Music Basics

Music is defined as “the art of arranging sounds in time so as to produce a continuous, unified, and evocative composition, as through melody, harmony, rhythm, and timbre.”...

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...

If you are a music teacher looking to ad new students, there are ways you can use the holidays to your advantage.

Tuning a guitar is one of the most important skills to develop if you want to become a serious musician. It can be learned in minutes, days, weeks, or months depending on your ability to...

Tuning any snare or drum skin is a time consuming process, however when done correctly can produce a fantastic drum sound with even a cheap snare, however bear in mind you are not going to get the...

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...

Wanna rock out uncontrollably with your friends but dont know where to start? Wanna end up on the road one day touring, making fans? Heres some tips to help you start.

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,...

If you have deep feelings about a subject then writing about it should be quite easy. Remember every chord in the world has already been played so keep it simple because you can't possibly...

So you wanna be a rapper? How badly?

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...

Dominant seventh chords are extremely valuable in music since they move down a fifth to “do” or tonic. They are useful as cadences and also in leading to a new key. Learn how to play them easily...

Musical instruments, especially string instruments like the guitar, require tuning to keep all of the strings at the right pitch. A tuned electric or acoustic guitar is necessary for a good,...

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...

I have been playing bass for several years now primarily sticking to rock and alternative genres but sometimes I like to get into a little funk or jazz. Many bassists, and I am guilty of this as...

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...

In studying music, it is beneficial to understand the harmonic motion of the piece. This can shed light on the composer's style, the style period, and idiosyncracies of the piece itself. ...

Chord changes can be challenging to read. Although there are standards of how to notate the changes, there are multiple styles and some composers seem to invent their own from time to time. So...

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...

Writing a song can be easy if you know some chords on your guitar. If you don't know chords, I suggest you learn some and then come back. I will show you a way to write the basics of a complete...

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...

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...

The ability to read jazz music notation is a skill necessary to any serious trombone player. Reading jazz music is really no different than reading other types of music, such as the concert band...

Piano sheet music is written on what is called the grand staff. While most instruments use only one clef, either treble or bass, depending upon the range of the instrument, the piano includes...

The cool thing about guitars is that the scales are the same, no matter where you are on the guitar. Guitar scales use octaves on the strings preceding each other to keep the shapes the same and...

Music theory tells us how the notes in our musical system work together. A thorough understanding of music theory isn't essential for anyone who wishes to play an instrument or compose songs, but...

Guitar tabs are a great way to learn to play the guitar. They're not as good as sheet music, because they can't show rhythm. As long as you've heard the song you're trying to learn, you should be...

Chords are basic building blocks for musical accompaniment. Chords are combinations of notes played simultaneously. Whereas some instruments (such as the trumpet or flute) play individual notes,...

The treble clef is the general clef used for upper-register notes in most printed music. However, some music is written using the alto clef. Whereas the first staff line in the treble clef is E,...

Written music uses a time signature and a system of notes that indicate beats. Composers use these beats in various combinations to fill bars with the appropriate number of beats indicated by the...

Aural skills should be started early on but it's never to late to start. You will learn how to implement this more non physical technique of study so that you can: 1. Develop a sense of relative...

Becoming a blues man requires life experience; a person cannot simply make a conscious decision to become one. But if someone has experienced grief or misfortune and knows how to play rhythmically...

In classical music, cadenzas are the moment of creative glory for the musician. It is in the cadenza that musicality, dexterity, and skill can be fully realized and make the performance unique to...

To construct chords on a piano, you'll need a basic understanding of piano keys and music theory. The white keys are regular notes, and the black keys can be used as sharps or flats, depending on...

There are many music classes in college or even high school that will require you to be able to identify pieces of music by ear for listening quizzes and tests. Often teachers will require you to...

Tablature, often referred to as tab, is a system of music notation used primarily for stringed instruments. Tablature uses a graph similar to a traditional music staff, except that each of the...

Musical notation features music notes that consist of two elements. Those elements are note heads and note stems. he various combinations of these heads and stems tell musicians the names of the...

Oh No! you broke a string on your new guitar and nobody showed you how to change or replace your strings. You'll learn the quick and easy way to change your strings the right way on your acoustic...

Many drummers feel it isn't necessary to learn how to read drum notes, preferring instead to rely on their ears and sense of rhythm and timing to carry them through. This is particularly true of...

There are many ways to go about songwriting and just as many ways to go about teaching it. Here is one strategy that worked well for me with helping to teach a children's group about songwriting.

This article will teach you how to recognize major, minor, augmented, and diminished triads in all inversions for ear training (aural training) class. As with performance, you will need to...

Music is enjoyed by everyone and some people still can't read music. There are just a few basic pieces of information to get you started. Let's start with the basic music staff that notes lie...

Writing tenor drum music is very similar to writing multiple bass drum music. The notes are written on a traditional five-line staff and are placed on the lines or spaces of the staff according to...

Most everybody understands music in its finished form. Before music gets to that point, however, it starts with a system called music notation. This is the language musicians use to write down...

Converting music to tab can be done manually, if you learn how to read both sheet music and tablature, or it can be done using conversion software. Both methods are useful for guitar players,...

If you've never used guitar barre chords before, you may be wondering “What are they, and why would I want to use them?" A barre chord is an extremely versatile type of guitar chord where...

The keys of a piano are arranged systematically in order to provide an intuitive musical interface for the player. The piano keyboard includes white keys and black keys. Black keys are grouped...

While many drummers play by ear and never even consider written music for drums, there is another segment of drummers who read and write drum music right along with musicians who play other...