Pandora - Yes It Rocks!

Well if you like music at all and have Internet or a smart phone, I'm sure that you have heard of Pandora. It's a downloadable app for your phone, tablet, etc. You can also go to their website and sign up at www.pandora.com.

I've utilized their FREE service for about two years now. I love the ability to customize my stations to what I want to listen to at that moment. You can literally type in an artist and get stuff that is all from that artist or people that are similar to the chosen artist. OR.. you can put in that you want 80's rock... and BAM... you're jammin' to some Bon Jovi. It's a great service.

The only complaint that I have is that they throw in occasional ads (Not so many as to be way annoying. Maybe on every 12 to 15 songs... I've never checked it so I don't know for sure). The other bit that I don't like is that you can only skip so many songs per day. So once you've skipped your five songs for the day... your stuck with what they give ya.

Now for quite a while, I've kicked around the idea of paying for their service. It allows unlimited skips, no ads, and higher quality streaming music. But I've always thought it would be to pricey. I mean XM/Sirius Radio is like $80.00 for 3 months. Well today I checked it out... $36.00 for a YEAR! CHA-CHING BABY... That's nothing! I blow that much on fast food in a week.... AND IT'S WAY cheaper than XM. So I signed up.

I'm already loving the no ads. Anyway... if you love music and haven't considered paying for Pandora... Its cheap.

Rock on my friends!


-Red
www.jeffjake.com
www.facebook.com/jeffreyrjake
Twitter @MortisG187

Email Jeff at author@jeffjake.com

The Sound of Music

I would be hard pressed to give you one type of music that I like. I'm fond of saying that I'm Beastie Boys to Beethoven. I like all kinds of music. Rock, techno, metal, classical, rap, folk, new age, even the occasional country song. So it's probably no surprise that when I write, I listen to music. I have several "writing mixes" on my iTunes that help me, for lack of a better explanation, relax into what I'm writing.

For instance, my current novel has space ships and space battles. When I'm working on those types of chapters, I will listen to the Star Trek II Wrath of Khan sound track. I also listen to a lot of Pandora. I love the ability to customize my stations. 

It was a few weeks back that I was listening to Pandora, when I first heard The Yoshida Brothers. They play a three string instrument similar to a banjo. I loved what I heard. They have taken traditional and fussed it with the modern. I was listening to them tonight and thought I would share them with you.

I give you... The Yoshida Brothers

The Yoshida Brothers - Rising

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N-2KBSA8wEs

Oh.. and their song "Kodo" was featured in the 2006 Nintendo Wii commercials... (Thats for all my fellow geeks and nerds out there)

The Yoshida Brothers - Kodo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EF4LkCx5wpw

Good listening to you!

-Red

www.jeffjake.com

www.facebook.com/jeffreyrjake

Twitter @MortisG187

Email Jeff at author@jeffjake.com

The Mojo of Music

Here the other day I was driving in the car with my son. Like always, I had my iPhone hooked into the radio playing some of my recent downloads. I happened to be playing Adiemus. I wasn't to far into the track when he says, "Dad, this music is really relaxing." That comment opened up a whole discussion on how music can affect us.

We talked about the types of music that can relax you, and the types of music that can get you excited. For instance, Enya, for me, is very relaxing (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTrk4X9ACtw). On the other side of the spectrum, I pulled up the music from the rave scene in the movie BLADE (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKzqZY24gWg). It was a great talk about how music can influence our mood. I told him music is powerful. It can lift you up, get you excited, or even depress you.

From there we moved on to discuss how music can be used in movies to elicit an emotion. I pulled up the sound track for Batman: The Dark Knight. The composer used discordant tones every time the Joker was on the screen. I showed him how this music was deliberately set to put you on edge (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1kRtLDeUKnI) when the Joker was on screen. Then we talked about how boring a movie would be without music. Most scenes that we call epic, would be nothing more than a fizzle with no music.

Here is a link that shows the difference. It's from one of the classic movies of all times, Jaws. The audio isn't the best, but I think you'll get the idea. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2K-YedETiI

So what gets your foot tapping? Who relaxes you and who fires you up?

-Red


Check out my web site: www.jeffjake.com
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