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Cheryl Cole reportedly spent £65,000 on her X Factor performance of debut solo single ‘Fight For This Love’. The Cheryl Cole single then went straight in at number 1.

The singer, whose album 3 Words is currently at number one, allegedly paid the sum for her dancers, costumes, extra lighting, lasers and other special effects for the live show.

“The performers have to pay their own production costs and it can be a small fortune,” a source told The Mirror.

Meanwhile, performances by Whitney Houston and Alexandra Burke on the ITV1 programme are reported to have each cost £60,000.

Bon Jovi are said to have staged the cheapest live performance last Sunday, which allegedly came in at approximately £30,000.

Black Eyed Peas and Leona Lewis have been confirmed to sing on Sunday night’s live show.

X Factor guest stars Robbie Williams and Cheryl Cole had to pay thousands to perform on show
Desperate for a No1 or a career comeback? Then get a spot on the X Factor - if you can afford it.

Big name stars have to shell out tens of thousands of pounds to appear on the show.

But the money’s well worth it, with guest appearances ensuring maximum exposure to recordbreaking audiences.

An X Factor insider revealed: “The performers have to pay their own production costs and it can be a small fortune.

Have you been dreaming of a huge email list? The kind of list that with one click of the “send” button hordes of fans mobilize to come to see your shows, or play your new track at garageband.com? If not, then shame on you.

A well maintained and growing email list is a mighty tool. Why? Because it provides a quick and easy way to keep in front of your adoring fans, and it is absolutely FREE.

The sad thing is most artists drop the ball on building this marketing powerhouse. So, in an effort to stop this atrocity, I decided to give you four simple and effective tactics to build that list.

1. Migidy Mic Check…

Your standing on stage, maybe the beach balls are floating atop the crowd, or the mosh pit has attracted the state police, or maybe the fans are singing so loud you can’t hear your stage monitors. Whatever your situation, the fact of the matter is that you have human beings sitting right in front of you, hanging off of your every word, wanting to become your fans.

Do you realize the power of this moment? Right now your audience is focused on one thing - you. And as hard as it may be to believe, at this very moment, more than anything else, they want more of you. How do you give them what they want? Speak up and offer to get connected.

Tell your audience in your own genuine words that your email list is the way you stay connected to your fans. It is how you pass on latest news and how you notify of your upcoming gigs.

Simple and effective. Do not let one gig pass without asking your fans to get connected.

2. Give it away now…

Ok, you know the value of seizing the moment while you’re at the microphone, now lets make signing up a little more enticing.

Do you like free stuff? Who doesn’t? We are suckers for trinkets and giveaways. Now just imagine if you were to offer your fans an opportunity to get something more valuable than a mere trinket. What if you offered them the opportunity to win one of your T-shirts or autographed CDs, or [wait for it…] Both! Oh my, the pandemonium, the crowd goes nuts.

How would this work? Simply hold a contest where the entry form is a piece of paper that asks for your fan’s first name and email address. It’s that simple. You exchange the chance to win one CD (your cost under $2) and a T-shirt (your cost around $5) in exchange for the email address of the members of your audience. If the cost of giving away a few pieces of much merch bothers you, just think of the value of only one new fan dragging a friend to your next show, shelling out two covers charges, selling a t-shirt to the friend and both of them telling others at work about their experience… Lets move on.

3. Something Of Value

Ask yourself what the real objective of the contest mentioned above is? Let me tell you plainly, the objective is to mutually exchange something of value. You offer something of value to your fans in exchange for something of value to you. A surprisingly high value item to your fans is a simple old-fashioned newsletter. You know, the thing with silly facts and stories about you? Offer this gem in exchange for something of value to you - your fan’s email address. This is an easy sell because you need their email address to send the newsletter right? It is a natural win-win situation so use it.

4. Point of Sale

Now were at the end of the show and people are flocking to your merch table. Your latest self-titled CD is flying off the shelf. Your fans are even picking up that illegible sticker that was designed by your crazy cousin Fred. Are you going to just let them walk away without offering them the chance to stay connected to the band that they just layed down their hard earned cash to buy a recording of?

You have a perfect opportunity while you are counting out their change to “ask them” to sign your concert connection and stay connected to the band. What’s the worse they can do, say no?

There you go four tactics you can use tonight to pack fans into your mighty email list. That should get you going. Remember it is the simple and effective tactics performed flawlessly over and over that make you successful. Don’t miss a beat and watch that email list grow.

Copyright 2006 - For additional information regarding Sean Farrington, band coaching, money, music, business or just to learn how to turn your passion for music into profit, please visit bandprofit.com.

You may freely reprint and reproduce the above article as long as the resource box (above) this disclaimer and the article are copied in their entirety. In addition if the article is used on the web or in e-mail, the link must be kept in hypertext.

Music downloads are very popular right now and rightfully so. Just image having access to thousands of songs with the ability to get your own digital copy. The proliferation of iPods, iTunes, Napster, MP3 players, high speed internet connections, and CD burners has made the world ripe for digital music. How do you get digital music? You download music to your PC. That’s how.

Where can you find music downloads? There are several services online that provide music download to their customer. You can download music from Walmart for $.88 per song. That is a pretty good deal and they have a nice selection of songs. For the iPod owners out there, you can download music from iTunes. They also have a real nice selection of music and they charge $.99 per song.

If you don’t want to use either of those services then you may want to try Napster. Napster actually popularized music downloads back when they gave users access to songs for free. The free music swapping was, of course, shut down and now they charge $9.95 per month for unlimited access to their music library. They currently advertise a selection of 1,500,000+ songs.

Today’s version of Napster is called Kazaa. It allows users to share music files amongst themselves. Music downloads through Kazaa are free for now, but expect Kazaa to eventually go the way of Napster. Music companies do not like people to download music for free so the free music downloads will not last forever.

MP3.com also provides visitors music downloads. They actually sell songs through other sites, but they allow you to find and listen to songs before you make a purchase. They have a good selection of songs and even off some music downloads for free.

One last place to look for music downloads is in music user groups. It is common for users in those groups to share music, so you should be able to find music to download if you look hard enough.

For more information on cell phones and the companies that provide cell phone service simply run a search for “music download” or “download music” on Google and you will get plenty of addtional information.

Jason D. Barrett is currently focused on writing informative articles for InfoBriefs.com, child insurance articles for ChildInsure.com, and technology articles for ScoutTechnology.com. This is part of his highly successful internet property development approach. Please feel free to contact Jason through one of his sites to see how he can help you develop your own internet property!

Can we use the roar of the high intensity crowd and all their human energy to light up the stadium? If we can use all this high energy, can we get a discount on our tickets for the energy savings? How about a Rock Concert discount tickets thru Alternative Energy Lighting Program? Sounds good to me? But is it really possible to light up a stage and all the lighting using vibrational energy from all the people packed in?

It maybe possible by placing large 4 x 8′ sandwich sheets with a taunt film on the vibrational side and small copper lined tubes, hundreds of them running perpendicular to the sheets, with magnets inside bouncing back and forth. These magnets will charge a capacitor and be hooked up to an LED lighting system using fiber optics or reflectors, each one hooked up to a .2 to .5 watt light. With hundreds of thousands of lights hooked up in a composite format it will light up the stage and building.

Currently this technology is being used in those little flashlights you see advertised on television that you shake and they light, but you never need batteries. This idea of lighting up the stadium is using that technology on a larger scale with miniaturized parts making up the guts between the sandwich sheets. Let there be light, thru vibrational energy and there was. Think on it.

“Lance Winslow” - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/

I frequently hear concerns from parents of young piano students about their child’s hearing. The most common question asked is, “Does my child have a “good” ear?”

I usually respond with something like, “They look alright to me. Does she have two?” There are some common myths which often mislead parents and encourage them to look for their student’s musical limitations. While there may be some value in this, there are a lot more warnings in literature and folklore that suggest “If you look for problems, problems will find you.”

In my opinion, it is better to first consider the possibilities. Before testing your young child’s musical ear make sure they understand basic concepts such as high and low and up and down in musical terms. If you ask a four year old to play a high note on the piano, they are most likely to raise their hand in the air and say, “how high?”

You can give your young child in piano lessons a chance to develop their musical ear and talent with time and patience. You can also play these fun games at home with your child.

The first game is called “Copy Cat.” Give your child this introduction:

“Copy Cat” is a lot like Simon Says. Do you remember that game? Let’s both put our right hand in C position on the piano. Play a couple of notes, Sally, any notes you want to play in C position. Then I’ll try to copy what you played.

Do this for a while and then reverse the game. You play a few notes and have your child be the Copy Cat. This is a great way to develop your child’s musical ear and have a lot of fun with them at the piano as well.

The Second game is called “Jacob’s Ladder.” Play Middle C and then step up Jacob’s Ladder playing all of the white and black keys one at time, in order until you get to the next C. This is twelve half-steps, or a Chromatic Scale. Then step down “Jacob’s Ladder” back to Middle C. After you have done this a few times, let your child try stepping up and down “Jacob’s Ladder” on the piano.

Next have your child in piano lessons close their eyes while you play “Jacob’s Ladder.” Tell your child to raise their hand if you skip a rung on the ladder. Make sure you also give your child a turn at being the teacher! Kids love to reverse roles. This is another effective technique to develop your child’s musical ear in a fun and easy way.

By playing these games together you’ll be seeking your child’s musical potential - and you will find it!

For great home piano activities parents can use to help children ages 5 to 11 develop their musical talent, visit Piano Adventure Bears Music Education Resources You’ll find a treasure box filled with piano resources to create an exciting musical adventure for your child - right in your own home! Visit their website and subscribe to their f’ree internet newsletter so you can download f’ree piano sheet music and mp3s of original piano compositions.

These exciting stories, games, piano lessons, and inspirational gifts feature the Piano Adventure Bears, Mrs. Treble Beary and her new piano student, Albeart Littlebud. Young students follow along with Albeart to learn what piano lessons are all about in a fun way that kids readily understand appreciate. Click here to visit PianoAdventureBears.com For a wealth of information about piano lessons, visit tallypiano.com

Have you ever played a melody on a guitar? Well, if not let this be the first time! I will show you how to play Mary Had A Little Lamb on one string with one finger on your left hand and one finger on your right.

What string you use on your or somebody elses guitar doesn’t matter. It’s a matter of personal choice.

As you know Mary Had A Little Lamb is a popular nursery rhyme. Here is the first verse:

Mary had a little lamb little lamb, little lamb Mary had a little lamb its fleece was white as snow

Thomas Edison used this poem in testing his invention of the phonograph in 1877. It became the first audio recording to be successfully made and played back.

Let’s start by playing on a string of your choice. Play the string with the thumb. If you play the string three times with your right hand thumb we can write it down like this:

0-0-0

If you press down the string on the second fret with your left hand first finger and play it three times and then lift your finger and play on the open string three times like you did before it will look like this:

2-2-2-0-0-0

Got the idea? Well, to play Mary Had A Little Lamb you need two more notes. Press down your first finger on the fourth fret and then on your seventh fret and you have all the necessary notes. The song looks like this:

4-2-0-2-4-4-4–2-2-2–4-7-7

4-2-0-2-4-4-4-4-2-2-4-2-0

If you still have questions you can ask a guitar playing friend to help you. She or he will probably be proud to help you.

If this melody is a little bit to easy for you, you can show it to a not guitar playing friend. Many people start to smile when they can play something on the guitar for the first time!

Controlling the images of the mind through image projection has proven valuable not only for psychotherapy, but also as a learning aid. Visualization can have as much impact on the subconscious, memory, and entire body as a “real” experience.

For example, it is sometimes more expeditious to memorize a song by reading and thinking it through than it is to play it. Some musicians like to work on a difficult passage by visualizing themselves playing it with perfect execution and technique. When visualizing, energy is channeled and concentration is pinpointed. The mind, and sometimes even the muscles will react and learn as if the music was actually being played.

I’m not suggesting you sell your instrument and spend all of your time meditating, but visualization is a means to very fast results.

Having negative thoughts or feelings about ourselves produces negative results. This is true even when we are unaware of the thoughts and feelings we are having. The first step for visualizing is to become aware of how you “program” yourself, that is what you “tell yourself,” about your musical abilities and the way you play. The next step is to learn how visualization works. You can put it to work for you as a tremendous aid for learning, playing, or anything you choose.

The imagination is one of the main taps of our subconscious. The subconscious is the controlling force behind creativity. We are all in a never ending process of creating. (One guy I know has 11 kids.) We are creating our perception of life, creating our happiness or misery or whatever we choose. The more control we have over our creative resources, the better our music and more fulfilling our lives will be.

We can get the creative wheels turning, by relaxing and changing our state of mind. Deep breathing (also known as diaphramic breathing) the foundation of vocalizing is commonly used musicians before playing and before going on stage. It relaxes the entire body and slows down the brain waves, which allows for clearer thinking. Uncontrolled nerves (as any singer knows) are a hindrance, especially to improvisation and songwriting, where a relaxed “letting go” attitude is necessary.

The reason that some days you’re hot and some you’re not is your changing frame of mind. A little mind control makes for a more consistent player and more rapid improvement.

Copyright 2005 RAW Productions

Ron Worthy is a Music Educator, Songwriter and Performer. He offers online piano instruction at: http://www.mrronsmusic.com/playpiano.htm

January 2006 - Italy is living the bitter climate of political campaign. Left and right don’t waste blows and all the occasions are good to weaken the enemy. An Italian (maybe) left-wing activist writes an article about a British documentary on TV about right-wing hate rock and one of its protagonists, Viking, loses her job.

He’s called Lycantrop. His article arrived directly to Viking’s boss, before being published somewhere. Nobody knows how he got the address and the real name! This is how a few hours later Francesca Ortolani aka Viking, 23 year old video editor working for an American film maker and productions company, was dismissed.

We don’t know much about Francesca’s boss. She greets him on the booklet of her cd “Gloucester Road”. He’s called James, but we don’t know if this is the real name. We know that he’s an old man, a film maker, a producer, he’s american, he’s a naturalist. I knew the story from Ashtree Records Press Room’s spokesman Magnus Torricelli, an Italian blacklisted journalist who lives in the States, good friend of Viking’s. “He must have stolen the address” says Magnus “I can’t explain it. Francesca has never shown the videos on which she was working, so that nobody could relate her to J. and his team. This Lycantrop has no face, we don’t know him. He’s too coward to show his face.”

The British documentary Lycantrop wrote about is “Hate Rock” produced by Neil Mackay, awarded journalist and opinionist in Britain, who met Viking in March 2005 for an interview. I asked Magnus what the interview was for: “The interview was about white power music… you know, Francesca is a nationalist and she dedicates much of her music to these ideas. She’s a well known songwriter and producer in this scene, so she was included in the documentary”.

If you think that under the political campaign everything is permitted you should read the article he wrote. The writer has a vivid fantasy! Lycantrop investigates Berlusconi’s relationship with British media: “The Italians are not stupid and they understand that Berlusconi is controlling television, but they don’t know that he also makes his propaganda with the friends of the NATO through the British television, the sanguinary face of angel Francesca “Viking” Ortolani and the sex-symbol Donal MacIntyre. Francesca Ortolani imported the documentary to Italy through a long passionate review so that she could capture the attention on herself and her friends. Meanwhile Donal MacIntyre builds his own alibi as anti-nazi saying that he was attacked by some of these undermen. People don’t know that Francesca Ortolani aspires to work for the NATO and while she finishes to study, she has been inserted in the media well, to make her propaganda with subliminal messages, working as video editor for an American company. Who’s piloting this? Bush, Blair and Berlusconi. Viking’s university La Sapienza in Rome should expel her, but the Faculty of Engineering must be corrupted in the same game. Many professors work for companies that produce military devices.”

I’m external to the matter, I’m not “building my own alibi like Donal MacIntyre”, I’m external even though I’m one of those 17000 downloaders (Magnus says the number is not updated), so I decided to meet Francesca Ortolani, the young singer Viking, for some questions. She meets me in front of the Faculty of Engineering and she asks me if I want to drink something hot. She looks friendly and I can tell Lycantrop her hair is true. She doesn’t look neither like a nazi terrorist nor a member of the NATO. She has a teenage face, she’s very shy, but she’s a determined woman.

I ask her what she will do with Lycantrop. “I don’t know” she replies “I want to know who he is. I usually don’t proceed against those who slander me, but this guy involved too many people in his stories and I don’t want to see people fall for me, so I’d do it, I’d bring an action against him if the story doesn’t stop here, but I’m not sure the other mentioned people in the article would be happy”. She tells me about her job “I respect James’ decision. This won’t corrode our friendship. I understand his dreads. He worked a life to get his position. He’s a great professionist, he formed a great team and I feel happy because I have been a little part of it. My work was to make trailers of his videos for the web and other channels. I was also starting composing some soundtracks for his documentaries”.

I tried to have James’ contact directly, but the man wants to remain anonym so I asked Magnus if he could kindly forward my questions to him. This is James’ version of the story: “I’m very sorry. I had told Francesca to stay out of white power music. She has nothing of that world! She’s a talented songwriter, she has an enchanting voice and she did a great job for me. She’s got the skills as editor and the touch and the experience of a producer though her age. I’m sorry, I must defend my work and my team”.

James is quite reluctant at talking. Magnus thinks his decision was very hard. For my fortune I could take another witness. It’s N., 30 year old cameraman from Los Angeles who works for James. He met Viking in London for work recently: “She’s cute. When you do my job you meet a lot of people every day and you know that you won’t meet them again. One day I met Francesca. I was with J. We were filming …” he doesn’t tell me what they were filming and what Francesca was doing there “…and God exists. J. begged her to write music for us and make some promotional clips. Our crew is a small family and Francesca is like a sister. I don’t want to lose her friendship. Lycantrop…idiot. I don’t know who he is. If I knew it, he would be dead now”.

Lycantrop also accuses Viking to present her new album to Italy strategically during the campaign, to help Silvio Berlusconi and Forza Italia to get votes and sympathies for some of their initiatives such as the making of motorways, high-speed railways, re-introduction of nuclear power in this country. He accuses Magnus Torricelli “who lives in the States” to work behind and shuffle the cards writing that the documentary censured Viking, taking the attention on those censured parts, involving Neil Mackay and company as contributors to this hidden game. “I have never known this Neil Mackay, I don’t know if he’s tall or short, fat or slim” says Magnus “We aren’t making any hidden game, instead I think and I wrote that the documentary censured Viking”.

Viking, a mysterious silent girl, looks at me first and after blowing on the hot tea cup she tells me “The Lycantrop should win a first prize for his novel. He had nothing better to do that night when he wrote the article. I don’t serve any political party or candidate. This story must have been a joke but the real problem is how he got James’ name and address.” I ask her if she feels spied and persecuted and she replies “I don’t know. I keep on living with prudence and responsibility. This time I don’t think I’m the persecuted one and I have no bug…”. Viking alludes to the fact that the article was put personally, not posted from a remote place, in the postal boxes of James and Magnus in USA. They live in different towns and states, they have never met before and they are only friends because they are friends of Viking’s.

The author is unknown, the target is unknown, Viking knows only that Lycantrop maybe knows Italian or somebody translated the article for him. James received a version in English and Magnus received the Italian version. Francesca didn’t receive a copy of it. She doesn’t know if the producer of “Hate Rock” and company received a copy because she heard nothing from them. She doesn’t exclude more copies will be spread in Europe, so she’s waiting. She doesn’t exclude the article will be published outside the left-wing “collectives”. Magnus Torricelli wants to denunce the “invasion of privacy”, the film maker James “will do something”, the cameraman N. seems more interested in the fact that Francesca is single at the moment. Silvio doesn’t know anything of this story (officially). Donal MacIntyre has a new fan: Magnus’ grandmother. Lycantrop has disappeared in the dark. Will he reappear in Europe? End of Episode I.

It’s really not your fault. You see, you’ve been taught that in order to play piano you need to first learn how to read music, and second, play other peoples music.

Don’t feel bad. You’re not alone. Thousand upon thousands of frustrated piano students long to understand the “mystery” of creating music on this fantastic instrument only to be let down.

They work so hard learning note reading that they miss the most important aspect - understanding how music works! Guitarists don’t have this problem. They jump into chords right away and are satisfied immediately.

For some reason, chords are not emphasized when teachers set out to instruct students. Their agenda usually revolves around starting you out on a series of grade books that progressively moves you up until you can play other peoples music. Absurd!

Now, I’m not saying that note reading is a bad thing. I am saying that there is no reason to start studying the piano this way. If you start by playing chords, you will begin to understand theory. And you will join the ranks of creative people who get it. They know that melody and harmony make music. They get the harmony part first (chord understanding) and then the melody is easy to play!

Of course, there are other aspects of music making that a student must understand if he or she is interested in making music. But by starting with chords, the piano student has quite an advantage over their note reading counterparts.

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!