3rds & 6ths Work Best: Diatonic thirds and sixths are the most popular guitar harmony intervals used in rock, country, and classical because they stay within the key and sound naturally consonant.

Bb Trumpet: Transposes a major 2nd above concert pitch. Written C sounds as concert Bb. Add 2 semitones to convert concert → written.

Tension & Playability: Most bass players prefer a total set tension between 150–200 lbs for a standard 4-string. Higher tension gives more punch and sustain; lower tension is easier to play but may ...

Tension Formula: T = (UW × (2 × L × F)²) / 386.088 — where T = tension in lbs, UW = unit weight of string (lbs/in), L = scale length in inches, F = frequency in Hz. This is the industry-standard ...

The first work on my list is the opening movement of what has come to be nicknamed, the moonlight, sonata after a critic described the opening of the piece as moonlight dancing on the water of a lake.

Sacred music broadly covers music that has a religious focus at its heart. This is in opposition to what is termed secular music that tends to be centred around those more down to earth themes like ...

There are two sides to Chopin. The show-off, racing pieces that demand incredible virtuosity from the pianist, and the ethereal, heartbreakingly beautiful pieces that make you weep. The pieces I have ...

In the early part of the classical period, the symphony was a relatively modest composition, usually comprising of four contrasting movements and for approximately 30 – 40 players. Each movement was ...

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 ...

The influence of W.A. Mozart across all areas of culture has been colossal, from the Baby Mozart Project through to contemporary song. You can hardly pass through a day without encountering the music ...

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 ...

When the world of the moving picture arrived in the early part of the 20th century, it was a revolution. What is often referred to as the silent years from around 1910 to 1927 marked a turning point ...