Blog – Page 57

NUANCE Progressive/Art Rock Festival and Showcases

May 6, 2009 by Chris

This years Nuance event at the Black Swan was … well another showcase of Toronto’s best kept musical secrets live on stage! The bands at this years celebration was none other then CounterPoint (my personal favorite), Half past 4 and Wilton Said.

Once again, a lot of praise has to be given to the man Wilton Said. The quality of acts at the show, is an indication of how much love Wilton has for his love of this genre of music. The energy that he has to bring together high caliber performers under one umbrella to present a well rounded evening is not only rewarding to him but the audience members as well.

The crowd was enthusiastic and respectful to each of the bands on stage that night. There wasn’t a single obnoxious drunk, ruining the evening in sight! The only thing that brought us all together was the love of music, a happening if you will.

Each group brought to the experience a unique art form. They contributed to the listener, sides of Prog/Art Rock that most people in general cannot appreciate. Collectively, they were fine ambassadors to the cause.

The price was right for these troubled financial times, three bucks! A buck a band, where else in the world can you find a deal like this? I told you not to miss it! To the ones that showed up, you know who you are, It was great to met some of the readers on this blog plus for your the support of this great event and hopefully you enjoyed it as much as I did!

So next time I write about this event, I hope to see more of you out there because it’s more then worth the drive to Toronto.

Keep on Jammin’ (at Nuance!)

Some origins of the electric keyboard

May 2, 2009 by Chris

I love anything keyboard related. I love the history or origins of all things musical. The history of the keyboard is something that I know very little about, so this next article is really for me … oh and for you guys too.

In the beer store the other day, I was in line and noticed the latest CHILL magazine. After picking it up and leafing through some of the pages, there was an article titled Voltage-Controlled Synthesizer.

The first thing that caught my eye was a picture of this vintage MOOG synth. It was made popular by the likes of Rick Wakeman and Keith Emerson. Way back in day, this thing looked like you could run a space ship with it!

The article was about a man named Hugh Le Caine, from Port Arthur. He was a physicist for the Canadian National Research Council in WW1. He then went off to Chalk River to work in the Nuclear reactor that was just starting up. It was the first one in Canada at the time.

So during the War he was working on this futuristic, weird thing called the Electronic Sackbut. Where he got the name for this thing initially only God knows. Where in the world do scientists come up with these names?! Anyways, his invention is now recognized to have been the very first voltage-controlled synthesizer.

In 1945, when the first Sackbut was built inside a desk, Le Caine visualized an instrument in which the operator would control three aspects of sound through operations on the keyboard in three co-ordinates of space: vertical pressure was to correspond to volume; lateral pressure to pitch change; and pressure away from the performer to timbre.

Being a man who was known to have tickled the old ivories more then once in a while, you can see where this new thingy-mabober was going!

Keep on Jammin’

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome exercises for guitarist

April 29, 2009 by Chris

This is a post for all you guitarists that may be affected by the painful disorder better known as Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (CTS). This can be the result of the compression of nerves in the wrist due to repetitive (motion). This can be the consequence of many daily tasks that one does over and over again (typists for example often suffer from CTS).

Symptoms of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome

I will attempt to concentrate on the aspects of this painful ailment as it relates to guitarists in the remainder of this article.

The guitarist uses very fine and complex muscles, tendons and ligaments when plying their gift. We tend to be overly sensitive to our every ache and pain. We tend to gravitate towards the worst case scenario when we think about the long term results from something like this. Most of us respond with inaction while dealing with symptoms of CTS. So let’s give our heads a good shake and let’s DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT!

Here are a couple of exercises that you can do to help manage this affliction.

(1) Massage your playing hand with your opposite hand by “kneading”the meaty part of your palm and working “outward”.
(2) Play as much AIR GUITAR as possible. this loosens up your fingers and gets the blood going. Be sure to let your wrist move with the motion of your fingers, this will prevent your hand from cramping up.
(3) If your hands feel tight or feel as if they are asleep, use a heating pad for about 20 minutes prior to playing. if this is not practical, run your hands under warm/hot water for about 5 minutes, rolling your fingers while the water is on. If you can’t do this,and you’re doing a gig at a restaurant, order a baked potato and hold it in your hand for a good 5 minutes or so, repeat for 15 times.
(4) Grasp you hands together in front of you. Apply light isometric pressure and lift you arms up over your head. Bring your clasped hands down behind your head. Return them to a position in front of your torso. Stretch out to the left, then the right keeping those hands pressed gently but firmly together.

So hopefully this will help some of you who are afflicted with this horrible disease.

Keep on Jammin'(after you warmed up with some of these exercises!)

NUANCE Progressive/Art Rock Festival and Showcases

Some origins of the electric keyboard

Carpal Tunnel Syndrome exercises for guitarist

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