The notation for swing rhythm is an approximation but as close as it can be without requiring immensely complex and cumbersome sub-divisions of note values. The result of the swing is a sense of ...

Ragtime music is essentially an early form of jazz music that dominated the American Jazz scene from the late 19 th to the early 20 th century. What can perhaps be considered to be part of the ...

A dulcimer is a stringed folk instrument which basically comes in two different varieties: the hammered dulcimer – which has strings stretched over a sounding board with a trapezoidal shape, generally ...

Musical tradition is at times a rather odd element of this popular art. One of those traditions that still holds true for today is that of using Italian terms to instruct a performer in notated scores ...

The tambourine is probably one of the easiest and most fun musical instruments to play anywhere in the world. If you have any rhythm at all, and sometimes even if you don’t, you, too, can play a ...

Army of Me was released in 1995 on Björk’s second studio album, Post. The song opens with the repeated bass line in the Locrian mode. Although the root note is somewhat ambiguous, it will be revealed ...

Reggae music has had a profound influence on many aspects of Western culture from fashion to popular music. Across the United Kingdom, the USA and Africa, Reggae secured a strong foothold in the ...

Igor Stravinsky, equally famous for composing some of the most extraordinary Russian ballets, offered considerable compliments towards Tchaikovsky’s ballets, especially Sleeping Beauty. Stravinsky ...

Music is littered with vocabulary. Dictionaries of music list the numerous terms that you have the option to embed into your language if you wish. Many of these terms are Italian as that wonderful ...

In spite of composing some of the most dramatically beautiful music ever heard, Beethoven’s life was littered with tragedy. Apart from the obvious horror of gradually going deaf, Beethoven did not ...

Pickup tip: If the melody starts before bar 1, enter the pickup beats separately. This keeps the planned bar count aligned with chart numbering while still counting the real performed beats. Tempo tip ...

As a musical genre, Funk has its roots firmly embedded in jazz. Funk incorporates many elements of jazz alongside soul and earlier African-American styles of music. Following on from the immense ...