Festa Labirinto, Dona Joana

Dona Joana will play this month at the Festa Labirinto. In the off sets DJs Pajé and Dom Coimbra will tickle our fancies with their inimitable sense of groove. Doors open at 9pm. Music starts at 11pm.

Paulo Bellinati and Monica Salmaso, Canto de Iemanja

This arrangement of Baden Powell’s piece beautifully captures the rich sounds that voice and guitar paired together can produce. Bellinati’s masterful arranging talents are at their best. Paired with the creamy voice of Monica Salmaso the effect for me is of shimmering waves rising and falling.

The whole album is like that: 10/10 five stars

E. Gismonti and Rumpilezz in Lapa tonight, 19h30

Tonight in front of the Arcos da Lapa: 7:00 Egberto Gismonti, 7:30 Leitieres Leite and Orkestra Rumpilezz.

Brasilidade

George Harrison tribute, Wah Wah

Just wanted to share this music to to commemorate the anniversary of George Harrison’s death Nov. 29, 2001.

In this track he lays down some quality guitar lines. For me George Harrison has always had a fresh perspective in his playing, bringing out new and interesting sounds from unexpected places.

E7                               G#7             F#7
Wah, wah, you’ve given me a wah wah

F#-7                             B7                   F#-7                     B7
and I’m thinking of you, all the things that we used to do

D                 D7 (#11)
wah wah, wah wah

Over the D7 the voice and guitar lines bring out a really nice lydian-dominant sound.

This is just one gem from a series of songs from a recording session Harrison did before releasing his first solo album after the breakup of the Beatles, All Things Must Pass.

Aeromosca, and O Vôo da Mosca

Here is a fun reinterpretation of the choro tune, O vôo da mosca (the flight of the mosquito) by some very talented musicians in the recording studio. They extend and reharmonize the chords and melody. An excellent arrangement!

And just for reference, a version by the master and composer himself, Jacob do Bandolim.

Tempo and Speed Trainer

What a wonderful tool for musicians, Drum trainer online features several different tools to help you train speed, precision and control on your instrument. As mentioned on the site, it is 100% accurate and precise. The user has complete control over the meter and the number of measures (silent measures are available too, so helpful!).

The speed trainer gives you great control over changing tempi. plug in the starting and target tempi, the number of increments, and the total time, the computer takes it all and plays it back for you.

Here are some other online metronomes.

The keyboard shortcuts on the “Highly Accessible” metronome are very useful and keep your hands off the mouse. The “Advanced Metronome” is sort of a cross with a drum machine, giving you the ability to mix drum and synth samples with regular clicks.

http://bestdrumtrainer.com/st/

Audiotool

Audiotool.com is fun and interesting way to make electronic music in your browser. You start with a blank palette and can add sounds, manipulating them with various effects. You can also save your music file and open other peoples’ projects. A great diversion.

UFRJ Guitar Festival

To celebrate 30 years of guitar programs at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, one of the premier music schools in Brazil.

There will be masterclasses, concerts, workshops and musical activities from the week of October 4-9. All events are free and open to the public.

For more information visit the UFRJ site (in Portuguese)

Andre Michelle, aM laboratory

Mr. André Michelle has built quite a collection of cool musically themed flash programs. Very fun to play around with. Here are a few of them:

aM Laboratory – Pulsate: Create expanding and contracting circles that make tones based on their sizes when they touch each other.

Tone Matrix: After playing with your matrix you can even right-click and save it into a text document for later.

Tone Wheels: Similar concept to the circles.

Fretless guitar

I like the sound of fretless bass, but I’ve never seen a fretless guitar before. The sound is very interesting, it opens up many possibilities for new sounds, slides, trills. It sounds so good!

Here’s another one with a more eastern sound, reminiscent of the oud.

I think I’d like to experiment one day and buy a cheapo guitar, get the frets removed and try it out!