…Nothing like being prepared…

It would serve you well to keep that in mind. Whether or not you going to play your gig, your recording session, or just jam with the band, the list below comprises (in my honest, humble opinion) ten of the most important accessories you need to have in your gig bag. They are not necessarily listed in order of importance; I think they all are equally necessary…

1. Strings

Ok…DUHHH!! Of course you need strings. Kinda hard to play without them. The thing is that you would not believe how many times people are just unprepared…and then they break one. Nothing more embarassing than having to take a break during your gig to change a string. There could be a little bit of a double-whammy here…it would be best if you had a backup guitar (strung up and tuned, of course), but if you don’t have one, having a few sets of strings in your bag can save you.

2. Picks

Umm…Double DUHHH. This one comes from personal experience. I never really thought about keeping extra picks in my bag, but there was one time in particular that I found I needed one and I didn’t have any! I had to try and do the Billy Gibbons/Brian May deal and use a quarter (yeah, I know…Billy uses a peso and Brian uses some sort of British coin…but you get the point). If you have never tried to play with a quarter and then have to, it can be quite a different experience when compared to picks that you are used to.

3. Cords

Triple DUHHH. No question about that. The deal here is make sure your cords are in good shape. I’ve had them go out on me in the middle of a gig (thank God for having a back-up). The cheaper ones with the molded plastic ends can cause you problems because if you develop a short-circuit in the plug you are pretty much done. I prefer the cords that have ends you can unscrew to get to the actual solder connection to the plug. Like #1 and #2 this may seem to be a no-brainer…but you really do need all three.

4. Tuner

No more DUHHH’s here (well…maybe there is one later on). I’m sure we have all been in situations where we tune to everyone else by ear, and for the most part that might be OK for practice. For live and recording situations, however, a tuner is a must-have item. Especially for recording. I was hired out to play on this one fellow’s demo, and I didn’t have a tuner with me - “no big deal…” I thought. “They will have one at the studio.” Guess what? No tuner. We spent at least a half-hour trying to tune up by ear to this guy’s keyboard.

I have found that chromatic tuners are the best. One band I was in tuned down 1/2 step to give a little edge in the vocal department, and being able to tune exactly down was great. The “needle” tuners of old can be touchy, so I would go for ones with some sort of LED or digital display.

(By the way, there is a BIG difference between tuning down 1/2 step and tuning to A430Hz (?). We were the house band during jam night one time, and this crusty guy comes up and asks how we are tuned. I said “1/2 step down”…and he looked at me like I had lobsters crawing out of my ears. “What the ?!@# is 1/2 step? Do you mean A430Hz?” Whew…what a jerk. ‘A’ is actually pitched at A440Hz.)

Pedal tuners are an excellent way to be able to keep in tune while not having to undo your cords to plug in to an “offline” tuner (and this will keep the sound man from kicking your butt when you pull the cord and send a great sounding “POP” through the PA).

Do youself a favor. If you don’t have a tuner - get one!

5. Strap Locks

It makes me shudder just to think about it. Get in your way-back machine and go to 1984 (mmm…mullets…). I was jamming in my cousin’s garage with my very first band. The guy we had for a singer was a guitar player as well. The problem was he thought he was Paul Stanley and was jumping around in front of the mike with both arms in the air. I’m sure you can figure out what happened next…

He had a Les Paul copy. Not expensive, but it was his only guitar. The strap came off and the guitar landed - face first - onto the cold, hard, concrete floor. Makes me nauseous even now. Cracked the neck, chipped the headstock, smashed in the volume and tone controls…what a mess.

All I can say is - get some strap locks. For the uninformed, strap locks are nifty little devices that have a ball-lock system. The pins on the guitar have a large hole in the end of them , and the other piece (which is affixed to your strap so it won’t pull through the hole) plugs in and locks - it can’t come undone unless you push the release button on the piece mounted to the strap.

Strap locks wil help you to make sure your most prized possession (your guitar…what else?!?) won’t have to same fate as my old singer’s.

6. Surge Protector

Man, we were fired up. A new club had opened in town and was getting the rep for being “the place to play” - and we managed to get a gig!

We came in, checked out the stage, made sure that we had enough power sources, and went to town setting up.

I plugged my wireless unit, my footpedal effects unit, and my amp in…and turned the power on. POP!! My wireless was, well, DEAD. Same with the amp. Somehow my pedal unit made it through and I had to run a line-out direct from the unit to the PA. Sounded OK, but I had no stage volume (we were too cheap to get monitors back then). I couldn’t hear myself that well that night…

I ended up “paying” my bass player with a bottle of his favorite tequila to rip the amp apart (this guy was an electronics whiz) and see what was wrong. Luckily it was only a blown fuse, but it could have been a lot worse. Sadly, the wireless receiver did not meet with the same fate.

I never - repeat, NEVER - have plugged in anywhere without using my own power strip with a surge protector after that. Period. Lesson learned.

7. Guitar Stand

Nothing can look more unprofessional than having to lean your guitar against something when you are taking your breaks. Not to mention, you don’t want your guitar to fall over. Trust me…you need a stand. Also, it looks pretty cool to have your guitar arsenal displayed in front of the crowd…

8. Capo

This one really depends on your playing style, so I don’t know if it is “required”…but it a capo can come in handy.

For the uninitiated, a capo is a device that clamps around your guitar neck to “change” the position of the nut. It allows you to use the same chord fingerings in different keys, and there for get different voicings. For example, play an open ‘D’ chord. Now place your capo between the first and second frets and play the same chord…it is now an ‘E’. Pretty simple, and some songs (especially some acoustic numbers) are downright impossible to play without one.

Cheap…simple…and used by millions.

9. String Cleaner

I don’t know about you but I can get pretty sweaty after playing four sets in a seedy little dive on the edge of town. The eventual result of this if you don’t use some sort of string cleaner is having to take a chisel to scrape out the crud that builds up on your fretboard (ok - a chisel may be exaggerating a bit).

Your guitar is an investment. Clean it and take care if it!

10. Batteries

This goes in the “may be needed” section. If you use a wireless, you use batteries. If you use foot pedals, you may use batteries (unless you use an AC adaptor). If you use a wireless microphone, you use batteries.

I think this goes without saying anything more. You can tell when your battery in your wireless is going dead - bad quality, bad sounding signal - then nothing. Make sure you have plenty of back ups. I had to get myself in the habit of remembering to get some before every gig.

11. Gig Bag

BONUS ITEM!!

You get your money’s worth here at 1StopGuitar.com, I’ll tell you what…

DUHHH (I told you there may be another one)!!! It’s hard to put all of this stuff in your gig bag if you don’t have one. ‘Nuff said.

12. Your head

ANOTHER BONUS ITEM!! SOMEONE STOP HIM BEFORE HE GOES INSANE!!!

Anytime you play, you need to remain focused. Sure, there are other things going on in your life. Letting your mind wander can lead to mistakes…been there, done that. Try to clear your mind before you play and just “let it flow, dude”.

13. Fun

To quote The Beatles in “She’s Leaving Home” from “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”:

“Fun is the one thing that money can’t buy”.

You can’t put this in your gig bag, but remember - it’s GOT to be fun!!

Well, that’s about it. Obviously I wanted to have a little fun (see item #13) here, but the points made and lessons learned are real.

And remember:

…Nothing like being prepared…

Jerry Mathis has 25 years of guitar experience - playing, teaching, recording and performing live. Visit his website http://www.1StopGuitar.com to get all of your guitar tablatures, articles, reviews, accessories and more all in one place!

Posture is so important to developing good piano technique that without it students may never learn to play the piano with ease. Stories that use analogies are a great way to get through to children without hurting their feelings.

Here are five simple analogies to help your child sit correctly at the piano and play with more flexibility and ease.

1. Imagine while you are sitting on the piano bench that you can stretch your neck and the top of your head up to the ceiling like a giraffe’s.

2. Imagine that your arms are angel’s wings and swing them out from your sides until your elbows are pointing horizontally.

3. Rounding your hands and imagine that your fingers are spider’s legs and walk your fingers on the keys as you play.

4. Sit back on the piano bench and imagine that you are in charge of the piano.

5. Sit back on the piano bench and reach your arms out to the piano so your elbows are in front of your tummy. Imagine that you are glued to the seat and cannot scoot forward.

Always use the word imagine when you are instructing your child to sit properly at the piano. This works because it will help your child develop a secure mind-body connection that’s essential to playing with ease and comfort, so that playing the piano feels natural to students. Using the word “imagination” encourages children to use and develop this important creative skill needed for piano and other performing arts.

For great home piano activities parents can use to help children ages 5 to 11 develop their musical talent, visit Piano Adventure Bears Music Education Resources You’ll find a treasure box filled with piano resources to create an exciting musical adventure for your child - right in your own home! Visit their website and subscribe to their f’ree internet newsletter so you can download f’ree piano sheet music and mp3s of original piano compositions.

These exciting stories, games, piano lessons, and inspirational gifts feature the Piano Adventure Bears, Mrs. Treble Beary and her new piano student, Albeart Littlebud. Young students follow along with Albeart to learn what piano lessons are all about in a fun way that kids readily understand appreciate. Click here to visit PianoAdventureBears.com For a wealth of information about piano lessons, visit tallypiano.com

Piano playing doesn’t have to be boring. There’s no law that says you have to play a song the same way everyone else plays it. By learning some basic music theory and chord formations, you can have the time of your life playing music like you’ve always wanted to.

Every musician has a different method of arranging. Some start with the bass, some start with the melody, some just arrange everything all at once. You’ll eventually discover the process that works best for you, but here’s a basic guideline list to get you started.

- Play the song as written. Pay careful attention to the melody and harmonies so you understand how the song is supposed to sound before altering it. Make sure you can play the song very well before moving on to an arrangement.

- Analyze the song’s chord structure and form. Know all the chord changes and any key changes. Separate the piece into parts using the letter system discussed in this course; often, you’ll be able to add some spice to an arrangement by simply knowing where a verse switches into a chorus.

- Look at the song’s context to determine the appropriate sort of arrangement. For instance, if you’re working on a classical lullaby or wedding song, you probably won’t want to add western bass or a march beat. Of course, there’s no rule saying you can’t do that if you’re going for a comical effect. Just be aware of the effect every sort of arrangement technique will have on a song.

- Change the bass chording pattern based on the just-analyzed song’s context. Working with “Git Alone Little Dogies”? Try a western bass. A classical romantic song? Give upward inversions or arpeggios a go. Just keep switching the bass pattern until you find something you like. After awhile, you’ll acquire the ability to naturally know what to do. Until then, try it all.

- Add fillers to the melody. Again, be aware of what’s appropriate. If you’re playing a western bass, try grace notes and twangs. If the song is in Alberti bass, add some glissandos or delicate octave harmonies. Remember that certain fillers, like runs or straddle-downs, work best when you’re holding a half note or higher in the melody.

- Add dynamic variation. This is where the form analysis comes in handy. If you know a key or part change is coming up, consider the ways in which you can take the dynamic up or down to create a textured, interesting effect. Try not to make the whole song extremely loud or extremely soft. Remember, variety is the spice of life!

The piano arrangement you create is bound only by the limits of your imagination. Try everything and don’t get discouraged — you’ll get the hang of it eventually. Now pick a song and get to it!

Duane Shinn is the author of over 500 music books and products such as DVD’s, CD’s, musical games for kids, chord charts, musical software, and piano lesson instructional courses for adults. He holds advanced degrees from Southern Oregon University and was the founder of Piano University in Southern Oregon. He can be reached at http://www.chordpiano.com. He is the author of the popular free 101-week e-mail newsletter titled “Amazing Secrets Of Exciting Piano Chords & Sizzling Piano Chord Progressions” with over 56,650 current subscribers. Those interested may obtain a free subscription by going to http://www.playpiano.com.

Originally, Inuit throat singing was a form of entertainment among Inuit women while the men were away on hunting trips. It was an activity that was primarily done by Inuit women although there have been some men doing it as well. In the Inuit language Inuktitut, throat singing is called katajjaq, pirkusirtuk or nipaquhiit depending on the Canadian Arctic region. It was regarded more as a type of vocal or breathing game in the Inuit culture rather than a form of music.

Inuit throat singing is generally done by two individuals but can involve four or more people together as well. In Inuit throat singing, two Inuit women would face each other either standing or crouching down while holding each other’s arms. One would lead with short deep rhythmic sounds while the other would respond. The leader would repeat sounds with short gaps in between. The follower would fill in these gaps with her own rhythmic sounds. Sometimes both Inuit women would be doing a dance like movement like rocking from left to right while throat singing. Sounds produced can be voiced or unvoiced and produced by inhalation or exhalation. Both Inuktitut words and meaningless syllables are used in Inuit throat singing songs. However, when words are used in throat singing, no particular meaning is placed on them for a song. When meaningless syllables are used, they are often portrayals of sounds the Inuit hear in their natural environment such as animal sounds or even water running down a creek. Popular Inuit throat singing songs are usually identified by the first word or sound that is produced in each song.

Inuit throat singing is a skill that has to be taught and developed. Inuit throat singers try to show their vocal abilities in a fun competitive manner and the first one to either run out of breath, stop or laugh is declared the loser of the game. Each game usually lasts from one to three minutes. In a group of Inuit women, the overall winner is the one who beats the largest number of her competitors in this fun filled activity.

Unfortunately, there is no written record of when the Inuit first developed their form of throat singing which differs from the type found in Mongolia and other parts of the world that has some form of throat singing. The Inuit did not keep any written records and history was simply passed down from generation to generation orally. It was reported that at one point in time, Inuit women would actually have their lips almost touching while using each other’s mouth cavity as a sound resonator. This technique is not used anymore.

Inuit throat singing was actually forbidden by Christian priests for almost 100 years but since this religious ban was lifted, there has been a resurfacing of this traditional activity in the Inuit communities during the last 20 to 30 years. Interestingly enough, there has been a lot of interest among the younger Inuit generations in this revival in addition to the Inuit elders who are trying to bring throat singing back as part of present Inuit culture. Many of the young Inuit women who have taken up throat singing claim that it is a way for them to express their Inuit identities in the modern world where many Inuit traditions have already been lost. The revival of Inuit throat singing has been so popular that in September of 2001, the first throat singing conference was held in Puvernituk, Nunavik where different types of Inuit throat singing from different Arctic regions of Canada were demonstrated and shared. There has even been a small number of Inuit throat singing CDs produced.

Clint Leung is owner of Free Spirit Gallery www.FreeSpiritGallery.ca , an online gallery specializing in Inuit Eskimo and Northwest Native American art including carvings, sculpture and prints. Also numerous information resource articles with photos of authentic Inuit art and Native American Indian art.

Whether you are a guitarist, singer, drummer or violinist, you should always get good professional advice when it comes to purchasing any equipment.

When considering purchasing a musical instrument, the most important thing is to go for good quality. There is nothing worse than listening to a good performer playing a bad instrument or using a cheap microphone. A poor instrument can often be much harder to play, making it much harder for a beginner.

Often, if you look around, you can find good deals on superior equipment. Do your homework and go to your local music shop and get quotes. Get the details of the brand you require as well as the model number. Then shop around on the phone for the best deals or contact a reputable music broker who can help you get the best deal available at the time.

Unless you have a professional musician or teacher to go with you, it’s not a good idea to purchase second-hand instruments or equipment. You’ll find that as you progress as a musician, you will be ready to purchase a top-of-the-line instrument. In the long run, you can never go wrong with top quality.

Remember to be patient and wait until you are purchasing the right instrument, microphone, amplifier or music computer at the right price. You won’t regret it.

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The Author: David Willis

David Willis has made quite an impact on Australian EDUCATION and the ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY. An accomplished pianist, singer and actor, David owns the Gold Coast branch of the Australian Talent School, teaching professionals and amateurs of all ages the art of Singing and Presentation, whilst nurturing their passion for Music and Performance. As a former Music and Arts Consultant for the Victorian Education Department he made many contacts with Music Retailers around Australia and is still able to negotiate brilliant deals.

Now that Halloween is over, it’s safe to talk about traditional piano lessons - the tedium, the boredom, the overbearing teachers with their incessant metronome beats.

Do we really need this? Do we really need yet another polished perfomer who can play Czerny and Beethoven on cue? Don’t we have enough of these skilled typists already? I think so. And frankly, I just don’t get it. I don’t get why anyone would want to learn how to play other people’s music.

Of course this music is worthy of preserving, but I’m speaking about being creative at the piano. I’m talking about the ability to sit down at the keyboard and just play without forethought or planning.

Is there value in this kind of approach to playing? Yes! And while improvisation and composition are taught, it’s not emphasized. It’s relegated to inferior status while the poor student spends time first learning how to read notes and then recreating what has already been done. What a shame.

It doesn’t have to be this way. We can lead with an emphasis on creativity first! To do this does not require more than a very rudimentary knowledge of chords, a way to play them, and a guided instruction on how to improvise. Imagine the joy students will feel when they realize how easy it is to create music!

Edward Weiss is a pianist/composer and webmaster of Quiescence Music’s online piano lessons. He has been helping students learn how to play piano in the New Age style for over 14 years and works with students in private, in groups, and now over the internet. Stop by now at http://www.quiescencemusic.com/piano_lessons.html for a FREE piano lesson!

The new competition package available for the BMW M3 is almost sad as it is wonderful. With everyone knowing of the strong rumors of the M3’s power plant changing to a V8, it’s almost heart breaking to think about the legendary straight 6 cylinder being laid to rest. The competition package has many pretty neat extras that give the beamer something to beam about.

The competition package is going to be a $4000 dollar premium to the M3’s price tag but I think its well worth it. You start out getting 19 inch cross-spoke forged alloy on all 4 corners. With the package you are also getting a revised interior with suede accents and of course a new color option of Interlagos blue only available if you get the competition package. One thing that can’t be left out of the competition version is the upgraded brakes that come with it. The brakes are cross drilled and 20 MM bigger then the standard M3, the cross drilled rotors are the first BMW has ever equipped from the production line. BMW’s are created by drivers for the experienced auto enthusiasts the sport button on the M3 actually does something? It changes the calibration from throttle body to pedal. That means without the sport button depressed the throttle won’t open all the way. Since there is more air into the engine the fuel mapping of the car also changes when the button is pushed.

In all I think for the four thousand extra it is well worth it. Also I would check out the SMG transmission that is available for it too. The SMG or sequential manual transmission is awesome. You can change the manual gear box hydraulically via paddle shifters or stick which allows you to late brake and accelerate easier out of the apex of corners.

About The Author:
Taylor Bamber is a proud owner of a 300zx turbo and belongs to many 300zx clubs in Northern Colorado. Being waist deep in the import world, he knows where to find all the best online JDM deals for the fastest cars. He has scoured the web and has found the best sites for your import car needs. Check out his site at JDM-4U.com.

As easy as this task may sound, a few prominent points should be mentioned. Piano sheet music is readily available today from a myriad of sources on the Internet. Go to www.Google.com and type in “piano sheet music online” or “piano sheet music” or “virtual sheet music” and lastly by “(artist name) sheetmusic”. You will find countless sites that offer immediate access to sheet music online or available to be sent to a physical address. Regarding “old fashioned mail order”, Amazon.com has an amazing selection of sheet music by artist as well as instructional music folders and music books so make sure to investigate what they have to offer. The most popular site for online sheet music is probably www.sheetmusicplus.com. Many classical piano pieces that have reached public domain status can often be downloaded for free such as porfolios of Chopin’s works or Beethtoven pieces, etc.

Contemporary artist books and sheet music to a single song tend to disappear after a short shelf life existance and then it becomes a trial sometimes to find your selection. Suggestions for obtaining out of print music would be to check out ebay.com and see if your item is currently available there in new or used form. As with most ebay items, availability can change by minute, hour, or day so don’t give up if your item is not seen on your first try. There are a number of retail music stores that also specialize in hard to find music so “Google” “out of print sheet music” (or “hard-to-find music”) and contact those particular stores.

“Virtual sheet music”sites enable you to gain immediate access to a single song and then print out the piano sheet music right from your computer download of that song. The fees are usual comparable to what a retail store would charge, say $3.95-$6.95. Again, just “Google” “virtual sheet music” or “download sheet music” to find a good site for this. The nice thing about this feature is that 1) songs only available in song books or 2)hard to find songs or out of print songs, will now be accessible at your fingertips by the push of a few buttons!

Last but not least, if a song appears to be impossible to find, what I’ve done is to search out the lyrics online and then search for the “tab or guitar tabs” or “piano tabs”for that song and then put the two together to create a “lead sheet”. Often the “tabs” to a song list both melody and chords. Now with this method, you will have to transcribe the melody line on your own which is pretty easy to do- just whistle or hum the tune as you sit down at the piano. Sites that say “guitar tabs” that include guitar tablature are mostly where you’ll be finding your song tabs but sometimes you’ll see a site that says “piano tabs”. What you are really doing as a pianist though is jotting down the chords and where they are placed with the lyric. Just ignore the guitar tablature. Your big limitation though of course, is that many of the tab listings for a song are created by “well intentioned, though inexperienced” amateur players. In this regard, you’ll need to look at the chords as “a possiblity” and you may have to change one or many chords for the song to sound “correct”. The other issue is make sure your “viral control” software is working as these sites tend to be vulnerable to those.

Concerning “piano or artist song books”, very often a song is not available as a single sheet but is can only be found within a song book with many songs all by a certain artist or composer or perhaps a book with songs by multiple artists. The other scenario you will see is theme music books such as “Movie Classic Songs” or “Songs of the 90’s” or “Best Loved Broadway show tunes”, anything along those lines.

To discover the “pro way” to play piano songs without having to read note-for-note sheet music arrangements, be sure to visit http://www.instantpropiano.com

David Seagal is a New York City based pianist and teacher. A musician for over 25 years, he is a piano teacher, songwriter pianist and is the author of “Play Piano Like a Pro” video course. His formative music education was orchestral training on clarinet with Naomi Drucker, Hostra University and the late-great world-renowned Leon Russianoff, Professor of Music Julliard School of Music and Manhattan School of Music. Pop and rock piano and songwriting studies with Frank Doyle, New England Conservatory of Music and “Moogy” Mark Klingman, author of the Bette Midler hit “Friends” and former pianist for Todd Rundgren’s “Utopia”. Classical piano studies with concert pianist Dmitri Alexev.

His piano course is available at http://www.instantpropiano.com

Stadium Arcadium is the long awaited latest release from release from Red Hot Chili Peppers. Like it’s predecessor, Blood Sugar Sex Magic, Stadium Arcadium is destined to be a smash hit.

RHCP fans will absolutely delight in this double disc, 28 song release. Probably will be the very best double album of the year.

Disc 1 starts with Dani California, the first single from the collection and frankly just rolls right through more than 100 hours of Red Hot Chili Peppers Utopia.

From the slowed down tempo of track 2, Snow (Hey Oh) to the bangin C’mon Girl, track 12 this CD is chock full of very well written, passionately played, and expertly produced tracks.

By the way the 2 Discs, though very similar in styles are titled Mars and Jupiter.

Overall the collection that is Stadium Arcadium is a delight to listen to. I give it two thumbs up. It’s a CD anyone who enjoys music will like a lot.

While this entire CD collection is outstanding the truly standout tunes are Charlie [track 3, Disc 1], Stadium Arcadium [track 4, Disc 1], and Hard to Concentrate [track 3, Disc 2]. My SmoothLee Bonus Pick, and the one that got Sore […as in “Stuck On REpeat”] is track 2, Disc 2, Tell Me Baby. Nice!

Release Notes:

Red Hot Chili Peppers originally released Stadium Arcadium on May 9, 2006 on the Warner Bros. record label.

CD track list follows:

Jupiter - Disc 1

1. Dani California
2. Snow (Hey Oh)
3. Charlie
4. Stadium Arcadium
5. Hump De Bump
6. She’s Only 18
7. Slow Cheetah
8. Torture Me
9. Strip My Mind
10. Especially In Michigan

Mars - Disc 2

1. Desecration Smile
2. Tell Me Baby
3. Hard to Concentrate
4. 21st Century
5. She Looks To Me
6. Readymade
7. If
8. Make You Feel Better
9. Animal Bar
10. So Much I

To listen to samples of each song on Stadium Arcadium by Red Hot Chili Peppers go to:
Red Hot Chili Peppers CD - Stadium Arcadium MP3 Samples

Clyde Lee Dennis, a.k.a. SmoothLee is a life long music fanatic. In addition to writing CD Reviews like this one for several music related websites he also hosts an internet radio show, and invites you to join him daily for some of the best soul soothing smooth jazz you’ll ever hear at http://www.SmoothJazz247.com

Mp3 is really a cool stuff for music lovers who enjoy and appreciate quality music. It also provides the consumer with the convenience of purchasing the music online and ripping from purchased CD’s and is also easily portable.

The popularity of Mp3 format for digital music files has exploded within the past few years whereby you can download Mp3 files from peer to peer file sharing websites and commercial Mp3 download websites and can easily play on their portable or software based Mp3 players. You can easily email your favorite music songs to your friends and relatives. These Mp3 websites supply a wide variety of Mp3 tools such as Mp3 players, music file conversion software and Mp3 downloads that enables you to hear your favorite Mp3 anywhere in the car, office or even on the beach.

If you have a huge collection of your favorite songs that you want to listen in your car audio system but you are confused as how so many files could be stored onto your 800 Mb CD? Mp3 encoder or converter is the solution to this. An Mp3 encoder is the software that uses Mp3 codec (compression and decompression algorithm) to make MP3 files. Most of the encoders convert WAV file to Mp3 format whereas many can convert other formats such as WMA to Mp3.

Mp3 stands for MPEG Audio Layer 3 where at layer 3, psychoacoustics principles are applied so as to find and remove unnecessary sound data such as the stuff human ears don’t hear anyway (sounds above 16 KHZ) and leaving only crucial data.

After the essential data is separated from the redundant data, compression takes place and at this stage, the same amount of data is stored using fewer bits and less space of the disk. Here, the bit rate is the ratio of number of bits transferred between two devices per second and the higher the bit rate ratio, the higher is the sound quality and vice versa. 192 Kb/s is the frequently used bit rate used in peer to peer networks and most of the converters use variable bit rates. This enables to get better quality of sound because bit rate conforms to the dynamics of audio frames stored and this in turn keeps more important data.

There are number of mp3 encoders and software available today such as Lame, Fraunhofer, Music match jukebox, real jukebox , Blade, Audio catalyst, GoGo etc. The use of mp3 encoding engine depends upon your personal requirements and preferences.

For more information, visit our recommended website freedownloadmp3song.info

Olivia Andrews, writer of freedownloadmp3song.info is a freelance journalist and has written many reviews on subjects such as finance, education, health, entertainment, music, gifts, crafts, travel, apparels and mobile phones.