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Social platforms are becoming one-stop-shop for all entertainment [MIDiA]Social platforms are working to cover all the bases for all forms of entertainment. What does that mean for music and the music industry? by Hanna Kahlert of MIDiA Research Social. Continue reading
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Three Game-Changing Tips for Doublers of the FluteThis is a guest post from the amazing Jane Cavanagh!

At rehearsal last week, the conductor of a Sydney-based band I play the flute in, excitedly informed me, “Hey Jane, I arranged a new piece for the band and I wrote you a fantastic jazz flute solo!”

I thought “oh no, here we go…” as I am a classically trained flute player, not a swinging, improvising jazz musician! The thought of performing this solo seemed like an embarrassment waiting to happen!

Preparing for embarrassment

For me to say that I’m not confident in my ability to sound “cool” when I swing on the flute is an understatement. I find it utterly embarrassing how un-cool I sound!!

Despite this, off we went. We began sight-reading the piece, called “Ya Gotta Try” (in case you know it!) at a breakneck pace, with two of our fabulous jazz sax players also joining in on flute.

The piece went so dang fast and I had no time to be embarrassed and instead focused on accurately sight-reading it.

Amidst all this discomfort, something nice and totally unexpected actually happened…

Running out of air on the flute!

Peg, one of the extremely experienced and talented saxophonists, who joined me for the piece on flute, commented that the piece was fun, but the long phrases were almost impossible to get through.

I casually replied, “Oh really?” implying that breathing wasn’t even an issue for me (because actually it wasn’t!). I was a bit worried I sounded arrogant actually…

Peg then asked for some help with her flute playing, as she wanted to fine-tune it for a musical she’s playing in soon.

Instead of giving her a lesson, I suggested something better – for her to do The 45 Day Flute Transformation course, which is part of my flute membership called The Flute Academy.

Typically, within a week, the students see significant improvements such as playing much longer phrases, or hitting higher notes with ease and control.

How doublers fix their flute “lung capacity”

Below is a fabulous screenshot of the message that Peg, who is a professional woodwind doubler with decades of experience, sent me a few days after starting the 45-day course:

I found it quite funny of course – about me not being alive yet, but what really made me happy was that on Day 2 of the Transformation, Peg realised that she had been missing some fundamental flute techniques for 49 years and was finally able to fix them!

This is actually a common issue I see with flute doublers. They are excellent sax players, but feel like they haven’t quite nailed their flute technique.

They know they have a fluffier-than-ideal sound and they are aware that they run out of air quickly. I hear them say things like “the flute needs so much air” (which is actually easily fixed – more on this in a moment!).

Now for the game-changing flute tips!

To help you with your flute playing, I thought I’d now take you through three common flute technique mistakes that many saxophone players make when playing the flute.

1. Embouchure

Why you can’t play super long phrases

Although the flute embouchure is obviously different to the sax embouchure, there’s a mistake that nearly all sax players make with their flute embouchures. And interestingly, it’s the same mistake amongst all the players!

It is this:

Almost all the flute embouchures of sax players I’ve encountered have an embouchure opening that is too large.

This directly causes a fluffy tone and causes you to run out of air way too quickly. Did you know that an airy sound and running out of air are directly linked?

By “directly linked”, I mean that fixing one automatically addresses the other. For example, if you reduce the size of your embouchure hole, you’ll get an instantly clearer and stronger sound and immediately be able to sustain longer phrases.

Which is pretty awesome. Because you get to fix two playing problems with a single small adjustment to your embouchure!

An instantly clearer tone

If you would like to see demonstrations of how to correct your flute embouchure, feel free to register for the free flute course here.

As well as learning how to play with a smaller embouchure opening, you’ll learn how to:

Tweak the shape of your embouchure to instantly improve your tone quality.

Position your lip on the lip plate in exactly the right spot for optimal tone production.

Find the ideal angle for your airstream to instantly strengthen your tone.

Since it’s impossible to actually demonstrate proper embouchure techniques in a written blog post like this, I’d encourage you to watch the flute demo videos in the mini-course to help you fix your airy sound and achieve longer phrases.

2. Avoiding dizziness

The doubler’s super power that disguises a problem

Saxophone players absolutely excel at not getting dizzy when playing the flute!!

When I used to see a sax player’s flute embouchure, I would assume they were getting dizzy. Surprisingly though, sax players don’t seem to have this problem! At least, nowhere near as much as flute-only players.

If an amateur flute player attempted to play using the same embouchure, they would 100% become extremely dizzy.

I’ve since realised that experienced sax players have highly adaptable bodies (ie their brains) that help them avoid dizziness. Even when playing the flute and breathing in more often than ideal, they seem to manage just fine.

However – it hides a problem with their embouchure…

The saxophonist’s super power!

Doublers possess an exceptional ability to inhale frequently without getting dizzy, thanks to their experience as wind players. Their brains are well-trained to handle the extra air, which would leave flute-only players falling over from dizziness!

However, this ability masks an issue with their flute embouchure. And it means that doublers may not seek help because they are not uncomfortable enough from dizziness to need to go and investigate why they can’t play long phrases.

Doublers often think that the flute requires a lot of air, but the opposite is true. With the right embouchure technique, a good flute player can hold a note for at least 25 seconds.

And it’s nothing to do with how big their lungs are! It’s about mastering your embouchure, and using your airstream efficiently.

A stronger tone – with far less air

Playing long phrases on the flute comes from an accurately formed and well-positioned embouchure. That’s it! And it’s not that the flute “needs a lot of air” to play. To fix your embouchure in 3 simple steps (and learn how to use much less air!), remember you’re totally welcome to join me in the free flute mini-course.

The cool bit is that when you fix your embouchure shape, size and position, you are not only able to play longer phrases, but your sound instantly becomes clearer and stronger. Seriously – instantly. (Which is why the free mini-course is called How to Instantly Improve Your Flute Tone – an accurate title!)

3. Flute high notes

Why you don’t actually need to blow harder for high notes

I enjoy teaching flute players (both doublers and regular flute-only players) the correct way to play high notes, which does not involve relying on blowing harder.

While it may seem like a logical solution to use more air for high notes, this technique can actually cause more harm than good. Blowing too hard results in you being sharp up high, feeling like you can’t control high notes, and a rapidly running out of air.

By the time you read this, Peg above will already have completed the High Notes module on Days 4-8 of The 45 Day Flute Transformation and she’ll have mastered the art of playing high notes with ease, precision, and accuracy.

In The Flute Academy, I teach what I call “the real way to play high notes,” which involves producing high notes effortlessly, with excellent intonation, and minimal air usage.

Interestingly, even many good flute players never learn this skill. They rely on blowing harder for high notes, which is essentially a kind of “crude” way to get high notes to come out – making them sound sharp, sound loud, and, as you know, will make you run out of air quickly!

The real way to play high notes

Learning the correct technique for playing high notes involves two simple steps:

Firstly, you correct your flute embouchure.

The second step is to learn how to use the corners of your embouchure to create a subtle pout shape. This movement shortens the length of the air jet (which is based on some simple physics), and results in effortlessly producing controlled and in-tune high notes on the flute.

Once you make the right adjustment, it truly feels effortless.

Here is a little example of how it’s easy to play high notes on the flute easily when you use the right technique:

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Jane Cavanagh Flute School (@janefluteschool)

A doubler’s breakthrough

Here’s a great story from Kerry, a doubler, who told me how he easily fixed his flute embouchure:

“I am a doubler with solid clarinet and sax chops. For flute, I was mostly doing long tones with the help of some flute player friends. When I got flute doubles, it was hit or miss whether I set an embouchure that worked at above B above the staff.

I went through your free flute tone course and practiced your suggestions for a few days. 

On Friday, one of my friends asked me to play flute duets right after a two-hour big band rehearsal. I had played a few duets once before and didn’t do very well. I almost declined, but he had a book of flute duets with him.

We started out with me on the bottom line of the first page. Surprised with my improvement, he had me play the top line on the next page.

In jest, I said we should try to finish the book.

Well, we did one sitting alternating top/bottom each page.

With the relaxation, you encouraged I didn’t get tired. He said I had chops of steel. Your long tone exercise gave me the range I needed. Similarities with sax got me through the fingerings even at modestly fast tempos.

What a boost to my confidence.

Thanks so much for your help!”

It’s fantastic to have Kerry as one of the doublers in The Flute Academy. His experience on sax and clarinet  means that he learns the new flute techniques extremely quickly!

Faster progress through proper flute technique

Saxophone players make excellent flute players. I also find that most of them feel as if there’s a “piece of the puzzle that’s missing”. And it definitely prevents them from being as incredible at the flute as they are at the sax.

When I started to write this blog post for you, I wanted to be sure to emphasise that the challenge is not the instrument itself.

My motto in my flute school is “Faster Progress Through Proper Technique.”

This means that it’s not the number of hours you practice that matters, but rather the little tweaks to your technique that make all the difference in how easy it is to play.

By making these tiny adjustments, you will instantly improve your high notes, sustain longer phrases with ease, and play with a stronger, clearer tone.

If you’d like to see clear demonstrations of how to fine-tune your flute embouchure, I encourage you to join me in the free course to instantly get you a stronger flute tone.

I wish you all the best with your flute playing!

Jane xx

About Jane

Jane is a music educator from Sydney, Australia.

Her speciality is showing adult flute players exactly how to progress faster on the flute by teaching them the small “tweaks” of proper technique.

Jane’s online program The Flute Academy, shows her students how to easily get faster progress on the flute – by learning proper technique.

A highlight of The Flute Academy is that the students get to go through The 45 Day Flute Transformation – which takes them through a series of tweaks and exercises, teaching them the fundamental playing techniques that players often miss when they initially learn the flute.

Find out more about The Flute Academy here.

Jane particularly loves showing saxophone players the specific adjustments to their flute embouchure and use of air that result in their flute playing becoming just as amazing as their sax playing.

Join Jane for free to instantly fix your own flute embouchure in 3 simple steps. You’ll hear yourself get a clearer, stronger sound, and instantly be able to play longer phrases (by learning to use less air!) 

Spitfire Audio release Originals Orchestra This sample library has been designed as a perfect starting point for composers venturing into writing with an orchestral library.

Upgrade to Ableton Live 11 Suite promotion Focusrite and Novation customers receive a 50% discount when upgrading to Ableton Live 11 Suite until June 30th, 2023.

Apptronik readies its humanoid robot for a summer unveilJeff Cardenas pulls out his MacBook. Apptronik’s co-founder and CEO has a slideshow he wants to show, running down the Austin startup’s seven-year history. It does, indeed, take a bit of contextualizing. Like many fellow robotics firms, the company was fueled by government contracts in its earliest days.
First up was Valkyrie 2, the second iteration of NASA’s humanoid space robot. The young company was one of a handful tasked with helping to bring that system to life. Its contribution to the puzzle was liquid-cooled robotic actuators developed at the Human Centered Robots lab at the University of Texas, led by Apptronik co-founder and chief scientist Luis Sentis.
Next was exoskeletons. United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM), which was in the market for “iron man suits.”
Image Credits: Brian Heater
“[The]exoskeleton was liquid cooled,” says Cardenas. “We learned a lot doing that. The complexity of the system was too high. It was heavy. We remotized all of the actuators. And then we started to realize what was the simplest version of a humanoid robot: a mobile manipulator. We started getting approached by a lot folks in logistics, who didn’t want to pay for manufacturing arms. They were too precise for what they need. What they wanted was an affordable robotic logistics arm.”
Industrial arms have far and away been the tip of the spear, having existed for roughly 60 years. In that time, manufacturers like Fanuc and Kuka have engineered millimeter accuracy. That’s something that is essential for manufacturing and overkill for most logistics work. Installing electrical systems in cars, for instance, requires a lot more precision than moving a box from point a to point b.

“What a lot of people are doing in humanoid robots is basically trying to build them the same way that we’ve built industrial robotic arms for a long time,” says Cardenas. “One of the key ideas for Apptronik is the way we need to build these robots — when you have a 30-degree of freedom system — is fundamentally different. The things we need are different. We need them to be safe around humans, we need them to be highly robust to the environment they’re around. We need them to be highly energy efficient. It’s a new set of constraints we’re trying to optimize for. Taking the same architectures of all the arms that you see out there [at Automate] and extrapolating that doesn’t make sense. This is a fundamentally different architecture where we have about a third less components per actuator, it takes about a third of the assembly time.”
Image Credits: Apptronik
For a number of reasons, logistics is a logical place for a company like Apptronik to land. Not everyone wants to be sustained by government contracts forever. Over the last several years, logistics/fulfillment has come into its own as the hottest category in the robotics space. Like countless other companies that have pivoted from research to the world of commercial products, the company has had to determine whether the right market fit existed for the technology it was creating.
“The goal was to get to the humanoid,” says Cardenas. “The humanoid is kind of the holy grail. Probably the only thing that was consistent when we started was, ‘Don’t do humanoids. They’re too complicated.’ ”
The true value of humanoid robots in the workplace is still very much an open question. But at the very least, Apptronik isn’t the only one asking it. Tesla’s much-publicized Optimus announcement shook something loose. Suddenly the companies that had been operating in stealth mode felt compelled to announce their own intentions. Startups like 1X and Figure have discussed their progress to different extents. Sanctuary AI, which has partnered with Apptronik hardware, has already begun piloting systems.

Apptronik, for its part, has thus far shown off two halves of a robot. There’s Astra, the upper body of a humanoid robot, which can be mounted to an autonomous mobile robot (AMR). On the other end is Draco, which is quite literally all legs. The company refers to it as its “first biped” which is true — but that’s really all there is.
Part of our impromptu slide show are videos of the slender legs walking around the Apptronik labs. It’s hasn’t achieved Cassie speeds from the look of it, but from purely eyeballing it, the gait appears faster than what Tesla showed off in its recent Optimus videos. What becomes clear after looking at a handful of these seemingly disparate projects is that Apptronik has been building its own full humanoid robot piece by piece since the beginning.
Image Credits: Apptronik
Cardenas says the company bootstrapped for much of its existence, until hitting around 40-50 people. It will be exploring a Series A this year, following the official unveiling of its full humanoid system this summer. “We have all of these building blocks,” he adds. “A lot of it has been iterating and trying new ideas. The advantage to bootstrapping is we’ve believed in this for a long time. We’ve been at this now for about a decade as a team, from Valkyrie.”
At the moment, the company is working on walking and building out the robot’s core functionality prior to launch. It understandably wants to demonstrate that the product actually functions as planned prior to showing it to the world. It’s a markedly different approach to what Tesla has been doing with Optimus, and if everything goes according to plan, it will propel the firm to its next major raise.
Cardenas shows me images — both renders and photos — of Apollo, the system it plans to debut this summer. I can’t share them here, but I can tell you that the design bucks the kind of convergent evolution I’ve described, which found Tesla, Figure and OpenAI-backed 1X showing renders with a shared designed language. Apollo looks — in a word — friendlier than any of these systems and the NASA Valkyrie robot that came before it.
It shares a lot more design qualities with Astra. In fact, I might even go so far as describing it as a cartoony aesthetic, with a head shaped like an old-school iMac, and a combination of button eyes and display that comprise the face. While it’s true that most people won’t interact with these systems, which are designed to operate in places like warehouses and factory floors, it’s not necessary to embrace ominousness for the sake of looking cool.

In some ways, the general-purpose part is harder than the humanoid bit. That’s not to say that building a fully mobile and articulate bipedal robot is easy by any stretch of the imagination, but there’s a big chasm between special and general purpose. The precise definition of the latter is a conversation for another day, but for many, the label describes a system that is fully adaptable on the fly. For some, that means something like an API and app store for third-party developers to create skills, but the systems still have to adapt to their surroundings. Ideally, it’s a machine that can do any task a human can.
Too often, people fail to recognize the vast middle ground that is multi-purpose systems. For the time being, this is a much more pragmatic place to operate within. The Tesla notion of a robot that can work in the factory all day, do your grocery shopping and come home and cook you dinner feeds into existing outlandish expectations that have been fueled by decades of science fiction.

“To get it to do multiple things,” Cardenas says, “it’s still early days, but there are enough applications where if we can do simple things like move a box from point a to point b, there are tens of thousands of units’ worth of demands for those applications.”
Like all work in the space, these conversations require the caveat that we’re still in the extremely early stages. Agility has arguably come furthest in terms of proving out the efficacy of a humanoid (or at very least bipedal) robot in a warehouse setting. But even they have a long way to go.
Regardless, the next few years will offer some fascinating insight into where these culminations of decades worth of research are heading.
Apptronik readies its humanoid robot for a summer unveil by Brian Heater originally published on TechCrunch

Concord Signs Nana RoguesConcord Music Publishing today announced a new global publishing agreement with producer-singer-songwriter Nana Rogues, best known for producing and co-writing hits for global artists including Drake (including his 2017 global hit “Passionfruit” which is his 3rd highest streaming song at over 1.3bn), Dave, Future, J Hus, Zara Larsson, Skepta, Stormzy and Wiz Kid.

The new deal with Rogues includes his catalogues alongside all future works.

A winner of multiple awards including a BRIT (Dave, Psychodrama), Billboard (Drake, Scorpion) and nominations for a GRAMMY, in 2018 he achieved a major breakthrough co-writing on Drake’s record breaking single “Don’t Matter To Me” featuring Michael Jackson which at the time, broke the single-day streaming record on Apple Music and Spotify.

Kim Frankiewicz, EVP Worldwide A&R at Concord Music Publishing says, “There is often a lot of hyperbole in this business, but Nana is the real deal; he’s one of the most versatile writers out there, and we are delighted that he’s accepted to join the Concord family at this stage of what undoubtably will be a very successful career”.

Harri Davies, Senior A&R Director at Concord Music Publishing adds, “Nana is an exceptional producer with a remarkable work ethic. We are absolutely delighted that he chose Concord as caretakers of his hit-laden catalogue whilst also entrusting us as the home of his future song writing output”.

Nana Rogues comments, “I'm really looking forward to this next chapter in my career, Concord are a major player that understands my vision and sound. Together as a team we will be putting out great feel-good music that transcends across the world!”

Manager Dani Stephenson of Straight Forward Music adds, “We're ultra-excited to be working with Concord, an innovative publisher and top tier team, one that really understands Nana and how to take him and his catalogue to the next level. Nana is one of the most talented creatives I have the pleasure of knowing. His authenticity is art in its truest form, a genuine musical pioneer who has created timeless music that will forever be a moment in time for many generations to come”.

Originally from Hackney, London, Nana Rogues has proven himself to be one of the most versatile producer-songwriters of the moment, showcasing his one-of-a-kind style, with a vast array of musical vibes that’s moving the needle in today’s Top 40.

In 2019 Nana launched as an artist featuring on releases with Raye “Confidence” and Honne “I Got You” and “To The Max” featuring” Wiz Kid. More recently, he’s co-produced on KSI’s single “Number 2” featuring Future and 21 Savage on the number #1 chart topping album All Over The Place and produced on “We’re All Alone” which features on Dave’s new album called We’re All Alone In This Together. Nana is currently in the studio working with Dave, WizKid and Wiz Khalifa.

Photo: Left to Right – Kim Frankiewicz, Nana Rogues, Harri Davies, Dani Stephenson

Ethereum price is pinned below $1.9K, and data suggests that is unlikely to change in the short–term3 key indicators are behind the prolonged bearish trend in Ether, and data fails to identify an immediate catalyst for a price breakout.

Heavyocity Damage Guitars Damage Guitars is an explosive collection of expertly-crafted, heavy guitar tones, face-melting riffs, lush clean guitars, and flawless performances — bursting with rhythm and energy,... Read More

‘Japanese acts account for nearly 90% of all tickets sold for live music events in Japan.’MBW's World Leaders series interviews Kaori Hayashi, CEO of Japan-headquartered concert promoter HIP (Hayashi International Promotions)
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SoundCloud, chasing profitability, cuts another 8% of employee headcountThe news was confirmed today (May 23) in an internal memo to staff from SoundCloud CEO, Eliah Seton, obtained by MBW
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Fix The Tix asks artists to sign letter demanding Congress limit scalping, fix ticketingThe new Fix The Tix Coalition is asking artists to sign a letter to the U.S. Congress calling on them to limit ticket scalping and fix the broken concert ticketing. Continue reading
The post Fix The Tix asks artists to sign letter demanding Congress limit scalping, fix ticketing appeared first on Hypebot.

Know your story before releasing new music and 3 tips for finding itMost artists think that their story is their music. They’re wrong and Laura Ferreiro a Branding & Storytelling Strategist and Founder of Story Harmony joins Michael Brandvold on the Music. Continue reading
The post Know your story before releasing new music and 3 tips for finding it appeared first on Hypebot.

Moog celebrates 70th anniversary with virtual experience Moog Music commemorates its 70th anniversary and the birthday of electronic music pioneer Bob Moog with an extraordinary digital experience.