Although some people can learn music by ear, most people who are taught to play musical instruments learn new pieces by reading the printed music which is in front of them on a music stand. When someone has learned to play a piece of music well enough to perform it, it is good if they can learn to play it without the printed music. This is called “playing from memory” or “playing by heart”. When a musician is practising a piece of music so that it can be played from memory this is called memorizing the music.
Most Classical musicians will agree that it is good to play from memory when performing as a soloist. It means that the player understands the music really well, and he is able to concentrate completely on the way he plays the music (the interpretation). In some music competitions the competitors are expected to play from memory. A pianist playing a recital will usually play everything from memory. It is particularly important for singers who are performing songs (Lieder) to sing without music because they can then communicate directly with the audience using the expression on their faces. Some conductors conduct from memory. If they do, they ought to know every single note for every single instrument from memory. There are some conductors who have such amazing memories that they can do this.
Some people find it easier to memorize music than others. There are different ways of practising to help memorize music: by memorizing a few bars at a time, by studying the printed music away from the instrument, or by “thinking” through the piece away from the instrument.
Some people have a “photographic memory” and can see in their mind the music as printed on the paper. Some people rely on aural memory (hearing it in one’s imagination). There is also muscular memory (the fingers "knowing" what to do). Probably most people use some combination of all these methods.
When people perform from memory they are often worried that they might have a memory lapse (forget how the music goes). It can happen, of course, even to the greatest musicians. The famous violinist Bronislaw Huberman and the pianist Eugen d’Albert were once performing Beethoven’s "Kreutzer Sonata". Both were playing from memory. One of them kept going wrong in the same place, playing something that had happened earlier, so that they played the middle bit three times before eventually managing to finish the piece. However, this is quite common, and can happen to anyone.
People who learn musical instruments should try to memorize some of their pieces. Many famous musicians have a large repertoire (a collection) of pieces that they can play from memory.
"Pianoforte Diplomas" by Geoffrey Tankard (Sevenoaks 1973)
Grave
A grave, or burial spot is where somebody or something is buried after they have died. Graves are usually placed in a graveyard, with a headstone used to identify the dead person. A funeral will occur if the family has enough money. If they do not, there will not be a proper funeral. The name on the grave is of the dead person. For example, William Shakespeare was buried in England.
Polyrhythm
Polyrhythm happens when two different rhythms are played at the same time in music. African, Latin, and Afro-Cuban music often use polyrhythms.
Polyrythm is another word for layering and adding volumes to the piece of music. It happens when one person starts playing a rhythm and then other people start joining in, adding dynamics to it. It happens in Africa during festivals and occasions along with a call and response style of playing.
Theme Hospital
Theme Hospital is a simulation computer game developed by Bullfrog and EA Games. It was published in 1997. The game is quite humorous.
In the game, the player must build and operate a hospital. There are different rooms you can build. These are to diagnose the patient and to treat the illness.
Some illnesses are quite unusual. One is the bloaty head disease where the patient's head blows up. Another is the slack tongue disease, where the patient has an unusually long tongue.
Pontin's
Pontin's is a holiday company which was founded by Fred Pontin in 1946. It is now owned by Trevor Hemmings and has eight centres in England and Wales.
Twin prime conjecture
The twin prime conjecture is a mathematical theory. It says that it is possible to find two twin primes that are as big as wanted.
Twin primes are prime numbers that differ by two. For example, 3 and 5 are both prime and differ by two. They are twin primes. 23 is prime, but it is not a twin prime. The primes nearest to 23 are 19 and 29. Twin primes were discovered by Euclid in 300 B.C.
Since Euclid's time mathematicians have wondered whether there are an infinite number of twin primes. Many mathematicians are still trying to find the answer.
Mud
Mud is a mixture of soil, silt, loam or clay, mixed with and water. It is a type of soil that is also called "clay soil". Others include the sandy soil, or sand, and garden soil. Wet mud has a soft wet texture.
Young children sometimes play in puddles of mud. Mud is usually brown.
Some animals including worms, frogs, snails, clams, and crayfish live in mud. Pigs and elephants use it to cool themselves in hot weather. Some people enjoy making mud pies out of mud.
Great river systems like the Amazon bring down to the delta immense amounts of mud which ends up in the sea outside the fan of the river mouth. Mudrock is what the mud may become millions of years later. Mudrocks make up fifty percent of the sedimentary rocks in the geologic record, and are easily "the most widespread deposits on Earth".
The Zutons
The Zutons are a rock band from Liverpool, England. They formed in 2001. They are on the Deltasonic record label. The band were nominated for the British Breakthrough Act award at the 2005 BRIT Awards.
The band has 5 people in it:
Their first album, "Who Killed... The Zutons?", was released on 18 October 2004, and got to number 9 in the United Kingdom album chart. It came with a printed 3-D cover, and special glasses to view the cover. Many fans wore the glasses to concerts. The album was a nominee for the 2004 Mercury Music Prize.
The new album Tired of Hanging Around was released on April 17, 2006 and reached 2 in the UK album charts. The band went around the UK doing concerts in May 2006 following the release of this album. Their second UK tour will begin in November 2006.
Dwarf planet
Dwarf planet is the name used to classify some objects in the solar system. This definition was made on August 24, 2006 by the International Astronomical Union (IAU), and can be described as; "a dwarf planet is a body orbiting the Sun that is big enough to round itself by its own gravity, but has not cleared its orbital path of other rival bodies". At the same meeting the IAU also defined the term planet for the first time. Some astronomers think that the term "dwarf planet" is too confusing and needs to be changed.
The seven dwarf planets, in order from their distance from the Sun are:
The dwarf planets, unlike the terrestrial and gas giant planets, are in more than one region of the solar system. Ceres is in the asteroid belt. The high orbital eccentricity of Pluto puts it mostly outside Neptune's orbit, but partly inside. The others are in the trans-Neptune region.
NASA's "Dawn" and "New Horizons" missions reached Ceres and Pluto, respectively, in 2015. "Dawn" had already orbited and observed Vesta in 2011.
There are many other dwarf planets in the solar system. Most of them are also Kuiper belt objects.
Blue peafowl
The blue peafowl or Indian peafowl ("Pavo cristatus") is a bird native to the Indian subcontinent.
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Green peafowl
The green peafowl ("Pavo muticus") is a bird that is native to Southeast Asia.
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Nintendo Virtual Boy