Windows Shortcut Keys

This post is about some useful computer tricks for PC’s.  Apologies to Mac users.

A few weeks ago, I was doing some computer work with someone.  I've done a lot of computer programming in my life, and I initially came to university to study computer science (switching away from the music program at the last second).  However, despite that background, the guy that I was working with is a whole lot smarter than I am when it comes to computers.

  

However, as I was watching him do something, he had to minimize about eight windows at one point so he could see the desktop of the laptop that he was working on.  I was surprised by this, because he usually does things very quickly and efficiently.  I said, “Did you know that you can hold down the ‘flying window’ key in the left corner, and press the letter D, and the desktop will appear automatically?”  He didn’t.  At that point, I figured that I should make a list of useful keyboard shortcuts that people would find useful.  Of course, there are already lists on the internet, because Windows comes with almost one hundred built in short-cuts.   However, I’m just going to make a “short list” of about a dozen of the most useful short-cuts here:


CTRL-S:  “Save” a file.  I do this automatically about every two minutes when I'm working on something, although to be honest computers are about a hundred times more reliable than they were twenty years ago (before modern-day internet and email, if you can imagine that kind of a horrible, archaic society).

CTRL-P:  “Print” a file.  Yes, most of these commands can also be found in the menu bar at the top of the screen with just two mouse clicks, but if your hands are already on the keyboard and you know how to type properly, it is far faster to use the shortcuts than to move your hand over to the mouse.

CTRL-Z:  “Undo” last command.  This doesn’t always work, and some programs have stranger combinations, like SHIFT-CTRL-Z to do an Undo.  But it does work in a ton of programs.  And CTRL-Y often is a "re-do" last command, if you change your mind after an undo.  I use these all the time in programs from people like Abobe, or in Word or Excel docs.

CTRL-C:  “Copy” whatever is highlighted on the screen.

CTRL-V:  “Paste” whatever is highlighted on the screen. And by the way, can someone tell me why the letter “V” stands for “paste”??

Of course, the three most common formatting commands (Bold, Italic, and Underline) can all be done with a short-cut.  Just highlight your selection and hit either CTRL-B, CTRL-I, or CTRL-U respectively.  And these same commands, of course, also work as a toggle, so you can turn them on then type a little bit, then turn them back off.

FlyingWindow-E:  Brings up Windows Explorer (not to be confused with Internet Explorer).  I love this short-cut; perhaps my favorite.

FlyingWindow-D:  Brings up the Desktop, as mentioned above.  Also useful.  Strangely, FlyingWindow-M does the same thing, I think, because it means “Minimize” all open windows.  Maybe there's a distinction, but I can’t think of it.

FlyingWindow-R:  Brings up the “Run” dialog, which normally is accessed by going to “start” then to “run.”  This is mostly only useful for the real nerds.  I don’t even use it (well, not much).

FlyingWindow-C:  If you have “IntelliType” turned on, this brings up the Control Panel.  Useful, except that I don’t have IntelliType turned on.

Of course, there are several dozen more, but they start to get pretty esoteric. For a decent list, check this out: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/126449  (scroll down the page a bit, past the notice about support for winXP having ended).

And before I stop, I’ll mention one last shortcut that makes me laugh.  Windows just wouldn’t be itself without lots of features that are completely nonsensical and redundant.  If you have IntelliType turned on, and do a “FlyingWindow-S” it will toggle the caps lock on and off.  Why you would want to do that instead of just hitting the caps lock key itself (which is already under your left pinky) is beyond me.  Maybe it’s just a way of giving your fingers some extra exercise, although I can think of better ways to do that.

I'm Jonathan Clark, known online as DJ Bolivia.  Do you want to learn more about DJ'ing and music production?  If so, visit:

djbolivia.ca/training

If you happen to enjoy techno tracks, most of my tracks are available as free downloads from this link:

djbolivia.ca/tracks

Thanks so much for visit, and for your support!  I really appreciate the fan base that I've been able to build up over the years.

Also, if you want to visit any of my other sites, here are a few links:

    YouTube:  youtube.com/djbolivia

    SoundCloud:  soundcloud.com/djbolivia

    Blogger:  djbolivia.blogspot.com

    Main Site:  www.djbolivia.ca

Running Out Of Chord Combinations

When you look at Western Music, there are only twelve notes to play with. So that's 12 possible tonic notes for scalar systems. 12 possible chord roots, although of course you can add inversions and sevenths and sixths and seconds and all sort of other upper-register notes to give a tiny bit more variety. But essentially, there are only twelve main chords to play with when writing a song. And furthermore, many of those don't "work together" harmonically, at least not in a sense that is pleasing to a listener of western music. So the number of basic chord combinations for verses and choruses and bridges is remarkably limited.

If you dig through contemporary pop music, you can find thousands of examples of songs that share a significant part of their overall chord structure. Sometimes the more recent songs were created on the patterns of earlier chord progressions unintentionally. At other times, I'm sure that chord progressions were mimicked completely on purpose. Some artists have even mimicked their own basic chord progressions in subsequent writing (Chuck Berry might be a good example).

If you know a bit of music and want a slightly more detailed overview, there's an interesting article on wikipedia that I came across the other day while doing some music assignments:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chord_progression

You should note that this is not a very complex article, so you need very little music background to understand it.

But does this whole situation mean that we're running out of songs? Is it getting harder and harder for musicians to come up with original song titles, lyrics, and music? Well, yes for song titles, although it's gotten to the point now where many song titles have been recycled for perhaps dozens of songs. Finding something completely unique for a song title is pretty difficult.

As far as lyrics and music go, the situation isn't so bad. I've heard lots of key phrases in songs that seem very unique, but which are mirrored in other songs that appear to be completely unrelated. Maybe they ARE unrelated, and maybe they aren't. And chord progressions form the background of songs, but a lot of work can be done in production to make them sound entirely different.

I'm going to leave you with a bit of an interesting example of how chord progressions can be mimicked, but in a way that it does not seem like the "new" song is copying the old. I don't know if the mimicry was intentional in this particular case, but think about two songs: "Imagine," by John Lennon, and "Jump," by Van Halen. Then take a moment to check this out:

http://soundcloud.com/jackstanleywp/imagine-a-jump-john-lennon-vs-van-halen

I think you'll find it to be an interesting listen.


Imagine-a-jump-john-lennon-vs.-van-halen by jackstanleywp

Now, someone needs to put together John Lennon's vocals with an instrumental from Van Halen. It works both ways.


Before I leave, check this out too:

I'm Jonathan Clark, known online as DJ Bolivia.  Do you want to learn more about DJ'ing and music production?  If so, visit:

djbolivia.ca/training

If you happen to enjoy techno tracks, most of my tracks are available as free downloads from this link:

djbolivia.ca/tracks

Thanks so much for visit, and for your support!  I really appreciate the fan base that I've been able to build up over the years.

Also, if you want to visit any of my other sites, here are a few links:

    YouTube:  youtube.com/djbolivia

    SoundCloud:  soundcloud.com/djbolivia

    Blogger:  djbolivia.blogspot.com

    Main Site:  www.djbolivia.ca