sci Fi Wire. “What are you going to do?” as well as “Charlie’s Angels”, Rihanna was recently revealed to have landed a role in “The Last Dragon”.

A source asserted, as quoted by The Mirror, “She has landed an extraordinarily challenging role alongside Samuel L. Jackson. But it is not a part for the faint-hearted. She’s going to play a brilliant attractive, super kinky dominatrix”. The source further added, “She has been asked to research the part.”.

Everyone knows the vocal cords and the gut are both parts of our body… True, but what other likenesses do they have? One. “They’re both muscles.” not right. The gut is an organ and the vocal cords are strips of surface run by muscles. Two. “The stomach is obligatory to our staying alive. Our vocal cords simply make sound. We could do without them if we had to.” incorrect. The vocal cords’ first purpose is to close off the passage way to the lungs so that when we swallow water or food it does not go there, leading us to choke and die. A good singing instructor will help you improve your voice.

Let me ask you this… When do we notice that we’ve got a stomach? Perhaps when we are full, but generally when we have got a stomach ache. We are going about our lives essentially oblivious of our stomachs, and the same is true for our vocal cords. The one time we are really aware of them is when something goes pear shaped. Our stomach hurts….our vocal chord get irritated and we get hoarse. Or when they fail to shut on time and we choke on food. That small bump in the middle of our throat is essentially an enclosure made from cartilage which protects the small and delicate vocal cords. When we yawn it moves down.

When we swallow it moves up and covers the opening to the lungs. It’s called the “Adams’ Apple” as the fellow who named them was a bigot. Whoops, wrong.

It’s called the “Adams’ Apple as it’s typically much bigger on men. It’s easier seen. And why is that? Because female vocal chords are smaller compared to male.

Think about this : a flute goes way higher in pitch than a tuba. The flute needs to be smaller to do that. Girls’ voices are typically way higher in pitch than fellows, and that is due to the fact that their vocal cords are smaller, and their throat container is trickier to see. That is the reason why we do not call it the “Eve’s Apple.”.

If you would like to convert your amazing videos in MKV to 3GP then you should use the brilliant Need4 Video Converter.
It will let you play your clips on a variety of sources. These include your computer to your mobile phone. They may also be displayed on video sharing files such as You Tube.
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The First Step. Launch
To begin with you will need a video converter program, such as a Need4 Video Converter.
Download the program and follow the directions.
The Second Step. Add MKV Video to Converter
Click the +Video button to add video that you would like to convert. In the Files of type field, select MK. Then pick the right video file and click Open
The selected file will be added to the list of opened files.
The Third Step. Select Output Format

• Open the Profile list and select General Video.
• In the Presets list opened on the right.
• Select the right output format in the Presets list and click open.

The Fourth Step. Specify Folder to Save Video

• Insert the name of the converted video in the Save as field.
• Highlight the folder where you want to store the converted videos in the Save to field.
• Specify any extra options that you may need for saving video.
• Overwrite existing files and check it to replace any existing video files with the same name with brand new ones.
• Open the output folder. You can then review the folder with a ready file.

The Fifth Step Select a Video Segment to Convert

• If you would like to convert a particular part of your video.
• Click the Edit button next to your video in the list.
• When opening the window, you can drag the left marker to the start of the video episode you want with the right marker at the end.

The Sixth Step. Hit Convert to Save MKV Videos to 3GP

• It is recommended that, in the List of opened files, you can check the added video file.
• Hit Convert MKV to convert it to 3GP.

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When you are in new bands, playing live is nerve wracking enough without having to worry about the sound that your audience listens to. Surely it’s enough to be concerned about whether your finely crafted and highly practised material will stand up to public scrutiny, or if you’ll make a tube of yourself by falling off the stage in front of the gathered mass of friends and family. Very important things both, but there are a number of simple things you can do to help yourselves and the sound engineer ensure you have the best possible sound coming through the PA. With that sorted you can worry less about the sound and more about whether you look like a tool in your new skinny jeans and winkle pickers.

The sound check is as important as the live performance as this is the time the sound engineer will tune the PA system to get the best from your performance. He will tweak the system to suit your style of music, vocals and tone as well as familiarise himself with your set-up and any requirements you may have that are slightly out of the ordinary. No doubt he will do his best, but the sound may not be as good as it could be and your performance may suffer as a result.

Arriving on time will allow you to have a relaxed and thorough sound check, to solve any little problems that might come up and for you to familiarise yourselves with the venue and stage layout.

As dozens of buoyant Michael Jackson fans queued up in the Nokia Plaza to be among the first to see their idol’s last performance, others watching the scene expressed mixed emotions.

Tim Leiweke, president of AEG, which bankrolled Jackson’s “This is It” tour and is a key player in the film, recalled the moment he got the news of Jackson’s death. “Well, at first it lets all the air out of you, and you sit here and you’re stunned at how quickly it happened and occurred. You’re in denial. You can’t believe it. You’re looking around, saying, ‘What happened?”

Zip ahead some three months, to Thursday afternoon about an hour before the opening of the nearly two-and-a-half day waiting line for advance tickets to “Michael Jackson’s ‘This is It’” concert documentary. Leiweke reunited with musicians, singers and dancers from the tour in a press conference held in the plaza, which is directly across the street from the Staples Center, the site of Jackson’s rehearsals, the last of which took place just hours before his death June 25. The Michael Jackson Billie Jean song is still regarded by many as the perfect pop song.

“It’s mixed feelings, first of all, to see these guys again, and to be in this space,” noted singer Darryl Phinnessee. “You know, we finished rehearsing at quarter to midnight the night before Michael died, and he was energetic and up and doing his thing, as you’ll see in the movie.”

Crafted from hundred hours of rehearsal footage, “This is It” is directed by longtime Jackson collaborator Kenny Ortega, who had been working with Jackson on the concerts.

“You see the music, the studios, the rehearsals, the dancers, the auditions, the costumes,” Leiweke said. “You see all of the behind-the-scenes, and then you finally see the last few days of the dress rehearsals, and you begin to see the genius of Michael: the dancing, the singing, the choreography, and his concept of creating a one-time performance that no one would ever forget.”

Leiweke said the movie also will provide proof that AEG had Jackson’s well-being in mind.

It’s forever been tricky to get your hands on a ticket for a concert or a sports event. For Instance, the entire Manic Street Preachers tour of the United Kingdom in 2007 sold out in under an hour. So how on earth can someone who’s got a full time job get to buy a ticket if they sell out so fast?

Go to the second-hand marketplace on the web.

It used to be the case that the only means to get hold of a resold sports or concert ticket was via a tout outside the premises of the event. This inevitably meant paying double or triple the face value, or even perhaps being handed fake tickets which would inevitably be identified as such as you tried to enter the gig - meaning you not only miss the game or concert, you’ve wasted a load of dosh in the process.

However, the situation has improved for sports and music lovers. The secondary ticket marketplace has cleaned up its act in the last decade or so, with much thanks to the internet. These days there is so much competition to resell tickets online, the market has become self-regulating. Your tickets don’t have insurance? I’ll purchase my ticket somewhere else! Many ticket agents provide very cheap insurance if the sports event / music gig is cancelled. And with stiff competition online, resale tickets have become cheaper to the stage that it can sometimes be you’re not spending much more than the actual initial value of the ticket. Many ticket purchasers compare prices between lots of vendors selling secondary tickets for the same concert / event. They evaluate the prices, seating, insurance, and even history of the vendor before making a decision - so the force has considerably transferred away from the dodgy looking tout of days gone by to the ticket purchaser.

These days you can buy tickets for many kinds of concerts and sporting events. From basketball games to soccer to cricket, to getting your hands on front row seats for your favourite band; secondary tickets offer up a second opportunity to attend the event you want to see. How can you get tickets online? Use a search engine like Google and enter in your keyphrase like Keane tickets, and you will discover a huge array of secondary ticket agents who have the ticket you’re looking for.

Not all people are happy with the idea of secondary tickets though. Some people label resale ticket sellers as parasites, and want to see the forbiddance of resale tickets. They don’t seem to see the valuable service resale tickets contribute : some people simply do not have the time to line up for tickets.

Anyone who has ever been involved in an award winning High School Band knows that it takes hours of practice to make the grade. This means High School Bands must get up early to get it done. Many times as daylight savings time sets in they are practicing before sunrise, in the dark. But with school budgets strapped they may find that the School District will not turn on the stadium lights for them to practice to become perfect. Without perfection they cannot win. Additionally High School traveling and competing bands have huge budgets in excess of $65,000 per year.

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Travel costs have gone up too and there is only so much the High School Bands can earn doing fundraisers to pay for these costs yet still have time to practice. School Buses use diesel fuel and those costs are now in excess of $3.15 per gallon. The kids cannot adequately absorb these costs and it is really not safe to be doing all this stuff in the dark.

I propose that we use beat of the drums and sounds of the band along with alternative energy too power up the lights for the kids using the vibrational energy of the machinery and refinery itself. How so you ask? By placing large 4′ X 8′ sandwich sheets with a taunt film on the vibrational side and small copper lined tubes; hundreds of these tubes running perpendicular to the sheets, with magnets inside bouncing back and forth. These magnets will charge a capacitor and be hooked up to an LED lighting system using fiber optics or reflectors, each one hooked up to a .2 to .5 watt light. With hundreds of thousands of lights hooked up in a composite format it will light up the lights needed for these early morning or after school night time practices without the light pollution associated with streetlights, stadium lights or in large cities.

Currently this technology is being used in those little flashlights you see advertised on television that you shake and they light, but you never need batteries. This idea of lighting up the early morning practice is using that technology on a larger scale with miniaturized parts making up the guts between the sandwich sheets. Let there be light, thru vibrational energy and there was. Think on it.

“Lance Winslow” - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/

A guitar is a fantastic instrument to play. It is easy to play and very difficult depending on what you play. Let’s take a look at learning to play guitar sheet music!

I have found in my teaching experiences that many pupils find reading sheet music on guitar to be very difficult.

Admittedly there are a lot of factors that make reading guitar sheet music notation more of a challenge than on other instruments in certain aspects.

However, the most important factor is in my opinion that many guitarists never decide to learn to find the notes on the guitar. Instead they cultivate the habit of listening, playing and calculating where the specific note probably is to be played on the guitar.

Such a strategy is too slow to make it possible to sight read sheet music on guitar. A wish and then a decision to really start learning the notes on the guitar is much better than to use the before mentioned method to find the notes.

You have to start from where you are if you want to progress and become a good sight reader on guitar.

In my teaching experiences I have found that many people that play guitar wants to be somewhere else than where they ought to be.

The problem with playing too difficult guitar pieces is that it’s difficult to develop note reading skills, learning to sight read and of course to learn the guitar pieces properly.

We will start this little tutorial on reading guitar sheet music by finding a few notes on the guitar fretboard.

You will find the note E on the first open string if your guitar is tuned with the most conventional tuning. This note can also be found on the second string and the fifth fret.

E on the third string is on the ninth fret. I would suggest that you practice playing the note E in these positions back and forth until you can find the note E without effort.

You will also find the note E in a lower octave on the fourth string and the second fret. On the fifth string you will find the same note on the seventh fret.

The sixth string is an E one octave lower. Let’s invent an exercise to help you find the E notes on the guitar fretboard:

The task is to play the strings on the guitar in this order:

6 5 4 3 2 1 2 3 4 5 6

As you play the strings the notes you play shall be the note E. This means that the sixth string and the first string are open strings and on the other strings you have to find the right fret.

Try to play slowly in an even tempo until you don’t have to think about where to place you fingers. When you find this easy to do you can proceed by choosing another note, for example G and use the same method.

Knowing the notes on the guitar fingerboard is important in many ways.

To find your way around on your guitar will be a great help for you, not only when you play guitar sheet music but also when you are playing by ear or try to figure out the name of a chord or are playing by ear!

Peter Edvinsson is a musician, composer and music teacher. Visit his site Capotasto Music and download your free sheet music and learn to play guitar resources at http://www.capotastomusic.com

Taking care of your instrument is not only the first guitar lesson - it should become a regular habit for beginners and experts alike. Apart from ensuring longer life and consistent sound quality, by this practice you also grow a sense of respect for your guitar, an affinity and a bond with the instrument. You come to “know” your guitar better. On the other hand if you tend to neglect your guitar eventually its quality of sound will suffer. The sound quality is as important as the skill of the player.

You may like to consider using a hard shell case for transporting your guitar. The hard case holds the guitar cushioned securely in place so that the instrument does not get bumps and jerks in handling. This not only protects the body of the guitar, it also keeps the guitar tuned for a longer time.

Many people use soft or cloth “gig bag” which can be zipped up. Although such bags protect the instrument from dust, they do not provide mechanical strength to protect the guitar from possible physical damage. These bags do not even protect the tuning nuts which turn during handling and the guitar gets out of tune. To avoid such problems hard shell case of proper size should be used. The hard cases are designed to take the impact while holding the guitar safely, protecting body and neck of the guitar and keeping it in tune.

Another important accessory is a guitar stand. When you are not playing the guitar you should keep it on a guitar stand. It is not a good practice to lean the guitar against the wall. This can warp the neck of the guitar in due course. The warping will increase the distance between the strings and the fingerboard. This will in turn not only affect the quality of sound, you will need to apply more force to play the instrument. Your level of performance will be affected. To avoid such problems the guitar should be placed on a stand or a level surface. It is good idea to cover the guitar when not using it. You can keep the guitar in its hard shell case when not playing it.

The strings exert considerable force on the guitar. There is enough strength designed in the guitar to withstand this force without deforming. However, if strings are tightened too much, it will give additional strain on the guitar. To prevent over-tightening and also for ease of tuning you can have a tuning device for your guitar. With the help of this device you will be able to tune the guitar quickly and accurately.

If you are very serious about protecting your guitar, you should actually tune down your guitar (loosen the strings) when you are not playing it. You can again tune-in when you decide to play next time. I know it will be a botheration to tune the guitar so many times, but it will provide greater protection.

There are some common sense practices. You need to keep your guitar clean. While you clean your instrument, you can also develop a habit of inspecting the body of your guitar and take action quickly. For example, if any of the strings start rusting they should be replaced.

The movement of the tuning nuts should be smooth. At the earliest signs of any jerky movements, the nuts should be set right by proper maintenance.

Care and maintenance of your instrument is an important guitar lesson which should be religiously followed. The better you take care of your guitar, the better output you can expect.

Sanjay Johari regularly contributes articles to various ezines. To see more information on guitars and guitar lesson please go to this page:

http://www.sanjay-j.com/guitar-lesson