MUSIC WITHOUT BOUNDS – The University of Utah

MUSIC WITHOUT BOUNDS

June 12, 2017

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How to Make a song?

HOW TO MAKE A SONG FOR THE MARKET Do you have goals to publish a song to iTunes, Spotify or Pandora? Do you want to get a million hits streaming your music on YOUTUBE? If yes, you need to be sure that the song has its own “earworm” effect and comes with much energy to make a lasting impression on the ears and hearts of your fans. Your fans need to remember you for releasing that song which sticks in their minds for a long time. If you want to use a song as a movie soundtrack, you need different elements to make it market ready. We shall cover that angle in a future blog Before we delve further into the topic, let’s first understand what “music” means. If you thought it was just a simple word that recently came into use, you might have made the first big mistake of your career as a musician. Music is a two-part word that goes way back into time. The first part “Mus” relates to the ancient name of “Mausas” the ancient name of the Israelites who lived in Egypt in the year 3000 B.C. The name means “that something has been taken out of a thing,” while the second part “ic” originates with the ancient gods of Egypt, the god of “Spirits.” Therefore, we can say that music is a combination of sounds taken from the spirits, something very special. Going into the process of creating a song, we can say that a song is a tune that came to your spirit or mind as the case may be. It comes into your mind and sticks. It does not get out of your head. When you experience this, you know that you have a song that needs to be created. At this point, you have never played it on an instrument nor sung it in the shower. Not ever. However, it is still in your mind, waiting patiently. Waiting to be released to the outside world. An idea yearning to be heard. Sounds good, doesn’t it? Now, to get this song out of your spirit into the air, you need to record it with a musical instrument or by just humming it. Once any one of these happens, Voila! You have a music idea. Remember though, that it is still just an idea. A song idea that you need to release to your audience. To successfully do this, you need to deal with this idea as a real estate unit. In the music industry, this idea is called a “unit” because you can rent it to a filmmaker who wants a soundtrack for a movie. You may sell it to a publishing record company or label who want to share a profile with you by helping to publish this unit, and as long as the unit is successful, people will live in it. They may take it along to school, listen to it on the road, or dance to it at a wedding, all because they love your “unit.” To say the song is a real estate unit may sound strange but, it is a very accurate expression. Around the world, a typical building would need an architect first to draw a plan to show what your building will look like. Included in this blueprint would be every detail that makes a complete structure including the doors, floors, and finishing details such as colors of the walls and interior decorations to make the house appealing to its beholders. Next, the plan would need to be put on the ground by a civil engineer and then completed by a decorator who puts finishing touches on your building to make it habitable. Just like this hypothetical building, you also need to put in much work to make your music ready for release to your audience. Let us explain this building using an example from the world of music: 1.The Idea: It all begins with an idea as mentioned above. The idea is an “earworm” tune in your mind that came out of your creativity. 2.The Plan: You need an architect to build your phrases, music lines and rhythms into sounds, demos or even the song itself with the whole sounds library, synthesizers and more available on the scene now. At this stage of building, you may be delighted with the results. Here is a link to the producers in The Musician’s Marketplace. You may hire from among them. 3.The Builders: These are the musicians who will play the solo for your song. The singers who will sing your words or melody, the chord makers, who can professionally create jazz chords for your song, the drummers who know how to rock the song. Everyone mentioned will need to build a part of your song to make it a complete real estate unit. Interesting, right? Link to the next article. Article #2 is about How you can save money while in the studio. 4.The Finalization: You may need to visit the studio to record at this point. If you play instruments, you will need to take your tracks for recording. If you are a singer, you will need to record your takes. A list of what you need to consider while in the studio will be covered in the next article. At the finalization stage, you need to get the services of a sound engineer to balance the sounds in your composition or compress the track. This is the stage of finalizing your tune or including parts of the beats that were not included in your framework. It is essential for the sound engineer to fine tune your track during production as this will enhance the listenability of your song. 5.Polishing the building: You know quite all right that after building a house, you need to polish the floors and install furnishings in the interiors to give visitors a pleasant sight to behold. That is what a mastering engineer does to your track. He masters the song for you. Why is this so important? It is because your song might sound right in your car, but sounds horrible on your computer or someone else’s speakers. Thus, you need to master your song to make it sound pleasant on all devices on which your song will be played.

What is the Oud instrument ?

The Oud instrument The history of the Oud spans millennia, making any brief statement feel inadequate. Yet the basics about the instrument hint at its long influence on music in one of the cradles of human civilization. The oud is often referred to as the first stringed instrument in history. According to some historians, it first appeared in 3000 BCE and was played during the time of King David. From the Holy Land, it reputedly came to the Egyptians and the Iraqis, following the wanderings of the Israelites. Though the instrument has changed over the eons, it still retains many of the same features, especially its haunting, stirring sound, suggesting ancient times yet remaining a vital source of inspiration for musicians around the world. According to El-Farabie, the Oud dates back to the days of Lamech; a sixth-generation descendant of Adam. Lamech was known as the “Father of the Oud players”. The first appearance of the Oud was 3000 BC. The desecrated skeleton suggested the form of the Oud. Oud is known as the first stringed instrument in history. The oldest pictorial record of the Oud dates back to the Uruk period in Southern Mesopotamia (Iraq), over 5000 years ago on a cylinder seal acquired by Dr. Dominique Collon and the seal is currently housed at the British Museum.. As the Oud becomes the quintessence of earlier chordophones, it also constitutes their functional synthesis. In the 9th century, Miwardi, the jurist of Baghdad, extolled its use in treating illness, such as King David did through his life with his Oud. The Oud was in the hands of Egyptians and Iraqis when the Israelites came out of Egypt. They took the Oud with them to the Holy Land. The Oud still maintains its Egyptian and Iraqi features and musical stylings. The Oud was played in sacred places such as the temples of Egypt. The Oud is the predecessor of the Lute and Guitar: Came to Spain first by “Zyriab” on “9th Century” at his era, the Oud developed to take another embodiment, which is become the Lute after the musician added to the Oud the frites , since the Oud is fretless instrument, after few years of this development the Oud have been in another embodiment which it become the Guitar;’ “The Oud become a Guitar “ The term guitar is descended from the Latin word cithara, but the modern guitar itself is generally not believed to have descended from the Roman instrument. Many influences are cited as antecedents to the modern guitar. Although the development of the earliest "guitars" is lost in the history of medieval Spain, two instruments are commonly cited as their most influential predecessors, the European lute and its cousin, the four-string oud; the latter was brought to Iberia by the Moors in the 8th century.[6] Wikipedia :Guitar History section | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guitar The Risha (the pic) and strings of the Oud : The strings of the contemporary 'ud are twisted, or spirally reinforced. They are plucked with a plectrum (risha, 'quill') made of an eagle's feather and held between thumb and index finger; a shell or plastic plectrum may be used instead. The technique calls for suppleness of the wrist as the plectrum strikes the strings in a simple fall, or combines risings and fallings. Certain teachers, such as Tawfiq al-Sabbagh, claim that a technique similar to the mandolin tremolo was once used. This may have disappeared, but another technique spread rapidly: the basm('imprint'), which was invented by the Egyptian Ahmad al-Laythi (1816-1913). It consists of substituting for the plectrum touches of the fingers of the left hand, plucking the strings, and introduces light and shade into the execution. Munir Bashir (Iraq) extended the technique by using the right hand too; he has made it one of the canons of present-day aesthetics of the'ud. There are two schools or conceptions of performance. The first, or 'Ottoman', takes as its principle the ornamentation of the sound, produced by delicate glissandos of the fingers and slight vibratos. The touch of the plectrum on the string sets off a vibration which, in turn, gives rise to an effect of resonance, volume and controlled intensity. The second aesthetic approach is Egyptian. The volume is amplified by firm strokes of the plectrum, which makes the strings resonate; the result is a curiously dulled sound, akin to the nasal effect of Egyptian song. This calls for virtuosity in performance, which is conceived of as an exteriorizing factor. The finest proponents of this school have been Safar 'Ali (1884-1962), Muhammad al-Qassabji (1898-1966) and Farid al-Atrash (1907-75), who, despite his melodramatic style, breathed a new vitality into the instrument. A synthesis of these two styles is taking place in Somalia, where the manner of performance combines extensive glissandos with the sonorous impact of the plectrum; the outstanding proponents of this style are Abdullahi Qarshe and 'Umar Dhule.