General Interest
This is for those general interest articles that don’t relate to a specific product. They might just be ideas, concepts or just something fun that we felt like putting in.
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Caring for your Instrument
We know – what can possibly be more boring than cleaning? Watching paint dry maybe, but we don’t have to worry about that here! Unfortunately, there are no shortcuts; you have to keep cleaning in order to maintain your instrument in its’ optimum condition. Some instruments require less attention than others (pianos, for example, just…
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What is it with guitar strings?
Why are there so many different gauges to choose from? I mean choosing a brand is easy ‘cos there’s only a couple of hundred of them, but then there’s gauges and there’s coatings and every brand has a couple of dozen and none of them are the same gauge and none of them use the…
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Scales, Arpeggios & the boring stuff – Pt 2
I’d decided to concentrate on my other academic love, Science. I wanted to do a degree in Physiology and Biochemistry but my Physics A-Level was one grade lower than I needed, so I thought I’d get a job as a lab tech at a local hospital and resit the next year. This was when I…
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Scales, Arpeggios & the boring stuff – Pt 1
Scales, arpeggios, exercises. Why bother? I mean they’re so absolutely boring right? Who uses them? Who, in their right mind, would use them? Why on earth would I want to spend time learning Bach two and three part inventions? (Keyboard players know what I mean. they were written, after all, just to teach his kids…
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Why Am I Disorganised?
OK, why don’t you tell me why you think you are disorganised? Letters on a postcard please. The excuse I hear most often is “I’m disorganised because I’m artistic”. Really? Lets look at 5 artists, Beethoven, Turner, Piers Anthony, Damien Hirst and Elvis Costello. Starting with Mr Hirst, I don’t like his works, but then…
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Can you ever be over-rehearsed?
Sooner or later everyone in music is going to put on a performance. I’m not talking about playing for family and friends, but for those who don’t know you and are likely to be somewhat critical. But what constitutes a performance? Strutting your stuff in front of 20,000? Getting on stage in front of a…
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My First Classical Book
Aimed at introducing young children to classical music with information about the composers and their works as well as instruments of the orchestra. Shame it only comes with a CD rather than audio access. Nonetheless with music ranging from Mozarts’ Magic Flute to Williams’ Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone there’s a range of music…
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Story Orchestra
A great way of introducing your children to classical music. A range of well known favourites that we at The Music Realm listened to ourselves when we were young…which was, admittedly many years ago, but they are timeless classics for a reason! In this series you’ll find Prokofievs’ Peter and the Wolf, Holsts’ Planets Suite,…