Red Wine Investment Is a Fantastic Way to Make Money

When the Agricultural Society recognized the need of serious research and supervision for the entire wine industry in 1861, Col. Haraszthy had already solved the problem that faced them. New varieties were needed with experimental, supervised planting in various sections of the State. Red wine investment is a fantastic way to make money as long as you know what you are doing.

In 1861 Governor Downey appointed Col. Haraszthy to head a commission to go to Europe for the purchase of selected varieties to be planted in different parts of the State. He went abroad carrying letters from the Secretary of State, visiting principal vineyards and wineries in Spain, France, Germany, Italy, and Switzerland. With practical knowledge of soil and climate conditions at home in California, he selected the leading species of vines, had them tagged, bundled, and shipped to America. He spent $12,000 of his own money for 100,000 vines of 1,400 different varieties.

On his return he prepared an elaborate report of his trip, accounting in detail for all the monies expended, and described the methods of all the famous wineries he had visited. His book, “Grape Culture, Wines and Wine-Making,” is a collector’s item today. It reads as lightly and amusingly as a best-selling travelogue. However, when the report was presented to the California legislature for approval and personal reimbursement, it was wholly rejected!

Civil War was by then raging between the North and South. A five-man Senate Committee on Agriculture voted three to two not to accept the report, or the vines, or to pay the bill. The three nays were Northern Republicans who suspected the Colonel of Confederate leanings!

Col. Haraszthy held the vines for a year, hoping the legislature would reconsider his report. They refused again. Disgusted and disappointed, he returned from the State Capitol and looked at his priceless stock of vine cuttings. His desire to be of further service to the California wine industry came to an end. To realize something from his investment he offered the vines for sale. In lots of twenty, fifty, or one hundred they were distributed, indiscriminately, all over the State. Identifying tags, so carefully attached in each country, were lost, smudged, or ignored by the new owners.

This partisan stupidity of the legislature dealt the industry a crushing blow from which it has never fully recovered. The task of identifying grape species still goes on today; vintners sometimes quarrel with experts over certain types, such as Trebbiano. The finest species, which would have been accorded special care under the Colonel’s supervision, were discarded by most vineyardists of that time because they gave a small yield. The precious blood of these grapes is only now becoming fully appreciated.

In the late sixties, after conveying his Sonoma vineyard to a cooperative association, Col. Haraszthy left California to begin a new life in Central America. Wines and vines had given him a thoroughly disappointing life, and with some degree of vindictive determination he turned to raising sugar cane on a large scale. After only a few months of this new life he missed his footing while crossing a tropical stream, fell into the swirling waters and was devoured by alligators.

What Was the British Invasion

The British Invasion occurred in the mid-’60s, when a wave of English rock & roll bands crossed over into the American market after the breakthrough success of the Beatles. Though not all of the bands sounded similar — they ranged from the hard rock of the Rolling Stones and the Kinks to the sweet pop of Gerry & the Pacemakers and Herman’s Hermits — each group was heavily influenced by American rock & roll, blues, and R&B. British Invasion bands were either blues-based rockers or pop/rockers with ringing guitars and catchy hooks & melodies. Between 1964 and 1966, the British bands dominated the American charts, as well as the charts in the U.K. In that time, there was a second wave of British Invasion bands — such as the Who and the Zombies — which was indebted to both American rock and British Invasion pop. By the late ’60s, many of the bands had become rock icons but a greater number didn’t survive the transition into the post-Sgt. Pepper era.

Over the years the British Invasion has also come to include some solo performers such as Elton John, Rod Stewart and Eric Clapton, as well as groups like Fleetwood Mac, and Pink Floyd. EMI Canada is Distinct and has Its own Label Black rainbow same as Capital.

Of course if there’s an invasion, then there has to be the defenders. North America was not going to sit idly by and let the British Bands rule the airways. America’s own royalty, (The King) Elvis Presley was letting know that, British hound-dogs couldn’t step on his blue suede shoes.

The Most Beginner-Friendly Way to Improvise

Most students try too hard. They really want to be able to improvise. To sit down at the piano and express through music. But they try too hard and miss the point of it all. It doesn’t have to be that way. In fact, improvisation should be a joy. If it isn’t you are doing something wrong.

Here’s a simple method to get you going. Look at Lesson 3: “Rainforest.” Here we have a strategy for successful improvisation. The left-hand takes care of the background while the right is free to create whatever it wants from the G Major scale - an excellent method for beginners.

The key here is to forget about the left-hand ostinato pattern and shift your attention to creating melody in the right. Once you get the pattern down your focus should be on melody creation. What’s great about “Rainforest” is that you only get 2 chords to play in the left-hand. Something beginners can accomplish easily. But here’s where some students get stuck. Why? Because they play something beyond their technical ability and either lose the left-hand pattern or stop playing because they don’t like what they’re hearing.

Here’s a secret - go as slow as you need to. There’s absolutely no need to be a speed demon here. The goal is to make music, not show off and see how “well” you can play. Go slowly and play with sensitivity. Here’s another bit of advice - the sensitive player will ALWAYS SOUND BETTER than the player with technical proficiency.

It doesn’t matter if all you know are the notes from the G Major scale, but, if you play with sensitivity and feeling, you will sound better than the musician who knows everything there is to know about music!

Edward Weiss is a pianist/composer and webmaster of Quiescence Music’s online piano lessons. He has been helping students learn how to play piano in the New Age style for over 14 years and works with students in private, in groups, and now over the internet. Stop by now at http://www.quiescencemusic.com/piano_lessons.html for a FREE piano lesson!

Set up a homestudio to make your own recordings

Nowadays affordable computers and great audio hardware make it
feasible for anyone to make great recordings. The number of
soundcards available for example, is enormous. It is impossible
to tell in a few words what you need to start a homerecording
studio, but in this article I will give some valuable advice to
get you started.

Choose the right soundcard

Forget the standard soundcard that was present when you bought
your computer. It lacks the features that are really important
for recording. Have a look at some entry-level or more
professional audio interfaces. One of the important differences
is the quality of the analog-digital conversion. Decide in
advance whether you want to record multiple instruments on
independent tracks simultaneously. If not, a decent two-channel
audio interface may be sufficient. Other things to look at are
latency (degree of delay as a consequence of internal
processing), bit depth, sampling frequency and the availability
of preamps.

Whether you want to record your guitar or the signal of a
microphone, the sound level will be usually very low if you
don’t use a preamplifier. Preamps are built in in some
audio-interfaces, in most mixers and, recommended if quality is
your primary concern, are available as standalone units. They
offer at least a gain knob that allows you to adjust the sound
signal level.

Get software that suits you

You will definitely need some software to record the incoming
signal to your computers hard drive, to edit wave forms and to
mix down your music for burning a cd or distribution on the web.
Software can be simple, and sometimes free, but advanced audio
sequencing software is generally not cheep. Have a look at Adobe
Audition for some simple work, and look for Steinberg Cubase,
Logic Audio (on Mac) and Digidesign Protools (Mac and PC) at the
higher end. Decide whether you are going to use MIDI or not and
whether the availability of a lot of audio effect plugins is
important. The more advances software offers many routing
options, automation and an enormous flexibility, however keep in
mind that you need time before you can work with it comfortably.
Some learning curves are indeed very steep.

Monitors are essential

Having an audio interface and recording software is not enough.
You need to be able to listen to your recordings and judge their
quality in a proper way. Therefore you need a set of dedicated
speaker, called ‘monitors’. Although some hifi-speakers may do
the job for a while, judging sounds is ideally done using a pair
of monitors.

Microphones and preamps

Once you have these essential elements of the recording cascade,
you can start investing in microphones and other gear. Choosing
the right microphone is a difficult task, but as a simple rule,
it is better to buy one decent microphone than a number of
crappy ones. This also applies to preamps.

Conclusion

Building a cheap recording studio around your pc is perfectly
possible nowadays, but you should carefully consider your needs.
Check out each element of the cascade, since the worst component
will actually determine your sound. And then the creative
process only starts… To find out more on setting up a
homerecording studio, you can start looking into various
webresources on audio recording, for example RecordingFreaks.