|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Regular visitor? Hit Control + Refresh (or Shift + Reload) for the most current version of this page. More info |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Feedback Comments? We'd love to hear from you |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||
30 January 2004 The Adelaide Advertiser reported last Saturday: Part 1 New technology is changing the way music is purchased. Now recording artists might have to change how they work. Traditional CDs are under threat as the music industry undergoes a retailing revolution. Interest is swinging to individual songs rather than whole albums, which is evident in both Internet piracy and the music industry's fightback. Some artists believe this could spell the death of 30 years of putting those songs together in thematic ways. such as Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts club Band, Dark Side of the Moon...albums bigger than the sum of their parts. The push towards songs only - which is how all pop music used to be before the long-playing gramophone record - came about as file sharing systems over the Internet satisfied a desire for instant gratification. These systems offered free downloads of millions of tracks, any song that anybody cared to upload, but as single tracks, not as albums. The music industry, saying all this privacy was hurting sales, went online selling digital downloads of these same songs - debundled from Albums - with a modest charge in exchange for the knowledge that the sale was legal. To be continued soon... |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
27 January 2004 Welcome back... We welcome back all students this week as they recommence lessons for the year. There are some noticeable improvements to the facilities such as computers in the Studios. The new computer in the waiting area enables students to search our Music Catalogue, the LHSS Website as well as Showcase 2003 Concert pics. Wall pictures will be replace by Showcase 2003 pics and Studios have been painted and floor boards have been polished. Details and dates of the four Performance Concerts to be held in 2004 are now available as well as Showcase 2004 Concert Dates. These forms are available in the Studio's waiting area. They can also be downloaded from the website. Lisa Simonetti who started as a student 9 years ago has been on Staff teaching for 12 months. This year she will be teaching in a greater capacity along side of Allison Bourke and Katie Packer. Miranda Simonetti will be filling in as a relief teacher this year. We look forward to a great year! |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| 26 January 2004 Ninemsn TV Week online reported this week: Australian Idol diva Courtney Act is preparing to unleash her first single, Rub Me Wrong, which was penned especially for her. It was written and produced by David Norland. His past muses include Madonna and Janet Jackson. The single is set for release in a few months, but in the meantime Courtney says she's looking forward to hitting the road with her fellow Idols on the national tour. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Idol to host Video Hits The Adelaide Advertiser reported in yesterday's newspaper: Idol Kelly "Rock Chick" Cavuoto (and Axel Whitehead) have been snapped up by Network Ten to host the revamped Video Hits from January 31. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
21 January 2004 The 2004 South Australian Pop Vocalist is being held at the Dom Polski Centre on March 6, and twenty more vocalists are required. With 60 already signed up, the competition is open to everyone aged six to 80. People with disabilities are encouraged to enter and entry fee proceeds go to charity. Winners from each age group will land themselves a recording package. Auditions are on March 6, 2004. Please contact David on ph 8186 3070 for more information. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Copyright - the devil and the detail Article by Simon Minahan from the smh.com.au website A compromise nears but there's still so much to be worked out. Screenrights, the Australian Audio Visual Copyright Society, has opened up a new front in the battle over digital content and rights management here in Australia. Together with APRA, the royalty collecting agency has put a proposal to Canberra for the introduction of a levy on blank recording media as a way of securing compensation for its members for private copying. The proposal is well developed. It comprises draft legislation and an explanatory memorandum and is supported by an opinion from a NSW QC (who was a co-author of the draft bill) on the constitutionality of the scheme. Under the proposed scheme, buyers of recordable media will pay a levy on that media in return for a statutory licence that will enable them to legally use the media for private copying of content. At present there is no right in Australian copyright law for consumers to make back-up or alternative copies for private use of certain content - such as commercially distributed music (although there is a limited right to create a back-up copy of computer programs). Do
You Burn CDs article |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
20 January 2004 Did you know that, at present,
there is no right in Australian copyright law Click here for full article |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
The studio holds regular concerts that are designed to give students valuable experience in performing, and to encourage and develop confidence. They offer an opportunity for first-time performers to gain experience in a non-threatening environment. A rehearsal is scheduled the week before the concert where they practice singing infront of each other. Singers who are more advanced can perform at the concert only. The next LHSS Performance Concert will be held on Friday 26 March, with the rehearsal being on Friday 19 March.
Click here for Performers Concert No.1 2004 PDF information sheet
|
Mary-Anne Foster with guitarist Alexei and backing vocalist and teacher Allison Bourke at LHSS Performers Concert 2003 No.2 click image above for full size photo
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||
16 January 2004 As part of our Copyright & Licensing for Singing Teachers series, today we look at the third of the four licensing bodies a singing teacher may need to be aware of: the Phonographic Performance Company of Australia (PPCA).
PPCA PPCA is a national, non-government, non-profit organisation who represent record labels (licensors) and Australian recording artists. PPCA grant licences for the broadcast, communication or public playing of recorded music (e.g. CDs, tapes, records, DVD's*to check*) or music videos. They then distribute the licence fees to the copyright holders (licensors) and Australian recording artists registered with them. Who needs a PPCA license? Anyone who is using recorded music or music videos to enhance their business or is playing recorded music in public i.e not in a private setting for personal pleasure. The Phonographic Performance Company of Australia (PPCA) grants licenses for the broadcast, communication or public playing of recorded music (eg. CD's, tapes, records) or music videos. All PPCA licenses are non-exclusive which means that you can approach each copyright owner individually for a license to broadcast, communicate or play the recordings owned by your company in public. However, no single record company can offer you a 'blanket licence' which the PPCA can offer. A blanket license covers your business for most recordings which have been commercially released in Australia . Do you need a PPCA licence? If you're using recorded music, sound recordings or music videos to enhance your business in any way, then you will usually need a licence - permission from the copyright holder - to do so. Examples of such uses include:
Is there any legal requirement for me to pay broadcast communication and public performance PPCA licence fees? The Copyright Act imposes an obligation on those who wish to broadcast, communicate or publicly perform protected sound recordings and music videos to obtain the licence of the copyright holders. PPCA is authorised by the participating record labels to grant these licences and to collect licence fees. What is public performance? A public performance is the playing of a sound recording or the exhibition of a music video in public i.e. a non-domestic environment. A performance is considered public even the performance is given for free, if the audience is small, or there is no admission fee, or the performance is confined to members of a club, or a limited area. The PPCA licence There are at least two (2) copyrights in any recording when using it for your business: (i) The copyright in the written song, composition or lyrics (i.e. the "musical work" in copyright language). APRA grants licences for the broadcast and public performance rights in the musical work and distributes the proceeds to songwriters and their publishers. (ii) The copyright in the recorded version of the musical work. The PPCA grants licences for the broadcast and public performance of the recording and distributes the proceeds to record labels and Australian recording artists or to each individual sound recording copyright holder (usually the record company). The practical effect of this distinction is that the broadcast or public performance of a protected recording usually requires two licences - one from APRA and one from PPCA.
As a singing teacher what license(s) do I need from PPCA? The Leanne Hoad Singing Studio has the following PPCA licence permits allowing us to play CD's in public:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
15 January 2004 Australian Idol, "Millsy" has a record contract newsflash from the ninemsn TV Guide website: Dicko let it slip to TV Week , last week, that BMG Records had signed Millsy to a recording contract. Now though it's official. The Melbourne lad, who came fifth in Australian Idol , will record an album with BMG in coming weeks and it will hopefully be ready for release by the middle of the year. "I thought they weren't going ask me, but they did at the last minute," says Millsy. "I'm seriously happy." |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
12 January 2004 The idols in England Article from the official World Idol website: The Idols had a ball visiting
England's capital city. On arrival they were whisked to their hotel on
the river Thames with a view of one of London's famed landmark Big Ben.
Guy Sebastian from Australia bumped into South Africa's
Heinz Winckler on arrival and became instant buddies.
Well they both had the longest flights so perhaps they were discussing
jetlag tips? Top 5 Results Kurt Nilsen from Norway - 106
points ...and Guy Sebatian came in 7th |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
9 January 2004 ABC Online reported the following article on 8 January 2004: Soprano singers can be heard above the boom of a symphony orchestra and the roar of a jet engine, but according to new research the ability to sing powerfully in the high register comes at a price. A paper published in Nature today shows that soprano singers distort their pronunciation when they open their mouth wide and adjust their vocal tract to hit the highest, loudest notes. University of New South Wales physicist Dr John Smith says this is why even opera buffs rely on electronic subtitles when a soprano singer rattles the rafters with a soaring aria "For sopranos, the price of being heard is a loss in clarity," he said. "The loss in clarity means that different sounds such as la, lore, loo, ler and lee sound very similar when sung in the high register." The vocal tract has several resonances that boost or amplify sounds produced in the larynx. One of these lies within the high range of the human voice. But until now scientists had difficulty measuring and explaining the event. For this paper, the research team struck an ascending scale of notes on a glockenspiel and asked eight classically trained sopranos to match the scales. This method showed that sopranos lowered their jaw and opened their mouth wide to hit the highest, loudest notes, making the words they were singing eventually become unintelligible. Dr Smith said he had suspected for some time that sopranos actually tuned the resonance of their vocal tract to the note they are singing. "The evidence for this is that they tend to open the mouth more as they sing successively higher notes, but this couldn't be confirmed before because of the technical difficulty in measuring the acoustics of the tract while it was being used for singing," he said. "Our ability to measure this effect directly in a performing soprano confirms what many have long suspected." |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
7 January 2004 ANATS (Australian National Association of Teachers Of Singing) National Conference 2004 Singing: Mastery and Mystery Sydney Conservatorium of Music
Call for papers... Practical, oral and poster presentations are required. Emphasis is on the importance to singers and singing teachers of the skills (mastery) of singing, the imagination and creativity. Final date for submissions: 28 February, 2004 |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Many Britons stumped where "Chicago" musical is set ABC Online reported the following article on 4 January 2004 Sixty-five per cent of Britons do not know in which US city the hit musical Chicago is set in, a nationwide survey for an upcoming TV quiz show says. Another 57 per cent did not know where the celebrated television soap opera Dallas was set, and two-thirds were equally at a loss to identify the city at the heart of the Roger Whittaker ballad Streets of London . YouGov, a market research organisation that uses online panels, questioned 1,000 respondents for a quiz show on UK's Channel 4 titled Beat the Nation that goes on air next Monday local time. The poll also indicated that 67 per cent of Britons do not know when World War II ended, 64 per cent did not know where the French Alps were, and 70 per cent did not know where the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra is based. The answers, by the way, are Chicago, Dallas, 1945, France and Vienna. Reassuringly, the show's website on Friday local time said that "100 per cent of the nation know the capital of France" but then there has never been a blockbuster hit called Paris. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
6 January 2004 Back from holidays... We have been back into the swing of things at the Studio for only 2 days from our holiday in beautiful Sydney, Australia. Already exciting things are happening and the anticipation is building for an exciting 2004. See Leanne & John's holiday pics of Sydney's Opera House amd Sydney Harbour. There will be changes to the Studios upon the students' return. Apart from freshening the place up with a coat of paint, new polished floor boards and the latest pics (of Showcase 2003 Concert) on display, there will be a few major additions. There will be a computer in each Studio for the teachers (and student's) benefit. They will have access to the internet, the teachers booking sheets and to our music catalogue to name a few. There will also be a computer in the waiting room for students and parents to access. They will be able to browse the LHSS website, search the LHSS music catalogue for their favourite songs and keep updated with the latest pics. |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
5 January 2004 Last Friday I set the alarm for 6.30am; holiday or not, I was going to wake up in time to watch World Idol live from London. Along with all the other Aussies, I had my fingers and toes crossed for our own Guy Sebastian to scoop the title. As it happened, Guy placed 7th out of 11 contestants. I thought that, with the affinity, affection and trust I had developed for Guy over the 6 months of getting to know him while watching Australian Idol, he would do really well. In this time we were exposed to his amazing vocal versatility, his skills as a musician in arranging songs successfully from any genre, and those characteristics that made him unique such as the 'Fro! In a 3 minute performance, how could I have expected the world to see these things? To make matters worse, the song Guy sang did not show him at his best. The show's originator, Simon Fuller had the final say in the song choice and picked What a Wonderful World over When Doves Cry and Climb Every Mountain. What a pity! Winner, Norway's Kurt Nilsen, earned maximum points in almost every country; in fact the top 3 choices were consistent in most countries. His cover of U2's Beautiful Day was sung to perfection. A combination of the song suiting his voice, the song's popularity and, to a lesser degree, the fact that he was the final performer and left a lasting impression contributed to his win. The title could not go to a more deserving person (apart from Guy, of course). We must, however, bear in mind that Idol is not a true indication of the world's best singer. To paraphrase Renee Geyer: Idol may be good television but it's got little to do with music. One 3 minute performance does not give the singers the opportunity to show what they are really made of. They are all talented in their own right. Perhaps World Idol should be a 2 hour show requiring each singer to perform 2 songs of contrasting styles and genres, similar to the Australian Idol heats? Anyway, I thoroughly enjoyed the whole Idol series (I was hooked from the first episode!) and I look forward to following Guy's career. Bring on Australian Idol 2... |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
4 January 2004 Happy new Year! I trust everyone had a great New Years. John (my husband) and I (Leanne) spent the last week and a bit in Sydney, Australia for our annual holiday, hence no blog entries lately. One highlight for me in Sydney was the Sydney Opera House tour. Being familiar with theatres, the history and the Opera House itself was very interesting. Did you know...
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||
