Jeff Redd, founder of Mary J Blige, former A&R executive of MCA records, and creator of the Sol Real label sat down with R&B Haven to discuss his past work in the R&B industry and his plans for the future. Having had such a tremendous influence on the R&B game, Jeff Redd provides some great insight into the industry's depths.

In 1998, I was one year into my Londons Times Cartoon project. I was still living, working, and trying to survive in an abandoned rural Mississippi warehouse. Nobody would rent to me as they, I am certain, felt this former 9-5 business executive had lost his mind for launching a cartoon at age forty three. I was a year into the project. Not a lot was going right, I could clearly see it was a hobby, and I would eventually need to take some kind of job in sales, but for now, I was obsessed with seeing it through. Then a marketing idea hit me, which, at the time, I thought was brilliant (I humbly add). I would create another series of cartoons called "Panel Hollywood" and feature real life celebrity caricatures and then mail signed copies directly to them or to their agent to forward. Out of the 150 or so that we created and mailed, about twelve responded, and even offered reviews, which was my strategy. Their reviews of the work remain on my main cartoon website.

Without the proper posture, playing guitar for long periods of time can cause back strain. Here are a couple of tips about holding your guitar in the correct fashion. Pick up the guitar so that the back of the guitar rests against your stomach. If you play right handed the neck of the guitar should be aiming towards the left. Gently rest the body of the guitar against your upper right thigh. You should hold the guitar neck with your left hand and drape your right arm over the body of the guitar so that your hands can easily reach the strings. Your position should feel both comfortable and natural while you are playing guitar.

Without the proper posture, playing your guitar for long periods of time can cause back pain. Here are a couple of tips about how to hold your guitar in the correct fashion. Pick up the guitar so that the back of the guitar rests against your stomach. If you play right handed the neck of the guitar should be aiming towards the left. Gently rest the body of the guitar against your upper right thigh. You should hold the guitar neck with your left hand and drape your right arm over the body of the guitar so that your hands can easily reach the strings. Your position should feel both comfortable and natural while you are playing guitar.

Before buying a new acoustic guitar, be sure to check out some acoustic guitar reviews. Two kinds of reviews you'll find are ones written by experts who sample and play a wide variety of guitar, and reviews written by ordinary people who just want to give you an opinion about how the guitar works, sounds and feels to them.

An acoustic guitar chord consists of several notes played simultaneously. There are several different acoustic guitar chords but one needs only to learn a few basic chords in order to play hundreds, if not thousands, of different songs. A basic fact to commit to memory before you begin is that major chords should sound bright while minor chords sound dark.

You should be sure to do your acoustic guitar tuning each time you sit down to play, whether you are practicing or performing. Its pretty unpleasant to try to make beautiful music on an untuned guitar. Lots of guitar students think their inexperience is ruining the sound, not understanding the importance of doing their tuning regularly. You will be much more successful in your music making if you set aside that small amount of time it takes to tune your instrument properly.

The style of music you want to play should be kept in mind when shopping for a beginner acoustic guitar. A nylon-stringed guitar is best for those wishing to play Latin, classical, and certain types of folk or pop music. A steel-stringed guitar works better for rock, country, and other types of pop or folk music. For beginning guitar players, it's recommended to play the different types before making a final decision as to what sound you prefer.

Guitar music has its own musical notation. The standard musician's notation of staffs, notes, note values, ledger lines, key signatures and time signatures is replaced with a simpler, operational type of notation, called a tab. Even if you do not know how to read music, you can learn how to play guitar with the acoustic guitar tabs. Many stringed instruments use tabs or tablatures.

Have you ever paused to listen for a moment to a musician gently strumming an acoustic guitar or performing a blazing, soul-stirring flamenco number? The sounds of an acoustic guitar invoke mystery and a feeling of romance for many people. Most people never stop to consider how versatile and wide-ranging acoustic guitars are, but virtually all of them can enjoy the beautiful music they make.

If you'd like to buy a new acoustic guitar, check out the reviews first. You'll want to look at two different kinds of reviews: expert reviews and user reviews. The experts will tell you how the guitar compares to other similar models, while users will tell you how satisfied they are with their purchase.

You might be a bit taken aback if your 'young daughter has been pleading with you to get a pink acoustic guitar. You probably associate guitars with moody teenage boys, not young girls who used to pretend to be princesses and play dress-up just a few years ago. You will probably think it best to buy an inexpensive guitar in case your little girl loses interest. However, before you let her give it up, you should try and encourage her to keep at it.

There are several things to remember when youre out searching for your first acoustic beginner guitar. First of all, you want the very best guitar your money can buy. The value of an easier-to-play, high quality instrument will be clearly seen in both its tone and its responsiveness to the touch.

Have you ever paused to listen for a moment to a musician gently strumming an instrumental acoustic guitar or performing a blazing, soul-stirring flamenco number? The sounds of an instrumental acoustic guitar invoke mystery and a feeling of romance for many people. Most people never stop to consider how versatile and wide-ranging acoustic guitars are, but virtually all people can enjoy the beautiful music they make.

-- Epimanondas (Epi) Stathopoulos a Greek living in the US used his abbreviated name Epi, added phone and established Epiphone. Why Phone? Its a Greek word for sound. Banjos were the first instruments to bare the new name. 1924 was the year Epiphone first registered it's name.

Even before the First World War, the fashion industry was attracting tens of thousands of people. Many large fashion-designing houses have started their work in the early 20th century. However, until recently nobody paid much attention to t-shirts and t-shirt designs. T-shirts were only secondary fashion items and people just wore them together with other clothing items.

When a musician, or anyone that is interested in becoming a musician, is in need of a new brass instrument but does not want to pay a large amount of money, they should consider purchasing a pre-owned brass instrument. There are many different benefits to making this selection, with a wide variety to choose from. There should be no trouble locating a great selection of trumpets, cornets, French horns, trombones, tubas, and even flugelhorns.

Are you looking for places to download free MP3 files for Zune? If you are, then what you are going to read will be informative and useful. If not, you can stop reading. Downloading free MP3s online has its risks if you do not handle it carefully. Viruses, worms, adware, spyware and corrupted files are some of the stuff that people struggle with when downloading music online. But here, I offer you 3 safe places where you can get them without the troubles spoken.

Chances are that if you're writing a piece of music that calls for a low-pitched instrument, you're not going to have many choices. Luckily, the bass guitar is an instrument that can be put to a variety of uses in modern music.

When you first got your iPod, you probably had visions of everything working exactly the way you wanted them to work. You'd simply plug in your iPod, the songs would magically appear, and then you could go on your way.