CYBERMIDI MUSIC and MIDI Blog

by Robert D. Hill

What do Marvin Gaye, Diana Ross, The Temptations and The Four Tops all have in common? Well they are all part of the music movement that is known to us as Motown! Some of the greatest songs of all times were recorded by some of Motown's famous artists, starting back as early as 1959. That was the year that Berry Gordy, Jr. started his own record label called "Motown". Ever since, this label has carried the top R&B/Soul acts and has had hit after hit.

Read more »

6 Tips for Organizing Your Music Files
By Gary Hendricks

If you're a digital music fan, you probably have problems organizing your music file collection. For me, I used to have hundreds of MP3 files lumped in one folder in my hard drive. Can you imagine the pain I had to go through to find one specific tune to listen to?

Organizing your music files is an important skill to learn. Once your collection is nicely sorted out, you'll be able to find the songs you want quickly and easily. So set aside some time and read through the following tips I've come up with.

Read more »

by kenwj0

Sound cards creates a bridge from the live performance of an instrument to your digital recording system. As such it's a very important component of your overall recording environment.

If you have a sound card included with your PC then you should seriously consider replacing that with one designed specifically for use in recording applications - since the bundled PC cards fail to come close to even CD standards of signal to noise ratio.

This article covers 7 key factors you must know about selecting an audio interface card if you want to avoid throwing your money down the drain!

Read more »

Augmented Piano Chords: What They Are & How To Use Them by Duane Shinn

Augmented chords are to a piece of music like pepper is to a meal; you would never sit down to a meal of pepper alone, but you might sprinkle a little on your food to liven up the taste a bit.


Augmented triads (triads are 3-note chords) are one of the 4 basic chord types, yet they are used very little compared to major and minor chords.

Read more »

Guitar Strings, Your Basic Insight
Author: Josh Scalf

Electric guitar strings that are wound are created by rolling a string made of white metal around a centrally located string. The different types of material used for wrapping around the central string depend on the durability and tone wanted by the musician. Typically you will find that an electric guitar uses a nickel or nickel alloy material.

Generally speaking there are two types of guitar strings that are made.

Steel – used on electric and acoustic guitars

Nylon – primarily used on classical and flamenco guitars

Guitar strings are normally wound with either type of nickel, brass, or copper alloy. On most standard set of strings for an electric guitar, the 1st - 3rd string is usually unwound, but the 4th - 6th string is wound. Each individual string is of a different thickness, and they each have a specific note to be tuned to. The 12 string guitar is the alternative to this, because they have 12 strings to tune instead of six.

Electric guitar strings that are wound are created by rolling a string made of white metal around a centrally located string. The different types of material used for wrapping around the central string depend on the durability and tone wanted by the musician. Typically you will find that an electric guitar uses a nickel or nickel alloy material.

The thickness of the string is referred to as the gauge of the string. The guitar string is measured by fractions of an inch.

Light Gauge String

(.008 - .038) (.009 - .042) (.009 - .046) (.010 - .046)

Easier to push down, and you will be able to bend them without any problem.

Allow you to be able to play much faster

Do not hold their tune very wellHave very little sustain

Produce very little volume

Not good for lower tunings

Heavy Gauge Strings

(.011 - .050) (.010 - .052) (.012 - .052) (.013 - .056)

Heavier gauged strings are preferred by many of todays guitarists because of the tone and the feel of them.Good for guitar players that prefer to have their guitars tuned down lower than standard (drop D, drop C, drop B etc.).Will hold their sustain much longer in the drop tuningsWhy Your Strings Break

As annoying as it is, you will have guitar strings break on you, and there are many reasons for this to happen. Here are the four main reasons that you may experience this problem:

Aggressive Playing

- This happens to be the most common reason for breaking strings

- No doubt, you will get so deep into your jam session, that you will tend to strum a little to hard with your pick and snap a string. Unfortunately there is no way to fix this problem other than change your playing style, but I don't recommend that at all.

Old Strings

- Over time your guitar strings will loose their elasticity simply from the constant stress that is put on your strings.

- If you have not played or changed your strings in a long time, they will rust over, and become very susceptible to breaking.

Over tuning

- This simply means that when you are tuning your guitar, you may wind the tuning pegs to high, resulting in a broken string.

- Because this could very easily happen, it is wise to tune your guitar with the strings facing away from you.

Sharp Objects

- You may find sharp areas on the guitar that are capable of breaking a guitar string. These areas include but are not limited to: The bridge, the nut, tuning peg.

Guitar strings are the heart and soul of any guitar. Without them, there would be no possible way to create sound. To get the best sound out of your guitar, you should change your strings on a regular basis. This is an easy way to experiment and try out different gauges to see what tone fits your style.

Josh Scalf is an experienced guitarist that offers information and resources for aspiring musicians. Check out more quality articles and resources for awesome gear at Guitar Strings

Article Source: http://www.article99.com. Reprinted at CYBERMIDI.com by permission.

Piano Wizard can teach anyone how to play the piano... And the game is infinitely expandable, so it grows with you. Piano Wizard makes a GREAT holiday gift!

You can download thousands of songs from WizardTunes (Premier version). In fact, we're closing a special deal for over 30,000 songs. Learn the songs that YOU want to learn - whenever you want.

WizardTunes are created by CYBERMIDI!

And best of all, Piano Wizard is available for both Mac and Windows computers!

For more information and our special discount code, please visit

http://www.cybermidi.com/pianowizard