Sound Music

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Fans now have a new reason to vie for The Sound of Music tickets. While The Sound of Music may be one of the classic musicals, the way that the Canadian production cast the newest actress to play Maria is the more recent crazy of reality television. After going through months of auditions and competitions, Elicia MacKenzie will be the next Maria in the Toronto production of the famous show.

MacKenzie almost didn't make it to the auditions. The 23 year old had to decide between becoming a massage therapist and going to school for acting and chose to attend the Capilano College and got a degree in Performing Arts. She loved the musical the first time she saw it at the tender age of seven. Other than acting and singing, she also enjoys reading and rollerblading. With her winning personality, she is sure to make The Sound of Music tickets even hotter.

MacKenzie was not the favorite from the beginning, but slowly won more and more fans as the weeks progressed. It was a long road for MacKenzie and the other contestants. There were 200 women to try out for the show, which was quickly cut to 50. From there, they went to "Maria School" before 10 were chosen for the live shows. The women were judged by Simon Lee, the vocal coach Elaine Overholt and actor John Barrowman. The show was called How Do You Solve a Problem Like Maria? and aired on CBC. It was meant to be similar to a series in the U.K. that helped in the casting of the West End production.

The Sound of Music was loved from the moment it came out and continues to be a favorite today whether on stage or film. It tells the story of Maria, who becomes the governess of the von Trapp family. The stage is set in Austria during World War II right as Germany's takeover is imminent. Maria is studying to become a nun, but it unsure about giving up her freedom in order to take her vows. The setup with the von Trapps is so she can decide. She finds her decision even harder as she finds herself with feelings for Captain von Trapp. This story has captivated generations and is even better on stage. See the Toronto revival and reserve your The Sound of Music tickets today.

This article was written by Julie Cudney and is sponsored by StubHub. Stubhub sells tickets to sports events, concerts and theater productions. Find out Maria's favorite things by getting The Sound of Music tickets.

How to Spice Up Your Music

My passion, personally, is music production. Not the DJ-ing or the remixing, but the creation of a song out of nothing. Any Apple user will be familiar with Garageband, but that is just the tip of the iceberg. The developments in software have led to it being entirely possible to develop professional songs or sounds with an investment of as little as $500.

There are software programs that contain everything you need from synthesis to mastering. Alternatively, you could invest in hardware if your passion is more one of rocking out rather than geeking out with computers. The price of attaining a polished recording has plummeted in recent years, leaving the benefits in the hands of the consumer.

Personally, I prefer the computer-based side of production. I use a common program called Reason, as well as various live instruments for that all-elusive "feel" the people look for today. What I love about the music is that so many sounds can be opened up with some creative redirection. If you pick up a guitar, there are only so many sounds you can get out of it, limited by its relatively low-tech build. Put that guitar sound into a computer and the possibilities are endless; reverse it, chop it up, bitcrush it, add reverb, noise gate, the options for developing your own sound are incredible.

Of course, computers offer more than just possibilities for developing new sounds. As the market for computer-based music production grew, so did the market for hardware. Today you can pick up a keyboard that links directly via USB for a trifling amount of money. These provide you with not only an interactive playing surface, but also another dimension for creativity.

Only a few hours ago, I hooked up an old video game controller to Reason, using a couple of free programs I downloaded. I can now play a drum machine as easily as I could play Street Fighter. This is not only fun and quirky, but also gives your music a sense of personality, something that I have been working on gaining as I step into the arena of live music performance. The technological possibilities go beyond a computer.

Several developers have released recording devices that connect straight into an iPod, which gives the amateur recorder even greater potential to develop songs and sounds. Music players now have DJ mixing capabilities and the Nintendo DS has been given a game that is essentially just a synthesiser.

Of course, the world of music is not for everyone, but for anyone who dabbles in it, there has never been a better time to jump in.

About the Author

Chris Jensen is a contributing author of Jetfly Blog. For more related articles and views visit Jetfly Music Blog now. Also, for the best up-to-date related online products, check out Jetfly Electronic Instrument Shop for todays current online deals.

How do you make music sound like a certain type?

For example, how do you make a song sound mysterious, suspenseful, or angry and stuff like that. Like when professionals play music and you tell them to play you a song that sounds like your investigating something and they play detective like music. How do you do that?

Well, much of it these days stems from music that was made standard many years ago.

Suspensful music (let's say, a scene where something big is about to happen) for instance may involve some music that builds up in energy. Start low, slow, and/or simple and then make it more complicated. You want to get the listener/watcher's heart and brain racing (what's going to happen; oh no, don't go in there; WATCH OUT!).

For action music, just have high energy music, loud and/or fast and or very complicated. Depending on the type of scene, you may want to play something like hard rock or hip hop or a high energy symphony piece.

For slow peaceful moments, you'll want to use music that puts people at ease, calms them down, give them "closure" to a scene or ending for instance.

Perhaps one of my favorite examples of this is the movie Gladiator. At the very end, the three songs: Elysium, Honor Him, and Now We Are Free; setup the watcher from one of the most emotional endings to a film that I have ever seen. It starts out slow and nice and gets progressively deeper, gets into more vocals and then ultimately a rhythm jumps in. Those three tracks actually comprise one song.

I hope that helps some.

Contemporary Music Festival sprawls April
The work of world-renowned composer Augusta Read Thomas will highlight This Year’s Contemporary Music Festival from the Ohio State School of Music.

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