The Good Musician

Image details: China Prepares For Beijing 2008 Olympic Games served by picapp.com
Lovely photograph of large drums being prepared for the Olympics in Beijing. In Western music, there are five categories of instruments, based on how one produced sound: idiophones (shell, horn, wood), membranophones (drum world), aerophones (trumpet, clarinet, flute) chordophones (all y’all strings), and electrophones (anything you plug in).
Chinese instruments are similar in some ways. Their instruments have strings, reeds, airholes. Here’s the big dif: the classification system is based on the ancient pa yin (eight sounds) system which identifies instruments according to the natural material it’s made from …read more

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I was browsing through some old music textbooks and came across a couple of cardboard name tags that read
ETSU
Summer Camper
1982
Evidently I took Renaissance and Baroque music that spring or fall. I worked for the music department’s Summer Camps while in graduate school, with a six-year old. This is not extraordinary on the surface, except that it reminded me of one of my favorite phenomenons–monumental changes in thinking, or paradigm shifts. This happens in music, too. Graduate studies in musicology examine the transition between the great eras–the Baroque, Romantic, et al. When did a new sound or rhythm appear in …read more

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Looking for new sound experiences? Want to learn how to prepare for an audition? Which theory would you use to analyze a modern composition? Or do you just want to listen to some good, funky grooves? The Good Musician explores the world of music–old and new, classical to indie, with exotic influences and practical tips along the way.
Check out the bands from the recent 2008 SXSW in the Austin Chronicle online. Austin’s new Long Center for the Arts inaugural season includes Kathleen Battle, the Rude Mechs, and a Tribute to Texas Music with Willie Nelson and Lyle Lovett alongside Ray …read more

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