There are illnesses that come with being overweight, including high blood pressure, sleep apnea, and type 2 diabetes.  Most of those illnesses are hard to treat when a person is not in the right path to good health.  With the lap band surgery a patient will lose weight and help stabilize these illnesses and may even help cure them.  

 The lap band procedure takes no more than 60 minutes to complete and it has one of the fastest recovery times of any other weight loss surgery. The procedure is minimally invasive and is adjusted via a port that is connected to the silicone band. This port is placed under the few layers of the abdomen, making it easy for the surgeon in later weeks to come back and adjust the band to the patients needs.  If the patient feels they are over eating and still getting hungry within a few hours, the surgeon will adjust the band through the port.  The doctor will use a small fine needle and inject saline into the silicone adjustable band through the port.  The experience has been described as being similar to drawing blood.  Some doctors do adjustments with just feeling for the port with hands on abdomen and some use the method of x-ray.

Either way, the adjustments help to avoid further surgery for revision.

There are several high blood pressure treatments, which include medication prescribed by your physician and or weight loss surgery like the lap band.  The lap band helps a patient to lose the weight and keep it off, helping the patient to feel healthier and become more active.  With the lap band the patient will be able to eat well balanced foods and become healthier which will lower their chances of their blood pressure going sky high.

 Another illness that may come with obesity is sleep apnea.  It is also known that individuals with sleep apnea will have high blood pressure that is either getting worse or perpetuated by their sleep apnea. Sleep apnea is “a sleep disorder characterized by abnormal pauses in breathing or instances of abnormally low breathing, during sleep.” Over 20 million Americans suffer from some degree of sleep apnea.  The lap band be able to offer sleep apnea help to those who are obese.  

Lap band should be considered if patient hasn’t seen results from dieting and exercising.  The lap band can range from ,000 to ,000 depending on insurance coverage. There are various ways to acquire the lap band system, from medical insurance to financing.  Most PPO insurances cover the lap band, but if the insurance doesn’t cover there’s also financing services offered.  .  Lap band aetna insurance states, “Most Aetna HMO and QPOS plans exclude coverage of surgical operations, procedures or treatment of obesity unless approved by Aetna. Some Aetna plans entirely exclude coverage of surgical treatment of obesity” When verifying insurance for the procedure, personnel will check for weight loss insurance, as well as if there are requirement for coverage or not. 

The act of solemnizing a marriage is often done by exchanging wedding bands or rings. This act or tradition was originally practiced in ancient Egypt, where sections of plants were worn to symbolize love and courtship. Engagement rings were often used to symbolize love and courtship in the later days, with wedding rings being used for solemnizing their union in matrimony.

It is interesting to note that both these rings are worn, till date, on the fourth finger of the left hand. Folklore and ancient beliefs state that this finger is directly linked to the heart, as a vein from this finger directly flows to the heart. Given that engagement rings and wedding bands symbolize love, an essential emotion of the heart, wearing it on this finger is supposed to strengthen these emotions. Modern day wedding bands and engagement rings are often engraved with the date and names or initials of the couple, making it a symbol of eternal love, which is meant to be passed down for generations as family heirlooms.

Whilst traditionally, gold wedding bands were the norm, it is no longer true with these bands being available in different metals.

Akin to engagement rings, wedding rings have also undergone tremendous changes, with silver, platinum as well as other alloys of metals ruling the roost along with gold rings.

Given the fact that you actually wear your wedding bands daily when compared to your engagement rings, it is important to choose the right one. In other words, most people tend to wear their wedding rings more regularly than their engagement ones. This means that although the latter is more expensive, the former has to be well chosen. Whilst choosing rings to solemnize matrimony, two factors play a significant role, the type of band you want and your budget.

Given the popularity of such bands today, you can opt from traditional and antiquated designs to contemporary ones, depending on your preferences. Simple designs are often chosen by those who are not much into jewelry, especially men. Even when opting for design bands, you can choose designs that are elegant yet beautiful like the Celtic design, hammered design, paisley or braided designs. What makes it more special today is that you need not conform to the old and antiquated designs for these bands but can actually create your own. Jewelers often help you in designing your own bands, depending on your personal preferences, budgetary and other needs, making it a great way to symbolize your marriage.

Similarly, when looking at rings for your wedding, you should ideally determine a budgetary limit and ensure that your chosen rings fit into that budget. In other words, customized designs created by world famous jewelry designers are going to be more expensive than your simple traditional bands bought from your neighborhood jeweler. Therefore, it is important to decide the exact amount you would like to spend on these bands before searching for them.

The concept of matching wedding bands is still a popular concept with most couples today. Where some couples opt for existing designs of matching bands others might want to create their unique design based on their preference. The fact that matching bands can have one ornate and the other simple, especially when creating customized design, makes designing these bands more interesting. Jewelers today are increasingly designing unique designs for couples that not only symbolize their love but also add a special touch to their union.

Another factor to be considered while selecting matching bands is whether or not these bands should match with your engagement rings. Traditionally, however, this was not the case as men chose the rings for announcing their engagement on their own. However, with changing times, most couples choose their rings, both for engagement as well as their wedding together. Hence when opting for matching bands, they prefer to ensure that the design for their bands matches with the design chosen for their engagement ring so that they truly complement one another.

With the advent of the internet, online jewelry stores are some of the hotspots for wedding jewelry shopping, including wedding bands and engagement rings. Not only do these stores offer a wide variety but some even allow you to see your customized designs before actually ordering them. With shipping being their only overhead cost, buying rings online is almost always a bargain. Moreover, this is great option for those who either do not have the time or do not like shopping in brick and mortar stores. However, if you are choosing a diamond ring and want detailed information on the 4 Cs, then it is best to visit your local jeweler.

Before buying engagement rings or wedding bands, it is always advisable to do some research. This should help you decide on the style and design of the rings or bands, the metal that you prefer as well as whether or not to use stones. Moreover, research will also help give you an idea of the pricing of these rings, which will help determine your budget. Finally, you can also decide whether you want to buy from a local jeweler or an online store.

Engagement rings constantly continues to stay in trend and style. People can be very conscious about investing in engagement rings .At the moment instead of shopping for an engagement ring in yellow gold more and more couples are changing towards white gold. White gold has its own great beauty and charisma.

Platinum Engagement bands and wedding rings are very hard compared to some white Gold bands, there’s really no worry or concern that the silvery brightness will fade to yellow. Platinum can tend to look scuffed over time, however like Gold it can be returned to its original glow with a decent cleaning by using a jeweller.

In Nature, there isn’t any such thing as white gold, so to make your ring, they will take gold and combine it with other metals and coat it to make it “white.” After a while, the coating will rub away, this is why when you notice wear on the bottom of the band first, it receives the most wear).

If you take your ring to the jeweler, they’ll have it re dipped in Rhodium plating, this will polish away the scuff marks (as gold is a pretty soft metal, it is going to scratch no matter careful you are.

Platinum is close to white Gold and Silver in looks and can easily be mixed-up with the other two metals. Platinum possesses a higher density than Gold and after Rhodium the next most valuable precious metal on the earth. And making use of this material in making a wedding band is really an exceptional and expensive concept.

Now Titanium wedding bands naturally are grayish in color, a few shades darker than both platinum and white gold bands. the wedding bands can be created with a comfort fit design, this makes titanium wedding bands very easy to wear.

For the boys that might be concerned with ruining their wedding bands from every day wear and tear from working, titanium is considered the strongest natural metal. Even though it could get scratched as time passes, a titanium wedding ring won’t easily bend or dent like a normal gold band. This makes titanium an ideal choice for guys who work in heavy-duty job that requires heavy lifting, mechanical work or working in the manufacturing industry.

Black Titanium : an optional material which could have designs like the Celtic knots are an incredibly manly design, the “Black Titanium Celtic Wedding Band” is no different. The titanium band is simply just polished, while the black hourglass shaped infinity symbol knots its way around the ring.

Tungsten carbide wedding bands have the same or maybe superior features of customary metals used in wedding rings. The durability of tungsten carbide wedding bands is what is appealing to modern couples make a choice from rings fabricated from this material. even though it is exceptionally strong and lasts for a lifetime, the metal appears and shines brilliantly. It’s resistant to the normal wear and tear that wedding bands suffer from. When fifty years into your marriage, you can be certain that your carbide ring looks every bit as good as it did on the day you put it on your finger. There is no need to be concerned about hypersensitive reactions if you have sensitive skin because tungsten carbide is hypo allergenic, as with platinum.

Tungsten Carbide is known as a new form of material containing an inorganic chemical compound containing equal parts of tungsten and carbon atoms.

So on the whole you’ve gotten all the information you will ever really need to make your correct preference of wedding bands, from the ever popular white gold band thru to the new not so well known Black Titanium and Tungsten carbide wedding bands.

In the Jazz Age of the 1920s, “all-girl” bands such as “Helen Lewis and Her All-Girl Jazz Syncopators” were briefly popular. (In 1925, Lee DeForest filmed Lewis and her band in his short-lived Phonofilm process, in a film now in the Maurice Zouary collection at the Library of Congress.) Blanche Calloway, sister of Cab Calloway, led a male band, Blanche Calloway and Her Joy Boys, from 1932 to 1939, and Ina Ray Hutton led an all-girl band, the Mellodears, from 1934 to 1939. Author and professor Sherrie Tucker published a book detailing the times and trials of All-Girl Swing bands of the 1940s, titled “Swing Shift”, in 2000. (Duke University Press)

Groups composed solely of women began to flourish with the advent of rock and roll. Among the earliest all-female rock bands to be signed to a record label were Goldie and the Gingerbreads, to Atlantic Records in 1964 and Fanny in 1969 when Mo Ostin signed them to Warner Bros. Records.

1970s

Roger Ebert, in his audio commentary for Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970) claims credit for inspiring all-female rock bands with the fictional band The Carrie Nations created for the film, stating that such bands were quite rare at the time, but started to spring up in the film’s wake.

In 1975, the Canadian duo of sisters, Kate and Anna McGarrigle, recorded the first of a string of albums. Joan Jett’s first group The Runaways were an early commercially successful, hard-edged, all-female band, releasing their first album in 1976; other members included Cherie Currie(vocals), Sandy West(drums) and Lita Ford.

In the United Kingdom, the advent of punk in the late 1970′s with its “anyone can do it” ethos lead to the formation of such bands as The Slits, The Raincoats, Mo-Dettes, and Dolly Mixture among others, and the formation of other groups where the female members informed the music and lyrical content (Au Pairs, Delta Five) or were the featured artist within the ensemble, notably Siouxsie and the Banshees and X-Ray Spex. The expansion of punk into Europe gave rise to Switzerland’s die Kleenex/LiLiPUT.

In the 1970s, a number of feminist folk music-based performers began fostering a Women’s Music Movement, although it was not long before women with a background in rock music and jazz started women’s bands to escape from the ‘chick singer’ trap. This included Jam Today, which started in a Peckham shed during the spring of 1976.

1980s and 1990s

The 1980s, for the first time, saw all female bands and female-fronted rock bands reach Billboards charts. When Joan Jett’s I Love Rock ‘n’ Roll became the number 3 single on the Billboard Hot 100 year end charts for 1982 along with the Go-Go’s We Got the Beat at number 25 it sent a strong message out to many industry heads that females who could play could bring in money. While Joan Jett played “no-frills, glam-rock anthems, sung with her tough-as-nails snarl and sneer”, the Go-Go’s were seen as playful girls, an image that even Rolling Stone magazine poked fun at when they put the band on their cover in their underwear along with the caption “Go-Go’s Put out!”. However musician magazines were starting to show respect to female musicians, putting Bonnie Raitt and Tina Weymouth on their covers. While The Go-Go’s and The Bangles, both from the LA punk/garage scene, were the first all-female rock bands to find sustained success, it was individual musicians who helped pave the way for the industry to seek out bands that had female musicians and allow them to be part of the recording process.

While the 1980s helped pave the way for female musicians to get taken more seriously it was still considered a novelty of sorts for several years, and it was very much a male-dominated world. In 1984 when film maker Dave Markey, along with Jeff and Steve McDonald from Redd Kross, put together the mocumentary Desperate Teenage Lovedolls, a comically punky version of Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, it also spawned a real band. While the Lovedolls could barely play at first, because of the film, and because they were an “all-female band”, they received press and gigs.

Klymaxx became the first all-female band in the R&B style of music to all play an instrument; several of their singles have charted successfully in both R&B and pop countdowns.

Leading into the 90′s the surge of Heavy Metal in the 80′s helped to shed another light on the role of females in music. Because of the success of The Go-Go’s and The Bangles many females were frustrated at not being taken seriously or only thought of as “cute chicks playing music” and either joined rock bands or formed all-female metal bands. One such band that was playing harder music in San Francisco was Rude Girl. Originally signed to CBS records the band splintered before an album would be released and the remaining members released a 12-inch single in 1987 under the name Malibu Barbi. When Cara Crash and Wanda Day left 4 Non Blondes and joined the band their sound shifted from heavy metal to a sound described as combining a “driving beat with Johnny Rottenesque vocal and post-punk riffs”. Around the same time in the Midwest, Madam X was signed to an offshoot of Columbia Records, Jet Records. In 1984 the Rick Derringer-produced album We Reserve The Right was released along with the single “High in High School”. The Petrucci sisters were a focal point of the band Max, the lead guitarist, and Roxy, the drummer. However, based on management decisions, it was decided that it would be better if only one of the sisters were in the band and Roxy was placed in another band, the all-female, Los Angeles based Vixen.

With the resurgence of interest in pop-punk bands in the US in the early 1990s, along with the sunset strip ‘hair metal’ scene becoming extremely crowded, bands who combined a “non-image” with loud raw music started were gigging at clubs like Rajis in Hollywood. Bands such as Hole, Super Heroines, The Lovedolls and L7 became popular, while demonstrating on stage, and in interviews, a self-confident “bad girl” attitude at times, always willing to challenge assumptions about how an all-female band should behave. Courtney Love described the other females in Hole as using a more “lunar viewpoint” in their roles as musicians. In the 1990s, Riot Grrrl became the genre associated with bands such as Bratmobile and Bikini Kill. Other punk bands, such as Spitboy, have been less comfortable with the childhood-centered issues of much of the Riot Grrrl aesthetic, but nonetheless also have dealt explicitly with feminist and related issues. All-female Queercore bands, such as Tribe 8 and Team Dresch, also write songs dealing with matters specific to women and their position in society. A film put together by a San Diego psychiatrist, Dr. Lisa Rose Apramian, along with the former drummer from The Motels and The Droogs, Kyle C. Kyle, the documentary Not Bad For a Girl explored some of these issues with interviews from many of the female musicians on the Riot Grrrl scene at the time.

Many female musicians from all female bands in the 1980′s and 1990′s have gone on to more high profile gigs. The Pandoras former members include members of The Muffs; Leather Leone, the singer from Rude Girl and Malibu Barbi, went on to sing for Chastain; Warbride’s founder and lead guitarist, Lori Linstruth joined Arjen Lucassen; Abby Travis from the Lovedolls has played with Beck, Elastica, and Bangles; Meredith Brooks, from The Graces, went on to solo success and Janet Robin, from Precious Metal, was the touring guitarist for Meredith as well as Lindsey Buckingham and Air Supply.

Outside pop music

All-female bands are not restricted to the mainstream genres. The successful British/Australian string quartet bond, who play classical crossover, is another example where women play all the instruments (first and second violin, viola, and cello) and sing the occasional vocals that accompany some of their tracks.

See also

Girl group

Gloria Parker

List of all-female bands

List of female rock singers

List of female metal singers

List of female Jazz- and New Improvising musicians in the German Wikipedia

Bibliography

Rock Chicks:The Hottest Female Rockers from the 1960 to Now by Stieven-Taylor, Alison (2007). Sydney. Rockpool Publishing. ISBN 9781921295065

Bayton, Mavis (1998) Frock Rock: Women Performing Popular Music. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-816615-X

Carson, Mina Julia (ed.) (2004) Girls rock!: Fifty Years of Women Making Music. Lexington, Ky.: University Press of Kentucky. ISBN 0-8131-2310-0

Gaar, Gillian G. (1992) She’s a Rebel: the History of Women in Rock & Roll. Seattle, Wash.: Seal Press. ISBN 1-878067-08-7

O’Dair, Barbara (ed.) (1997) Trouble Girls: the Rolling Stone Book of Women in Rock. New York: Random House. ISBN 0-679-76874-2

Raphael, Amy (1995) Never Mind the Bollocks: Women Rewrite Rock. London: Virago. ISBN 1-85381-887-9

Savage, Ann M. (2003) They’re Playing Our Songs: Women Talk About Feminist Rock Music. Westport, Conn.: Praeger. ISBN 0-275-97356-5

Notes

^ For example, vocalists Girls Aloud are referred to as a “girl band” here (OK magazine) and here (Guardian), while instrumentalists Girlschool are termed a “girl group” here (imdb) and here (Belfast Telegraph).

^ Silent Era: PSFL: Helen Lewis and Her All-Girl Jazz Syncopators (192?)

^ “The Billboard Hot 100 1982″, Billboard. Retrieved October 30 2008.

^ Haymes, Greg. “Long live the Queen”, Albany Times Union, November 23, 2006

^ “The Graces interview” (cover story), Endless Party #40, August 1989: Charlotte Caffey: I remember the fact that people would say “You’re an all girl band, you can’t possibly make it”.

^ “The Go-Gos Put Out!” (cover story), Rolling Stone. Issue 375, August 15, 1982

^ “The Graces interview” (cover story), Endless Party #40, August 1989: Question: So no chance of turning up on the cover of Rolling Stone in your underwear with the caption “Graces Put out!”? Charlotte Caffey: The classic cover? No, I don’t think so.

^ Bonnie Raitt cover story, Guitar Player Magazine, May 1977

^ Bonnie Raitt cover story, Guitar Player Magazine, July 1998

^ “Tina Weymouth & David Byrne, The Talking Heads” (cover story), Guitar Player Magazine, March 1984

^ “The Graces interview” (cover story), Endless Party #40, August 1989: Meredith Brooks: I remember working with a couple of producers that went “Yeah, and we’ll get a guitar player…” and I am like “Um, guys. I play!”

^ Flipside, Al & Joy, “Surfin’ the Cess Pool with Dave Markey”, Flipside Magazine #58, 1988: Basically the core of We Got Power films is Jordan and Jennifer Schwartz and myself and Jeff and Steve McDonald helped a lot on the Lovedolls films.

^ Firsching, Robert, All Media Guide

^ Flipside, Al & Joy, “Surfin’ the Cess Pool with Dave Markey”, Flipside Magazine #58, 1988: The Lovedolls became a real band now and from there it became real hectic. To make a movie about an (now) established rock band that was originally a satire would be like a double dip. I figure, they’re a eal band now & they only have a couple of original members at this point- it’s evolved into a very separate entity from the film.

^ Widran, Jonathan. “First Artists – The Rebel Pebbles”, Music Connection, Page 30. Volume XV, No. 14. July 8-21, 1991

^ Fong-Torres, Ben. Becoming Almost Famous: My Back Pages in Music, Writing, and Life. Published by Backbeat Books, 2006. Pg 107

^ Malibu Barbi

^ Hall, Shaunna, “Life and Times of Wanda Day” Loudith Faire

^ Miner, Nicola, “BAM” (Northern California Edition), page 14. September 4, 1992

^ “Discography – Madam X, We Reserve the Right”, Billboard

^ “We Reserve the Right”, Sleazegrinder

^ van Poorten, Toine, “MAXINE: Attack of the Petrucci sisters!”, Metal Maidens, October 2005: Jet records was going under at the time and was trying to re-group. They owned us all individually and tried to change us. They introduced Roxy to VIXEN. Bret later went on to KAISER. Jet pushed John Ward on us and we just didn’t have any chemistry after that. It was over!

^ Raji’s Club (Hollywood Blvd.)

^ Boder, Christopher. “The Hole Story”, Buzz, Page 13, Vol VII, Issue 70. October 1991.Most women in rock are only repeating what men have done. The women in this band are not doing that. We’re coming at things from a more feminine, lunar, viewpoint.

^ Riot Grrrl online

^ Chapman, Kathleen / du Plessis, Michael, “Queercore: The distinct identities of subculture”, College Literature, February 1997

^ Kyle C. Kyle bio

^ Listing Ship band bio

^ Guthmann, Edward “Women Rock Out in ‘Not Bad’ Their wild energy lifts sloppy film”, San Francisco Chronicle, Pg G-3, April 1, 1997

External links

GirlBand.org

PunkGirl gallery

Metal Maidens fanzine

Endemoniada ‘zine

Women in Punk Archive maintained by Nicole Emmenegger (aka Jenny Woolworth)

Helen Lewis and Her All-Girl Jazz Syncopators at Silent Era

Categories: Musical groups | All-women bands

Born within the United States in the 1960′s, Soul music was a gospel revival merged with rhythm and blues styles. It originated here but soon resonated throughout the Western hemisphere to create one of the most important styles of live music entertainment there is!

In a time where the segregation between black and white was still happening, this brand new style enabled the integration as more and more white people liked it and saw that black culture was not immoral or degrading. It also enabled a commercial ‘boom’, through the creation of radio, television channels and other infrastructures run by black entrepreneurs to allow a generation of songwriters, musicians and producers to fulfill the needs of black music.

By the 1970s, Funk became the dominant style in Afro-American sound.

By combining the well-liked music of the Soul with the rhythms and charming guitar hooks of Funk allowed for a new type of music to be born – Soul Funk Music is now an extremely remarkable choice of band to hire for any occasion.

The connection between Soul and Funk is eternal, with the renowned sound of James Brown distinctively passing all the way through both genres of music. Many bands have an assorted repertoire covering and combining both styles of music brilliantly.

Soul and Funk bands are one of the most popular types of bands for hire. Whether it’s for a corporate entertainment, a wedding band, a birthday party or a university blowout, it is an excellent choice for those looking for live entertainment that will crank up the volume and get everybody up on the dance floor.

UK groups are extensively available and will give your event a vibe that you’ll find irresistible. There is no better formula for a party than a band with the sort of styles that over two decades of musical genius have created. 

There are many entertainment agencies  that offer a wide range of bands to hire who will have a lot of experience in delivering quality entertainment to wedding receptions, birthday parties and more. Review your bands carefully to find right one for you! 

There’s lots to worry about when you are planning a wedding and this article will make sure choosing the band is one less thing to stress over. If you follow this simple advice your evening’s music will be a hit with all your guests and provide the proverbial icing on the cake for your big event.

First that all important first dance. If you want something that requires a 20 voice male choir to get it done justice don’t expect the trio you’ve hired to do it, you’d be much better off using a CD so you get exactly what you want. Your band will be more than happy to play the track for you through their PA so you won’t need to be worried about equipment.

Second make sure the band can play what the majority of people at your reception will enjoy. For example if your friends are all ballroom dancers make sure your band can play some strict tempo dance music, dancers are very particular!

It’s also worth noting that a lot of bands will be more than happy to learn some new tracks especially for your big day, actually it’s a great way for wedding and function bands to make sure their repertoire is kept fresh and fun to play.

Do not be afraid to ask, you’re paying!!

Your band want your day to go well and for your guests to have a day to keep in mind. Bands don’t play just for your money, they play for the joy of seeing people dancing and enjoying the fruits of their labours so work with them, make sure their set list is something your friends and family will love and together you’ll have a perfect end to the perfect day.

British luxury fashion brand Burberry, already have rock band Burberry outlet and dress of the famous music stars, such as BryanFerry, Coco Sumner, and One Night Only. Last month, they step forward, introduced BurberryAcoustic (Burberry hearing) activities. This is a mining personnel activities, is also a recording brands, designed to support cutting-edge musical talent.

Access Burberry outlet, you can watch the performances (all wearing Burberry, but also the brand’s creative director ChristopherBailey personally selected), the performers, including singer songwriter Misty Miller and North London Ji his band Ramona.

Burberry like the burberry nova check is a breakthrough of traditional music – fashion co-brands.

Pop star Madonna and Beyonce shooting the ad for some brands, more and more brands are holding live music events, cooperation with the Music Festival, set up their own recording equipment, the introduction of interactive musical form Purpose is to attract young and trendy consumers.

British lifestyle brand JackWills’s music has been embraced students; their recording allows fans to upload their own brand JWUnsigned music, and comment on each other. The brand’s flagship store burberry stores in London, held a regular basis live performances, as well as online radio stations.

The company’s chief executive PeterWilliams said: “Music is part of JackWills. Our core consumer is 18-21 year-old university student. What they are interested in what we are interested on, music is their main concern. They command the direction of the brand. “up JackWills the number of social networking has reached 18 million people, music and social media have played a role.

As previously discussed in lesson 1, having a CD or Tape player available during rehearsal is an invaluable tool. The ability to listen to a piece of music as a group makes the song’s learning curve a little easier.

If your band wants to get tight, all members must practice the material of a given song at home. You can’t take the chance of leaving it up to each member to be responsible for gathering their own material and practice at home. To solve this problem a band usually designates one member who is responsible for making copies of cover songs for each member to take home and practice along with. That designated person would have to put forth a bit of effort in order to burn individual songs from CD’s or download Internet tunes from their home PC’s and burn a CD full of cover tunes for the band to listen to. Some bands even swap and share digital files such as mp3′s or flash drives full of songs.

This also advances the song learning curve by allowing each member constant and easy access to current material and a resource for further reference.

Another method to advance the learning curve of a particular song through individual practice and supplying the entire band with that song in an instant is through Google and YouTube. You can use this tool to e-mail videos to each member’s personal computer. Now, how easy is that?? Through the use of Google, band members can sit in front of their computer and watch the video while they practice the song along with the audio.

Now, assuming that each member has a computer at home, the designated “song fetcher” can e-mail each member the video. Google has access to literally googillians of videos, some of which are not worthy of a distant mention and some are not worthy at all. Some videos are homemade tutorials, a lot of which aren’t worthy of mention and others are of “the average Joe garage-band guy” video taping him/herself performing their best rendition of another artist’s song. Once again, some of these videos are not worth the “click” and others are extremely good.

I’m telling you all this because I truly believe that by using quality videos you can sometimes watch the original band perform the song and you can pick up playing tips along the way. Whether you are a drummer, guitarist, pianist, bassist or whatever, watch & learn, listen & learn. Use current technology to your advantage. Make it easy & fun for your band mates to practice at home. Then when rehearsal time arrives, everyone will have listened to or hopefully have viewed, how the song is to be played. It really is a valuable practicing too; USE IT!

In the next lesson, we will discuss how to utilize these original recordings as song structure, then tweak the arrangements to suit your playing abilities and styles.

Keep practicing and I’ll chat at you soon.

IT Band Syndrome is one of the most common causes of knee pain in runners. It is an overuse injury caused by repetitive friction of the iliotibial band across the Lateral Epicondyle. This syndrome presents as lateral (outside) knee pain due to tightness of the ITB and hip abductors. As a result of movement of the band during flexion and extension of the knee and hip, a tight band could be responsible for the inflammation at the knee or even the hip, or along the IT Band.

The main physical causes of this condition are:

Tight IT Band. 
Altered foot function: Excessively flat feet cause the lower leg to internally rotate excessively, adding a stretch tension to the IT Band. 
Decreased Glute Medius/Maximus function. 
Overactive TFL muscle due to lack of Gluteus Medius function
A weak or inactive Vastus Medials (VMO). This is the inside muscle group of the quadriceps and tends to become weak on people. 
Medial (inward) knee migration during walking/running.
Leg length discrepancy.
Tightness of hamstrings/Quads/Calves

Other non-biomechanical reasons for the condition can be improper running technique, worn-out or improper running shoes, hill running, canted running surfaces, and increasing mileage too fast. If you feel any of the non-biomechanical reasons may be an issue, please confer with your running store or coach.

From a physical standpoint, the best way to prevent IT Band Syndrome is to correct the causes by performing stretches and exercises to correct any of these above dysfunction.  Stretching or foam rolling for the IT band, Hamstrings, Calves and Quads is necessary.

Secondly, you need to be evaluated to determine if you have excessively flat arches or excessive pronation of the ankle. If you have flat feet, an orthotic may be beneficial. Lastly, strengthening of the hip stabilizers (glutes) and proprioception training of the ankle are recommended.

If you are, or in the future, suffer from IT Band Syndrome, conservative treatment usually does a great job of freeing you from your pain. In our practice we utilize Active Release Technique , Graston Technique  and Kinesio® Taping along with other modalities to treat the pain and prevent it from coming back. I recommend you familiarize yourself with the above techniques if you are a runner; they are the top conservative treatment methods running related over-use injuries.

Beyond the famous kind of rings such as wedding bands and engagement rings, there are brand new styles for diamond jewelry like the right hand rings and lavish eternity rings. Love is indeed a good reason for celebrating and there are people who celebrate it with by purchasing eternity rings for their wives. And just like wedding rings, eternity rings symbolize eternal love. Although this ring type is often given as a gift to celebrate during an anniversary or special events like child birth, you always have the option to present this exceptional gift to your spouse anytime. It is oftentimes given as a tangible symbol of an unending love and promise and a good way to express to your partner how much he or she means to you. Eternity rings are also known as ‘dress’ wedding rings, diamond bands and diamond infinity bands. These rings are usually lined with diamonds and often appear in circle of gemstones.

A continuous loop of diamonds is a symbolic meaning of eternal love which makes them popular gift choices for memorable milestone events in a couple’s journey in marital life. It can be used as gifts for monumental anniversary celebrations (20 years of marriage or more), celebrating child birth or maybe overcoming huge struggles in marriage.

Eternity Ring Styles

The simple nature of eternity rings allows for fewer design variations compared to that of engagement rings. Nevertheless, there are still variations in styles and couples can choose a metal, shape, setting and other characteristics that will reflect individual preferences.

Full and half eternity rings. Full rings usually feature a complete circle of gems while half rings have stones in only one portion of the ring.

Full eternity rings often need to be custom sized and cannot be resized in the long run making half rings more popular choices. Most women also prefer to have their stones concentrated in one side so that they are more visible.

Stone sizes and shapes. Eternity rings have stones that need to be nestled together thus compact shapes are popular choices including princess, emerald and round cuts. Rings usually don’t have mix sizes or shapes to preserve the continuity of its design, though alternating styles can still be found. Eternity bands usually have stones around the finger so only smaller gems are used for comfort. Due to the number of stones that are utilized in eternity rings, it weighs more than the traditional wedding rings.

Eternity ring stone collections. Diamonds are considered as the most popular eternity ring stones but you may also consider other options. Emeralds, tanzanite, sapphires and rubies are also frequent options and are often paired with diamonds in a repeating or alternating pattern on the ring. Couples may also opt for birth stones or other symbolic stones to make the ring more meaningful and unique.

Ring setting. Setting choices can be pretty limited because eternity bands tend to have close set stone designs. A prong setting can give the ring the look of being only made up of diamonds, like that of a pave setting. Channel settings are popular options because they hold gems securely in place and are easy to manufacture. Other elaborate and sophisticated styles include bezels, curved S settings, and even figural ones such as leaves, flowers and vines.

While the stones, style and placement of eternity bands are important aspects that you need to consider, the sentiment conveyed by the ring is still the most important part of this gift.