Elie Khoury

Hey buddies,

Two years ago, I was a big fan of Joe Satriani and I used to play a lot of tunes for that great musician. I uploaded this amazing song “Until We Say Goodbye”. The guitar sound was really bad, I used my old Fender Stratocaster (That was before I bought the Ibanez JS1000 BTB Satriani Signature) and I sampled the backing track using Cakewalk sonar 4.

Download it here: Elie Khoury – Until We Say Goodbye (Satriani Tribute)

Ciao

Hey folks,

In this tutorial, we’re gonna draw an old burnt paper with photoshop. This is a step by step tutorial for beginners! if you have anything to add, please write a comment!

Let’s start:

1. File > New:

Width: 450 pixels
Height: 300 pixels
Background contents: White
Continue reading »

Hey friends,

I’ve been playing guitar for almost 8 years and playing the blues for 4 years! I decided this year to make a big shift and started composing Trance music. I’m not sure it’s 100% trance but you’ll hear what I came out with. It’s a mix inspired by Vivaldi’s Four Seasons album which is one of my favorite classical albums.

I want to thank Joanna for recording “The Revolution Begins” voice. It’s so smooth . Not to forget Nick, Fady and DJ Chris (Thanks guys for the tips).

Download this song and write comments please… I’m not sure I’ll be composing some other trance songs unless you like this one . I see the blues and jazz a much more mature style of music in terms of expressing feelings and it’s not geometrical at all.

Download here: Elie Khoury – Season One (The Revolution Begins)

Stay Tuned!

Hey friends,

I just came back from a 10 days trip to morocco. I had the ACM Arab and North Africa programing competition. Our team was Me, Jad and Farouk and it was called LAU Gurus! the competition was held on Saturday 2/12/2006. Farouk and the other teams left Morocco on Sunday 3/12/2006.

I stayed me and Jad to enjoy the trip a little bit. We met some great friends who helped us discover nice places there. On Thursday, my Dell Inspiron Laptop was stolen. Someone has broken the door of our apartment and stole my Laptop case which contains my laptop, my passport and some cash. I had to stay few more days there to get a Laisser Passer from the Lebanese embassy and buy another ticket. The negative was that all my projects, my Final Year Project, my job and all my data was gone but, Sara, my friend, was always there to help me find my laptop back and we spend amazing time together which made me forget this big issue! The thief was Youssef el Krid, a student in AUI who was under drug effect and most probably he needed some money to buy some cocaine! I called the Moroccan Prime Minister’s relative and he’s gonna send some agents to Ifrane to help me get my laptop back… I’m back to Lebanon now and trying to manage without my laptop! This is a brief story of what happened with me during this trip which was a really great experience. “Thanks so much Sara for everything and planning to see you again soon!”

And thanks to everyone who asked for my number in morocco and called me! Really thanks!

I’ll keep you updated!
Elie

No one doesn’t like windows xp eye candy blue and green theme! and it was also improved with the release of Windows XP Media Center 2005. One of the best themes I found for my Nokia 6630 was this WinXP Media Center theme… It’s really amazing! I wish I know the owner to mention his name and give him credits (thank you).

Check out the following screenshots:

download it here: Nokia 60 Series Windows XP Media Center Theme

Stay Tuned!

Let’s thank Mr. George W. Johnson for recording the 1st blues song ever. It was recorded in 1896! “The Laughing Song”. Well, you can imagine the recording quality by that time, it was quite noisy…

Here it is: The Laughing Song

Enjoy it!

Hello friends,

Have you ever wondered why most people find the Jazz tunes kinda weird or dissonant? Have you ever been listening to a jazz tune and felt like the player is improvising out of tune or scale? Actually, nop! they’re not dissonant, it’s just how your ears percept them. Since you were born, you’ve been listening to some kind of simple music (classics, rock, oriental…) where the artists focus on a limited set of harmonies (1-3-5). Let’s get to the point directly!

What are the 1-3-5?
Let’s say we’re playing a C major scale (Do) which contains these notes: C D E F G A B C. The 1-3-5 would be C E and G and they form the C Major chord! But why the hell 99% of the chord we hear nowadays are built over the 1-3-5? didn’t we miss the 2nd (aka 9th = 7+2), the 4th (aka 11th = 7+4), the 6th (aka 13th = 7+6) and the 7th note which is the most used harmony in jazz! So my friends, it’s a matter of perception. Your ears are not used, yet, to those harmonies because you have not been hearing them enough on radio stations. Jazz has no limits. Jazz artists focus a lot on these unused harmonies and once you get used to them, you’ll notice how void the other styles of music are! Get your guitar or piano and play: 1-3-5-7 (aka C E G B) and you’ll get the C major 7th! Kinda cool… isn’t it? Same thing for minor and dominant chords! I hope you find this post useful in case you’ve ever wondered “what is jazz?“.

Stay tuned…

These are my favorite colors… and yes, If you’re wondering, I’m so bored! hehe

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DPMagnifier Alpha version was released few weeks ago, but I did not have time to blog it until now.

DPMagnifier is another Java Applet coded by me. With this applet you can open a picture and manipulate it. You can change it from colored to black and while, sepia, inverted colors, gradient effect. You can add strikes, smooth border, glass effect and you can add text to it. “It is a very cool applet to get rid of the boring looking display pictures” said Elias El Hajj ( too bad you blogged it before me Elias ). This applet is still under alpha release which means many things are still to be changed but you can enjoy it for the time being with its cool features.

Click here to visit this applet!

Comments and suggestions are more than welcome! Stay in touch

Here’s what I’ve been trying to sleep early not to miss my early classes in the university

• Wind down prior to bedtime
• Do not smoke (nicotine is a stimulant) or consume caffeine
• Try warm milk or a light snack before bed (if this doesn’t interfere with another treatment you are using)
• Exercise daily, but not right before bedtime
• Take a warm bath, but not right before bedtime
• Keep a regular bedtime and rising time
• Get in the habit of going to bed when you are sleepy and sleeping where you sleep best
• Reserve your bed for sleeping only
• Don’t have any clocks visible to you
• Reduce the amount of time you allow yourself to sleep until you fall asleep easily (your health care provider can help with this form of “sleep restriction therapy”
• Schedule worry time during the day and put worries out of your head when it is time to sleep; you can write them down on 3×5 cards, and then let go of them
• Get up if you have not fallen asleep in 15 minutes and practice a relaxing activity (e.g. handwork, reading a boring book) until you feel sleepy

Very Useful!!!!

Cya