Music Basics

Swell can be used as a noun, verb or adjective. In most of its forms, swell relates to expansion or rounding.

The harmonica is an instrument that's commonly used in every type of music from blues to rock, and from country to jazz. The First Act Learn & Play Harmonica is intended for children and...

Most musicians can read music by sight, but transposing is a skill possessed by far fewer instrumentalists. Learning to transpose by sight takes a lot of practice, but transposing bass to treble...

Reading music can be as easy as ABC, as long as you know a few tricks. A piece of piano music has two staffs, the bass and the treble, indicating the right and left hand parts of the music. Each...

Whether playing high-speed classical pieces, racing through rock solos or jamming with a jazz group, using memorized scales is imperative. The proverbial "How do I get to Carnegie Hall? (Practice,...

"My Immortal" is a pop song made popular by Evanescence and performed in voice and on the piano by the musician/artist. Written by Ben Moody, Amy Lee and David Hodges, the song expresses sorrows...

Baritone music covers a range that straddles both the bass and treble clefs, but it is mainly written on the higher portion of the bass clef. Because most music students are taught to read treble...

Few instruments can match the expressiveness of the guitar. Natural harmonics, a type of note that is meant to sound bell-like, add color easily to your playing. Any guitarist can add harmonics...

The history of the United States can be understood both by what is written about it and by the country's cultural products. Although America does not have as rich a tradition in classical music as...

A musical scale is a collection of pitches, either in ascending or descending order, which forms the basis for musical compositions. The methods for dividing octaves into scales varies widely...

After students learn the fundamentals of music, it's time to teach the scales. Without scales, students won't be able to gain an understanding of how music is constructed and won't be able to...

A musical scale is a group of notes arranged in a specific pattern of steps (or distance between each note) to make a set of tones grouped into what musicians refer to as a key signature. The key...

Sheet music is the written version of the language of music. Notes are used to express the sounds and rhythms that we play. The beauty of sheet music is that we can know what Beethoven wrote a...

The reason there are only seven letters, A through G, in our musical alphabet is because our music is based on a diatonic, or seven note scale.

Music notes are the language musicians use to speak to one another. A music notes consists of three elements that dictate tone, pitch and duration; a note head, stem and tail. These notes, when...

Guitar strings are held in place by the bridge, crossing over the body and ending at the tuning pegs in the neck. With use and over time, a guitar may need to be fitted with new strings,...

Scales are the method by which the twelve tones of the musical language are divided and arranged for the purpose of creating melody and harmony in a musical composition. Major and minor scales are...

The Turkish March (or, more correctly, Turkish Rondo), composed by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791), is actually the third movement of his Piano Sonata No. 11 in A major, K. 331. This piece is...

The percussion section of the marching band is one of the most important sections of the band. The drummers keep the tempo, and the tempo is what keeps all of the marchers together. At first...

A music adviser is a person who is able to give counsel about music within a particular discipline. For example, in education, the adviser will guide students through their years studying music....

Structural notes are the tones in a melodic passage which comprise the basis of the melody. Without them a melody would not be recognizable. Students of music theory learn to identify structural...

You don't need to be born with perfect pitch to hear music notes. Learning to hear notes and recognize the names of those notes takes time and practice. It may be that you never develop perfect...

A member of the woodwind family of musical instruments, the alto flute sounds and plays similar to a traditional C flute. It has a lower range, however, and cannot play notes above G6 in treble...

The term "carnatic music" refers to music performed in the expressive style of a vocalist. The origins of this musical style reside in southern India. Carnatic music is typically performed...

Playing the guitar for hours can be painful, especially to your neck and back. Because of the way the guitar is held, the result is often a painful muscle imbalance, according to Guitar...

Rap, or hip hop, is a genre of music that began in the 1970s in New York City. It consists of looped beats or samples and synthesized instruments, with rapping, a vocal style in which the artist,...

Many great guitarists have used the whammy bar, including Jimi Hendrix, Kirk Hammett and Stevie Ray Vaughn, just to name a few. Also called a tremolo bar, a whammy creates incredibly complex...

Learning how to play the chords EM and DM on the piano is very easy if you have a person who is at all knowledgeable about the piano on hand to show you where the chords are. Learning how to play...

There are few songs as timeless as John Lennon's classic "Imagine." Even though "Imagine" isn't musically complex, the chords are effective in evoking a pensive, almost meditative feel, over which...

Reading music can be intimidating to many people. But once you get started, you'll see how easy it is. After learning the basics, everything will click into place and you'll be reading Beethoven's...

Here's a common scenario: You play "Guitar Hero" or "Rock Band," and get pretty good at it. You decide to take things to the next level by purchasing an actual electric guitar. You pick up an...

According to the website Earboost.com, ear training is, "the process of adapting your ear to understand different notes." Once a musician understands note patterns in music, he trains his mind to...

Most percussion instruments are simple enough: you hit them and they make a sound; they can be played by anyone, but they can take years to master. A typical professional percussionist may have to...

Whether you want to write magazine articles or the next bestselling novel, there are rules every writer must learn in order to be a professional success. Knowing the basics of grammar and style,...

Learning how to play jazz guitar can be somewhat intimidating. You should probably know a thing or two about scales and keys before you try to learn seven chords and how to syncopate properly. ...

Christian music is a genre that has enjoyed steady growth over the past several years. The success of Christian music has spawned a number of music publishers looking for songs with a Christian...

Flamenco is a genre of Spanish guitar music. It is known for its fast, intricate passages, and dance rhythms. Flamenco players usually use classical guitars. The style is somewhat similar to...

Music can make learning fun and easy. Attempting to learn new content using textbooks or lessons delivered by teachers or professors can be dry and difficult, but music can help someone take words...

Songbooks that feature melody lines, sometimes with chord symbols and sometimes without, are called fake books. The name fake book comes from the fact that many musicians with a strong musical...

There are many ways to get your music noticed, from hiring professionals to help you make connections, to dressing up like a clown on television. You can do many things that will make people stand...

Help your kid enjoy an exciting lifelong relationship with music. Introduce them to the world of different styles and follow their lead, instead of forcing your tastes on them. Provide a support...

Music sheets, referred to most often as sheet music, are created by writing musical notes and symbols onto blank sheets called staff paper. Sheet music helps musicians communicate with one...

Making a pentatonic scale with water bottles is a great project to try with kids or other beginning musicians. The pentatonic scale is especially suitable for this project because so many of the...

Teaching kids to play the guitar is rewarding but time-consuming, and while there are basics that must be taught, the teaching sequence and the time spent on each element varies with the child's...

The treble clef is a musical symbol that dictates the notes corresponding with each line on the musical staff. The form of the treble clef reveals essential information about the music it follows...

There's nothing like playing the blues, and nothing drives a blues groove like a great bass line. Blues is all about rhythm, and bass creates the foundation of rhythm in any blues band. With some...

The treble clef, which is sometimes referred to as the G clef, is the upper section of the staff in a piece of music. The notes of the treble clef are higher in pitch than the notes of the bass...

Learning to play an instrument can be a daunting task if you do not have a basic understanding of the eight elements of music. The key to becoming proficient in music theory is understanding a...

In order to read music proficiently, you must learn how to read notes and how many beats each carries. The number of beats per note depends on the time signature. The bottom number of the time...

Chords are the building blocks of music, but there are hundreds of possible chord combinations available. One look at a chord dictionary for piano and organ can be overwhelming. You might think it...