WikiMusician:How to contribute

From WikiMusician

What's Inside WikiMusician: How to Contribute

WikiMusician is a collaborative project for musicians worldwide. Collaboration works just like Wikipedia. Anyone can modify or contribute new content after they complete a simple registration form. See the tabs at the top of each article page and click on edit to modify or add content. Click on the discussion tab to read or make comments about the article. See the cheat sheet for wiki markup commands.

Multimedia Support

WikiMusician is all about using multimedia to learn and teach about our craft so please use sound and video in article collaboration. Check out the edit pages of sample articles below to see how to implement multimedia.

Sound Files

WikiMusician allows you to link to any MP3 sound file hosted elsewhere on the web. You may also upload non-copyrighted MP3 files to WikiMusician. The site does not support playback of other sound file formats.

Video Files

You may link to video files hosted elsewhere, including YouTube, Revver, sevenload, Google Video, FunnyOrDie, or Dailymotion. Please do not upload video files to this site.

Graphics

You may upload graphics files to display in articles. The PNG format is recommended as it consumes relatively little storage space and quickly displays in browsers connected on slow links. A free programm for PCs called Power Tab Editor allows you to create charts in standard notation and/or tablature for guitar and bass. You can download a free copy here. If you want to upload just a bar or two of notation for an article, you can define and capture any section of a screen display with a free program for PCs called Gadwin PrintScreen; download a free copy here.

Content About Instruments

Instruments are the foundation of creating music. Content should provide basic information about an instrument, provide audio information about what the instrument sounds like, video to show what it's like to play or use the instrument, advice on how and why someone might modify the instrument, links to reviews and vendor information.

Sample Articles About Instruments: Fender Aerodyne Jazz Bass, Steinberger Spirit Bass

Content About Gear

Gear is the stuff we use to amplify, project record and playback music. Content should describe what the gear is used for, provide audio information about sound created with the gear, provide practical advice for use in typical situations including video demonstrations, and include links to product datasheets and other information useful for specifying and selecting gear.

Sample Articles About Gear: Stereo Microphone, How to Mic a Bass Speaker Cabinet, Genz Benz Shuttle 6

Content About Music

Content about music follows two forks. One is about the multitude of song styles found throughout the world, including how to write those songs and lyrics. The other fork is theory, which covers melody, harmony, rhythm and other technical aspects of music creation. Creation of content about music is an excellent way for instructors to have students demonstrate what they have learned.

Sample Article About Music: Singer-Songwriter Groove

Content About Music Business

The business model for the traditional music industry is in a huge transition due to many factors. But fundamental elements still consist of people who create and play music, people who record and produce music, and people who disseminate music. This section treats issues affecting the music business.

Sample Article About Music Business: (forthcoming...)

Bellingham WA

Bellingham is a 1.5 hour drive north of Seattle, Washington, USA. It is a college town with about 72,000 permanent residents. The current music scene is one that promotes and supports live music. With over 200 bands everyone knows someone in a band.

More to come...