I love music

Listening, making, and collecting. I love music, and it loves me. It heals and calms my savage self when you least expect it. Sneaking up with one of those unforgettable moments in life that Deja vu you.

Long live music!

Music Server

Sockso is a Java based web server to play your mp3 music collection from a central computer to any computer. Based on open source, it is extremely easy to set up and run. You simply point it to a filesystem directory, let it scan, and when finished point your browser to http://localhost:4444.

A few things about security you should be aware of, lest the DCMA police disconnect your ISP and send you downtown. Secure your music site with passwords, and require pre-registration.

When you unzip the install, go to the bin directory and start it up:
If you are on windows -> windows.bat
If you are on linux -> linux.sh

A nice GUI will appear with tabs across the top.

Go to the Users tab, and click the check-boxes: Require login, and Disable registering. Then press the button: Create User, and make yourself an account. This will require you to pre-create an account for anyone wanting to play your music collection.

Now go to Collection and press the Add Folder button. Navigate to your collection of mp3s. When you have all your folders, press the Scan Now button and let it rip for a while.

An hsql database will be created in your home folder; ~/.sockso

-rw-r--r-- 1 me me 2572141 2011-05-01 09:48 database.script
-rw-r--r-- 1 me me     419 2011-05-01 09:48 database.properties
-rw-r--r-- 1 me me   13468 2011-05-01 10:08 database.log
-rw-r--r-- 1 me me      16 2011-05-01 10:15 database.lck

This is a memory-only database that is saved in ascii file database.script. This is important because you want to back your mp3 database up if you create playlists and users, otherwise they will be lost.

Another important item with sockso is how it gets the music mp3 file details from ID tags embedded in the .mp3 file itself. If you buy songs through Amazon they come pre-loaded with all the info you need, but if you copy your CDs, they may not. You can download an mp3 editor and add ID-tags yourself. A good open source and cross platform one is EasyTAG.

Apache sites can host Sockso in a virtual host, like this:

<VirtualHost *:80>
        ServerAdmin webmaster@example.com
        DocumentRoot /data/domains/example.com/www/public/
        ProxyRequests Off
        ProxyPass / http://www.example.com:4444/
        ProxyPassReverse /  http://www.example.com:4444/

        ServerName music.example.com
        ServerAlias music.example.com

        ErrorLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/error.log

        # Possible values include: debug, info, notice, warn, error, crit,
        # alert, emerg.
        LogLevel warn

        CustomLog ${APACHE_LOG_DIR}/access.log combined

</VirtualHost>

Which allows a URL such as => http://music.example.com
Just be aware that you need to keep the sockso GUI running to server the web pages and songs.

Songs can be played in several formats, such as flash, javascript, external winAmp pls playlists, etc…

In summary, it is nice to have access to your music wherever you go and to be able to share it with close friends. Organizing playlists can be a fun way to discover your lost songs, if you have 1000s of files, and also having your friends start their own music server.

Pleasant sounds….

Make Music

Keyboard instruments are a great starting point to discovery of magic within music. Harmonic chords, rhythmic beats, weaving melody. A white and black row of wonder and joy.

Its easy to get started if you follow some simple steps, particularly from an enthusiastic teacher like Scott Houston. As seen on TV there are four steps:

1. Think of a song you like (hopefully not to hard)
2. Find and learn the chords
3. Learn the melody
4. Play with both hands

I found a song that was simple yet had great meaning to me. It was not too hard finding the lyrics, but chords and melody are proving more difficult. Perhaps I should try another before getting too frustrated, but I have a plan now that I found the chords.

Here is a chord chart that helps me:

Piano Chord Chart

I have five chords in my song and have practiced switching and counting along with the words. It helped to write the pattern on a piece of lined paper with the chords stacked vertically. This way I can see how far to jump right, then left, and notice patterns. My chords are: C, Am, G7, and F. I practiced these until I was comfortable with the order, switching, and timings.

Next the melody. Since I do not have the music, but I know the song, my plan is to use the following scale chart:

Piano Scales

I will play with the scale notes that match the chord and when it sounds good write them on some lined paper in the treble cleft notation using the following keyboard-staff guide:

Keyboard Staff

So that’s the Hacker’s Guide to Piano. Many thanks for the inspiration of The Piano Guy to dust off the old Yamaha and enjoy the stress relief of making my own music.

Guayadeque

Guayadeque is a music player for Linux that can organize that mess of folders from your old black Vinyl and silver CD collections you ripped to disk. As a bonus it displays album covers, categorizes by genre and artist, yet still shows your old familiar directory structure.

Guayadeque Album View

But that’s not all; as a song plays you can view the lyrics, see a paragraph of the artist’s history and other work courtesy of Last.fm. Creating this catalog of music is as easy as pointing Guayadeque to your directory on disk. The rest is automatic.

Speaking of automatic, when you select a song for play, it will queue up several songs after it that match your selected song’s type. It’s an interesting way to play back old songs in a way you might not have done before, surprising as it discovers some old forgotten tracks. Of course it can play a selected album in the original order or create a custom playlist.

When you tire of your old songs you can find new ones via the Radio interface. By default it browses Shoutcast’s standard listings, and will update the Scrobble (Last.fm) page with a relevant artist biography blurb and related works. You can add your own custom URL links to other Web radio stations and Podcasts.

The interface is easy to work with and lets you update tags such as Artist, genre, album and custom labels for mp3 IDs that you forgot to enter when ripping those crackling old vinyl records. Highly recommended, you can download it via Sourceforge here: Guayadeque Download.