[NEWSFLASH] KANYE WEST & MOBY x NIKE+ HUMAN RACE!
Music takes center stage on the heels of the official registration opening for the Nike+ Human Race, the world’s biggest one-day running event taking place on August 31, 2008. The race brings together the power of sport and music to inspire and connect runners from every corner of the planet. Participants in this unprecedented event will experience an exclusive music performance by some of today’s top artists in each of the 25 designated race cities.
In Los Angeles, nine-time Grammy Award winning artist Kanye West will headline the run’s post race concert for the grand finale of the 25-city Nike+ Human Race. Runners will take to the streets passing the city’s most famous landmarks before ending at the LA Coliseum to see West take the stage.
“I’m hitting the stage in Los Angeles for the Nike+ Human Race, Nike's dopest 10k run ever. This race is bringing together hundreds of thousands of people from all over the world to run and listen to some great music while serving a higher cause, and I’m excited to perform in L.A. as part of the grand finale.”
West’s performance will bring to a close, an unprecedented day of races and activities around the globe starting in Taipei, ending in LA and including cities across Europe, Asia and North and South America.
Beyond running and music, the Nike+ Human Race is also an opportunity to give back. Participants will be able to run for a worthy cause and support the three official Nike+ Human Race charitable partners: the Lance Armstrong Foundation – uniting people in the fight against cancer; WWF - the global conservation organization addressing the causes and impacts of climate change; and the UN refugee agency's ninemillion.org campaign – bringing sport and education to refugee youth. Together, Nike and runners will raise funds to donate at least USD $3 million to the Nike+ Human Race charities. Money will be raised via givebacks from registration fees, a percentage of Nike+ Human Race t-shirt sales and a donation of USD $1 million from Nike.
The Nike+ Human Race will also feature an online pledge tool so individual runners can donate additional funds to the cause of their choice and invite friends and family to contribute on their behalf.
“As a committed runner and a cancer survivor, I’m proud to be participating in the Nike+ Human Race,” Lance Armstrong said. “The race offers the best of both worlds by bringing together a global community to run together and support worthy causes like the Lance Armstrong Foundation, the UN refugee agency’s ninemillion.org and WWF in our combined efforts to have a positive impact on the world.
Other Nike athletes will also be joining the movement to run with the world and for a cause. Like Lance Armstrong, they will serve as honorary athlete ambassadors for the charities and join in Human Race activities. Six-time marathon winner and current NY Marathon Champion, Paula Radcliffe and middle distance runner Kara Goucher will be running to support WWF, while marathoner Meb Keflezighi will be representing ninemillion.org.
Nikeplus.com will be the official destination for the Nike+ Human Race and for all pre-race training needs. Here, runners can create a personal profile page or stay motivated by sampling and downloading the latest in Nike+ Sport Music offerings. Sport Music offers runners the best in original Training Run and Coaching Mixes designed specifically for treadmill and road runs. Beginning June 15, runners will also be able to visit Race City pages covering local race info and news, Training pages for information and links to in-city training runs, events with official race partners including 24Hour Fitness and Starbucks and Nike+ Coach training. Gear pages covering the latest in Nike performance training gear and Nike+ product will also be offered.
About Nike+ Human Race
On 08.31.08, Nike hosts a run like no other before with the Nike+ Human Race - the World’s Largest One Day Running Event. Nike’s first global race will take place over the course of one day, with a goal of one million runners, across 25 cities and featuring 25 top musical acts. The 10k event celebrates runners and their sport, offering participants across the globe the chance to run and compete together in an unprecedented race experience. Spanning multiple continents, Nike+ Human Race cities will include LA, New York, London, Madrid, Paris, Istanbul, Melbourne, Shanghai, São Paulo and Vancouver among others. Following races in each city, participants will be treated to an exclusive music concert featuring one of today’s top artists. Participants will be able to run for a cause as a portion of funds raised will be donated to three Nike+ Human Race beneficiaries: WWF, the global conservation organization, Lance Armstrong Foundation and UN refugee agency's ninemillion.org campaign. The race will be open to anyone, anywhere. Runners outside of the 25 race day cities can join by logging into nikeplus.com. With the help of Nike+ and the Nike+ SportBand, every city and every road can become a race-day course. For more information, visit nikeplus.com.
There are many ways to compose a piece of music. ABA forms, sonata allegro form, and so on. But the humble theme and variations has been around for centuries. While not used nearly as much as it was during the classical period, it still can be used to create artistic and attractive contemporary piano pieces. Let's get started!
First, we need a theme! Eight bars are the perfect size to contain your theme. I work within this framework all the time and it has proven to be a workhorse when it comes to capturing musical ideas. Now, we can either begin with chords or melody. For theme and variations, I like to start with the melody (as do most composers.) This is because it's a lot easier to create variations for a simple melody than it is to create different textures for chord changes.
The melody does not (and should not) be sophisticated for theme and variations. Why? Because we want to change the melody. It's a lot easier to vary a simple theme than it is a complex one, although I'm sure it's been done successfully. Look at Pachobel's canon as an example. The theme is simple yet beautiful - exactly what we want.
Once the first 8-bars is complete, we harmonize it and we have the complete theme. Now we create variation one. Most theme and variations composed by the "masters" start their initial variations with just a little change and gradually vary the theme to where it may be unrecognizable towards the end.
We don't have to do this here. In fact, I suggest beginners only create 3 variations at the most. Look at it as an arc. You start out with something, let's say something andante or slow. Now we want to add some contrast to the whole thing so around variations 2 or 3 we speed it up a little. Eventually we close the theme and variations by returning to the original theme. Take a look at the author's lesson #54 for a good example of how to do this.
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. Visit http://www.quiescencemusic.com now and get a FREE piano lesson!
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