Classical music needs no introduction; it's part of our everyday life. Devote a little time, and you can develop a more discerning ear.
Though with its improvisations jazz may sound random, the form has rhythmic, harmonic and melodic patterns - music to devotees' ears.
Swing is gaining renewed popularity. Dance, rock and other contemporary styles are adopting swing into their performances.
Improvisation is creating in real time. Some musicians are superb at this skill. It involves risk, and the rewards are very enjoyable. Start with small steps.
Country music evolved in the 1920s to feed the growing radio and phonograph markets. It's a combination of African-American musical styles - like the blues - and the ballads and spiritual songs...
You can hear hints of it in Southern Gospel. The beat echoes through Delta blues. Black music and country licks came together and were electrified by Sam Phillips at Sun Studios in Memphis. Rock...
Rock 'n' roll music reinvented itself in the 1960s with the Beatles' "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band," got lost momentarily in the clash of heavy metal and the downbeat of grunge, and...
A little country, a little rock 'n' roll, with folk and Western swing music mixed in, Outlaw Country Music came to the public eye when Willie Nelson and Waylon Jennings left Nashville. Now, when...
The blues is a truly American musical form created by slaves, who drew on their suffering and oppression. It is a combination of African and European musical and verse elements.
Music and romance go hand in hand. Update your CD collection so that you can continually enjoy the romantic songs that are a part of your past.
You can't rely on generic, mainstream sources (tv/radio/rolling stone magazine) to bring you new music that you can really connect with. Everybody's tastes are different, mainstream is a...
Ever since the advent of swing in the 1930s, highbrows have been lamenting the demise of classical music—which is completely ridiculous, since tens of thousands of classical music CDs are...
In a way, the very phrase “world music” shows America at its navel-gazing worst; after all, to the Bedouin tribesmen of the Arabian peninsula or the priests of a Javanese temple, what we label...
You’re on it when it comes to guitar bands, but you’re starting to feel a bit one-dimensional. You dig Kanye West, but mostly because of those earthy old school samples you can’t quite identify....
There’s a lot of talk these days about independent music. If you’re not on a major label, that certainly qualifies you as an independent artist, but it’s totally separate from indie rock. To say...
You may think you've got skills, flow and a fresh style, but unless you take time to learn the fundamentals of rap, you'll never write a rap song that gets you anything but ridicule. Rap songs...
As I've gotten older, my musical horizon has expanded significantly. I'm still a young guy, but I can't listen to the same music I used to a few years ago, at least not as much. There are two...
Many people think of classical music as an acquired taste. We “acquire” tastes for all kinds of music without realizing it, such as country, pop, reggae and jazz. But most people consider...
The blues is an American musical genre borne out of hard times and the essence of writing your own blues song lies within relating your feelings in song. The structure of blues music songwriting...
Baroque music is lively and engaging and it seems to be always in motion. Baroque music flourished in the churches and courts of Western Europe from 1600 to 1750, but it is still very popular...
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