Coffee improves short-term memory and speeds up reaction times by acting on the brain’s prefrontal cortex, according to a new study.

Researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to determine how coffee activates different areas of the brain in 15 volunteers.

“Caffeine modulates a higher brain function through its effects on distinct areas of the brain,” explains Florian Koppelstätter, who carried out the research with colleagues at the Medical University at Innsbruck, Austria.

Prior to testing, the group fasted for 4 to 6 hours, and abstained from caffeine and nicotine for at least 24 hours. Then they were then given either a cup of strong coffee – containing 100 milligrams of caffeine – or a caffeine-free placebo drink. After 20 minutes all participants underwent fMRI scans while carrying out a memory and concentration test. A few days afterwards the experiment was repeated under the same conditions but each received the other drink.

Executive memory

During the memory tests, participants were shown a fast sequence of capital letters, then flashed a single letter on a screen and told to decide quickly whether this letter was the same as the one which appeared second-to-last in the earlier sequence. They had to respond by pressing a “Y” for yes or “N” for no.

“The group all showed activation of the working memory part of the brain," Koppelstätter explains. "But those who received caffeine had significantly greater activation in parts of the prefrontal lobe, known as the anterior cingulate and the anterior cingulate gyrus. These areas are involved in 'executive memory', attention, concentration, planning and monitoring."

“This type of memory is used when, for example, you look up a telephone number in a book and then mentally store it before dialling,” he adds.

Pick-me-up

Koppelstätter stresses that the study is preliminary and that he has yet to discover how long the memory effects last or what other effects coffee has on brain function. He adds that the long-term impact of caffeine use is also an important consideration.

But he says the study shows that coffee has an effect on specific brain regions involved in memory and concentration that tallies with anecdotal evidence of the drink's “pick-me-up” effect.

Caffeine is known to influence adenosine receptors which are found throughout the brain on nerve cells and blood vessels. It is thought that the drug inhibits these receptors and that this excites the nerve cells in the brain. “This may be the mechanism involved,” suggests Koppelstätter.

The research was presented at the annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America.

Santosh Prem, a teacher at Malet Lambert School, claims that “the difference between a genius and a "normal" person is that the former "accidentally" acquired the critical combination of the appropriate environment, motivation and learning technique to excel in his particular field.” Literally it means that every student has the same potential to excel and succeed in studying without having any exceptional inborn gift.

One of the most vital components in this “genius formula”, which significance is underestimated both by teachers and students is acquiring and harnessing of ‘Learning How to Learn’ skill. “This is probably the one skill that was never explicitly mentioned in all the years that you've spent in school. But it's the one where there's the most reward for the smallest investment.”

Indeed, knowing how to learn is a universal skill which every learner can make good use of for self-education in future life. Learning how to learn is a critical starting point in studying, which promotes students’ success in the whole course of education. This drastic know-how forms not only the basis of successful learning, but develops a peculiar learning style of the person.

Some learners choose more methodical approach to learning and try to dive into the essence of processing data, breaking it into logical units in order to memorize large blocks of information in parts. Meanwhile, other approach to learning less structurally, relying heavily on loci memory improvement technique, which involves making associations between facts and visualizing things.

Thus, every learning style is unique and it is impossible to elaborate a set of standard learning strategies and methods which can be utilized by every learner. Hence, I offer you to get acquainted with the following learning techniques and experiment with some of them to see if they work for you.

Seven Principles of ‘Learning How to Learn’ Formula

• Connect everything you learn to a specific goal. Remember that you can learn anything if you have a clear cut goal, which will motivate your advance in studying. Trying to learn something reluctantly or under compulsion, is always difficult and usually doesn’t bring any fruitful results. You should create a desire and speculate over the reasons of your learning very carefully. Bear in mind that learning more implies earning more; consequently everything you learn can be transformed into your career success.
• You will learn faster if you structure and logically organize all information in hand. It’ll increase the effectiveness of memorizing and help you immensely in your studying. You can break the data into small chunks or make a general outline of what you are learning.
• Single out the most important points of new material. Use a ‘highlight strategy’, which implies processing of information, underlining its major points and brief summarizing.
• Learn how to make drafts and set out in writing all your thoughts. The main idea of drafting is stating and organizing of key information meaningfully and coherently on a sheet of paper.
• Take regular breaks. Always combine work with rest. Try to make a change of scene and look aside. Have some food or turn to some physical training. If you don’t want to interrupt your work, but still feels that learning in the same surrounding is unbearable, try to accompany your studying with background music or make some visual images that involve moving, interaction or color.
• Learn to budget your time wisely, to accomplish all your work in time and make use of every minute of your studying. Distribute your work rationally and establish priority of each task in hand. Plan your time in accordance with quantity of work you have. Never yield a temptation to postpone tasks of secondary importance. Remember if you violate your deadline once there is a great likelihood that you’ll do it again.
• Learning works more efficiently if you are relaxed and your mind is calm. Concentrate your attention solely on studying during your learning periods. Have an organized working place to avoid any distractions and don’t forget to give yourself rewards when you have completed some tasks efficiently.

Take risks and don’t be afraid to experiment with different techniques. Always remember that those who learn and do it constantly over their lifetime do much better in their career and have more advantageous position than those who stop on attained results and rest on laurels.

This article will review the use and potential of using mnemonics tactics to increase and improve memory capabilities and better memory in general. In many studies it has been shown that mnemonics have three fundamental principles underlying the use of mnemonics are imagination, association and location. By using mnemonics there is a good chance of improving your memory. These three principals, association, imagination and location can be brought to work together, and you can use these principles to generate powerful mnemonic systems.

Working together, the principals of association, imagination and location can be used to generate powerful mnemonic systems. Hopefully once you have absorbed and applied these techniques you will understand how to design and apply these principles to your own field to design your own powerful, sophisticated recall systems. Lets start by a short review of the principals involved.

Association is the method by which you link a thing to be remembered to a method of remembering it. Although association techniques are different and use the same principals, you should try and use what you know works best for you, thus it is suggested that you implant your own associations rather than adopting a foreign system. You can you association by doing these following things; tying or linking a thing to be placed on top of the associated object, penetrating into each other, Merging together, Wrapping around each other, Rotating around each other or dancing together, Being attached to the same color, smell, shape, or feeling

Imagination in memory is used to create the links and associations needed to create effective memory techniques, imagination is the way in which you use your mind to create the links that have the most meaning for you. There is a natural difference between people since images that created will have less power and impact on you, because they reflect the way in which we think. The more strongly you imagine and visualize a situation, the more effectively it will stick in your mind for later recall. Mnemonic imagination can be as violent, vivid, or sensual as you like, as long as it helps you to remember what needs to be remembered.

The third principal and the last one is location. Location provides you with two things: a coherent context, this means that you have a context into which information can be placed so that it hangs together, and a way of separating one mnemonic from another: e.g. by setting one mnemonic in one bus seat, I can separate it from a similar mnemonic located in the back of the same bus. Location spices up your memory and provides context and texture to your mnemonics, and protects and prevents them from being confused with similar mnemonics. Setting one mnemonic with visualizations in the stadium in Milan, Italy and another similar mnemonic with images of a stadium in London, England allows us to separate them with no danger of confusion.

So using the three fundamentals of Association, Imagination and Location you can design images that strongly link things with the links between themselves and other things, in a context that allows you to recall those images in a way that does not conflict with other images and associations.

Some of the advice given out by various relationship experts does not work. Some of us have found ourselves apparently 'failing' to follow their advice and then wondering, 'What am I doing wrong'. But, it is the advice which is flawed not us.

Often the advice makes a basic assumption about human nature that I believe misses the point. If the basic assumption is wrong then the advice won't work; no matter how clever, insightful or helpful it may seem.

A lot of advice I've come across makes the assumption that what blocks people creating good relationships is lack confidence of some kind. While there is some truth in this, the advice goes astray after that. They assume this is down to some kind of 'fear', or ‘nervousness’. They assume 'shyness' is just a form of fear. That is simply not true.

What is behind shyness is not 'fear'; what is behind shyness is actually 'shame'. Shyness is not a fearful state; it is a 'shame' state. Shyness is a feeling of low self-worth. Low self-worth will often masquerade as fear, anger, resentment, bitterness and so on. When that is the case than trying to tackle those issues head on (i.e. a fearful or angry attitude) does not work.

Trying to handle the 'apparent' issues head on can actually do damage, because we can end up 'failing' and our sense of self-worth sinks even lower.

Let me give you an example from the male world. This is the advice given by one notable expert (who usually gives good advice) in order to overcome 'fear around women'. He suggests that men go to their local shopping mall and walk up to every attractive woman that they see and (after talking to her for a few minutes) ask for her phone number.

This advice will either sound appallingly simple, or simply appalling, depending on whether you are a shy guy, or not. This is supposed to help men 'get over fear'. However, many shy guys will read this advice and know that they just cannot do it. Their low sense of self-worth will kick in, fill them with anxiety, and block them. Or, they may try it and crash and burn.

They have just been told that 'fear' is the root of their problem. It sure looks like fear is the problem because they feel intensely anxious even thinking about acting on the advice, never mind making any moves to try it. They then quietly assume that they are a 'coward', or something, for not being able to get over their supposed fear. They end up feeling really bad about themselves.

The presence of anxiety does not mean fear is the problem! The feeling of anxiety is just a 'warning light' that there is something deeper. It is a sign that part of us is feeling threatened and needs protection. And, maybe it is right! Maybe we ought to listen to it and find out…

Anxiety is actually a form of wisdom. Rather than trying to bludgeon our way through it, or try and ignore it, we need to work with it a bit.

One way to manage a situation we find fearful is by using our imagination to work on it before trying it for real.

Start

• Imagine yourself in the situation
• Accept any fearful / anxious feelings which come up - without trying to make them go away.
• Notice if there are any feelings of shame, or feelings of being undeserving of what you want, or that you don’t have a right to succeed.
• Ask yourself if there are things you need to do to feel both less fearful and more deserving. (Don’t worry if you draw a blank at first).
• Imagine the possibility that you could find a good way of handling the situation. Does that help? If not, ask yourself if there is another way to achieve the results you want.
• How will you feel when you can handle the situation the way you would like to? How will your life be different?

Take a couple of deep breaths and go back to the 'Start'. Go around the loop a few times to see what that does to help you overcome your fear and your sense of shame / shyness.

In doing this, you may find that the process seems to go nowhere; or you may find that your fear goes away, you feel great about yourself and you know just what to do next. Most of us will experience something in between these two extremes.

In doing this you are creating a healthier relationship with yourself - no matter what the outcome. You are giving a subtle message to your inner self that you want to work with it rather than fighting with yourself. If you use it a number of times, this process will allow you to tap into your own wisdom and build your sense of self-esteem. This in turn will help you feel better about yourself and lead you to feel more confidence and far less fear or anxiety in social situations.

In this way you can overcome shame and its symptoms of fear, anxiety and lack of confidence. In this way you can overcome the real problem. 

I have been challenging myself to be more introverted than extroverted. Doing so, I have realised there is success and recognition that comes with a more extroverted personality.

One quarter of the population is introverted . This means that one quarter of the population prefers solitary activities over social activities. The problem with being introverted is that you miss out on the opportunities that extroverted individuals get.

Extroverted individuals tend to:

• Get noticed for their achievements more (as they like to openly talk about thier successes)
• Find meeting other people easier (as they enjoy and prefer to socialise)
• Find dating easier (as they enjoy communicating with new people)
• Have more opportunities open to them (from the contacts they made when socialising)

Now being an introvert is not the same as being shy . We have all been shy at some stage in our lives, but only some of us will be introverted. WikiHow.com explains the difference well when it says:

Being introverted is not the same as being shy. An introvert genuinely enjoys solitary activities more than social ones, whereas someone who's shy stays away from social situations because of fear and anxiety. If you're someone who wants to talk to people and socialize but feel paralysed, or if you don't feel self-confident, you're probably grappling with shyness.^[4]

Years ago, I was a quiet, shy and introverted individual. I have realised that to be successful in anything you do, you need to know how to be extroverted . You do not need to be extroverted all the time, just when it matters. During this transition I noticed that there was quite a few thing stopping me such as:

• Not recognising the value of being an extrovert
• Underdeveloped social skills
• Assuming extroverts are more like pushy salesmen rather than a friendly person who is happy to introduce themselves.
• Thinking that online socializing is enough .

Once I realised that these were the only things stopping me, I set my goals to get around these flaws. If you are an introverted person, I would recommend you take the following steps to self improvement:

1. Acknowledge that your introverted personality is holding you back .
2. Picture yourself as the type of person you would like to be. Maybe a kind and friendly extrovert?
3. Set goals that you would like to achieve in your social life.
4. Challenge yourself to develop real world social skills rather than those required online.

You may find it hard and not enjoy it at the start but you will grow into it. Half the battle is to find something that you enjoy about being a socialising extrovert. Once you have something you like about it, then it will become much easier.

Some other tips that might help you are:

• When thinking about relationships, think "What can I give? " rather than "What can I get?".
• Find a social group that fits the type of person you would like to be.
• Find a group or club to belong to that you enjoy.
• Work on improving your weak points .
• Think about how your strengths can help you.

As long as you realise that there is a time to be introverted and a time to be extroverted , you should be able to improve your social skills.

Shyness, (sometimes inaccurately called 'social phobia'), affects most people at some time in their life. Young people in particular find overcoming shyness difficult as they improve their social skills. And for some, shyness seems to persist into adult life, almost as if it has become a 'habit'.

Shyness has its roots in self consciousness and usually dissipates as people mature and become more experienced. However, for some it can 'stick', and then action is required.

Although most people think in terms of 'overcoming shyness', it is more likely that you will become comfortable in social situations by learning the strategies of self confidence along with social skills. Then, shyness is no longer the issue, as social nerves will melt away as a new 'habit' takes their place.

Shyness versus social phobia

It is my personal opinion that social phobia is too often diagnosed where people are simply experiencing natural shyness. It is perfectly natural to be a little timid in a situation where you don't yet know the 'rules', or what to do. In fact, most people experience some degree of nerves when, say going to meet friends, especially if it is somewhere they haven't been before, or someone new will be there.

We have to be very careful not to assume that there is something wrong with this. Social nerves are natural, as long as they don't get out of hand. Focusing on them and making them into a 'big thing' will only make matters worse.

When learning about social situations, young people need the chance to find their own way, without being labeled with 'social phobia'. This is not to say that social phobia does not exist; I know it does because I have worked with people suffering from it. However, in the vast majority of cases, the solution is social skills training, and perhaps relaxation and rehearsal, rather than drugs.

If a person can maintain a degree of calmness in a situation, then they are much more likely to be able to learn about how the situation works. However, if they are highly anxious and internally focused, both their emotional state and focus of attention will make it more difficult to pick up on subtle social cues.

The other key point about overcoming shyness is that most of socialising is an unconscious process. That doesn't mean you should be asleep when you're doing it (tell that to people I speak to at parties ;-), it simply means that much of human communication is non-verbal. That is, 'it's not what you say, it's the way that you say it'.

If you become highly anxious, this will tend to focus your conscious mind on your immediate environment, getting in the way of those unconscious processes.

Tips for overcoming shyness

Check out the tips in the article on self consciousness, particularly the ones to do with where you focus your attention.

• Practise becoming fascinated by other people. Ask them about themselves, and concentrate when they answer you. Remember what they tell you about themselves so you can talk about it later, or on another occasion.
• Great socialisers make other people feel comfortable and interesting. How do they do that? By being really, genuinely interested in other people. If you are talking to someone and you feel boring or inferior, ask why that is. Is it really all your fault?
• Practise using fewer 'personal pronouns' when you talk about things. Sentences beginning with 'I' are not only a turn-off for the listener, they also keep the focus of attention on you, which increases shyness. (Note: Of course, part of friendship is giving away things about yourself, but only when you feel it is appropriate to do so.)
• Remember that the way to overcome shyness is to focus elsewhere. Like on imagining what it will be like to really enjoy the social event, on how it will feel to be full of energy, or to be having a great conversation with someone.

A subtle way of getting the attention of the opposite sex is through their nose. While you are trying to figure out how, let me explain some background. The olfactory bulb at the top (inside) of the nose feeds directly into the old brain limbic system, which is the most primitive part of the brain. This is where the emotions, sexual responses and body language are initiated. That is why odors can evoke powerful basic instinctual emotions.

About one percent of human genes (and that is a lot!) encode our ability to detect approximately 10,000 scents. Smell accounts for the largest gene family yet discovered in mammals. Aroma cues are taken very seriously by the brain. Odors guide one to eating, mating and avoiding danger.

Pheromones are chemical molecules produced by insects, animals and humans. These molecules are so strong they affect the behavior of those who inhale or ingest them. For the most part, these chemicals are used to stimulate sexual interest in the opposite sex. Some insects and animals will not mate without first getting a whiff of their prospective partner. After a good sniff of the right chemicals signaling good health and a more than receptive attitude, there is nothing stopping the insects and animals from mating. For example, pheromones produced by male cockroaches attract female cockroaches. Not only that, it causes them to get into the correct mating position!

Some commercially-available substances claim that they contain sex pheromones and can act as an aphrodisiac. These claims generally are greatly exaggerated and have not been demonstrated scientifically. A few well-controlled scientific studies have been published demonstrating that humans may be affected by pheromones in some circumstances. One study involves the synchronization of menstrual cycles among women living together. The evidence indicates the synchronization is done unconsciously by their pheromones.

Other studies have suggested that women can use odor cues to select males who will increase chances for a healthy offspring. In 1995, Claus Wedekind of the University of Bern in Switzerland asked a group of women to smell some unwashed t-shirts worn by different men. The women were able to sniff the shirts and reject (said they were "offensive") those shirts worn by males closely related to themselves. The women were attracted to clothing that was worn by males with a very different immune system than their own. Presumably, this difference in immune systems allows the male and female to combine their defenses and give their offspring the best chances for survival.

Pheromone production in humans becomes functional after reaching puberty. This could explain why most people become attracted to the opposite sex at puberty. Pheromones could also be the reason why we feel an instant attraction, or dislike, when we first meet someone. It may be their smell that turns us 'on' or 'off' to them.

Human pheromones are highly individualized and not always noticeable. In 1986 Dr. Winifred Cutler, a biologist and behavioral endocrinologist, discovered pheromones in humans' underarms. She found that once any overbearing underarm sweat was removed, what remained were the odorless materials containing the pheromones.

The dominant chemical scent secreted by humans is a pungent, musky scent, with male's odor stronger than female's. Much of the chemical scent is produced by dense concentrations of apocrine glands in the underarms, and by lesser concentrations in the face, scalp, ears, navel and genital area. This is not just one chemical but apparently is made up of hundreds of compounds in individualized combinations so each person has a distinct odor. People of eastern origin (China, Japan, Korea) have far fewer apocrine glands (and armpit odor) than Europeans and Africans.

Overall, the human sweat smell is a natural, animal-like, musky aroma which can be emotionally stimulating and sexually attractive. To many men and women the smell of clean skin and a little fresh sweat is the most powerful turn-on. In crowded places this is a subtle odor that gets hidden under the other odors such as food, smoke and any polluting chemicals in the air. Therefore, some men and women have resorted to their own chemical warfare with manufactured fragrances in scented products for skin and hair. These fragrances are often from flowers or herbs, or they imitate them.

There is historical evidence for the use of sweat to attract a mate. Once when Napoleon Bonaparte was returning home from a long period of warring he sent a message ahead to Josephine: "Home in three days. Don't wash." Old English folk tales passed down over many generations told young men how to seduce a young woman with his own sweat. The 'secret' was to place a clean linen handkerchief under his clean arm pit while he danced and twirled the young lady making her dizzy. After the dance, as she recovered, he was to fan her and dab her perspiring forehead with his pheromone saturated handkerchief. The results reportedly were guaranteed to be rewarding.

Desperate women from the Austrian and Swiss Alps also had their own secret weapon to capture men. They would place a part, or even a whole, peeled apple under their arm before the dancing started. After a series of dances they would discreetly remove their apple (and its secret chemical load) to give to the man to smell and eat. It was called a 'love apple' and came with an unwritten guarantee to produce its own rewards for both the woman and man.

In one research project, men preferred women's clean sweat odor over the most expensive perfumes, even when the sweat odor was imperceptible. Over 200 chemical compounds are secreted by the human body in sweat, saliva and genitals. Recent research identified that the arm pit and crotch secretions of men and women differ significantly. Not surprisingly, men and women each prefer the odor of the opposite sex. Very important factors that have great influence on the effectiveness of the sweat as an attractant are a person's cleanliness, diet and overall health.

Interestingly, some research unexpectedly found that women who live closely with a man (sleep with him and have frequent sex) have better balanced physiology. Menstrual cycles are more regular and overall health is better than women who live more isolated from men. The main factor appeared to be how much olfactory exposure (i.e smells) each woman had with the man and his body odors.

The pheromone 'androstenone' (a musky odor) has been identified in the sweat and urine of men and is presumed to be a sexual stimulant to women but has an adverse effect on men. It induces anger in men if it is from another man! Androstenone reportedly has been synthetically manufactured and is being sold in various solutions on the Internet.

According to Chicago neurologist Alan Hirsch Ph.D., men's cologne usually causes a decrease in women's vaginal blood flow unless it is a natural fresh scent. What makes a man appealing to most women are light sprays and deodorants on him, such as ocean breeze, kiwi, or a combination of baby powder and chocolate. The smell of his own clean skin with a little fresh sweat, combined with fresh fruity scents, is the strongest stimulant for a female. Hirsch discovered that men's penile blood flow increased up to 40% from the smell of cinnamon buns, roast meat, cheese pizza, chocolate, vanilla or peppermint.

So what can we make of all this? Maybe it is all very simple. Perhaps a 'turn-on' for men is either a pheromone from a woman or vanilla and chocolate ice cream on fresh baked apple pie with lots of cinnamon. For women it may be the right soiled T-shirt. Oh well, whatever turns you on, go for it!

A proxy server is a server that sits between a client application, such as a Web browser, and a real server. It intercepts all requests to the real server to see if it can fulfill the requests itself. If not, it forwards the request to the real server.

Proxy servers have two main purposes:

• Improve Performance: Proxy servers can dramatically improve performance for groups of users. This is because it saves the results of all requests for a certain amount of time. Consider the case where both user X and user Y access the World Wide Web through a proxy server. First user X requests a certain Web page, which we'll call Page 1. Sometime later, user Y requests the same page. Instead of forwarding the request to the Web server where Page 1 resides, which can be a time-consuming operation, the proxy server simply returns the Page 1 that it already fetched for user X. Since the proxy server is often on the same network as the user, this is a much faster operation. Real proxy servers support hundreds or thousands of users. The major online services such as America Online, MSN and Yahoo, for example, employ an array of proxy servers.
• Filter Requests: Proxy servers can also be used to filter requests. For example, a company might use a proxy server to prevent its employees from accessing a specific set of Web sites.

We all have a different style when it comes to our relationship with money. I'm not talking about your fears or stories about money. Your fears are a whole other box of worms. When I refer to style, I mean how you would relate to money if you had never been influenced by another persons style or fears.

Dominant type of people are really driven to make money and use it to please themselves. They like to buy nice cars. They go after money and success with intense passion. When they set a money goal they know they'll get it. Once they get that money, they are reaching for more. They are generous with money but do not like people to take advantage of them. Competition is fun to them. Dominant styles think it is easy to make money and can't understand why everyone else doesn't think this way, too. They are willing to take risks and do not hesitate very long when making decisions about investments. When they desire a certain price on something they will negotiate down. Watch out, they may not bend. Give them the bottom line price up front and you'll save a lot of time and frustration for them and yourself!

Influencing and promoter type of people are excited to make and spend money. If the path to the money is not fun, they will take a right hand turn. When they are in the zone, they will seem to magnetize money in very interesting ways…ways that other people would doubt. They don't think before they buy. They see something they want and they usually go for it, even it breaks the bank. They make a plan but many times they completely forget about when a bright shiny object in a store window catches their eye. Details, details, yuck! Have you ever heard of the terms "shop-o-holic and impulsive"?

Steady and supporter type people like to be slow to their decisions. They will usually let their mate make investment decisions if they are a different style. They are very consistent with their practices and are not thrilled with big risks…they'd rather be patient and watch their money grow over time. Their purchases are more on the practical side.

Analytical type people are very calculated about what happens with their money. By the time they choose to do something, whether it's a purchase, creating a business or an investment, they have created a very thought out a plan. If the choice seemed like a risk before they did their research, it is now a safe bet. They've checked out all the possible down falls of their choice and have a back up plan. Spontaneous with their money? Not! If they are making a purchase, it will last them a long time.

Which style are you?

None of these styles is better than another. Each of them does, however, have a shadow side. For instance, an analytical style might get in so much fear about losing their money that they never make a move or go after a dream. A promoter style might spend every penny they have with no money in savings. A dominant style may use their money as manipulative tool. A steady person may get stuck in a rut and fear change that is to their benefit. It is important to know your natural style and work with it, not against it. It is good to implement some traits from other styles, when you see that yours is hindering you. But always stick to your values, no matter what advice you get or read. Remember that everyone has their own style and what works for you may not be tolerable for your mate or business partner. This is where blending styles becomes important. Stay compassionate to other's needs when communicating or taking action with money.

Every day there are a dozen new HOT sharemarket tips that guarantee your financial success. Every day there are hundreds if not thousands of people that jump on the bandwagon, and every day, each of those people are disappointed.

When it comes to popular sharemarket tips, there is no golden ticket to striking it rich. So I'm going to show you how to make your own HOT guidelines that will ensure you stay on the right course-the one that leads to success.

Share Market Tip #1: Play Your Game

Develop a set of rules that you can follow. Whether they include some of the tips in this article or are strategies you've always lived by, STICK WITH THEM. An inconsistent, but more importantly an undisciplined trader will never make a profit. Chasing share market tips won't make you money. Your rules are your money. Again, there will always be hot share market tips that ensure success, but if you continue to whole-heartedly practice your own tips, you'll see profits in no time.

Share Market Tip #2: Control Your Risk

There are many adventurous traders out there…and those are the ones that loose their fortunes. If you always look out to protect your capital base you'll ensure your financial safety. Now one of the most important share market tips I can give you is to continue to let that capital base grow. That way, even if all of your investments fail, you won't be jeopardizing your previous profits. As a general share market tip, never risk more than 3% of your portfolio on any one trade.

Share Market Tip #3: The High Road in Cutting Your Losses

Things happen. People lose money…LOT'S of money. So don't be one of them. Basically this share market tip means don't be stupid. If one of your investments turns sour don't stick around hoping it will right itself. Have a set target loss percentage where you can cut and run. Again, it's about being disciplined, remember? Set it no higher than 15% of your opt in, and you'll have a save exit with every trade.

Share Market Tip #4: The Sky's the Limit

In contrast to Share Market Tip #3, if a share is rising beyond belief, don't jump out in fear of it suddenly falling back to reality. Instead, ride it out as long as humanly possible. This is how the biggest and most talked about gains are made-this is how FORTUNES are made. This share market tip will ensure that you give yourself the best chance possible of striking that gold mine. Now if the share does in fact start to fall, go ahead and opt out. It'll be worth more to you to risk that little loss in the end for that huge gain you'll make.

Share Market Tip #5: Back to School

You know the saying, “Learn one new thing every day?” Do it. Seriously. Our share market is ever-changing, diversifying, and adjusting, and YOU need to do your homework. It takes a lot to stay on top of it all. So if you come across something that you're not familiar with just look it up. If you think you know it all…go LOOK for something. One of the easiest ways to accomplish this share market tip is to know all of the trading vocabulary. That's also the easiest way to ensure you're prepared to take on any obstacle that comes your way.

Share Market Tip #6: How to Bring Your “A” Game

Share market trading isn't only about successful financial advancements. Well actually it is, but you're not going to be able to do that every day if you don't have the emotional strength to pull it off. This stuff is supposed to be fun. If you're not at your best psychologically, you're not going to be focused, you'll make poor judgments, and most importantly you won't make money. Just think about the meaning of this share market tip. If you're enjoying yourself, it's no longer work, so you are free to “work” in a mentality that will, in fact, play to your strengths…and wallet.

Share Market Tip #7: Staying Above the Curve

You don't have to make a fortune with every trade you make. You don't have to become a millionaire at the end of every trading day. Here's share market tip #7: You won't. The people that shoot for that glory every day are the ones that are losing fortunes, not making them. What you need to do is play above the curve. Don't be average, but don't be extraordinary. Extraordinary has WAY too many risks to worry about. Fortunes are made gradually. It takes discipline and consistency…something the “average” trader lacks. 

Have you ever heard co-workers talking around the water cooler about a hot tip on a bond? We didn't think so. Tracking bonds can be about as thrilling as watching a chess match, whereas watching stocks can have some investors as excited as NFL fans during the Superbowl. But don't let the hype (or lack thereof) mislead you. Both stocks and bonds have their pros and cons, and in this article we will explain the advantages of bonds and why you might want to include them in your portfolio.

A Safe Haven For Your Money

Those just entering the investment scene are usually able to grasp the concepts underlying stocks and bonds. Essentially, the difference can be summed up in one phrase: debt versus equity. That is, bonds represent debt, and stocks represent equity ownership. (If you are unfamiliar with the differences between these two securities or need a quick refresher on the subject, check out the stock and bond tutorials.)

This difference brings us to the first main advantage of bonds: in general, investing in debt is safer than investing in equity. The reason for this is the priority that debtholders have over shareholders. If a company goes bankrupt, debtholders are ahead of shareholders in the line to get paid. In a worst-case scenario such as bankruptcy, the creditors (debtholders) usually get at least some of their money back, while shareholders often lose their entire investment.

In terms of safety, bonds from the U.S. government (Treasury bonds) are considered "risk-free". (There are no stocks that are considered as such.) If capital preservation - which is a fancy term for "never losing any money" - is your primary goal, then a bond from a stable government is your best investment. But keep in mind that although bonds are safer as a general rule, that doesn't mean they are all completely safe. Very risky bonds are known as junk bonds. (Learn more by reading Junk Bonds: Everything You Need To Know.)

Slow and Steady - Predictable Returns

If history is any indication, stocks will outperform bonds in the long run. However, bonds outperform stocks at certain times in the economic cycle. It's not unusual for stocks to lose 10% or more in a year, so when bonds comprise a portion of your portfolio, they can help smooth out the bumps when a recession comes around.

There are always conditions in which we need security and predictability. Retirees, for instance, often rely on the predictable income generated by bonds. If your portfolio consisted solely of stocks, it would be quite disappointing to retire two years into a bear market! By owning bonds, retirees are able to predict with a greater degree of certainty how much income they'll have in their golden years. An investor who still has many years until retirement has plenty of time to make up for any losses from periods of decline in equities.

Better Than The Bank…

Sometimes bonds are just the only decent option. The interest rates on bonds are typically greater than the rates paid by banks on savings accounts. As a result, if you are saving and you don't need the money in the short term, bonds will give you the greatest return without posing too much risk.

College savings are a good example of funds you want to increase through investment, while also protecting them from risk. Parking your money in the bank is a start, but it's not going to give you any return. With bonds, aspiring college students (or their parents) can predict their investment earnings and determine the amount they'll have to contribute to accumulate their tuition nest egg by the time college rolls around.

How Much Should You Put Towards Bonds?

There really is no easy answer to this question. Quite often you'll hear an old rule that says investors should formulate their allocation by subtracting their age from 100. The resulting figure indicates the percentage of a person's assets that should be invested in stocks, with the rest spread between bonds and cash. According to this rule, a 20 year old should have 80% in stocks and 20% in cash and bonds, while someone who is 65 should have 35% of assets in stocks and 65% in bonds and cash. That being said, guidelines are just guidelines. Determining the asset allocation of your portfolio involves many factors including your investing timeline, risk tolerance, future goals, perception of the market and income. Unfortunately, exploring the various factors affecting risk is beyond the scope of this article.

Conclusion

Hopefully, this article has cleared up some misconceptions about bonds and demonstrated when they are appropriate. The bottom line is that bonds are a safe and conservative investment. They provide a predictable stream of income when stocks perform poorly, and they are great vehicles for saving when you don't want to put your money at risk.

Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (April 29, 1899 – May 24, 1974), also known simply as Duke (see Jazz royalty), was an American jazz composer, pianist, and bandleader.

Many regard Duke Ellington as the most important figure to emerge from the U.S. jazz scene in the twentieth century, although Ellington himself might have quibbled with the description, as he was reluctant to describe his work as anything more specific than "music". The word jazz was too narrow for Ellington, a man whose greatest compliment was to describe others who had impressed him as "beyond category".

Indeed, Ellington has proved to be enigmatic, slipping through the easy classifications of biographers. Musicians run into much the same kind of problem when dealing with Ellington's compositions. Musically, he wore many hats, and he could never settle on just one.

Through the ranks of Duke Ellington's Orchestra passed some of the biggest names in jazz, including Johnny Hodges, Cootie Williams, Bubber Miley, Joe "Tricky Sam" Nanton, Barney Bigard, Ben Webster, Harry Carney, Juan Tizol, Sonny Greer, Otto Hardwick, Clark Terry, Jimmy Blanton, Lawrence Brown, Ray Nance, Paul Gonsalves, Wellman Braud, and William "Cat" Anderson.

Many of these musicians played in Ellington's orchestra for decades, and while most were noteworthy in their own right, it was Ellington's musical genius that melded them into one of the most well-known orchestral units in the history of jazz. His compositions were often written specifically for the style and skills of these individuals, such as "Jeep's Blues" for Johnny Hodges, and "The Mooche" for Tricky Sam Nanton. He also recorded songs written by his bandsmen, such as Juan Tizol's "Caravan" and "Perdido", which brought the "Spanish Tinge" to modern big-band jazz.

Ellington was one of the twentieth century's best-known African-American celebrities. He recorded for many American record companies, and appeared in several films. Ellington and his orchestra toured the whole of the United States and Europe regularly before World War II. After the war, they continued to travel widely internationally.

Early life

Duke's father, James Edward Ellington, born in Lincolnton, North Carolina on April 15, 1879, was the son of a former slave. He moved to Washington, D.C. in 1886 with his family. Ellington was born to J.E. and Daisy Kennedy Ellington at 2129 Ward Place NW (the home of his maternal grandparents) in Washington D.C. J.E. made blueprints for the United States Navy; he also worked as a White House butler for additional income. Daisy and J.E. were both piano players, and at the age of seven or eight Ellington began taking piano lessons from a Mrs. Clinkscales who lived at 1212 Street NW (the address erroneously, but commonly, given as his childhood home).

In his autobiography, Ellington claims he missed more lessons than he went to, feeling that the piano was not his talent. Over time, this would change. Ellington sneaked into Frank Holiday's Poolroom at fourteen and began to gain a greater respect for music. Hearing a mentor play the piano ignited Ellington's love for the instrument and he began to take his piano studies seriously.

He began performing professionally at the age of seventeen. Instead of going to an academically-oriented high school, he attended Armstrong Manual Training School to study commercial art. Three months before he was to graduate, he left school to pursue his interest in music. He never made broad claims for his piano playing, saying that many Washington piano teachers were better. The British pianist Stan Tracey has countered this by claiming that Ellington 'had chops', but often chose to focus on the melody that sprung from a number rather that show off his technical ability.

Early career

Duke Ellington began his artistic career as a sign painter in Washington, D.C., but by 1923 he had formed a small dance band known as The Washingtonians (which included drummer Sonny Greer), and had moved to New York City. Shortly thereafter, the group became the house band of the Club Kentucky (often referred to as the "Kentucky Club"), an engagement which set the stage for the biggest opportunity in Ellington's life. In 1927, King Oliver turned down a regular booking for his group as the house band at Harlem's Cotton Club; the offer passed to Ellington and was accepted. With a weekly radio broadcast and famous clientele nightly pouring in to see them, Ellington's popularity was assured.

Ellington's band by now had become a large orchestra and the ranks had been filled by many men who would become famous in their own right. Trumpeter Bubber Miley was the first major soloist, an early experimenter in jazz trumpet growling. Miley is credited with morphing the band's style from rigid dance instrumentation to a more "New Orleans", or earthy style. An alcoholic, Miley had to leave the band before they gained wider notoriety, and died in 1930 at the age of twenty-eight. Johnny Hodges joined the orchestra in 1928 and stayed until his death in 1970, except for two brief sabbaticals. Hodges became the band's undisputed leading soloist, the king of romantic alto saxophone ballads with his swooning, creamy style remaining influential for years.

Barney Bigard, formerly a member of King Oliver's band, was a master of New Orleans jazz clarinet and stayed with the band for twelve years. Harry Carney was one of the original innovators of the baritone saxophone, winning each Downbeat magazine poll until the emergence of Gerry Mulligan. Carney, who also pioneered circular breathing, was the longest lasting member of the orchestra, joining in 1927 and remaining with the group until his death in 1974 (just several months after Ellington's). Lawrence Brown brought a buttery, elegant trombone style that conflicted with that of Joe "Tricky Sam" Nanton, who was the originator of many unique trombone stylings, most notably the plunger mute technique. Filling out the rhythm section* were Ellington's childhood friend Sonny Greer, who stayed with the unit until 1950, and guitarist Fred Guy.

The 1930s saw Ellington's popularity continue to increase, largely a result of the promotional skills of Duke's manager Irving Mills, who got more than his fair share of co-composer credits out of the deal. Ellington would finally break with Mills in 1937.

While their United States audience remained mainly African-American in this period, though the Cotton Club had a near exclusive white clientele, a 1934 trip to Europe showed that the band had a huge following overseas. At home, meanwhile, Mills arranged a private train just for the band, so that they would not have to suffer the indignities of segregated accommodations while touring the South.

Ellington in the 1940s

The band reached a creative peak in the early 1940s, when Ellington wrote for an orchestra of distinctive voices and displayed tremendous creativity. Some of the musicians created a sensation in their own right. The short-lived Jimmy Blanton transformed the use of the double bass in jazz, allowing it to function as a solo rather thana rhythm instrument alone. Ben Webster too, the Orchestra's first regular tenor saxophonist, started a rivalry with Johnny Hodges as the Orchestra's foremost voice in the sax section. Ray Nance joined in, replacing Cootie Williams who had "defected", contemporary wags claimed, to Benny Goodman. Nance, however, added violin to the instrumental colours Ellington had at his disposal. A recording of Nance's first concert date, at Fargo, North Dakota, in November 1940, is probably the most effective display of the band at the peak of its powers during this period.

Three-minute masterpieces flowed from the minds of Ellington, Billy Strayhorn (from 1939), Duke's son Mercer Ellington, and members of the Orchestra. "Cottontail", "Mainstem", "Harlem Airshaft", "Streets of New York" and dozens of others date from this period.

Ellington's long-term aim became to extend the jazz form from the three-minute limit of the 78 rpm record side, of which he was an acknowledged master. He had composed and recorded "Creole Rhapsody" as early as 1931, but it was not until the 1940s that this became a regular feature of Ellington's work. In this, he was helped by Strayhorn, who had enjoyed a more thorough training in the forms associated with classical music than Ellington himself. The first of these, "Black, Brown, and Beige" (1943), was dedicated to telling the story of African-Americans, the place of slavery, and the church in their history. Unfortunately, starting a regular pattern, Ellington's longer works were not well received; Jump for Joy, an earlier musical, closed after only six performances in 1941.

In 1951, Ellington suffered a major loss of personnel, with Sonny Greer, Lawrence Brown, and most significantly, Johnny Hodges leaving to pursue other ventures.

Revival of his career

Ellington's appearance at the Newport Jazz Festival on July 7, 1956, was to return him to wider prominence. The feature "Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue", with saxophonist Paul Gonsalves's six-minute saxophone solo, had been in the band's book for a while, but on this occasion it nearly created a riot. The revived attention should not have surprised anyone — Hodges had returned to the fold the previous year, and Ellington's collaboration with Strayhorn had been renewed around the same time, under terms which the younger man could accept. Such Sweet Thunder (1957), based on Shakespeare's plays and characters, and The Queen's Suite the following year (dedicated to Queen Elizabeth II), were products of the renewed impetus which the Newport appearance had helped to create.

The late 1950s also saw Ella Fitzgerald record her Duke Ellington Songbook with Ellington and his orchestra, a clear recognition that Ellington's songs had now become part of the cultural canon known as the "Great American Songbook".

In the early 1960s, Ellington was between recording contracts, which allowed him to record with a variety of new artists. In 1962, he participated in a session which produced the "Money Jungle" (United Artists) album with Charles Mingus and Max Roach, and recorded with John Coltrane for Impulse, who also recorded Ellington and his Orchestra with Coleman Hawkins. Musicians who had previously worked with Ellington returned to the Orchestra as members: Lawrence Brown in 1960 and Cootie Williams two years later.

Last years

Ellington was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize in 1965, but was turned down. His reaction: "Fate is being kind to me. Fate doesn't want me to be famous too young". He performed his first Concert of Sacred Music, an attempt at fusing Christian liturgy with jazz, in September of the same year. This concert was followed by two others of the same type in 1968 and 1973, called the Second and Third Sacred Concerts, respectively. This caused enormous controversy in what was already a tumultuous time in the United States. Many saw the Sacred Music suites as an attempt to reinforce commercial support for organized religion, though the Duke simply said it was "the most important thing I've done", perhaps with a touch of hyperbole.

Though his later work is overshadowed by his music of the early 1940s, Ellington continued to make vital and innovative recordings, including The Far East Suite (1966), "The New Orleans Suite" (1970), and "The Afro-Eurasian Eclipse" (1971), until the end of his life. Increasingly, this period of music is being reassessed as people realize how creative Ellington was right up to the end of his life. However, some critics, such as James Lincoln Collier, continue to dismiss Ellington's later work.

Duke Ellington was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1969, and the Legion of Honor by France in 1973, the highest civilian honors in each country. He died of lung cancer and pneumonia on May 24, 1974, and was interred in the Woodlawn Cemetery, The Bronx, New York City.

Work in films and the theatre

Ellington's film work began in 1929 with the short film Black and Tan. He also appeared in the film Check and Double Check. It was a major hit and helped introduce Ellington to a wide audience! He and his Orchestra continued to appear in films throughout the 1930s and 1940s, both in short films and in features such as Murder at the Vanities (1934). In the late 1950s, his work in films took the shape of scoring for soundtracks, notably Anatomy of a Murder (1959), with James Stewart, in which he also appeared fronting a roadhouse combo, and Paris Blues (1961), which featured Paul Newman and Sidney Poitier as jazz musicians.

A long-time fan of William Shakespeare, he wrote an original score for Timon of Athens that was first used in the Stratford Festival production that opened July 29, 1963 for director Michael Langham, who has used it for several subsequent productions, most recently in an adaptation by Stanley Silverman that expands on the score with some of Ellington's best-known works.

Posthumous dedications

A large memorial to Duke Ellington, created by sculptor Robert Graham, was dedicated in 1997 in New York's Central Park, near Fifth Avenue and 110th Street, an intersection named Duke Ellington Circle. In his birthplace of Washington, D.C., there stands a school dedicated to his honor and memory: the Duke Ellington School of the Arts. The school educates talented students, who are considering careers in the arts, by providing intensive arts instruction and strong academic programs that prepare students for post-secondary education and professional careers. The Duke Ellington Ballroom, located on the Northern Illinois University Campus, was dedicated in 1980. Although he made two more stage appearances before his death, what is considered Ellington's final "full" concert was performed there March 20, 1974. Ellington is a member of Alpha Phi Alpha, the first black greek letter fraternity

Stevie Wonder wrote the song "Sir Duke" as a tribute to Ellington in 1977.

The Ellington Orchestra itself continued intermittently as a "ghost band", led by Mercer Ellington (1919–1996), after his father's death.

Music has the scientifically proved power to offer great health and stress relief benefits. It is an amazing stress relief tool because you can use it in your daily life activities and attain many stress relief benefits on your own. One of the utmost music advantages as a stress reliever is that it can be used while you go on with your regular activities so that it really doesn’t take time away from your busy schedule. Here you can find some of the  ways you can actually use music to relieve stress and improve your every day activities.

Knowing all the ways in which music acts upon your whole body, you probably already clearly see the ways music may be used as a powerful relaxation and stress management means. Apart from the many physical changes music may bring it is also especially beneficial in relaxation and stress management because it can be used in the following ways:

Music and physical relaxation

Music may promote tense muscles relaxation, enabling you to easily release some of the tension you carry from a stressful day or even from a longer period of time.

Music helps in stress relief activities

Music can help you get “into the zone” mood when practicing yoga, self-hypnosis and it can help you feel energized when exercising, help stress disappear when you’re soaking in the bath tub and be an important part of many other stress relief activities.

Music and a Meditative State

As stated earlier, music may help your brain get into a meditative phase, bringing wonderful stress relief benefits with it. For those who consider being quite shy and  intimidating, music can be an easier alternative.

Music to Promote a Positive Focus

Music, especially up beating songs, may take your mind off what stresses you helping you feel more confident and positive thinking. This practice helps you release the stress and may even keep you from getting as stressed and agitated over life’s small frustrations in the future.

Music and self-affirmations

The perspective you have on the world and the type of self talk you usually use may also have a profound effect on your stress level. This is why positive affirmations that create more positive self talk are highly beneficial.

Music with affirming lyrics may bring the double advantages of music and positive thoughts, helping you to be surrounded by positive energies and more often look at the bright side, leaving stressful events behind more easily.

These are some of the reasons that music relaxation is among the easiest and most effective forms of relaxation available, and music is such a great stress management tool.

Here are some of the effects music has on your body and mind, helping you explain the success of music therapy:

Influencing the brain waves

It has been scientifically proved that music with a strong beat may stimulate brain waves to resonate in sync with the beat, with faster beats bringing sharper focusing and more alert thinking, and a slower tempo promoting a calm, meditative mood. 

In addition, specialists have discovered that the change in brain wave activity levels that music may promote can also enable the brain to change speeds more easily on its own when needed, meaning that music can bring long lasting benefits to your state of mind, even after you have stopped listening. 

Breathing and the heart rate

With alterations in brainwaves it appears another change in some of the body functions. Those driven by the autonomic nervous system, such as breathing and heart rate can also be damaged by the changes music may bring. Basically it means slower breathing, slower heart rate and an activation of the relaxation response.

This is why music and music therapy can help balance or prevent the harmful effects of chronic stress, strongly promoting not only relaxation, but overall health. 

A state of mind

Music is also considered to bring a more positive state of mind, helping to keep depression and anxiety at bay. This can be useful in preventing stress response from wreaking damages on the body and may keep creativity and optimism levels higher, bringing many other advantages.

Other music benefits

Music has also been discovered to have many other beneficial effects, such as lowering the blood pressure that can also reduce the risk of heart attacks and other health problems over time, boost the immunity level, ease muscle tension, and more. 

With so many benefits and such profound physical effects, it’s no surprise that so many people are seeing music more and more as an important instrument to help the body in staying or becoming healthy and strong.

Using music therapy

With all these advantages that music carries along, it would only come as natural that music therapy is growing in popularity. It is often found as part of stress management programs or used together with exercises and it is used in a large variety of health care settings with very good results in both short-term conditions and more serious long-term ones.

As the term "jazz" has long been used for a wide variety of styles, a comprehensive definition including all varieties is elusive. Some enthusiasts of certain types of jazz have argued for narrower definitions which exclude many other types of music also commonly known as jazz.

There have long been debates in the jazz community over the boundaries or definition of “jazz”. In the mid-1930s, New Orleans jazz lovers criticized the "innovations" of the swing era as being contrary to the collective improvisation they saw as essential to "true" jazz. From the 1940s and 1960s, traditional jazz enthusiasts and Hard Bop criticized each other, often arguing that the other style was somehow not "real" jazz. Although alteration or transformation of jazz by new influences has been initially criticized as “radical” or a “debasement”, Andrew Gilbert argues that jazz has the “ability to absorb and transform influences” from diverse musical styles.

Commercially-oriented or popular music-influenced forms of jazz are have long been criticized. Traditional jazz enthusiasts have dismissed the 1970s jazz fusion era as a period of commercial debasement. However, according to Bruce Johnson, jazz music has always had a “ tension between jazz as a commercial music and an artform ”.

Gilbert notes that as the notion of a canon of traditional jazz is developing, the “achievements of the past” may be become “...privileged over the idiosyncratic creativity...” and innovation of current artists. Village Voice jazz critic Gary Giddins argues that as the creation and dissemination of jazz is becoming increasingly institutionalized and dominated by major entertainment firms, jazz is facing a "...perilous future of respectability and disinterested acceptance". David Ake warns that the creation of “norms” in jazz and the establishment of a “jazz tradition” may exclude or sideline other newer, avant-garde forms of jazz.

One way to get around the definitional problems is to define the term “jazz” more broadly. According to Krin Gabbard “jazz is a construct” or category that, while artificial, still is useful to designate “a number of musics with enough in common part of a coherent tradition”. Travis Jackson also defines jazz in a broader way by stating that it is music that includes qualities such as “ 'swinging', improvising, group interaction, developing an 'individual voice', and being 'open' to different musical possibilities”.

Where to draw the boundaries of "jazz" is the subject of debate among music critics, scholars, and fans.

For example:

• Music that is a mixture of jazz and pop music, such as the recent albums of Jamie Cullum, is sometimes called "jazz".
• James Blunt and Joss Stone have been called "jazz" performers by radio DJ's, and record label promoters.
• Jazz festivals are increasingly programming a wide range of genres, including world beat music, folk, electronica, and hip-hop. This trend may lead to the perception that all of the performers at a festival are jazz artists – including artists from non-jazz genres.

Jazz originated from New Orleans, America in the 20^th century. Its unique sound was created from the fusion of African American music styles with Western techniques and theory. Some of the musical elements that help define jazz are:

• Syncopation

• Call and response

• Swing

• Poly-rhythms

• Blue notes

• Improvisation

Overview

Its combination of styles can be attributed to many sources including:

• New England's religious church hymns

• Western Sahel

• West Africa

• Hill-billy music

• European military bands

After its inception throughout African-American communities in the early 20^th century, the jazz style spread during the 1920s, influencing many other styles.

Jazz, with its strong association with the blues, evolved while black musicians migrated into the cities. It was a time when there was still enslaved Africans in south U.S.

Many of the instruments played in dance bands and marching music during the turn of the century became the core instruments of jazz. Using the 12-tone western scale, these included:

• Brass

• Reeds

• Drums

Improvisation

The jazz genre can vary a lot and can encompass a wide variety of music. One of the key elements of jazz is improvisation. Improvisation was an element in African-American music ever since the early style of music developed. It is similar to the call and response element found in African-American and West African expression of culture.

This improvisation element changed with time:

Early folk and blues music was often based on a call / response pattern, with improvisation of an element of the lyrics and / or melody.

Dixieland jazz had musicians taking turn to play the melody, while other musicians would improvise a counter melody.

Swing lead to big bands playing arranged sheet music and individual soloists performing improvised solos. Musicians would not stick strictly to the original, but would try to incorporate a common theme or motif to tie the music together.

There are big differences when you compare jazz to the classical music form. In a classical form, the control is in the composer's hands with musicians playing music as it is written. The jazzform places more control in the musicians hands with the melody, harmonies and even time signature varying from the original.

Due to the varying nature of improvisation, jazz typically sticks to one tempo with no rubato. The leader will set the tempo and this tempo is kept for majority of the piece.

Jazz is sometimes referred to as “America’s classical music”. It has become a diverse genre with its roots in native American and African music; in particular, the blues, spirituals and rag time. Jazz first became a defined music form in the early 1920 springing from the US cities of New Orleans and later Chicago. Early Jazz was characterized by traditional rhythms and melodies being taken and improvised upon, giving a combination of swing and syncopation. Early Jazz performers of note included Jelly Roll Morton, Fats Domino, Bix Beiderbecke and Louis Armstrong. A good taste of this period can be gained by listening to recordings of Louis Armstrong’s Hot Fives and Hot Seven ensembles.

By the 1930 Jazz had spread out of its local bases in South American and became more mainstream attracting white musicians as well. One development of Jazz was the big bands such as Ben Goodman and Glen Miller. Glen Millers big band became very successful and popular, but offering little scope for improvisation jazz aficionados saw it as more of swing rather than real jazz. However other big bands such as Duke Ellington and Count Basie provided some of the all time great Jazz recordings.

Whilst the Big Band led jazz in a more conventional direction. The late 1930s and 1940s also saw jazz develop in another direction through the creation of the new “Be Bop” craze. Be Bop is epitomized by the great musicians such as Charlie “Bird” Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, and Sonny Rollins. These musicians took Jazz to new heights of improvisation, loosening the adherence to harmony’s and rigid chord structures.

Unlike previous forms of jazz, Be bop was not designed for dancing but was seen more like an opportunity to showcase the musical expertise of the performers. Some of the great be bop recordings came about as the performers played off each other, each striving for greater excellence and improvisation. One of the greatest recordings of this period was “Jazz at Masey Hall” 1953 featuring Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker amongst others, it is a very good example of live jazz music. In the 1960s Be bop evolved into a form of “free jazz” with little if any adherence to conventional harmonies and chord structures. One of the best selling jazz recordings which characterized this new form was “A Kind of Blue” by Miles Davis.

Alas many of the great jazz performers led tragic lives, a seemingly very high percentage died prematurely, inevitably from drug and alcohol misuse. Unfortunately many young performers came to associate drugs with being a successful jazz performer so jazz developed a strong reputation for association with narcotics.

To play Jazz music successfully a classical background is definitely an advantage. To be a successful jazz player you need to be able to learn the chords and scales of the song. With this basic structure you can then improvise around these chords to give the improvised or jazz effect. However to be a great jazz musician a lot more is needed than formal training, successful improvisation is a difficult skill that appears to come easily to a rare few.

Trance is a style of electronic dance music or slow ambient music that developed in the 1990s. Dance trance music is generally characterized by a tempo of between 124 and 148 bpm, featuring repeating melodic synthesizer phrases, and a musical form that builds up and down throughout a track, often crescendoing or featuring a breakdown. Sometimes vocals are also utilized. The style is arguably derived from a combination of largely electronic music and house. 'Trance' received its name from the repetitious morphing beats, and the throbbing melodies which would presumably put the listener into a trance-like state. As this music is almost always played in nightclubs at popular vacation spots and in inner cities, trance can be understood as a form of club music.

History

Origins

Early electronic art music artists such as Klaus Schulze have proven to be a significant influence on trance music. Throughout the 1970s Schulze recorded numerous albums of atmospheric, sequencer-driven electronic music. Also, several of his albums from the 1980s include the word "trance" in their titles, such as the 1981 Trancefer and 1987 En=Trance.

Elements of what became modern club music also known as trance music were also explored by industrial artists in the late 1980s. Most notable was Psychic TV's 1989 album Towards Thee Infinite Beat, which featuring drawn out and monotonous patterns with short looping voice samples and is considered by some to be the first trance record. The intent was to make sound that was hypnotic to its listeners, this would also lead to a strain of trance known as Euphoria being developed which caused an uplifting sensation among its listeners who became somewhat euphoric during listening.

These industrial artists were largely dissociated from rave culture, although many were interested in the developments happening in Goa trance which is a much 'heavier' sound than what is now known as trance. Many of the trance albums produced by industrial artists were generally experiments, not an attempt to start a new genre with an associated culture — they remained firmly rooted culturally in industrial and avant-garde music. As trance began to take off in rave culture, most of these artists abandoned the club style.

Trance begins as a genre

The earliest identifiable trance recordings came not from within the trance scene itself, but from the UK acid house movement, and were made by The KLF. The most notable of these were the original 1988 / 1989 versions of "What Time Is Love?" and "3 a.m. Eternal" (the former indeed laying out the entire blueprint for the trance sound - as well as helping to inspire the sounds of hardcore and rave) and the 1988 track "Kylie Said Trance". Their use of the term 'pure trance' to describe these recordings reinforces this case strongly. These early recordings were markedly different from the releases and re-releases to huge commercial success around the period of the The White Room album (1991) and are significantly more minimalist, nightclub-oriented and 'underground' in sound. While the KLF's works are clear examples of proto-trance, two songs, both from 1990, are widely regarded as being the first "true" trance records. The first, Age of Love's self-titled debut single was released in early 1990 and is seen as creating the basis for the original trance sound to come out of Germany. The second track was Dance 2 Trance's "We Came in Peace," which was actually the b-side of their own self-titled debut single. While "Age of Love" is seen as the track which cemented the early trance sound, it was with this release(as a result of the duo's name), that gave the sound its name.

The trance sound beyond this acid-era genesis is said to have begun as an off-shoot of techno in German clubs during the very early 1990s. Frankfurt is often cited as a birthplace of Trance. Some of the earliest pioneers of the genre included DJ Dag (Dag Lerner), Oliver Lieb, Sven Väth and Torsten Stenzel, who all produced numerous tracks under multiple aliases. Trance labels like Eye Q, Harthouse, Superstition, Rising High, FAX +49-69/450464 and MFS Records were Frankfurt based. Arguably a fusion of techno and house, early trance shared much with techno in terms of the tempo and rhythmic structures but also added more melodic overtones which were appropriated from the style of house popular in Europe's club scene at that time. This early music tended to be characterized by hypnotic and melodic qualities and typically involved repeating rhythmic patterns added over an appropriate length of time asa track progressed.

Of worth to note, the album that is generally accepted as THE definition of the frankfurt trance sound, and which subsequently influenced all of the early pioneers mentioned above, was the Pete Namlook "4Voice" album. Of note, one of the studio engineers who worked on this pioneering effort was one Maik Maurice, otherwise known as ½ of Resistance D, the famed Hard Trance duo. If you are a fan of the frankfurt sound, this album is the beginning.

At about the same period of time in the late 1980s and early 1990s, a musical revolution was happening in Goa, India. Electronic body music (EBM) bands like Cabaret Voltaire and Front 242 came to Goa and began influencing artists like Goa Gil, Eat Static, The Infinity Project, Doof, and Man With No Name who heard the psychedelic elements of EBM, expanded on them minus the vocals and guitars to create Goa trance. Goa music is heavily influenced by Indian culture and psychedelic drugs, as seen in numerous references to both in track and album titles. Goa trance was brought back to the electronica hubs London and Sheffield in the UK and around the world.

The original Goa sound played heavily on scientific and technological themes, overlappingwith the techno-pagan movement and the dot.com bubble. Later these influences (most notable though vocal samples dropped into the music) faded away, along with the more baroque complexities of countermelodies, leaving a more minimalist psy-trance.

Commercial trance

By the mid-1990s, trance, specifically progressive trance, which emerged from acid trance much as progressive house had emerged from acid house, had emerged commercially as one of the dominant genres of dance music. Progressive trance set in stone the basic formula of modern trance by becoming even more focused on the anthemic basslines and lead melodies, moving away from hypnotic, repetitive, arpeggiated analog synth patterns and spacey pads. Popular elements and anthemic pads became more widespread. Compositions leaned towards incremental changes (aka progressive structures), sometimes composed in thirds (as BT frequently does). Buildups and breakdowns became longer and more exaggerated, and the sound became more direct and less subtle, with a more identifiable tune. This sound came to be known as anthem trance.

Immensely popular, trance found itself filling a niche as 'edgier' than house, more soothing than drum and bass, and more melodic than techno, something that made it accessible to a wider audience. Artists like Paul Oakenfold, Paul van Dyk, DJ Tiesto, Ferry Corsten, Above & Beyond and Armin van Buuren came to the forefront as premier producers and remixers, bringing with them the emotional, "epic" feel of the style. Many of these producers also DJ'd in clubs playing their own productions as well as those by other trance DJs. By the end of the 1990s, trance remained commercially huge, but had fractured into an extremely diverse genre. Some of the artists that had helped create the trance sound in the early and mid-1990s had, by the end of the decade, abandoned trance completely in favour of more underground sounds - artists of particular note here include Pascal F.E.O.S. and Oliver Lieb

As trance entered the mainstream it alienated many of its original fans. As the industry became bigger, record labels, Ibiza, clubs (most notably Ministry of Sound) and DJs began to alter their sound to more of a pop based one, so as to make the sound more accessible to an even wider, and younger, audience. Female vocals in particular are now extremely common in mainstream trance, adding to their popular appeal. This mainstream trance is also known variously as commerical trance, vocal trance, euphoric trance or uplifting trance.

Eventually trance became so commercial that even Madonna and All Saints released a trance-like songs, through their collaborations with William Orbit.

Post-commercial trance

The original trance scene has largely died down, partly by having been overrun by the commercial mainstream; some would also argue that the original Goa and Psy- trance has exhausted the possibilities of its musical niche. An open question is where non-commercial trance will go next. One lively underground scene is "dark" or "goth" trance, also known as "neuromantic", which reunities the original EBM influences with Psy-trance and modern synthesizers. This music is characterized by low -- usually male -- vocals, and also borrows heavily from the 1980s new romantic and gothic movements. In the mid 2000s, other new bands like Tony Reed and Synthetik FM began to fuse rave styles of music with synthpop and new wave and use the new medium of the internet to distribute their music. The evolution of Goa trance into dark trance is well illustrated by the changing population of London's Cyberdog store, which has notably started to attract goths into its previously goa/psy culture. An alternative evolution would be to fuse trance with other stagnating genres such as drum'n'bass, various artists have attempted this but it has still to break into acceptance even in the underground. Frustrated, extreme versions of trance have mutated through gabba into violent fringe genres such as terrorcore and drillcore.

Trance and drugs

Trance developed alongside the increasing use of the drug ecstasy in the club scene. Ecstasy invokes a feeling of intense optimism and goodwill, and when taken while listening to loud trance music the feeling can become euphoric and highly energetic. The structure of trance music came to develop, deliberately or not, so that it became ever more effective at provoking these euphoric feelings. The metronomic beat, simple distorted waveforms drenched in large amounts of reverb, and long build-ups with snare rolls leading out of a breakdown all trigger a huge predictable response from ecstacy users. At the end of the 1990s, it is likely thata large number of clubbers in clubs such as Gatecrasher in Sheffield and Passion in Coalville (both in the UK) were using ecstasy. Trance songs were included in the heroin flick, Trainspotting.

Trance production

Trance employs a 4/4 time signature, and has a BPM of 130-160 beats per minute, somewhat faster than house music. Early tracks were sometimes slower. A kick drum is placed on every downbeat, a snare or clap on each second beat, and a regular open hi-hat on the off-beat. Some simple extra percussive elements are usually added, but, unusually in dance music, tracks do not usually derive their main rhythm from the percussion.

Trance is produced with keyboards, computerized synthesizers, drum machines, and music sequencer software connected via MIDI. The 909 drum machine is widely used to create the drum sounds. The unwavering drum mechanism may be constantly tweaked with for effect, with the Attack, Decay, Sustain, Release (ADSR) all given liberal treatment.

Synthesizers form the central elements of most trance tracks, with simple saw sounds used both for short pizzicato elements and for long, sweeping string sounds. Rapid arpeggios and minor scales are common features. Trance tracks often use one central "hook" melody which runs through almost the entire song, repeating at intervals anywhere between 2 beats and several bars. Much, but by no means all, trance music contains minimalist vocals.

Trance records are almost invariably heavily loaded with reverb and delay effects on the synth sounds, vocals and often parts of the percussion section. This provides the tracks with the sense of vast space that trance producers tend to look for in order to achieve the genre's epic quality. Flangers, phasers and other effects are also commonly used at extreme settings - in trance there is no need for sounds to seem in any way authentic, so producers have free rein.

Like much dance music, trance tracks are usually built with sparser beginnings and ends to the tracks in order to enable mixing more readily. As trance is more melodic and harmonic than much dance music, this is particularly important in order to avoid dissonance between tracks.

Some Sub-Genre Classifications Of Trance

Name Of The Sub-Genre	Description	Noticeable Artists
Acid trance	An early '90's style. Characterized by the use of a Roland TB-303 bass machine as the lead synth.	Hardfloor, Art of Trance, Union Jack, Eternal Basement, Emmanuel Top, Solar Quest, Kai Tracid
Anthem trance/Uplifting trance	Style of trance that emerged in the wake of progressive trance in the late 90's. Characterized by extended chord progression in all elements (lead synth, bass chords, treble chords), extended breakdowns, and relegation of arpeggiation to the background while bringing wash effects to the fore.	Vincent de Moor, Ronski Speed, Tiësto, System F, 4 Strings, Ayla, Paul van Dyk, Armin van Buuren, ATB, Neo & Farina, Blank & Jones, Marco V, Matt Darey
Classic trance	Original form of trance music, said to have originated in the very early 90's. Characterized by less percussion than techno, more melody, arpeggiated melody, and repetitive melodic chords/arpeggios.	Dance 2 Trance, Jam and Spoon, Sven Väth, Oliver Lieb, Cosmic Baby
Euro-Trance	Euro-Trance is a hybrid of hard trance and Eurodance music incorporating hardstyle bass drums and trance elements. The trance synths at times sound like techno hoovers with trancey effects and strings backing it up. The vocals are often pitched up for the most part, but sometimes they can be heard as in normal pitch range. This is often confused as vocal trance because of its use of vocals. The lyrical content is usually pretty simple, containing an introduction to the song with usually no or little drums, and often includes renderings of classic happy hardcore anthems or melodies. Also some of the middle 90's happy hardcore producers started to produce tracks in this style.	Jan Wayne, Nemystic, Rob Mayth, Milk Inc., Special D, Starsplash, Mark'Oh, Pulsedriver
Goa trance	A complexly melodic form of trance named for Goa, India, and originating in the early 90's. Often uses the Raga.	The Infinity Project, Transwave, Man With No Name, Astral Projection, Juno Reactor, MFG
Hard Trance	Aggressive and faster trance sounding, Originating in Frankfurt, includes influences from hardcore. This style has its first tracks in 1993 and decline in the late 90's.	Pascal F.E.O.S., Resistance D, Legend B, Nostrum, Gary D, Genetic Line, The Hooligan, Flutlicht, Mat Silver & Tony Burt, Jones & Stephenson, Yves Deruyter, Cosmic Gate, S.H.O.K.K., Mauro Picotto
Hardstyle	Closely related to nu style gabber and hard trance. Its sound is usually characterized by a mix of gabber and hardcore like kick/bass sounds, trance like synth stabs and sweeps and miscellaneous samples. However, Hardstyle usually has a lot slower BPM (between 140 and 150).	Lady Dana, DJ Luna, Trance Generators, DJ Isaac, Blutonium Boy
Progressive trance	Style of trance that originated in the early-mid 90's. Differentiated from the then "regular" trance by breakdowns, less acid-like sound & bass chord changes that gave the repeating lead synth a feeling of "progression".	BT, Humate, Sasha, John Digweed, Sander Kleinenberg, Slacker, Breeder, Narcotik
Pizzicato Trance	This style of trance that originated in the mid 1990s. It's a Progressive Trance variant with pizzicato violin sounds from the late 1990s, especially 1997 and 1998.[citation needed]	Faithless, Sash!, Dj Quicksilver, Brainbug, Future Breeze.
Psychedelic trance	Better known as psytrance; ambiguously synonymous with Goa trance, less melodic (also focuses less on eastern melodies) more abstract, metallick and futuristic. Also while goa tracks can be even slow as 130 bpm, psytrance tracks' speed rarely goes under 140bpm (except Progressive Psytrance tracks).	Shiva Chandra, Etnica, Infected Mushroom, Astrix, Absolum, Total Eclipse, Hallucinogen
Progressive psytrance	Emerged from both progressive house and psytrance. Identified by slower BPM range (roughly between 125 and 138), deep, low bass line, similarities to house in percussion, track structure and other things as well as psychedelic trance depth and relative musical unpredictability.	Magnetrixx, Ticon, Phony Orphants, Son Kite, Atmos
Tech Trance	A merge of techno and trance, Tech Trance is a fairly new genre that originated in the late 90's and early 2000's.	Marco V, Carl Cox, Randy Katana, Marcel Woods, Ron van Den Beuken
Tribal	A trance derivative that took classic trance and overlaid it with polyrhythmic percussive beats, ethnic samples, bongo sounds. It emphasizes the rhythmic core of trance. It shares many things with early Goa trance and Balearic House. Tribal can also be understood not so much as a style in itself, but as a component of any other trance style that has a bongo polyrhythm to it.	Tarrentella, Etnoscope
Vocal trance/Epic Trance	Broad term referring to trance with a full set of lyrics, which may or may not be any of the above genres. Oftentimes an artist will borrow a singer's talents as opposed to the singer himself or herself (vocalists are typically female), or sample from/remix more traditional pop music. Note that there is some debate as to where the divide lies between vocal trance and Eurodance.	4 Strings, Lange, Ian Van Dahl, Above & Beyond, Fragma, Lost Witness, Armin Van Buuren, Oceanlab, Chicane, Lasgo.
Electro trance	This style has been influenced by electroclash and takes some elements from Uplifting Trance. Originated around 2004.	Ferry Corsten, Elevation, Marcel Woods, Gabriel & Dresden
Ibiza Trance/Chill Trance/Ambient Trance	This style has been influenced by various relaxed music genres, especially linked to Ibiza's ( Spain ) chill-out style of life parallel with the huge rave scene that is present in the islands. Very melodic and mellow, sometimes with ethnic features, it often samples seaside elements like seagulls and ocean waves. Also known as balearic house.	Chicane, Solar Stone, Chiller Twist, York, Miro, Salt Tank
Deeptech Trance	This style has been influenced majorly by breakbeat. It is a chilled out blend of reggae beat matching and more notably the use of excessive synth pads, blended to create an almost euphoric state of relaxation.	Chicane, Shifted Phases

Miles Davis (1926-1991), American trumpet player and bandleader, one of the most innovative, influential, and respected figures in the history of jazz . Davis was a leading figure in the bebop style of jazz and in combining styles of jazz and rock music. Asa player, he was a master improviser (one who invents melodies while playing; see Improvisation) who played seemingly simple melodies with great subtlety and expressiveness. As a combo (small ensemble) leader, he assembled classic groups and allowed them the freedom to experiment and develop. The recordings of Davis and his groups have been imitated by musicians around the world.

Born Miles Dewey Davis III in Alton, Illinois, he grew up in East Saint Louis, Illinois. Davis began music lessons after receiving a trumpet on his 13th birthday from his father. Two years later he joined the musicians' union and began playing with a local band on weekends. About this time he met trumpeter Clark Terry, who helped and encouraged him. In 1944, after graduating from high school, he went to New York City to study classical music at the Juilliard School of Music. While there, he also began playing with alto saxophonist Charlie Parker, trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, and other pioneers of the new jazz style known as bebop. In 1945, at the age of 19, he began playing in a combo led by Parker. The recordings he made with Parker that year demonstrate that Davis had excellent tone but an immature style of improvising. However, he refined and improved his style of improvising during the next few years with Parker.

In 1949 and 1950, Davis made a series of recordings with a nine-person group that appeared on the album The Birth of the Cool (1950). The terms cool and cool jazz referred to a slower, more subdued style of bebop. By the mid-1950s Davis had developed one of the most distinctive styles in all of jazz. Unlike Gillespie, the first great bebop trumpeter, Davis preferred simple, lyrical melodies to speedy, flashy ones. Using delicate pitch-bending (a slight lowering or raising of a note) and a light vibrato (a gentle and regular wavering of pitch), he created a beautiful and expressive style. Often he used the harmon mute (a metal mute) to get a pinched, quiet sound. In the 1960s he began playing louder and used high notes and quick phrases more frequently. Still, he maintained most of his uniquely beautiful playing style to the end of his life.

Beginning in 1955 Davis led some five- and six-person groups that were among the finest in jazz. Between 1955 and 1970, his various groups included saxophonists John Coltrane, Cannonball Adderley, and Wayne Shorter; drummers Jimmy Cobb, Philly Joe Jones, and Tony Williams; bassists Paul Chambers and Ron Carter; and pianists Bill Evans and Herbie Hancock. The albums recorded by these groups, such as 'Round about Midnight (1956), Milestones (1958), Kind of Blue (1959), E.S.P. (1965), Miles Smiles (1966), and Nefertiti (1967), represented major landmarks in the evolution of bebop. In particular, Kind of Blue is considered by many to be one of the finest jazz albums ever made. His other important albums of this period include Miles Ahead (1957) and Sketches of Spain (1960), which he recorded with big bands led by arranger and composer Gil Evans.

At the end of the 1960s Davis began to make use of the electronic instruments, rhythms, and song structures of rock music. His manner of playing the trumpet did not change much, but his musical surroundings were dramatically different. The album Bitches Brew (1969) is one of Davis's first significant fusions of the jazz and rock music styles. Although many jazz fans disliked his move into fusion jazz, many bebop musicians followed his lead and took up the new style in the 1970s. His accompanists of the late 1960s and early 1970s included guitarist John McLaughlin, keyboardists Chick Corea and Joe Zawinul, and drummers Jack DeJohnette and Billy Cobham.

Beginning in 1975 Davis experienced a period of inactivity and reclusiveness because of injuries suffered in an automobile accident and the subsequent onset of several illnesses. He returned to performing fusion jazz in 1980, playing with musicians such as guitarist John Scofield, bassists Darryl Jones and Marcus Miller, and saxophonists Bill Evans (not the pianist of the same name) and Branford Marsalis. Albums from this final period include The Man with the Horn (1981); Decoy (1983); and You're Under Arrest (1985), which contains recordings of the popular songs “Human Nature” by singer Michael Jackson and “Time After Time” by singer Cyndi Lauper. In 1990 Davis performed a leading role as a jazz musician in the Australian motion picture Dingo (1991). His album Doo-Bop, released the year after his death, was one of the first to fuse jazz with the hip-hop and rap music styles.

Since 1960 the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (NARAS) has honored Davis with eight Grammy Awards, a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, and three Grammy Hall of Fame Awards. In 1986 the New England Conservatory awarded him an honorary doctorate of music.

Listening to Mozart won't raise a child's IQ, but music classes could help her or him to understand directions and diagrams. For enhancing a student's ability to speak, read, and write, drama is a better choice. Beyond that, the arts don't offer much boost to academic achievement in math or other non-arts courses.

That's the conclusion of the largest, most comprehensive study ever conducted on the effects of arts on education. Researchers at Harvard's Graduate School of Education analyzed 188 studies, conducted over 50 years.

"Arts advocates need to stop making sweeping claims about the arts as a magic pill for turning students around academically," says Lois Hetland, project manager of the study. "Arts teachers should not be held responsible for better test scores in math or history."

Budget problems around the nation are causing schools to question the value of spending money on arts education, and the Harvard study results seem to justify cutting back. But Hetland and her colleagues insist that is the wrong way to read their conclusions.

"Arts should be justified in terms of their intrinsic merit; they offera way of thinking unavailable in other subjects," she says. "Arts have always been a fundamentally important part of culture. An education without them is an impoverished education leading to an impoverished society."

Take music, for example. "Every human has musical intelligence," Hetland notes. "It's the responsibility of schools to develop that along with other types of intelligence."

Mozart effect is mixed

The study found "absolutely no evidence" that playing Mozart or any other music for unborn babies, infants, or toddlers ups their IQ. Hetland calls that idea "totally bogus. It's motivated not by education but by a desire to sell CDs. I feel sorry for parents who are duped by the hype."

The idea of Mozart as an easy path to greater intelligence arose in 1993 when researchers at the University of Wisconsin linked listening to 10 minutes of a Mozart sonata to an eight- to 10-point rise in IQ test scores. But the subjects were 36 college students, and they were tested on paper folding not IQ. Students who listened to the great Austrian composer did better on a test that required them to visualize changes in shape produced by cutting and folding pieces of paper.

"Such results are difficult to quantify," Hetland comments. "To make them more understandable, the researchers compared the size of the effect to an eight- to 10-point rise in IQ."

The relative advantage lasted only 15 minutes, and other researchers cannot always reproduce the Wisconsin effect. Last year, Christopher Chabris, a psychologist at the Harvard Medical School, analyzed 16 studies of the Mozart effect and found no real change in comparative improvement. However, that hasn't stopped several states from giving classical music CDs to all new mothers, or the music industry from profiting from the idea.

Hetland has changed the tune of the controversy by concluding that the effect does exist. She found that learning music in school, as opposed to listening to it in the womb or in diapers, can produce an effect on spatial reasoning. That's the type of thinking that improves students' ability to manipulate objects in their minds, understand graphs and maps, and find their way in a new school or city.

What's more, learning to read musical notation produces a stronger effect, no matter what style of music the student plays.

The finding doesn't translate into a recommendation that all students should take piano or violin lessons in school, and learn to read music to do better in other classes. Spatial skills can be taught more directly using blocks, paper, and other objects.

"Strong spatial skills could give students an advantage in subjects like geography or math, depending on how these subjects are taught," notes Ellen Winner, a psychologist at Boston College who worked on the Harvard study. "Sadly, however, many schools offer few chances to apply spatial abilities."

The big mystery is why music affects spatial thinking at all. Gottfried Schlaug, a neurologist at the Harvard Medical School, discovered that musicians with perfect pitch have an area on the left side of their brains that is larger than usual. The area, known as the planum temporale, specializes in processing music.

"Areas of the brain dealing with spatial orientation and music may stimulate each other through brain-cell connections, or both areas may be used together while making music," Hetland speculates.

Even so, the Harvard researchers don't recommend changing school curricula to take advantage of any benefit that comes from the connection. "It's dangerous to justify arts education by secondary non-arts effects," Hetland believes. "More research needs to be done on how the brain could provide such cross-stimulation and how long any effect lasts."

Acting out pays off

A better case can be made for using drama to help students with reading, writing, and speech. Based on 80 studies, Winner, Hetland and their colleagues report a strong link between acting out classroom texts and increased understanding of stories, improved language development, and better reading achievement.

"Drama not only helped children's verbal skills with respect to the texts enacted, it also helped when verbal skills were applied to new non-enacted materials," Winner notes. "Such an effect has great value for education because verbal skills are highly prized. Adding drama techniques cost little in terms of effort or expense, and a high proportion of students are influenced by such curricular changes."

The research on dramatization effects was done by Ann Podlozny, who earned her master's degree from the Graduate School of Education and has gone on to work in the movie industry. The whole arts-effects study was funded by the Bauman Family Foundation and conducted by Project Zero, a Harvard research group that explores the development of learning in children, adults, and organizations.

When the researchers looked at programs that cover multi-arts -- music, drama, dance, and visual arts, they concluded that such a mixed bag of instruction does not increase test scores or grades.

Although students who study the arts did have higher test scores, that doesn't mean it was the arts that caused their test scores to rise. "All this link tells us is that children who study the arts tend to be high academic achievers, no matter what their racial or ethnic group or social class," Winner says. When researchers analyzed only those studies that directly investigated a connection between the arts and test scores, they found no improvement.

But Hetland and Winner emphasize that the purpose of arts study is not to improve test scores, just as it's not to provide better grades in math or other subjects. "Studying the arts should not have to be justified in terms of anything else," they say. "Cultures are judged on the basis of their arts. Most cultures and historical eras have not doubted the importance of including the arts as part of every child's education. They are time-honored ways of learning, knowing and expressing."

When you decide to learn to play guitar, choosing the right guitar is a very important choice you have to make. There are quite a few different types of guitars out there, and they all have distinct sounds to them. If you just choose any guitar you can find when you learn to play guitar, you may get discouraged when it doesn’t sound like you expected it to sound. The types of music that you want to play will decide what kind of guitar that you should pick. That poses a problem, because when you first learn to play guitar, you rarely know what type of music that you will be playing or even if you’re going to be playing it long enough to make it worth your investment. Luckily guitars are not that expensive compared to other instruments.

The different types of guitars are acoustic, electric, classical, flamenco, semi-acoustic, 12-string, and bass guitar. Even though there are a few different types of guitars, there are two main types which are acoustic guitars and electric guitars. It seems to be the consensus that when you first learn to play guitar, you should start with an acoustic guitar. You can play them pretty much any place and they are much cheaper than electric guitars. If you buy an acoustic guitar, don’t buy a cheaply made one. It won’t be fun to play and it won’t sound very good, which means you probably won’t play it and it’ll end up in your garage somewhere.

You don’t have to pay a whole lot of money either. You can get a quality cheap “no-name” guitar for under a couple hundred dollars. You shouldn’t buy a guitar because of the name brand. You have to make sure the quality of wood is good. Most guitar players will tell you to stay away from plywood. Make sure it feels good and that it is well-made. You should also play it or let someone else play it before you buy it to make sure it sounds good.

If you choose to get an electric guitar, you will also need to buy an amplifier and effects, which could get very expensive. If you want to play the harder and louder music like rock and roll and you have some extra money on your hands, than go for it. When you first learn to play guitar, the extra noise that the electric guitar brings could annoy you in the beginning.

So when choosing you guitar, keep in mind the type for music that you will be playing. If you don’t know yet or if money is tight, you should invest in a quality acoustic guitar. Remember, not to choose a cheaply made guitar or you’ll probably give up sooner or later because it won’t feel or sound good to you. Make good decisions now and you’ll be a successful guitar player in no time at all.

Recent scientific research suggests that music can influence a persons relaxation, and have a positive impact on a persons heart rhythms. A study that was published in “Heart”, a British Medical Journal publication investigated the effects of a variety of musical genres ranging from techno and reggae to classical.

Tempo and the human body

It was found that music with a faster tempo can cause:

• Increased breathing rate

• Increased heart rate

• Increased blood pressure

When the music with a fast tempo was paused, the following effects were noticed, with some falling below the beginning rate:

• Slower breathing rate

• Slower heart rate

• Lower blood pressure

Slower music seemed to have an opposite effect to the fast music with a significant fall in heart rate. Reggae caused the largest decline in the heart rate.

It seems that the style of music does not have as much of an effect on the human body as the tempo and pace of the music does.

Music Therapy

Even before science research verified that music can be used to influence the human body, it has been used as a form of therapy. Music therapy is a healthcare profession that uses the effects of music to improve the social, cognitive, emotional and physical aspects of a person. There are many claims made that it can :

• Promote wellness

• Manage stress

• Alleviate pain

• Express feelings

• Enhance memory

• Improve communication

• Promote physical rehabilitation.

Does music affect the heart rate?

So does music affect the heart rate? Yes. The music tempo effects our heart rate and music has many positive effects on the human body.