Quite a quick post this week. Paul Thurrott recently posted previews of Xbox SmartGlass and Xbox Music (which replaces Zune), both announced at E3. Here are the links:
http://www.winsupersite.com/article/xbox-360/xbox-music-preview-143344
http://www.winsupersite.com/article/xbox-360/xbox-360-xbox-smartglass-preview-143334
And some videos:
Xbox music isn’t particular revolutionary in my opinion - just a re-branding of Microsoft Zune – but SmartGlass seems pretty great. What are your thoughts?
So, it’s All of time and space‘s first birthday, and I can’t get 3 pieces of music out of my head. So I thought I’d share them to get them in your heads too. 
I’m going to have to get them on iTunes… All these amazing songs are by Owl City (Adam Young), who is a Christian and performed the worldwide hit Fireflies.
Have a great day! 
Gallifrey - my dogs name (it really is)
In case you haven’t yet noticed, I like sharing music. A lot. In previous posts you will have found This is Gallifrey: Our Childhood, out home, I Am The Doctor, Westminster Bridge and more. Most, if not all of them, have been Doctor Who music. Well, today you’re in for a treat. The music isn’t Doctor Who. It wasn’t composed by Murray Gold. And it’s good. You can watch it below:
What do you think? Like it, or hate it? Why?
Who needs words? I just had to share this lovely piece of music today…
What are your thoughts?
I’m in a bit of a musical mood today, so how about some music? It was a hard choice, choosing one piece of music to put on this blog. Very hard. But I’ve decided.
What exactly is your favourite piece of music? Not one that you would have to listen to forever, but one you really like.
It can be a strange thing, music. For instance, Brass music is just air going through metal to create a sound. With woodwind, the sound is the reed vibrating. Singing is a form of speaking. Strings are something scraping across some strings. And percussion is just the sound of something being hit. What exactly is music? It can be anything, really. Even the sound of someone typing with a keyboard could be classed as music (but I don’t think it’s likely the next number 1 hit will be the sound of someone typing ). Humans can be really weird.
Anyway, the piece I chose as my favourite piece of music is below. Enjoy!
Violin - just strings scraping together?
Have you ever seen War of the Worlds? No? Well, you should because it really is absolutely amazing. The music, the aliens, the acting… it all goes together to make a fantastic show that, well, isn’t at all cheap. But it’s worth it.
It is based, I think, on a book written quite some time ago. It is about aliens coming over to Earth and helping themselves, with disastrous consequences for the human race and particularly the main character/narrator of the story. After many problems with the aliens and dazzling special effects, the humans manage to beat the evil Martians. Sounds normal, you think. Aliens come over looking scary then mere humans somehow defeat them and the aliens aren’t seen or heard of again. Not quite. Right at the very end of the story, the Martians return… but this time, there may not be a happy ending…
Overall, I do think it was amazing. Even though I was barely awake for part two. If possible, see this show!
You can listen to one of the beautiful pieces of music, titled Forever Autumn, below. Lucky you!
War of the Worlds
For those of you who want to listen to the song Abigail (Katherine Jenkins) sang towards the end of Doctor Who: A Christmas Carol, it is below (the full song! ). Enjoy! And as for those who don’t, just give it a try. Doctor Who has some great music in it!!
Doctor Who: A Christmas Carol
You can read my review of Doctor Who: A Christmas Carol here.
Recently, I have come across a brass band theory (and much more) website. and I just had to share it. There are study pages, fun quizzes, levels… it goes on and on.
The website is… http://www.mrgolding.com. As you may have guessed, the guy who made it is called Mr Golding.
You can leave feedback/ask questions etc. by emailing your queries to mrgolding@hotmail.co.uk.
One use I would suggest is to set homework to players in a brass band to look at a theory page, study it, do the quiz, and have the quiz during rehearsals to see what they have learned. A fun way to do theory to improve their playing and music skills no end.
You could set them instructions like:
Very simple, and people’s music skills will improve in a fun yet challenging way.
Note: Feel free to use the sample instructions I have used, or edit them to your needs.
Imagine you get a magic gold ticket that lets you travel through space and time to see any band, or music act, living or dead, together or broken up, live at a venue near you. Who would you pick? Why?
Queen! Not the Queen of England, or any other Queen in the history of the universe. Just the band Queen. Some of the band is still alive, but the original lead singer is dead.
Seeing Queen live would be great, but it would also be fantastic to see the following live near me:
Now, what about the venue… Got it! My church would be the perfect venue!
What band would you see?
Queen, LIVE!
I have been looking for this tune for a very long time. It has been on many movie trailers recently, and I wouldn’t have been able to get a name for it without my Dad‘s iPhone. I have finally found it, and you can hear it below:
What do you think? By the way, there is a new ‘tagline’ for this blog (you can read it at the top right of the page). What do you think of that?
Have a great day!
