Look For Good Quality Drum Practice Kits

By Nicke Johnson

It should not be difficult finding great quality drum practice kits in order to improve your percussion playing skills. If you are an aspiring musician who is just starting out or if you have been working as a professional drummer for a while but need something easier than a complete set in order to practice more effectively, this should not be hard to find. There are many businesses out there with a wide range of tools and kits to offer you, so have a look and you will find something of your liking.

Research of course should be your first step. If you want to find something, you need to search and the Internet has made this a lot easier for you. All you have to do is look for available manufacturers and distributors and check their websites to see what they promise to deliver. Some of them will have a wide range of products to choose from.

Also, it is only natural not to want to invest on a proper drum set if you're starting out. Familiarizing yourself with the instrument's basics can be done without spending too much money and without a set occupying too much space in your house. Also, the smaller the kit you go for, the easier it will be for you to carry it with you when you want to practice elsewhere.

Also, search for a kit that you can move around whenever you feel the need to do so. It is important that you can carry it with you easily when you travel and as known, a proper drums set does not have this ability. The most important advantage of investing in a practicing kit rather than an entire set is the fact that you will pay a lot less but you'll get to learn how to play just as well and the transition from practicing kit to a set will become smoother.

Still however you will need to invest in a good quality kit. Don't just purchase an inexpensive one in your effort to save as much money as you can. The truth is that the lower the quality of your kit, the shorter amount of time that you will have it for and the more times that you will have to replace it. This will cost you more money in the long run.

Compare prices when you're searching for tools and read customer reviews. A lot of musicians will write testimonials on sites that they have used or that they have ordered from. Others will take part in forum discussions and will express opinions or share their experiences regarding specific kits and their manufacturers. Try to read all this and to gather all the information available. This is certainly valuable insight if you can get it.

Also, remember to search for a good quality kit. Although you will only be using it for practicing purposes, still, you should find tools that will last you for a long time and will save you the money of having to replace them every now and then. This will make a great difference in your budget, so do search for something well made and not too cheap.

Drum practice tools are easy to find. However you should aim to get the highest quality available on the market. Only then will you manage to make the most out of your practicing routine.

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Find out the benefits of choosing the most effective drum practice tools today! You can find out the methods and techniques that will make drumming practice help you achieve your goals.

Nikon CoolPix L18 Is A Great Digital Camera

By Jennifer Lane

If you're in the market for a compact digital camera for daily use, put the Nikon CoolPix L18 at the top of your list. Small enough that it can slip into a pocket or purse easily, the Nikon CoolPix L18 offers an easy-to-handle camera ideal for adventure vacations, concerts, parties, or anywhere else that a larger camera may be difficult to manage.

Though it's small in size, the Nikon CoolPix L18 has the components to produce large, clear photos. The 8.0 megapixels creates digital files that can print sharp images up to 16 x 20 inches. The CoolPix also features a new type of digital processor, dubbed EXPEED, that keeps the same sharpness and coloring in the photo that you see with the naked eye. The EXPEED processor aids in quicker response times, ensuring the camera is ready to shoot again and again without slow processing between shots, and returns better quality so that photos look natural.

The CoolPix L18 has a great 3.0 inch LCD screen, and as a result you will be able to preview your pictures more easily and ultimately you have a much easier time lining up your shots. On bright and sunny days, you'll be happy to know the LCD screen also is coated with Nikon's Anti-Reflection technology.

Need a digital camera that can zoom in and out all while maintaining a high quality image? The CoolPix L18 comes with 3x Optical Zoom-Nikkor Glass lens. The 3x Optical Zoom allows you to zoom in and out, quickly and efficiently, producing pictures that maintain the natural look and appearance of the light and colors around your subject.

The L18 also comes with an adjustable ISO. If you a camera "newbie" and you don't feel like worrying about lighting, the adjustable ISO, while in automatic mode, will continuously adjust the camera's ISO for you helping you produce "lighting perfect" pictures day or night.

If you commonly end up with blurry photos due to the subject of your photograph moving as you try to take the picture, the CoolPix's anti-shake mode is just the feature you need to get perfect shots. The anti-shake feature detects any movement of your subject and automatically changes the shutter speed to make sure the photo doesn't blur.

If you have a lot of older pictures in your family album with lighting issues and red-eye, you will also be happy to know the L18 has features to correct those issues as well. The Nikon CoolPix L18 Red Eye Fix technology scans images for instances of red-eye and removes it automatically. Now you won't have to spend your time correcting eye color. Also, the L18 comes with "D-lighting" a feature that corrects lighting issues in dark areas while leaving any areas of your image that don't need adjusting alone. The "Face Priority" feature has the ability to recognize faces, focus on your subjects individually to group photos are a breeze.

If that's not enough, the CoolPix has additional features to make photo-taking even more effortless. In automatic mode, you can use any of the camera's photo modes. Photo modes on the Nikon CoolPix L18 include landscape, sports, dusk/dawn, close-up, museum and portrait. These special automatic camera modes change the camera's settings to the appropriate shutter speed, and kick in the appropriate special features to ensure that you get the perfect photo every time.

If you also want your camera to be able to record videos, you'll be pleased to know with the CoolPix L18 you'll be able to record in video and audio. The great thing about the L18 is, unlike most digital cameras, there is no time limit on video recordings. With the L18 you'll be able to video record as much as your memory card will allow you to.

If you're shopping for an affordable digital camera with the newest imaging and editing features, be sure to check out the Nikon CoolPix L18!

About the Author:

Jennifer Lane is a photography enthusiast and professional writer living in the Metro-Atlanta area. You can visit her latest website at Nikon CoolPix L18. Here you can view pictures and read more about the L18 camera.

Beading Works - 5 Simple And Fun Halloween Season Designs

By Eddie Dean

Halloween is fast becoming the most popular holiday in the country, currently second only to Christmas, and the holiday really outranks Christmas with respect to money spent on decorations, food, and drink (the leading champion of holiday party spending is, and possibly always will be, New Year's, but Halloween is a compelling second!). So if you're looking for fun Halloween beading projects to "spookify" things coming October 31, then keep reading and we'll run through five fun Halloween beading projects you can make an attempt! Or, if you're going down the plan of selling the fruits of your bead craft project, you will find a large and standing market for the designs you create!

1 - Jack o'Lanterns - The traditional, beadwork style! You can make use of seed beads of several tints of oranges and yellows (on a black setting if you're looking to make something larger), to hang on the mantle or as a dressing to the patio railing. Involve the children by having them plan out the faces!

2 - Black Cats - A basic cat silhouette can be the basis for a layout (all black seed beads, or black combined with a smattering of silver for amazing effect), with the option of using larger beads for the eyes. These can be kept quite simple or can become a dramatically more complex beading project, but even the simplest designs can make quite a spectacular statement!

3 - Witches - You could do a simple bust pattern or a complete figure representation of a witch on a broomstick, based on your overall skill level. These are enjoyable to make, and make excellent decor, but tend to be more involved compared to either of the projects above.

4 - Dangling Skeletons - Obviously the most advanced of the projects pointed out here, these can be created of any size you wish, but certainly smaller is better from a "time to complete" perspective. If you don't like to worry over creating an actual skeletal design, you can weave a skeletal pattern onto a black background, for example, the size of a square drink coaster and still have a beautiful piece to decorate with!

5 - Candy Corns - These aren't spooky, but certainly match the season, and are most fun when made as 3-dimensional shapes. I would not suggest going much over two inches high, or they'll take far too long to finish, but because of their relatively simple structure, this is another task that's wonderful to involve the kids in!

As you can see based on the five ideas above, there are all forms of exciting holiday beading projects you can stick your teeth into, and this list just only scratches the surface of the beading work out there, so whether you plan to use them to embellish your own house, or sell what you develop, it's time to get making!

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Allowing Emotional Reactions To Transform Your Character - Acting Classes in NYC

By Maggie Flanigan

Any actor interested in studying the Meisner technique should explore what's known as the actors instrument. The instrument analogy can be helpful when breaking down all the various aspects that can determine how good an actor is. As an audience member, it becomes apparent very quickly who the good actors in a piece are or who might be falling short. It may also just be a sense of something not coming across in the right way. They can also sense when an actors instrument is not well developed, because they don't "believe" the character portrayal.

The actors instrument is comprised of six different elements, all important. The aspects of the instrument include sensory expression, emotional, empathy, intelligence and sensory and physical expression. Mastering the craft of acting with the Meisner Technique requires that all six aspects of the instrument are well developed. It is easy even for non actors to identify professional actors who have mastered the different aspects of their "instrument." Rarely, there are actors that come along and become the best of the best by being gifted at them all.

For example, an actor like Stallone is known mainly for his physical expression and presence. Stallone is certainly able to express emotionally, but overall his most powerful tool onscreen is his physical expression. As an actor he expresses emotion in a very physical, often external way. This is why actors must focus on learning about each and every aspect of the instrument, so that they can be as well rounded as possible.

Emotional expression is the most common aspect of the instrument that actors are focused on. Obsessing about how a character feels about something and how to express it is usually the primary thing actors concentrate on. One one hand, it is short sighted to place too much emphasis on this particular aspect of the actors instrument, however, emotional expression is certainly a key aspect of emotional expression. All six of the aspects of the instrument should be studied diligently until they are mastered.

Of course, it is meaningful emotional expression that draws people into any character or story. It clues the audience in to what the character is about, the conflicts they face, what their deepest needs are. It is common in classes teaching Meisner acting in nyc to create an emotional history of a character, imagine it in detail and then use all the aspects of the instrument to express them. Meisner acting students are masters of human emotion, the full range and complexity of the human experience. They do this by creating a "library" of human emotion and a resource of reactions and ways of communicating based on studies of real people. When called upon to create a specific character, they dig very deep and create and imagine (another part of the instrument) what that character's emotional story is. This created life, its emotions and patterns of behavior, are then drawn upon moment by moment, not in rehearsed ways, but spontaneously.

Just as an example, vulnerability can express many characteristics, from innocence to deep insecurity. There are many actors who, with hard work, can learn to differentiate and express this complex emotion. If the actor has also worked hard to develop other aspects of the instrument, such as imagination, sensory expression and intelligence, the complexity of emotions will be there. A single tear, without words can accomplish this, but how about a sense of vulnerability shown while one is smashing a clock to pieces? This is a subjective, creative process.

The myth is that acting is simply pretending to have an emotion. However, acting is not simply reciting words using certain inflections and gestures to communicate emotions. Acting is doing, as master teacher Sanford Meisner always said. In other words acting is being in the moment and allowing any number of emotional reactions well up and take you over and turn you into the actual character. This may feel risky at first. Great actors do not force themselves to cry. There are genuine emotions in their performances, often unpredictable ones that appear as they work as character. Developing a deep capacity to understand and feel the full range of human emotions and experiences is a great way to become an open, flexible acting student, the best kind of student. As an actor you must give yourself permission to feel fully and live truthfully, whether you are in character or not.

About the Author:

The Maggie Flanigan Studio provides training for serious actors committed to improving their craft. Find out more about meisner acting in nyc by reading this article about actors instrument by visiting the studio website.

Tips for launching yourself as a professional DJ

By Louise Redman

If you regularly perform knockout DJ sets in your bedroom and you are looking for a new career path, you could consider starting your own DJ business. This would involve hiring out your skills as a DJ to weddings, parties and corporate events, as well as performing sets at bars and clubs.

The first priority for anyone wanting to start their own DJ business is to source all of the DJ equipment they will need. This includes DJ decks, a DJ mixer, a portable amp and speaker system, a microphone, a decent pair of DJ headphones and maybe even a laptop with the latest DJ mixing software installed. You can search online to see what DJ equipment you will need, and to find the best deals on it.

Now that you've found all the right pieces of DJ equipment, and bought or hired everything you need, your next priority should be to practice your skills at home. If you do this, as well as making some pre-mixes and playlists for different audiences and events, you will be fully prepared for even the most last minute of bookings.

If you want to start booking gigs and making money, marketing is crucial. Start to get the word out by setting up your own website. On this, remember to include all of your contact details and try to sell yourself well.

Another good idea is to get in touch with another DJ who has just started their own business and who is in the same position as you. Agree to let each other know about jobs you are offered but aren't able to do, then you will both get more work.

So, now you have your own website, the right DJ equipment and you are starting to market your new business. What else do you need to do? The last things on your list should be transport for yourself and your gear, and insurance both for your equipment and to cover public liability requirements.

About the Author:

Louise Redman is a widely respected writer who has been writing for 5 over years often writes on Mix Direct UK and a wide range of other subjects.

Good Xbox 360 Games

By Earlene Reaux

One of the good Xbox 360 games for players who like combat theme games is Halo 3 ODST. This video game created a huge hype before the initial launch and according to many who performed it this edition of Halo was definitely worth the weight. All the Halo games are certainly popular and are still being performed by a huge number of gamers around the world. Halo 3 ODST is not for young kids mainly because of the violence and the combat scenarios involved, but for adults who enjoy this kind of game it makes nearly every top ten game list.

Grand Theft Auto IV is another video game that is really highly recommended by mature gamers, but parents must be informed that this game consists of considerable amounts of violence and improper content for children and younger teenagers. Criminal offense, prostitution, and violence are the entire theme of this video game, and the gamer should complete missions, generate income, and complete other objectives to advance in the game.

Fable III is another of the listed good Xbox 360 games. This video game is rated as mature, meant for young adults and older people who are at least Seventeen years old. All of the Fable games in the series allow the player to make options between good and bad, as well as completing quests and gratifying the rest of the game goals. The look of the character changes based on the selections created by the gamer.

There are numerous Xbox games aimed toward younger gamers as well. Sesame Street: Once Upon A Monster includes all the adorable characters from the Sesame Street show and is made for every age group. This game is suggested as an appropriate family option and enables kids to play along with other members of the family. FIFA Soccer 12 is another great game that everybody in the family can play and enjoy, without any violence or terrifying circumstances that may annoyed younger players.

A quick Internet search will reveal many games that gamers suggest for this gaming system. Sports, motion, combat, and also pets are all the subject of one or more games. With the addition of the Kinect system the game list gets even larger.

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There are hundreds of good xbox 360 games and several are equipped for any age while others might be more restrictive due to mature content.

Tips For Successfully Capturing A Great Photograph

By Roz Demer

Photography can be an extremely fun and rewarding hobby. There is quite a bit that goes into making sure that you are producing quality content. Follow the advice provided in this easy to understand article and you will find yourself taking great pictures in a relatively short amount of time.

Most pictures are taken with the camera at or near the subject's eye level. Common sense says this is good, but get the "WOW" factor by changing the angle from which you shoot. Try shooting down at the subject from higher up or get close to the ground and shoot up.

On your smart phone (as long as it has a camera), keep a special inspiration album within your photos. Every day you may stumble upon some amazing, inspirational idea, moment or place. Snap photos of these locales and moments, and store them in this inspiration album. Next time you are looking to try something new with your photography, look back to your inspiration folder for some great brainstorming ideas!

Learn to turn your camera on it's side. If the subject that you are shooting is taller than it is wide, then use your camera to make it take up more of the frame. Turn your camera on it's side and take a vertical picture instead of the traditional horizontal one.

Try not using your camera's red-eye reduction. This normally does a pre-flash that shrink's the subject's pupils to reduce the reflection. While this works, it also gives the person a warning and can either cause them to flinch when the actual photo is being taken or they'll pose more for the photo. You're better off using computer image editing software to edit out the red-eye later.

Find people to shoot without being too judgmental. You do not want to be on the lookout for "interesting" people only. People who only interest you may not be interesting to anyone else. Every person is unique, so shoot people in general and not just people you think will make a good shot.

Don't be afraid to move your subject, if it can be moved, if it's not working for you. You don't have to be the only thing moving if something is amiss. You can create all kinds of interesting shots and compositions by moving to an unexpected location or even using a different source altogether.

To summarize, picture taking can not only be personally rewarding but it can also be a way for you to make money on the side. You need to be sure that you are aware of the fundamentals of photography as provided in this article so that you can build from there.

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