Piano Guidance
Piano Guidance
Photo: Dagmara Dombrovska
More versatile compounds such as polyethylene or polyvinyl chloride (PVC) began to emerge, replacing bakelite in many of its applications, including some of those for which it was originally invented.
More Arbitrary Ratings of Proficiency Level Hours Needed Daily Practice Investment Basic 312.5 78 days Beginning 625 156 days Intermediate 1250 10...
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The flutes were made in the Upper Paleolithic age, and are more commonly accepted as being the oldest known musical instruments.
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Pianoforall is one of the most popular online piano courses online and has helped over 450,000 students around the world achieve their dream of playing beautiful piano for over a decade.
Learn More »Humans have manufactured a total of 8.3 billion tons of plastics, a mass equivalent to almost 160,000 ships like the Titanic. Only 9% of this amount is recycled, while 12% is incinerated and 79% ends up in landfills. Plastic pollution has become one of the most-pressing environmental problems of our age, requiring intensified efforts not only to recycle, but also to reduce its use and replace it with other more sustainable materials. But this much-needed battle against its shortcomings should not make us forget that we owe a great deal to plastic in our modern world; if we enjoy numerous comforts today it is largely thanks to a history that began in 1907 with the invention of the first synthetic plastic, bakelite. Today we associate bakelite with those old black telephones that were used in the past. Yet it became so ubiquitous that even its inventor fell short when describing it as “the material of a thousand uses.” In the nineteenth century, the expansion of industrialisation called for new mouldable materials that would allow the manufacture of all kinds of articles. Chemists already knew about polymers, compounds formed by chains of repeated units that lent themselves to this type of manipulation, but those present in nature were not satisfactory. In 1870, the American John Wesley Hyatt chemically modified cellulose, a polymer found in plants, to produce celluloid, the first plastic. Hyatt created the material to qualify for a $10,000 prize offered by a New York billiard ball manufacturer to offer a substitute for the then scarce ivory, but celluloid ended up being used for a variety of objects, including rolls of film for which we know it today. However, a particularly critical application required newer materials. In the 19th century, electrical cables were insulated using shellac, a natural resin secreted by the lac bug Kerria lacca, a small red insect found in Southeast Asia. The shellac was used for the manufacture of other objects such as 78 RPM gramophone discs. But it was easy to foresee that a material obtained from such a limited and inaccessible source would end up being scarce, and at the beginning of the 20th century the need arose to look for an alternative.
By the end of the novel, Michael approaches acceptance, if not understanding and peace, by following Hanna's wishes and donating her money—after...
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Violence. This is where the movie earns its PG-13 rating. There are a few fighting scenes involving punches being thrown and some of the characters...
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Pianoforall is one of the most popular online piano courses online and has helped over 450,000 students around the world achieve their dream of playing beautiful piano for over a decade.
Learn More »At the time, various scientists had observed that the mixture of the organic substances phenol and formaldehyde produced a hard and apparently useless material that ruined laboratory containers. But some of them saw a promising future for these phenolic resins, the first synthetic plastics. The first scientist to come up with the right formula was New York-based Belgian chemist Leo Baekeland (November 14, 1863 – February 23, 1944), who had already made a fortune selling Kodak his invention of the first commercial photographic paper, Velox. In 1907 he applied for a patent for his new compound, polyoxybenzylmethylenglycolanhydride, which he called Bakelite. Bakelite was the first commercial plastic that was completely synthetic, hot-mouldable and, once cooled, produced a hard material that was resistant to heat, electricity and solvents. Its application as an electrical insulator was immediate, but its uses soon began to proliferate. “Its impact was felt across a whole variety of industries, ranging from the production of umbrella handles and pipe stems to the automobile, electrical, and radio industries,” explains Joris Mercelis, science and technology historian at Johns Hopkins University and author of the forthcoming book Beyond Bakelite: Leo Baekeland and the Business of Science and Invention (MIT Press, 2020). Particularly relevant was the use of bakelite for specific components whose requirements matched perfectly with the properties of the new material, such as the distributor cap of automobiles, the base of radio tubes or the insulating plates on which parts were mounted, explains Jeffrey Meikle, historian of culture and design at the University of Texas (USA) and author of American Plastic: A Cultural History (Rutgers University Press, 1995). “Even now, phenolic resins are a staple in so-called stealth aircraft,” he tells OpenMind.
The Sound of God…. is OM. To be exact, it was His first intonation, which created the expanding universe, and keeps it all together and humming...
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Debussy's 'Clair de lune' is written for solo piano – and it is actually quite straight-forward. If you can play piano up to about Grade 6 standard...
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Yamaha models are considered to be more realistic in terms of sound, as they can sample their own Concert Grand pianos. From there, it's a lot of...
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Hurrian Hymn No. 6 “Hurrian Hymn No. 6” is considered the world's earliest melody, but the oldest musical composition to have survived in its...
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A piano is a worthwhile investment for any home. With proper care and attention, a piano can hold its resale value perfectly well–and can last for...
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While teens tend to listen to the most music, adults who are 45+ tend to buy the most music. Music listening peaks among older teens and young...
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