The Musicroom Journal Issue 1

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Issue 1

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News Interviews Releases Guides

LudovicoEinaudi In His Own Words

CONTENTS

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Contents 04 E ditor’s Picks Short reviews of the newest releases 06 L udovico Einaudi on Film Music Einaudi - In His Own Words 08 M y Musicroom How to style your Musicroom 09 C ompose Yourself Rules for Composing 10 A Brief History of...

The Electric Guitar 11 Returns & Cancellation Policy

Hello Welcome& This is the new look Musicroom Journal – packed with a ton of advice for both veteran and beginner musicians.

Contained within, legendary composer Ludovico Einaudi shares his secrets for film composition, we run through the history of the electric guitar, we show off all of our best new releases and show you our ideal musicroom. Oh, and we’re also giving you £5 off when you spend £30, check the back cover for more details.

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Education Titles

Editor's Picks

Graded pieces that match the main exam boards. Great.

John Thompson’s Easiest Piano Course: First Hit Songs Simplified arrangements and large notation: modern pop for young pianists.

WMR101596 £6.95

Absolute Beginners: Electronic Drums Electronic drums from the absolute beginning, for absolute beginners.

AM1010130 £8.95

Kurt Cobain: Montage Of Heck Enlightening read for fans, featuring artwork, interviews & movie stills.

OP56419 £24.95

James Horner Collection Twelve of the best film compositions by the late, great James Horner.

AM1011109 £14.95

Little Voices: Songs from the Movies Big songs from even bigger movies, arranged for little voices.

NOV165484 £6.95

Saxophone Pieces Grades 1- 3

Clarinet Pieces Grades 1- 3

Justinguitar.com Blues Lead Guitar Solos The latest in YouTube sensation Justinguitar’s popular series.

AM1008183 £16.95

Muse: Drones (PVG) Politics, riffs and a back-to-basics British three-piece.

0571539246 £14.99

Looking Through You 300+ photos from the Beatles Book archive, in a limited-edition slipcase OP56309 £39.95

Easiest Keyboard Collection: Hot Hits Really great songs.

Really easy to play.

AM1010526 £10.95

Chart Hits Now! Blank Space Plus 11 More Hits Don’t just settle for the old stuff.

Demand Chart Hits Now! AM1011021 £12.95

Flute Pieces Grades 1- 3

Violin Pieces Grades 1- 3 The Busker’s Songbook Busk your way to riches with this collection of acoustic classics.

AM1010999 £14.95

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In Search Of... Pharrell Williams Singer, songwriter, producer, designer & entrepreneur, the story of a happy man.

OP56210 £14.95

everything for the musician I click & collect at www.musicroom.com

Rick Buckler: That’s Entertainment - My Life In The Jam The first autobiography from a member of The Jam: an instant classic.

OP56243 £14.95

Mozipedia: The Encyclopedia Of Morrissey And The Smiths Never leave the house without a Mozipedia, and wheelbarrow to carry it.

9780091927103 £14.99

Philip Glass: A Memoir Maximum enjoyment from the Minimalist’s memoirs.

9780571323722 £22.50

Available from September 7th, 2015

view more online at www.musicroom.com

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LudovicoEinaudi In His Own Words

The World At His Fingertips

Ludovico Einaudi, the Italian composer, spoke to us about inspiration, advice for new composers and the value of ping-pong.

I decided to become a pianist when...

I heard my mother play the piano for the first time.

The first person that introduced me to music was my mother because she was always playing our old piano at home. So throughout my childhood, and later when I was a teenager, the sound of the piano coming from the living room area was like a perfume that was in the house. You know when you go to the house and the house has a smell but you can’t tell what it is? It touches something that is very deep inside you. This was the effect of my mother’s piano.

She always played Bach, Chopin, some popular folk songs from France – for me the piano, that sound, was always connected to something that was not only the sound of a piano but a sort of emotional experience. My family and my mother…this is why I started to make music.

What I find so appealing about film music is...

The power that one can lend the other. In the past, operas were this wonderful combination of theatre, music, dancing, acting, singing and writing.

This combination of elements created more than the sum of its parts – incredibly complex pieces of art. Today, we have movies that become stronger in the national consciousness and more popular – but the combination between the different elements remains the thing that makes it special! Different dimensions exist in the way it’s written and filmed, so when the music is applied to this and they operate as a whole, it creates a very interesting result: one capable of producing a lot of very deep emotive responses, expressions and meanings.

Music in movies has attracted me since I saw Lawrence Of Arabia when I was very young.

One of the films I like very much in terms of the combination of film and music is Babel with music

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by Gustavos Antolalla. This attracted me to write and to collaborate on film scores. The work of Thomas Newman in American Beauty, has a very interesting power, the film is very haunting and beautiful. Another is the film score for Grand Budapest Hotel by Desplat, and a film where it’s interesting how the music is connected to the story is The Piano by Michael Nyman.

the sound of the piano coming from the living room area was like a perfume that was in the house

My advice for people who want to compose music for film is…

Before starting to write music for moving images, it’s very useful to take parts of your favourite scenes from movies and try to create new music for them. It’s fascinating because in that process you can immediately use images that have been created by professionals.

You can then experiment and see the effect that your music brings to those images and it’s incredible how powerful the music is in relation to the film.

Experimenting directly with what you do with your harmonies and melodies, you can understand how you balance the weight of music and meaning that your music can give to the images.

I couldn’t survive a tour without…

When I’m touring the items I need are tools to connect with other people – one of which is my phone where everything happens. And I love to play ping pong when I am touring – so if I have that I’m very happy indeed.

Ludovico Einaudi: Film Music 17 of the best examples of Einaudi’s music for film over the past two decades are included here in this Film Music collection, arranged for solo piano.

CH83677 £14.95

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Einaudi's Top Tips For a healthy creative mind poetry – or any 1 Read book that can change each time you read it.

outwardly, not always 2 Look inwardly. Find inspiration outside of yourself.

ind a place which you find 3 Fcomfortable and surround yourself with friends.

wait for inspiration 4 Don’t to find you – you have to find it too!

mental block then 5 Iflookyouforhitaanew perspective.

There are always solutions to any problem.

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my musicroom How to style your Musicroom

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Show us your Musicroom

Compose Yourself:

Rules to give you Freedom

C

omposers are addicted to rules. Ever since earliest times, fashion and theoretical rules have dominated the creative process. And although many see rules as stifling and suffocating, composer Richard Mainwaring thinks they give him musical freedom.

Tag @musicroomuk and #mymusicroom on Instagram and be entered to win a £100 voucher to style your music room with Musicroom.

Imagine driving the roads of the UK without a Highway Code. How much freedom would we all have then, as cars hit us from every angle?! Or how much freedom would a great footballer have to show their skills, if there were no rules on the pitch?

If I’m stuck for an idea, I often try to limit the endless musical possibilities by boxing myself in. Here are 8 fun and rather left-field suggestions for painting-oneself-in-a-corner.

They might just spawn your next great work!

The best entries will be featured in The Musicroom Journal and The Musicroom Blog with a chance to have your music room professionally photographed.

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Do you have an inspiring music room you would like to share?

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What’s the first musical letter of your name?

Okay, that’s the key you’ll start in.

How many letters in the name of your car?

That will now determine the number of notes in your melody. Perhaps even the melody notes themselves!

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What’s your date of birth?

Some of those numbers could be used as your starting tempo. For example, 15/4/77 – possibilities include 154bpm, 54bpm, 77bpm, or if you’re feeling a bit Hindemith, why not 477bpm?!!

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What is your favourite city in world?

The number of letters in the name will define how many chords you will use in your first phrase. (If it’s a long name like Rio De Janeiro then that might be a bit of overkill! Why not have 3 chords in the first section, 2 in the bridging section, and 7 in the second section?)

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Have you noticed how many melodies start on the first beat?

Decree that ALL of your melodies will start on a different beat of the bar.

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Use a rhythmic code.

A-M consonants will be crotchets, the vowels here minims. N-Z consonants will be quavers, the vowels between these letters semiquavers. Pick up the nearest book and read the first phrase you see.

Now rewrite the phrase using your rhythmic code.

It might be awful, or it might spark a little idea!

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Keep a diary of your hot and cold drinks over 24 hours.

This can then give you the direction for a new melody. Hot = up, cold = down.

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Here’s my favourite 12 -Tone technique.

Buy 12 pairs of Y-fronts, write each of the 12 semitone letter names in permanent marker on the front. Now wash them all. When done, take them out of the machine, and hang them on the washing line outside. Whatever order they appear on the line, is your Tone Row. (The added advantage is that most of your neighbours will leave you alone after that point!)

We all tend to have fixed creative processes, which often lead to a uniformity of ideas.

Some call that their “style” – I find it a bit boring. Go on, tie yourself up in knots, and allow your creativity to find fresh solutions!

Composing Essentials

1. Guitar Wall Hanger GUHWNOVA £9.99 2. Pure Tone: 4/4 Size Classical Guitar (Natural) PTN100837 £79.99 3. Framed Collector Print: Nirvana - Roseland PFC1425 £14.99 4. Framed Collector Print: Johnny Cash - Kansas State Prison PFC1233 £14.99 5. Framed Collector Print: The Beatles - Thank Your Lucky Stars PFA092 £8.15 6. Protelx Limited: GPO Westwood Speaker - Brown 5060237570832 £89.95

Digital Metronome PTN100529 £9.99

Universal Tablet Stand PTN101233 £34.99

Removable Manuscript Tape OST001 £5.99

Music Manuscript Paper WO10208 £3.99

A Brief History of Electric Guitar Nowadays, Electric Guitars are made with either solid, semi-hollow, or hollow bodies and use an instrument cable (unless wireless) to plug into an amplifier.

However, to get to this stage, a lot of experimentation was needed.

1920s-30s Demand for a louder guitar became crucial to compete with big bands and public dances.

Les Paul overcame this by creating the ‘log guitar’ which essentially was a block of wood attached to a neck.

1931 The very first electrified guitar was said to have been invented by Paul H. Tutmarc, who was inspired by the telephone and how it uses magnetics to create vocal vibrations. He experimented on the Hawaiian guitar and eventually worked out he could use horseshoe magnets and wire coils to amplify the vibrations from the strings.

1932

save Squier Bullet Stratocaster HSS Rosewood Electric Guitar - Black FND0310005506 £105.00

spend Ibanez: GAX30 Double Cutaway Electric Guitar (Transparent Red) GAX30TR £149.00

splurge Fender: Johnny Marr Jaguar Signature Electric Guitar - Olympic FND0116400705 £1,709.00

Another first electric guitar was nicknamed ‘the frying pan’ because of its similar shape. This guitar, created

by George Beauchamp and Adolph Rickenbacker, had to be played by laying it flat on your lap, but despite this, it became the first commercially successful model.

1939 The first Spanish-style solid body guitars were developed by musicians such as Paul Bigsby and Leo Fender.

1930s-40s Pioneers of the 1930s and 1940s electric guitar such as jazzmen Eddie Durham and Oscar Moore, country pickers Noel Boggs and Merle Travis, and blues masters T-Bone Walker and Muddy Waters made the electric guitar a household name.

1940s-present Once the invention of the electric guitar had been firmly established, designs and other creative ideas became increasingly distinctive and reflective of the popular music trends at the time.

Thank you for shopping at musicroom.com At musicroom.com, we want you to be pleased with your purchase every time you shop with us. On occasion, we know you may want to return items, so we have included our returns and cancellation policy below.

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Post your returns to: Returns Department Musicroom.com Newmarket Road Bury St Edmunds Suffolk IP33 3YB United Kingdom Tel: +44 (0)1284 725725 (Lines open 09.00 –17.00 hrs UK time) Fax: +44 (0)1284 702592 Email: info@musicroom.com

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1985

Fact!

Les Paul was such a guitar enthusiast that after a car accident he asked the doctor to set his arm permanently in a guitar-playing position!

Junior Brown put a Spanish electric-style guitar and a Hawaiian guitar together to solve the problem of having to switch between acoustic and electric. Later this hybrid guitar was christened the ‘guit-steel’.

Returns / Cancellation form

Please complete this form using BLOCK CAPITALS. Returns Number

Order Number

Reason for Return

Customer Name Postcode

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