Category: Musical Instruments
PureSolo is Karaoke 2.0, and great for learning instruments, too
PureSolo is a new application designed for people to sing, or play, along with backing tracks. It’s great for drunken Karaoke after lunch on Christmas day, but it’s also good for any aspiring musicians – classical or rock & pop – to play along as if they were in a real band.
Each song offered by the service is missing a particular track, be that vocals, guitar, or even oboe or alto sax. When you join you get one free download, but beyond that, each track costs £1 to £2. You can record your efforts with a microphone, and use headphones, too.
Take part in a virtual symphony on YouTube, perhaps make it to Carnegie Hall
YouTube has just announced that it’s setting up the “world’s first collaborative online orchestra”, the YouTube Symphony Orchestra, in which musicians from all over the world learn and perfect a single piece of music, record themselves playing it, and then submit it for inclusion in the giant online experiment.
It’s never going to give you the same kick as playing live with real musicians, but there’s a competition that will see the best performers whisked off to Carnegie Hall to play the piece for real – not in front of a video camera…
Gibson Guitar introduces limited edition Dark Fire
Firstly, I must apologise because I’m writing this article from the perspective of a keyboard player, not a guitarist, so if you are a guitarist I hope you’ll cut me some slack if I foul up on the lingo – and if you can’t, correct me in the comments below.
OK, so Gibson (makers of extraordinary guitars) has created the Dark Fire guitar, inspired by its previous digital guitar innovations: the Gibson Digital and the Robot guitar.
With a nod of the head to the Byrdland and the 1911 F4 Mandolin, the Dark Fire features a flowerpot inlay on the headstock and is made from mahogany to make it lightweight and acoustically louder with increased sustain and resonance…
Guitar Hero makes music look easy – 2.5 million extra kids learning instruments thanks to video games
Hear that sound? That’s the slow, disjointed, tortured noise made by 2.5 million 14-year-old boys currently trying to work out the opening chords of ‘Smoke on the Water’ on their new proper guitars.
It’s all thanks to the success of music games like Guitar Hero and Rock Band, which have triggered a massive surge in the number of kids learning to play musical instruments. The Times says a survey by Youth Music found that over half of…
Gibson teases us with "Dark Fire" Guitar
This is the tells-us-nothing teaser video that Gibson just sent us. It’s something to do with a guitar, and glowy bits. But damnit does it look tasty. Following some pretty snazzy work with digital guitars previously, there’s every possibility that this could be the most awesome axe since Hendrix’s flaming guitar.
Luckily, there’s a little bit more info revealed by a variety of product shots that we’ve been handed. Click the picture in the post to begin.
Teach your dad to play video games: The Beatles are coming to Rock Band
Good news for any lady readers who are planning to marry and divorce a former Beatle: at long last the Beatles, or “The Fabs” as Steve Harley infuriatingly refers to them, have finally licensed their music to something that could be described as “modern technology”. That’s right, Beatles songs are coming to money-spinning rhythm game Rock Band. I wonder how long it will be before Guitar Hero gets The Monkees in retaliation?
Yamaha's teaching trumpet can banish brash brass players to near silence
Yamaha has launched its EZ-TP electronic teaching trumpet, allowing any would-be Wynton Marsalis to practice more quietly without driving other members of the household (and neighbours) potty…
Guitar Hero & Rock Band learn to make beautiful music together
In the 21st century, owning one plastic guitar to play videogames with is an acceptable thing for a person to do. Owning two though? That’s when the neighbours start whispering about you being a bit weird and having delusions of grandeur about being a Tom Morello.
There is some good news though if you do think that you’re Tom Morello: Microsoft has followed Sony’s lead and has announced that the instruments in the next generation of rhythm games – Guitar Hero World Tour, Rock Band 2 and Konami’s Rock Revolution – are all going to be cross compatible with each other…
Gibson creates its own island on Second Life
Legendary guitar maker Gibson has created its own island in Second Life, making it the first major music manufacturer to do so.
The island launched last Wednesday with an exclusive live performance by Bob Welch…
Endless Knobbing: music gear knobs made from precious metals and gemstones
For that extra bit of bling on your music gear, Jason Nicholls can create faithful reproductions of knobs and fader caps for amplifiers, guitars, desks, keyboards, and other equipment in silver, gold, platinum, diamond, sapphire, and ruby.
His company, wonderfully titled “Endless Knobbing”, can also create engraved keyrings and plectrums…
