Sales Crowd

By Ki Gray

 Every year, during the sweltering late summer months, bands from across the country converge on Austin, Texas for one weekend of music, food and hot, sweaty fun. Thousands upon thousands of people, young and old, flock to Austin each year for the massive music event that is the Austin City Limits Music Festival. Some of the biggest names in music show up every year. The festival’s eight stages, spread out across Zilker Park, host more than 100 bands over the course of the weekend, each playing for sold out crowds. In recent years, music legends such as Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, The Flaming Lips, Beck, The Foo Fighters, N.E.R.D., Gnarls Barkley and many others have graced the ACL stages.

Ideally situated in downtown Austin, Zilker Park closes down each year for the massive three-day event, and the music can be heard throughout downtown. But ACL isn’t just about music. A local artisan village is set up each year to allow Austin’s local businesses and artists to showcase their work to the thousands of attendees, who hail from across the nation. Likewise, many of Austin’s top local restaurants have booths set up selling menu favorites at the expansive food court on site. With the coveted three-day passes selling often selling out six months before the festival, ACL poses a prime opportunity for Austin businesses of all kinds to showcase their products and reach new (and substantial) audiences.

But, really, it’s all about the music. With a wide range of genres represented, including country, bluegrass, rock, hip hop, folk, and pretty much anything else you can think of, ACL truly offers something for everyone. There is even a dedicated children’s stage. Attendees of all ages, races, and musical interests can be found here, making it one of the most unifying music festivals in the country.

And it’s not just the biggest names in music that grace the stages at the Austin City Limits Music Festival. In fact, many ACL provides many up and coming groups a break out opportunity. It’s the holy grail of every struggling Austin musician’s career, which adds one more reason Austin thrives as the self-proclaimed live music capital of the world. Competition for a spot in the lineup is cut-throat, yet each year the array of artists manages to remain strikingly varied and comprehensive. From funky bands like G. Love and the Special Sauce and breakout stars like Vampire Weekend, to old school legends Asleep at the Wheel and gospel groups like the River City Christianettes, ACL is quite literally a melting pot of musical talent and expression (and the 100 + degree heat makes the analogy all the more appropriate).

In 2008, Austin City Limits is being held on the weekend of September 26-28. Three day passes have been sold out for months, but stragglers can purchase single day passes on the festival web site for $80 apiece. With almost 50 bands playing daily, starting at 11:00 am and running until the headlining show wraps up at 10:00 pm, Austin City Limits is the place to be in Austin, Texas, (and many would assert, the entire country) for one raging weekend each year.

Ki is an Austinite that enjoys the local music scene. He works as a realtor in the Austin real estate market. He internet site has a tool that graphs mortgage interest rates along with a search for Austin Homes.

Your Online Source To Beating The Crowds While Shopping

Is Sheet Music Necessary For Musicians?
By Victor Epand

 Sheet music is the written form of music that has all of its notations, chord changes, melodies and harmonies laid out for musicians to play from so that they may stay true to the composer’s original vision. While it may be useful for new musicians and for those who play a good deal of classical pieces that require no amount of improvisation, sheet music is not a necessity to many who play other forms of music such as rock and roll or bluegrass since this can be easily learned.

Printed music, it seems, is much less important than it once was. Once, printed musical scores by composers were seen as works of art; praised for their aesthetic value as much as for the composition that was written upon them. Some members of the upper society would pay great sums for the final copies of theses scores willing to go to many great lengths to get them. Even today the originals can fetch an enormous sum if these antique scores come up for sale at an auction house.

Much of today’s popular music is still published. It is, however, more for the benefit of the novice musicians and for the general public than it is for more seasoned artists. Many of today’s big name artistes will memorize all of their own music. Having to perform in front of live audiences does not allow most of them to have their notes in front of them. The time that they spend in rehearsals, making albums, and by multiple performances allows them to get the songs all memorized with very little trouble.

There are many laypeople who can learn to play musical pieces just by listening to them. This is usually referred to as “playing by ear.” This sort of learning is also practiced in many different cultures that place great stock in passing traditional songs and dances on to the next generation. Some examples of this sort of culture can be found all over the world. Many people can recall being small and hearing someone in their family sing a song to sooth them or someone close to them.

There have been many famous composers that have not been able to read a single piece of sheet music. They have, however, created some of the most beautiful and moving pieces in the world. Some examples of these great artistes of our modern times would include Sir Paul McCartney, Ray Charles, and Lionel Bart. Can you imagine where they would have been without the skill to create the wonderful songs that they are responsible for in their heads?

The world of music is not what it is because someone first wrote a few notes on a piece of papyrus or scratched them out on a piece of bark. It is however a much richer world in that we have the treasures that the great composers have left behind that have been able to give us an insight into the creative genius that they have exhibited when composing some of the greatest pieces of music in the history of man.

As to answer the question, “is sheet music necessary for the players?” the answer would be no. But it begs the question, “where would we be if not for the pieces of sheet music left behind by the greats?” It also makes one wonder where we would be culturally if we had no way for the non-talented to be able to learn the more complex pieces out there.

Victor Epand is an expert consultant for guitars, drums, keyboards, sheet music, guitar tab, and home theater audio. You can find the best marketplace at these sites for guitars, drums, keyboards, sheet music for beginners, guitar tab, and home theater audio.

a face in the crowd

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