Music world

Learn the ledger outline. Leger lines are lines that are further above or below the staff; there can be a lot of them, but it is most likely necessary to learn only a few from memory and know how to form out the other ones when you come across them.

Become confident with rhythm by learning the import of time signatures. A time signature is a fraction shown at the beginning of a portion of music. The top digit tells you how many beats there are in a measure, while the bottom number tells what kind of note gets one beat or count. Hence, 4/4 time would be four beats to assess with a quarter-note getting one count. Sometimes 4/4 is shown with a C, which stands for frequent time. 2/2 time is two beats to a measure with a half-note getting one count.

This is commonly called "cut time" and is typically expressed as a C with a vertical line through the center of it. Other common time signatures are 3/4, or three beats to quantify and a quarter-note getting one count, and 6/8 time. 6/8 is a little strange because if it is played in a fast tempo, there are two beats to a measure with a dotted quarter-note getting one count.

The Merritt Mountain Music Festival has a new lease on life. After a year in hiatus, the event will return and run from July 7-10, 2011, Claude Lelievre, general manager of Active Mountain Entertainment and a festival cofounder, announced Wednesday. The artist roster will be announced in November.

High demand by the general public was a key factor in the company’s decision to carry on. "It’s amazing," Lelievre said. "The phone calls and e-mails have been overwhelming." After 17 years of producing the B.C. Interior’s largest entertainment event — attracting as many as 140,000 festival visits one year family owned Active Mountain folded its tent after the 2009 festival, citing financial burdens despite a top draw in headliner Kenny Chesney.

The event was scaled back in 2009. Lelievre said then the festival would be back, but when his invitation to bring aboard new financial partners didn’t have the desired effect, hope for a revival began to flag.

Some of Active Mountain’s larger creditors have come aboard as partners. Tickets go on sale Nov. 15, with reduced prices for admission and camping, according to a press release.

The ladies of Alathea have brought us a wonderful folksy Christmas cd featuring terrific renditions of songs like "The First Noel", "What Child Is This", "Silent Night", "Tennessee Christmas", and more.

For a preview of some of the songs (including the above) visit their special Christmas CD Myspace.

Tickets are now on sale for both the Creation Northeast and Northwest summer festivals (is it our imagination or is it a little early to be thinking about summer?). But if you’re a fan of Creation, the nation’s largest festival, then you’ll save money by ordering your tickets now. Visit the Creation website for more info here. Or visit the festival’s Myspace page here.

Be sure to read our feature article on Creation 2007 here.

Switchfoot members surf with the champions. Pictured (l-r) are: Tim Foreman (Switchfoot), Timmy Curran (world champion surfer/musician), Rob Machado (US and world surfer champion), Chad Butler (Switchfoot), Tom Curren (#3 Best Surfer in the world) and Jon Foreman (Switchfoot).

Switchfoot is pictured on stage at the Bro-Am. Switchfoot’s Bro-Am was held June 26 in Encinitas, CA. The surf/music event donated all proceeds to Stand-Up for Kids. This year over 7,500 people attended and it raised over $130,000 for the organization.

With an amazing string of successes with her 2006 debut, Gotee Records’ GRAMMY – nominated singer/songwriter Ayiesha Woods is poised to release her next musical installment with Love Like This, set to street late Summer 2008.

Love Like This features 11 songs produced by Chris Stevens (TobyMac, Mandisa) and Jamie Moore (CeCe Winans, TobyMac). Song titles include “Love Can’t Wait,” “Because of You,” “Love Like This,” “New Beginnings,” and “One Day,” as well as “Transparent,” “Fight,” “Never Give Up,” “Refine Me,” “Take Me There,” and “Love Is Alive.”

Along with the first single “Love Can’t Wait” going for adds at both CHR and AC radio formats in June, Woods will be highly visible in the upcoming months. Woods is slated to perform at Creation East, Lifefest, Creation West, Life Light Festival, Music Boat Cruise 2008, Girls Get-A-Way Cruise 2008, and various other spot dates. A favorite on the Women of Faith and Revolve tour circuit last year, she will again join the cast for five dates this summer.

Woods has merited popular and critical acclaim for her power-packed Gotee debut Introducing Ayiesha Woods. The album garnered Woods a GRAMMY nomination for “Best Pop/Contemporary Gospel Album”, as well as nabbing an additional nod in the Dove Awards “New Artist Of The Year” category. CCM Magazine followed Woods’ career as one of three emerging musical talents for 2006 in their “Band Wagon” column, and MTU.com’s URGE service (www.urge.com) picked Introducing Ayiesha Woods in their 2006 TOP 10 year-end list for Inspirational music. Her hit single “Happy” was also used an ad campaign for the DVD release of the Russell Crowe film, A Good Year. Musically inclined since childhood, Woods has seen her share of accolades including a 2004 “Producer of the Year” award from the Caribbean Gospel Music Marlin Awards, and a Marlin Awards’ “New Artist of the Year” and “Contemporary Vocal Performance of the Year (Female).”

NASA will hold a briefing for journalists with the next set of residents of the International Space Station at 1 p.m. CST Thursday, Jan. 21, from NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. The briefings will be broadcast live on NASA Television and the agency’s Web site. Questions also will be taken from participating NASA locations.

The briefing participants are:

- Expedition 23 Flight Engineer and NASA astronaut Tracy Caldwell Dyson

- Expedition 23 Flight Engineer and Russian cosmonaut Alexander Skvortsov

- Expedition 23 Flight Engineer and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko

Following the briefing, the crew members will be available for individual round-robin interviews, in person or by phone. There also will be a photo opportunity. To participate in the interviews, reporters should contact the Johnson newsroom at 281-483-5111, by 4 p.m. CST, Wednesday, Jan. 20. U.S. and foreign nationals planning to attend the news briefing must contact the Johnson newsroom by 4 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 14, to arrange credentials.

On April 2, Skvortsov, Kornienko, and Caldwell Dyson will launch to the station aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft. They will dock to the space station on April 4, joining Russian cosmonaut Oleg Kotov, NASA astronaut T.J. Creamer and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Soichi Noguchi, who arrived on the station in December as part of Expedition 22.

Curb recording artist and GMA’s reigning Female Vocalist of the Year, Natalie Grant, is preparing to headline her third annual Christmas Tour this season. With “American Idol’s” Mandisa and GMA’s current Male Vocalist and New Artist of the Year, Aaron Shust, as special guests, the “Natalie Grant –– A Christmas To Believe In” Tour is slated to hit 14 cities in December. The Tour will also introduce Centricity recording artist Daniel Kirkley.

Sponsored by the Gospel Music Channel, the Tour will stop in Los Angeles; San Francisco; Cincinnati; Phoenix; Memphis, Tennessee; Albuquerque, New Mexico; Murfreesboro, Tennessee; and Baton Rouge, Louisiana, among other cities, before concluding December 22.

Natalie Grant – A Christmas To Believe In Tour schedule:

December 2 Kinston, NC (with Aaron Shust and Daniel Kirkley)

December 6 Baton Rouge, LA (with Aaron Shust and Daniel Kirkley)

December 7 Memphis, TN (with Aaron Shust and Daniel Kirkley)

December 8 Cincinnati, OH (with Aaron Shust and Daniel Kirkley)

December 9, 10 Murfreesboro, TN (with Daniel Kirkley)

December 13 Phoenix, AZ (with Daniel Kirkley)

December 14 Los Angeles, CA (with Daniel Kirkley)

December 15 Orange County, CA (with Daniel Kirkley)

December 16 Bakersfield, CA (with Daniel Kirkley)

December 17 San Francisco, CA (with Mandisa and Daniel Kirkley)

December 18 Albuquerque, NM (with Mandisa and Daniel Kirkley)

December 20 Coos Bay, OR (with Mandisa and Daniel Kirkley)

December 21 Bend, OR (with Mandisa and Daniel Kirkley)

December 22 Longview, WA (with Mandisa and Daniel Kirkley)

For more info visit Natalie’s website here.

When it comes to drumming in the world of Indian music, the Indian tabla drums are the most popular. Their characteristic sound has made them a favoured addition to nearly every kind of music in the world today. Tabla drums feature highly in Bollywood soundtracks and asian movies.

Beginning to the classically based Indian drums called "Tabla". Find out how many different sounds can be created from the tabla using combinations of the various finger and hand techniques. Then have a exit yourself.

In a report by Business Insider, Google was close to buying subscription-based streaming music service Spotify or Rhapsody, but the deals were shelved because of internal politics. Three different groups were fighting for organize and ownership inside Google, and couldn’t agree on an approach. Instead of a streaming service, Google is now looking to build a digital locker, which will store user-owned music and allow users to stream their own content to a device.