Now testimonials have got a wonderful reputation, generally…well see for yourself, this is one individuals view of this actual article:
“Wow, I did not realise how simple it may be to implement this music marketing technique!” R.G, Chicago.
What’s the problem with this? Well for one, it’s made up. I just done it. And two…who on earth is R.G?
Now this is what I automatically imagine when I go through any web site, be it musical or not. The problem comes in the fact that the majority testimonials are just too distant.
Sure people can put a Internet address down and even a picture. It does actually help a huge amount. It makes you less distant, and now more reliable. However,  all of us  are now in the 21st Century and our selling techniques ought to really keep up with the technology on provide.
The technology? That is Flash. Now I’ve said in the past that a Web site ought to n’t be made out of Flash…with the main reason being the search engines will not select it up. But Flash is such a simple tool that it must be integrated into our Web sites for us to stand a slightest opening  of selling anything.
So what do  all of us  need to do?
first up is to actually embed Flash into our web sites so that it’s simple to work, prefer ably free, looks wonderful, simple to performance up and more than anything…fool proof for the user.
Now I’ve searched high and low for a flash player that meets those demands (I can n’t tell you how a lot of I’ve downloaded), and I’ve found one. Now I think that it’s a traversty that this software hasn’t been shouted about.
You need a player- MP3 or Video (which may be found at this address: www.jeroenwijering.com. All you need to do is download either a movie player, or an MP3 player, upload the many players components to your web site, upload an MP3 or Flash movie file (FLV), then tell the wizard (which may be found at this address: http://www.jeroenwijering.com/extras/wizard.html) where everything is stored. It will automatically give you the code. You copy and then paste it in to the source section of your HTML where you want the player…and thats it.
Simple.
As a side note: You see  all of us  ought to do everything ourselves so that  all of us  are not reliant on any other service. Youtube has a habit of stopping videos overnight, their quality is poor and it looks like  all of us  are cheap. Sure use YouTube for traffic generation and generating leads, but I would not use it to sell on my web site – it is not professional especially if you are selling DVDs or software. Doubts will go into customers minds about your products quality…and the sale will walk away. There are furthermore dedicated movie web sites that charge per month…but  all of us  want to reduce our resources output. So what do  all of us  do?
So the optimum way is to be clever at the start and buy a Internet hosting package that’s cheap yet plentiful. Just be careful about your monthly bandwidth. Virtually all hosting companies now provide incredible bandwidth solutions/ month so you ought to n’t worry about that. I’m with Superb Internet Hosting who give me bandwidth of 750GB/ month…which is more than ample and at a normal hosting price. I do not need specific video hosting, poor quality free hosting and I do not need to pay anymore cash…bargain!
Anyway what do  all of us  actually do with our Flash players?
Ahh, I’m glad that you asked. Now this is what your competition are not doing. You see you can record customers reactions to your music (especially at a performance ) and place these as testimonials.
Promote concert by recording previous performance s/ performances. Then question some of the goers before and following to see what they think? Promise them a free ticket, T-Shirt, CD  etc for their trouble. If you get some bad reviews (which can happen), edit them out.
If you are friendly with your testimonial makers, why not get them to do a short piece on your stuff? Only a handful (literally) of web sites have done this. Completely novel- they have interviewed buyers of the product to see what they think. Now that “nobody testimonial” has become a someone. It does not matter now who they are. How commanding is that style of testimonial? It generates thousands of sales weekly for some web site s.
You ought to be using the Flash players to performance your music (please no reduce d quality or 1 minute performance versions). Now I’ve improved my sales by well over 100  percent by doing this technique. Throughout my texts I’ve placed an MP3. So instead of having a bulk amount of MP3s in one place – where they can simply be forgotten, I’ve placed them throughout and leveraged the same performance of MP3s to a better advantage.
The Flash players ought to be used to interview your group or yourself. Because the Internet is so faceless, adding a “face” to your web site stimulates your credibility ten-fold. If you are the head of the company/ web site, have you on your sales pages stating what you are actually selling- pointing out rewards to the customer, backing up your text.
If you do not like what you look like, the Flash players ought to be used to performance your voice to help and direct people into making the proper decision.
Got a video or DVD? Flash player it at a reasonable size and quality to demonstrate what you have. Sales will increase with a demo of what you have.
Always recall though, that some people do not want to sit down and listen to you stating what you may be done. They want to see what may be done… that’s the difference. If you performance the guitar…Flash player yourself playing a certain specific style on one page and another style on another page. Therefore if I want to know how to make Flamenco music I do not want to see loads of other styles before you get to mine. Don’t speak the specific style, just performance it (and make it sound cool, vibrant and listenable).
So as you can see, there are a huge amount of scope for Flash players and they ought to be right up there with your top music marketing strategies.

Music is major part of our everyday life. Music furthermore has a long, complex and captivating history. It can predate language, and the majority certainly predates the written word. It is found in every known human culture, both past and present, varying wildly amidst certain periods and locations on the globe. The music of every culture is influenced by all other aspect of that culture, such as social and economic organization, climate, and access to technology.
The development of human music occurred against the backdrop of natural sounds like the lapping of ocean waves, the rippling of river water, the singing of birds and sounds created by other animals. Prehistoric music, more commonly referred to as primitive music, is the name given to all music produced by preliterate cultures, beginning somewhere in decidedly late geological history.
The prehistoric period is considered to have ended with the creation of writing, and with it, by definition, prehistoric music. “Ancient music” is the term given to the music that followed. This music has been produced by many early cultures, particularly Greeks, Romans, Egyptians, Mesopotamians and citizens of the Muslim world, as well as Asiatic cultures.
Following ancient music, came “early” music which is a decidedly general term referring to music in the European classical tradition from the fall of the Roman Empire in 476, until the end of the Baroque period in the 18th Century. Music within this enormous time span has been extremely diverse, encompassing multiple cultural traditions throughout a broad  geographic region. What unified these a lot of cultures in the Middle Ages has been the Roman Catholic Church, and its music served as a focal point for music development for the first centuries of this period.
The Medieval period (from the 9th to the 14th Centuries) has been rich in musical history as attested by the artistic renditions of instruments, writings about music, and other historical references. The only collection of music which has survived from pre-900 AD to the present is the liturgical music of the Catholic Church, the largest part of which is called the Gregorian chants.
Renaissance music followed the medieval era, but the beginning of Renaissance music is not as obvious ly marked as the start of the Renaissance in the other arts, and began, not in Italy, but in northern Europe especially central France, the Netherlands, and Belgium. The invention of the printing press had an immense influence on the dissemination of musical styles and by the 15th century, composers and singers from these Low Countries begin to spread over all of Europe.
Baroque music became quite popular following 1600, and instrumental music became dominant. Although strong religious musical traditions continued, secular music came to the forefront with the development of the sonata, the performance o and performance o grosso. In Baroque music the keyboard, particularly the harpsichord, is the dominant instrument. The three the majority outstanding composers of this period are J.S. Bach, G. F. Handel and A. Vivaldi.
The early Classical period has been ushered in by the Mannheim School which exerted a profound influence on Joseph Haydn, and through him, on nearly all subsequent European music. Wolfgang Mozart has been the central figure of this period and his phenomenal and varied output defines our perception of the Classical era.
Ludwig van Beethoven and Franz Schubert were transitional composers who led Europe into the Romantic period with their expansion of the current genre s, forms and even uses of music. During this Romantic period, music became more expressive and emotional. By the late 19th century, there has been a dramatic expansion in the size of the orchestras, and in the role of concert as part of a rapidly increasing urban society. Strauss, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Verdi and Wagner comprised a commanding group of Romantic composers. A prominent feature of late 19th century music is its nationalistic fervor, as exemplified by figures like Dvorak, and Sibelius.
The 20th Century saw a music revolution as radio gained popularity world broad  and new media and technologies were created to record, capture, reproduce and distribute music. Because music has been no longer limited to performance clubs and club s, it became possible for music musicians to capture fame and fortune quite expeditiously.
And music became more mobile with the use of headphones, CD  players, and iPods. Music of the 20th Century brought a new freedom and broad  experimentation with styles and forms that challenged the accepted rules of earlier musical periods. Heavy metal music and rap entered the picture and joined hip-hop, jazz, country/western, ballads, folk, acid rock, Christian rock and a variety of other genres to create today ’s fascinating world of music.

Ideally each page of your web site ought to serve a specific purpose. The main purpose of the sales page for your cd is to sell the cd.
If have a page with Google Adsense, the main purpose is to generate resources by to get people to click on the advertisement. If its not an necessary part of the process, do not load up the page with unnecessary things like animations or sounds. This will only distract visitors from achieving the task laid out for them, ie. buying your product.
Below are some ideas to include in your web site and the main purpose of each.
1) Main Page – The main pages is a general landing page to funnel visitors to varying areas of your web site. Start a obvious and simple navigation process linked to the other pages of your web site. *If you use Javascript for navigation, place text link at the bottom. This ensures that search engines will be able to spider your web site properly. You can furthermore use this page to feature your cd, music samples and other provide s.
2) Order Page(s) – Start a sales letter for each item that your are selling. Tomorrow we’ll go over some copywriting ideas to build a successful order page.
3) Press Releases – This section is where visitors can read 3rd get together articles published about you, increasing your credibility and exposure.
4) Contact Information – This is so people can get a hold of you to book shows, ask questions about products, collaborations, interviews or other opportunities (you never know). Include as much contact information as possible, like your phone, cell, mailing address, email etc.
5) Privacy Policy – Complies with privacy laws if your are collecting any of information about your customers/visitors. This furthermore helps to build trust and people will give their information more freely. Here’s a link to a privacy policy generator. http://www.the-dma.org/privacy/creating.shtml
6) Electronic Press Kit – This is where you refer the media to simply download an information package about you. Here’s some ideas on what you can include:
*Biography
*Demo songs
*Pictures
*Reviews/Testimonials
*Sideshow Of Photos
*Video or Film Footage (Windows Media or Quicktime format)
Start a biography with pictures in .pdf format and make it available for download. You can use the Writer program contained in the free Open Office Suite http://www.openoffice.org to do this. Open then program type (or paste) in your biography and insert pictures. When your done go to File > Export As PDF.
7) Lyrics – Allows fans to get more familiar with your music. furthermore adds content to your web site which will get select ed up by the search engines if it has an incoming link form your main page or somewhere else.
Biography – On your bio page sections fans read about you and see your pictures. A sideshow of your photos once in a while adds a wonderful touch.
9) Concert Listings/News – Keep your fans and web site visitors updated with the latest news about your performance s/shows, interviews, appearances ond other topics of interest.

With the major labels focusing on quick returns rather than artist development and the coming of downloading music Web, the traditional record company/artist relationship has become blurred to the point of being obsolete.
Nowadays, being independent has real advantages.
How a lot of times have you heard or read somewhere that the Internet has change d the face of the music business forever? I would love a dollar for everytime I heard it.
However, it’s true and there are a number of reasons for this. Two that spring into mind are that:
1. A traditional record company/artist relationship is optional and not a necessity. You can do your all music sales and performer promotion Web cutting out all of the ‘middle people ‘.
2. web sites can turn an artist with a local fans into an artist with an international fans. As the Internet is not ‘owned’ by any one entity the playing field is a lot more even.
To me, being an independent artist means that you are the one driving the bus and being in control over your own affairs.
A lot of talent ed musicians and performing songwriters around the world are at this decidedly moment waiting for that knock at the door, the opening  to ‘get located ‘. What’s like ly to happen is that they will invest their creative lives being decidedly disappointed.
If you are reading this and feel that this is you, contemplate this…
Where do you think you would be if you managed your career yourself rather than wait for someone (or some company) to do it for you?
There are a lot of web sites out in cyberspace that are there to help you take control over your career by spreading practical information about performer promotion and the independent music business as a whole, take advantage of these web sites and go to as a lot of as you can
Embrace independence today and capture control over your own musical affairs.

(For the purpose of this article I’m going to make a couple of assumptions before I go any further. They are that you’ve a little bit of vocal or musical instrument knowledge and that you furthermore have a fledgling network of friends and contacts)
Starting up a performer is a decidedly exciting time in a musicians life. There is a fine balance of nervous anticipation and the fear of the unknown that follows the whole process.
A performer has a varying dynamic than working as a solo artist. There are other people involved, other personal ities, other strengths and weaknesses in character and abilities and because of this it’s really necessary that you’ve a few things worked out before you start looking for performer members.
1. Have a wonderful idea of your own strengths and weaknesses
The performer members that you want to get will need to be around the same level of competence as you are. The main reason for this is that you can all grow together rather than have one or two musicians carrying anybody at all else. This kind of player imbalance causes doubt in the group and doubt is one of the major killers of bands.
2. Know beforehand how the performer is going to be run
Is the performer going to be run by you or the whole group? The personal ity categories of the musicians that you select will need to be agreeable to the way the performer is going to be run.
3. What instrumentation is the performer having in its lineup?
This is mainly determined by the type(s) of music that you want to performance but having an idea of what musicians you are looking for will be of amazing help.
It is now time to hunt down some performer members
4. Ask your network of friends and/or contacts
This is always a wonderful place to start. Ask anybody at all that you know or come into contact with. If you do not have much of a circle of friends and/or contacts this will be a amazing opening  to broad n it. This is one of the reasons why networking in the industry is so necessary, for opening s such as this.
Having a musician referred to you has a much better opening  of working than one that comes from an advertisement. This leads me onto my next point.
5. Post an advertisement
Having said that I’ve had made some amazing contacts from musicians enquiring from a ‘muso wanted’ ad. The key to effective ads is that they need to be concise, to the point, not too lengthy and put in places where musicians are decidedly like ly to see it and read it like in a music shop, a local music magazine or a music classifieds web site.
A sample ‘ musician wanted’ advertisement can read something like this:
BASS PLAYER WANTED
To join folk/rock band
Influences include
Ben Harper, Jack Johnson, Counting Crows
Some experience prefer red
Own gear and transport essential
Interested?? Give me a call
Corey – (put home and/or cell phone  number here)
As you can see, the ad is obvious in its intention.
It obvious ly states the musician wanted, the kind of music the performer is playing, what the music can sound like and that the performer has some experience behind it. Ensure you’ve a obvious contact name and phone numbers (if you want to include an email address as well that’s cool).
Don’t put in stuff like ‘work waiting’ or ‘no time has been ters please’. You can judge those sort of things yourself when an interested musician contacts you.
Once you’ve done that the waiting game begins.

Virtually all people would say the first thing to do is to find a name for the band. Lets start from there s club we??
The auditions are over, you’ve found your bass player and you all seem to get along really well. The excitement is in the air and you’ve had your first performer bonding celebration.
Now its time to start your musical journey together.
Personally, I think that locating a performer name is THE hardest decision that the performer will ever have to make and accordingly one of the the majority necessary decisions as well.
A performer name is a decidedly necessary part of the performers identity. It is the first point of contact a punter has with the band.
I can’t recall how a lot of times people have raved about a performer to me but can’t tell me the name when I ask them. Right there is the has been ted opening  for a band. It frustrates me no end.
This is a optimum example of how extremely necessary a performer name is.
The performer name is the first thing that a punter will recall. They will not address the performer by the names of the individuals in it when they talk to their friends (unless they are personal friends of yours) they will address the performer by its name.
The optimum way to find a performer name is through sheer persistance. Locating a performer name that’s agreeable by anybody at all is not an simple task.
Here are some performer name get together suggestions:
1. Get every member to write down their personal list of potential performer names
This may be the first task that the performer can do collectively. performance a date for the first performer meeting and amidst now and then do that task.
2. Make brainstorming performer names the topic of your first ever performer meeting
When anybody at all gets together put all of the lists out on the table and go through each one keeping to one side the names that ’strike a chord’ (sorry about the pun) with all of you and getting rid of the rest.
As a group try brainstorming some ideas. This is a amazing way to start formulating what the performer is all about, what its image is etc, etc.
3. Establish a competition among all your friends /family/anyone else via email
This is a amazing way to start compiling the beginnings of your performers email list. List all of your friends /family/anyone else that you want to include and their email addresses and compile them all into one mailing group. Send out an email outlining the competition and be ready for the ideas to come flooding in.
It is necessary to have a cut off date for the competition (perhaps by your first performer meeting) and to have a prize on provide. Of course the prize is totally up to you.
Ensure that when you do find a performer name that you announce it through your email group. You’ve just started email promotion of your band.
Whatever you do have fun with the process and do not let the quest to find a performer name override the other things that you’ve to do such as writing songs and locating rehearsal space.
I guarantee that once you’ve agreed on a performer name you’ll all collectively breathe a huge sigh of relief. The hardest part of the journey has been achieved.

Here is might the the majority necessary music business tip you’ll ever receive:
“Join up and subscribe to every independent music business and DIY performer promotion email list, newsletter and resource that you can get your hands on and read everything that you receive”.
I mean it when I say that too much information is much better than not enough, if what you’ve joined up or subscribed to is not giving you the information that you need then you can just opt out and un-subscribe.
Virtually all web sites that provide these things have the integrity to do as you ask.
Read what you receive, make notes, ask yourself if it’s relavent for you and the place you are living in, integrate the information into your knowledge base.
The only way to capture this knowledge is by research, and the Internet is the optimum place to research anything.
Researching on the Internet though will only give you general (but  however  decidedly necessary ) independent music business knowledge. The real power comes from knowing your local scene and developing into active in it.
Here are some ways that you can do this:
1. Establish reading the music magazines in your area. local street press is an invaluable tool in letting you know what is going on in the local industry. Generally these magazines have features/interviews with local bands, a gig  guide ( amazing for targeting where to play), industry news and so on.
2. Go and see some local bands. Check out your competition (I mean that as a figure of speech the the majority necessary thing about a repair thy independent music business is the community that builds from the music and the people who performance it), introduce yourself, get out there amongst it all and immerse yourself in the vibe. Get familiar with the places these performers performance at and know who to talk to when it’s your turn to performance there.
3. Assuming that the re are music associations where you live, join them. Anything that helps independent music on an association level seek it out and join up. If it expenses resources to do that then do it (generally its not an expensive exercise). Joining these categories of associations instantly gives you a sense of community and solidarity. furthermore the amount of information you’ll capture about your local area will be huge.
4. Assuming that the se local companies have web sites then bookmark them.
Need I say more on this topic. Virtually all web sites for offline companies provide more to Web users of their services. It pays to be an active Web user. One advantage that comes to mind is the fact that you are able to participate in forums and messageboards which, in time will become commanding DIY marketing tools for you.
You got to start somewhere and the optimum place to start is with your own local area. As you expand your knowledge base you’ll work out ways to further your career and hopefully a snowball effect will start.
Once it stars, HANG ON!

Having a lot of people that know who you are is always a worth and not a hindrance.
Just the other day I got a call from someone who wanted to find out if I has been available to performance bass with their band. I declined due to not having the room to take on another project but I gave them the number of someone else I knew that would fit the bill perfectly.
That day, that performer found a new bass player and so the story goes.
That experience got me thinking that pretty much everything that I do in my dealings with the music business is based on who I know.
people like working with others whom they trust will do the job they want them to do or like recommending others for jobs that they can’t tackle themselves for one reason or another. I understand that when this particular performer that has been looking for a bassist finally found one through my network I has been proud of myself. I has been glad to help someone out.
That is what networkings really all about though is not it? Helping people?
For anybody at all who is just starting out my advice is to find as a lot of people and go to as a lot of functions and concert as you can.
Immerse yourself in your local scene.
The more that people know who you are, the more opportunities that will open up for the taking. Become the squeaky wheel that gets all of the oil. Have that belief in yourself that you are worth knowing and do not be afraid of knowledge.
One thing that you do not do however is to get to know people for what they can do for you. Get to know them for who they are as a individual. Others can spot your insincerity a mile away (especially us cynical musos) and that’s a real turn-off.
Personally I’m chuffed when someone asks me for advice or just wants to have a chat about how things are going for them, but only Assuming that the y are genuine about it.
A amazing place to start networking would be at open mic evenings.
Get yourself involved in an open mic and just walk up to someone and say “hi”. Everyone is there for the same reason so there is some common ground. You can perhaps ask them Assuming that the y are going to be performing on that night and go from there.
Don’t forget, the more you network the more you’ll be known and the more you are known the more work you’ll get.
In time your ‘little black book’ of names will become your  most important  asset.

I’ve met a lot of musicians along my journey and some of those I’ve gotten to know pretty well. All of them have a similar story as to how they started in the music business and it goes a bit like this.
“I do not know how I started really, I just sort of fell into it and before I knew it I has been in a band”
Sound familiar? It does to me. That is how I got started.
I did not have a plan, did not have a clue and did not have any idea of what I has been getting myself in for let alone what I wanted to get out of it.
I wanted to be a “rock star” so I can “meet girls”.
I has been only fifteen when I made that decision and thinking back on it I cringe and laugh at the same time but it does show me the importance of getting ready ahead.
It is decidedly simple to get swept up in the hype of it all and before you know you are in the same place that you started but ten years have gone by and you are left wondering ‘where did it go’.
Before going any further you need to ask yourself some questions. These questions can be (in no particular order of importance):
1. Am I going to write songs or not?
2. Am I going to be a solo artist or performance in a band?
3. Am I going to sing, performance an instrument or both?
4. Am I prepared to practise, drill and rehearse my craft?
5. Am I going to find my own work or do I leave that up to someone else?
I think you are getting the idea of where I’m going with this.
You can be thinking that these questions can seem decidedly simple and straightforward and in essence you are right however, I’m constant ly surprised how a simple question such as “am I going to be a solo artist or performance in a band” can distract someone from actually moving forward.
I’ve seen it happen to a lot of musicians and have experienced it myself.
Before you start have a obvious knowledge of what you want to do and what you want to get out of it. Ask yourself these categories of really simple questions and from those answers a series of paths will be presented to you.
All you need to do then is to select which path you take.
Working to a plan will make your journey a lot easier to undertake.

It is a safe bet that, since the arrival of cognitive human beings on this earth, music has, in some form had a meaningful effect on their lives. The first sounds, other than speech, were might produced by hitting something; wood, stone or hide; and ancient peoples must have appreciated the sounds of the world around them; of water, weather and animals; and were the sounds of a rippling stream or a gushing waterfall music to their ears? And when they stood at the seashore did the crashing waves and the suck of the tides move them in some way?
There is something deep within our psyche, which reacts and ‘ recall s’ music. It is more than probable that sounds relating to music and rhythm came long before sounds relating to communication and speech. Today, this theory may be tested by noting a baby’s reaction to a lullaby as compared to speech. If you are lucky, humming can soothe the the majority fractious child and even send them to sleep! Music, in the form of rhythm has been used by a lot of peoples as a way of sending messages to out of sight recipients; contemplate the jungle drums of Africa or the Alpine horn, the Aboriginal didgeridoo or the use of bells as a warning of attack.
The days of learning our lessons by rote have, mostly, disappeared. This is because it has, rightly, been recognised that  all of us  don’t necessarily absorb the content of what  all of us  repeat over and over again. But, as an help to memory, music still has its uses. songs  all of us  have learnt in childhood may be recalled far later in life than mere words. Music is a well known and much used therapy in illnesses that involve memory loss; Stroke, Alzheimers etc; and not only as a recall help but furthermore as a re-learning tool. Speech therapists use music extensively when trying to educate stroke victims how to speak again. The rhythm and melody of a familiar tune will again and again ‘trigger’ a positive response, when no amount of visual stimuli has an effect.
And then there is the cohesive quality of music; from the singing of a country’s National Anthem to a football crowds chant; from carol singers to brass bands. Musical participation has been used in every walk of life. The chain gangs of America’s Deep South would use music to get through the day and create a rhythm to mundane physical labour. Sailors would pull a hawser or ’sheet’ in unison while singing a familiar ‘hornpipe’ or reel; The amazing gospel sounds that poured from the wooden churches of the Southern states black population were a potent community tool to  promote  and celebrate their culture; a lucky offshoot has been the inspiration of much of our modern rhythm and blues. Nowadays factories all over the world use ‘piped’ music to soothe the workers; if you are doing a humdrum task music can make the time go faster.
When  all of us  think about it music is not just a pleasant pastime that’s either passively listened to or actively produced. It has a much deeper, more fundamental purpose. Our reactions to outside gatherings may be completely altered by music. It can make us happy, sad, frightened, elated, thoughtful . . . the list of feelings it engenders are as long as their number. And words are not necessary to create this ambience; for instance, how would silent movies have worked without the music? Those Keystone Cops without the frenetic piano plinkity plonk; the doe eyed heroines without the sobbing strings; the huge sweeping epics without full orchestral back up? They just would not have worked. Nowadays, with the proliferation of world music,  all of us  listen to and find pleasure in music in a lot of varying languages, without necessarily understanding a word the singers say; much as opera has been once listened to as the fashionable ‘world’ music of its day; just another example of the emotive power of music.
So, it’s fair to say that music has an innate basis in our evolutionary makeup.  all of us  have might used it since homo sapiens first walked the earth. Other animals do use sounds in their day to day living (frogs croak, dogs howl, sheep bleat etc.) but, with the possible exception of birds,  all of us  are the only species to find pleasure in making melody out of sound. We’ve utilised every viable tool, from the human voice to electronic tones, to create ever more varied compositions. Wouldn’t it be intriguing to discover how soon into our evolution the power and beauty of the human voice has been appreciated? As the centuries have passed musicians have been, rightly, feted for their skill to move us with song, melody and rhythm. Once musicians were revered as priests, interpreting the sounds of the gods. Nowadays  all of us  are more pragmatic; but  all of us  still need that harmony in our lives; even if it’s only our cell phone  ringtone!