During 2015 we have worked hard to bring you a range of different content with Melodics. As the year comes to a close we took a look at what have been our most popular lessons. Cue Point Drumming Basics lesson was our most popular lesson with the other paid Cue Point Lessons being very popular as well. So as a thank you – all our Premium Cue Point Drumming Content is once again available for ALL our users over the next seven days.
Make sure to make the most of this offer and improve these skills. We’ve stressed it a lot lately but Cue Point Drumming is hear to stay and is growing as a necessary skills for all DJ’s. So why not spend time improving these skills the fun way with Melodics
This week we have added some cool new features that will help you navigate and use Melodics even better
These features include New Lesson Screen Design, Long Notes and ASIO Support for Windows users. Check out the videos below for a visual look at these features.
New Lesson Screen – Navigate With Ease. No More Scrolling
Metronome Control, Long Notes & ASIO Support For Windows
Like these changes? You will receive them as a part of our latest build. If you have any issues with getting the build feel free to get in touch with us via support@melodics.com
Outside of this send us through any videos of yourself playing Melodics via Instagram, Facebook and now Youtube.
Over at Melodics HQ our christmas is a tropical one, no snow! So for our Christmas release we have made some Tropical Chiptune Lessons.
Chiptunes music is made with 8 bit synthesizers and heard primarily on old school gaming consoles. So for this lesson pack we have sampled a Gameboy and a C64 SID chip synth.
To get your head around what we mean check out the video below that demonstrates that all you need is five Gameboy Colors and some imagination to make some sick beats. How he obtained all these Gameboys is still a mystery.
Delving a bit deeper into the Chiptunes scene, Youtube user Rakohus is the undisputed O.G of the genre online. With his 100K follower channel dedicated to remixing some of your favorite songs into a chiptune format.
Big Shout Out to the dancing man (real name Grant) who appears in all of Rakohus’ videos. The way he can groove to 8-bit while wearing only a onesie and a belt is truly inspiring. While his fashion sense and dancing technique may have come into question, there is no question that Grant has passion that can’t be beat.
In regards to our newly released Chiptunes lessons, they are designed to get you familiar with diatonic arpeggio’s. Some of our favourite gaming music is full of fun, melodic, major scale harmony. This harmony is also the backbone of contemporary music so it is worth getting your ears tuned and adjusted to.
These lessons will challenge your finger speed, memory, ear and independence. Hopefully you will also learn a new way to lay out sample pads to create your own music.
So get practicing and send us your own Chiptunes over the Christmas period via Instagram and Facebook.
We leave you with an exclusive Rakohus Christmas joint, that stars my favorite dancing animation Grant. Not sure about the snow in outer space but at the end of the day it is all about the music.
This weeks New Lesson Tuesday covers the Classic Breaks affectionately known as ‘Doggone’ , ‘Sing Sing’ and ‘Think’. These three drum breaks have been used in 100’s of tracks throughout the decades in a variety of genres. We will run through each, break by break to give you a snapshot of the history behind there influence.
Love – Doggone – ‘Doggone Break’
Love was an influential psych rock band active in the late 60s / early 70s. The band had a small degree of commerical success but were later praised by critics with there 1967 album Forever Changes being listed #40 on Rolling Stones 500 Best Albums Of All Time List in 2003.
Clocking in at whooping 12 minutes long, Doggone features a 9 minute drum solo by George Suranovich that provides lots of sample opportunities. However the loop that can be heard in the video above has been most widely used. This break went widely unnoticed by producers and collectors until Kanye West used it in his productions in the early 2000s. Below are a few more recent examples of tracks that have sampled ‘Doggone’.
While Gaz’s 1978 disco track ‘Sing Sing’ may not be considered an all time classic by most its iconic drum break has been heard the world over. The drum break has been used in hip hop circles by the Wu Tang Clan, took Kylie Minogue to court and is essentially the backbone of Baltimore club music.
“It’s like that lady in the Southern Baptist church with the tambourine – until the lady starts hitting the tambourine, the church don’t start jumping.
DJ Technics (On The Sing Sing Break)
Below are a few examples of the many songs that sample the ‘Sing Sing’ Break.
Perhaps the most unique and iconic break out of the set for its ‘Yeah, Woo’ vocals. Derived from a 1972 Funk record from Lyn Collins the track was produced by the legendary James Brown. Appearing in a variety of genres this song has also been featured heavily ever since and is among James Brown’s most sampled productions.
Rob Base and DJ E-Z Rocks track ‘It Takes Two’ is the most well known and blatant use of this drum break. While Dizzee Rascal also used the break for his hit grime track Old Skool.
So there you have it. A brief look at what makes this weeks Classic Breaks so ‘Classic’. You can play all of these lessons now on Melodics. Master them and even include them in your own productions like so many great producers in the past have. As always send through any videos of yourself playing Melodics via Instagram using the hashtag #Melodics.
Ever since launching back in October our design guru Adam and the rest of the team have had a goal to revamp our play screen. We are pleased to announce that we have done just that. The purdy new layout is now available to all Melodics users. We put together a quick video to give you a glimpse of the play screen and also steps on navigating through Melodics.
If you are still seeing the old layout do not fear it just means you are on one of our older builds. To update automatically just leave Melodics running for ten minutes. Or go to this link and re download the app.
The new play screen design is the first of series of additions we are making to the user interface to make Melodics even better. If you have any particular ideas or feedback feel free to provide it in the comments section below.
Get ready for some deep house vibes this week courtesy of Polish DJ, producer and finger drumming sensation Carl Rag. Coming from a classic piano background Carl rose to finger drumming prominence through a reasonably popular website called Youtube 😉
For most absolutely killing it on a Launchpad would be a finger drumming dream. However Carl took things to another level when he decided to play on a Maschine and an Akai APC40 at the same time.
Outside of making these incredible videos Carl Rag also has a love for Tech/Deep House. The lessons he is releasing on Melodics this week are from his deep house beat ‘Piano Weapon’ and were shown in a recent video he did for Reloop.
Expect to be playing all the interesting fundamentals of deep house from the bass lines to the chord progressions. The Piano samples and overall feel of this lesson makes for fun practicing.
As always send us through videos of you playing these lessons over Instagram using the hashtag #Melodics and we will feature them on our channel.
Welcome to another wonderful Tuesday here at Melodics. This week we have some funky drums fills made by the Melodics team that will help you harness your inner ‘Bernard Purdie’
We’re taking a quick trip into the past. Funk music originated in the US during the late 60’s with James Brown , Sly & the Family Stone and others taking the genre to #1 on the charts. Since then the genre has influenced many artists from the funk rock styles of the Red Hot Chilli Peppers to the G-Funk craze that was prominent in West Coast Hip Hop during the 90’s.
Our drum fill lessons this week will have all the other elements of the track playing, with you only needing to focus on the jamming out on the drums.
So enjoy the five new lessons and as always feel free to post videos of you jamming away on Melodics via Instagram. Just post your video add in the hashtag #Melodics and we’ll find you!
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