Sweet Music Studio

Mapping the mental activity of the brain shows that music stimulates parts of this organ just as food, drugs and sex do, reveals a report in the "Canadian Geographic" magazine. It is apparent that music can affect emotions and mood in the vast majority of individuals. Several areas of the brain are activated when listening to music, and even more areas are stimulated and participate in playing music.

Auditory Cortex

The auditory cortex is mainly part of the temporal lobe at each side of the brain, slightly above the ears. The brain cells in this area are organized by sound frequencies, with some responding to high frequencies and others to low ones. The auditory cortex analyzes the information from the music such as the volume, pitch, speed, melody and rhythm, according to the "Canadian Geographic" magazine and Alzheimer's Disease Research.

Cerebrum

The frontal gyrus is located in the cerebrum, which is the largest part of the brain and located at the top and fr…

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Giovanni Vailati (1815 - 1890) was an Italian mandolinist who reached the virtuosic-level of playing ability and was able to travel and perform throughout Europe.[1] Entirely self taught on his instrument, he was described by Philip J. Bone as a "natural genius on his instrument, who by his remarkable performances, became known throughout his native land as 'Vailati the blind, the Paganini of the mandolin.'"[1] He is important as one the first generations of quality performers to use mandolin. He was one of a small number of mandolinists of the 19th century to play the mandolin in the concert halls of Europe after the Napoleonic War, who played with excellence in spite of indifference and diffidence toward their chosen instrument.[4] Pietro Vimercati was another, whose concerts predated Vailati's by about 30 years.[4] Also performing in Europe in the years following 1815 was Luigi Castellacci.[1] Vailati was born "at the Torchio farm in the village of Vairan…

by Hermon Joyner
March 30, 2015

Several miles north of Los Angeles in the suburban, rolling hills of Santa Clarita, California, something curious is happening. Steve Sorensen has been designing and building mandolins and archtop guitars in his converted garage for the past several years. In a relatively short amount of time, he has built his business from scratch in much the same way that he builds his mandolins—assuming nothing, considering all his options, pushing hard all the time, and making course corrections as needed—and now his mandolins are attracting a great deal of well-deserved attention.

While many mandolin builders are content to build mandolins the same way Gibson and Lloyd Loar built them, Sorensen is convinced that there must be other ways to approach the design of these eight-string instruments. In fact, it’s the design process itself that provides so much satisfaction for him. He loves it and he sums up his philosophy about mandolins like this, “I love the classic …

BY JOSHUA HESTON

What is Ozark culture? “Self-made,” said John Wynn, without missing a beat. “When they got here to such backwoods, hilly country that you couldn’t hardly farm because there wasn't a level piece of land around, they had to build everything they used. They built their own culture.

“They formed their own ways of life. Their own standards, their own religion. It meant so much to them.

“They were hill people."

Born on the West Coast during the latter of the dust bowl days, Wynn remembers traveling back and forth from California to the Oklahoma Ozarks to “pick up family members and haul them to California to find work.”

In time, his family returned to Salina, Oklahoma, and a “40-acre rockpile” where John remained until joining the navy, at which point he found himself back in California.

It was during this time that another serviceman, Charles Winkler, altered John’s life forever by simply teaching him a few guitar chords.

“Funny how someone can influence our live…

Based out of a small town in New Jersey, Barry Mitterhoff is a mandolinist who absolutely refuses to be pigeonholed into one style, despite the ease with which a writer in this sort of database can click on a key that says bluegrass. Of course, like just about every mandolinist around, Mitterhoff got into bluegrass music and has played his share of it. He became closely associated with banjoist Tony Trischka, who helped take that genre just about as far out as it has ever gone, thus forever associating Mitterhoff with the progressive bluegrass movement and even beyond that, the avant-garde bluegrass movement. He is most certainly being watched by "the bluegrass police," as described by his fellow mandolinist Jimmy Gaudreau, also not a player who liked to do things the way they are supposed to be done in bluegrass. Mitterhoff has become involved in several different styles that are firmly outside the bluegrass camp, working regularly with a klezmer group and through his good…