Happy Birthday to English musician John Deacon, b. 1951, known best as the bass guitarist for the rock band Queen. He was 19 years old when he began playing with Queen and composed many of their hit singles.
Celebrate his birthday with a song written by Deacon:
Today in music history, 1977: At the age of 42, American singer, Army veteran, and prominent cultural icon, Elvis Presley, met his demise in Graceland. We honor his musical accomplishments and extraordinary life with a most beloved hymn sung in his unique gospel style:
Today in music history, 1939: The Wizard of Oz premiers in Grauman’s Chinese Theater in Los Angeles, California. It was nominated for several Academy Awards; E.Y. Harburg and Harold Arlen won the Oscar for Best Song (“Over The Rainbow”) and Best Original Music Score.
Celebrate an American tradition with a welcome to Munchkinland:
Happy Birthday to American singer/songwriter and guitarist Kevin Cadogan, b. 1970, best known as the guitarist for the rock band Third Eye Blind. He has also released three studio albums as a solo artist.
Celebrate his birthday with a song from his first solo album, Wunderfoot:
Almost all music teachers will agree that proper finger posture is required to play a musical instrument. If your music teacher does not agree, find a new one immediately! Improper posture will let you develop bad habits, causing you to have a more difficult time in learning your pieces. When worse comes to worst, improper posture will injure you.
What is proper finger posture? Let’s start where the rubber meets the road: The piano keys and fingertips. Play each key with your fingertips, not your fingerpads. Your nails should be short to prevent discomfort or clicking sounds.
The perfect position is one that requires no effort to maintain. Your fingers naturally round, a sort of fetal position for them. Try laying the back of your hand on a flat surface. Notice that your fingers curve inward. It actually takes effort to lay your fingers flat! In this manner, let your fingers naturally curve when sitting at the piano.
Keep wrists flat when playing piano. Some students may have a tendency to sag or lift the wrists. This is creates unnecessary tension in the forearms, causing the student to become tired. Again, the perfect position is one that requires zero effort to maintain.
To test your if your wrists are flat and in good position, balance a small ruler on your wrists. It should touch the back of your hand, your wrist, and your forearm above your wrist. If it touches only the back of the forearm and the wrist, your wrist is too high. If there is a gap under the book, your wrist is too low. You can use a pencil, too, but a ruler is easier to balance.
Keep your fingertips at the point where the black keys and white keys meet. This way, you will not have to reach so far to play the black keys, and your thumbs will naturally reach the white keys.
Happy Birthday to two musicians: Irish singer Feargal Sharkey,b. 1958 and Irish bass player Michael Bradley, b.1959. Both musicians are founding members of the punk/New Wave band The Undertones, hailing from Derry, Northern Ireland.
Celebrate their birthday with a song that fans of Derry City F.C. regularly sing during the team’s games:
Today in music history, 1644: Baroque composer Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber was baptized in Wartenberg, Bohemia (now Stráž pod Ralskem, Czech Republic). He was a violinist and employed by the Bishop of Olomouc but later moved to Salzburg, Austria to be employed by the Archibishop of Salzburg. Biber wrote many works in Salzburg for the rest of his life, both secular and sacred.
Celebrate his faith and life with the first of his Rosary Sonatas, a sonana for violin & continuo No. 1 in D minor, “The Annunciation.”
Today in music history, 1963: American singer Whitney Houston was born in New Jersey. She sold over 200 million records worldwide, including movie soundtracks, gospel, pop, and R&B, and was blessed with a four-octave singing range.
Enjoy this video from her national debut:
Today in music history, 1995, we mourned the loss of American musician Jerry Garcia, b. 1942. He was best known as the founder, lead guitarist, songwriter, and singer for the Grateful Dead. Garcia also participated in many side projects such as the Jerry Garcia Band and Legion of Mary.
If you today is your birthday, you share it with
You are in good company! We wish these gentlemen musicians and you a happy birthday.
Enjoy singing and playing by The Edge with a song from U2’s 1991 album Achtung Baby.
