General Music Articles

Article / Updated 10-06-2022

The orchestra world is a slowly evolving beast. At its heart, a classical concert is the same animal that your grandparents may recognize. However, the past two decades have seen developments that have brought the audience closer to the music. Here’s a look at what’s changed — and what’s not. Identifying what’s new First, much more new music is being performed, which is due primarily to one factor: new music is gorgeous again. Rather than exploring ever more alien and atonal styles, composers are reverting to tried-and-true ideas like melody, harmony, and beauty. The sound of a symphony written yesterday is all the more beautiful for exceeding expectations; the sight of a living composer onstage does wonders to remind the audience that music is a living thing. Second, in recent years the prospect of a female or minority conductor or soloist (or President of the United States) has gone from strangely curious to practically normal — and the audition screen (a physical barrier between auditioning musicians and the jury, so that nobody knows what the auditioner looks like) has further leveled the playing field for female and minority musicians in major orchestras. Orchestras are finally beginning to look more and more like the rest of the world. Third, many orchestras have begun programming thematically — grouping the works on a program, or the programs in a series, according to a common theme (and naming the concert or series after that theme). Once the purview of smaller, more nimble orchestras, this practice has spread to many more, creating instant associations for the audience among the pieces on the program. It’s not unusual to see a whole program devoted to music about the ocean, for example — or a whole season devoted to the music of proudly nationalist composers. Of course, thematic programming is a marketer’s dream because it can easily spur the imagination — and it really helps pack the hall. But this kind of programming isn’t yet universally accepted, especially in the larger orchestras. Fourth, small chamber groups and even whole orchestras have taken to performing in unorthodox venues, such as bars and coffeehouses. Audiences get a kick out of seeing their favorite guest artists up close, feeling like part of a special fan club — and maybe sharing a beer with them later. Finally, conductors, soloists, and chamber groups have begun talking to the audience from the stage. Even the most engaged listeners don’t always read the program book. Some conductors welcome the audience and comment on the history and structure of a complex work, sometimes having the orchestra demonstrate with examples. Even for the most musically knowledgeable audiences, a few words from the podium don’t hurt a bit. These are all wonderful trends, providing a point of departure for new and old listeners alike. Unfortunately, with the exception of a few groundbreaking orchestras, just about everything else about the classical concert experience in the United States has remained the same over the past decade. For that matter, it’s remained the same over the past century. The concert as picture in a gilded frame, painted on a canvas of silence, can be a stunningly beautiful thing. But even 90 years ago, the presentation of classical music, with its excessive reverence for the frame rather than the picture, appeared hopelessly antiquated to many. As far back as the 1920s, composers dreamed of shattering the barriers that had grown up around classical music organizations, whose conventional concerts they derided as “orgies of inbreeding.” Classical music, in fact, is the only art form that is still presented in essentially the same way as it was 100 years ago. Musical organizations often say that they don’t want the symphonic world to end up as a museum. Actually, they should be so lucky; with their stunning new exhibits and interactive displays, many of today’s museums are far more innovative than most orchestras. Opera and theater companies mount imaginative new productions of old masterworks; ballet companies commission tons of new choreography and new music. No doubt about it — compared to the producers of opera, dance, theater, and visual art, the typical classical music group still lags far behind. Looking to the future A great performance is vital and moving. But how should the presentation of art evolve over the next century? In most parts of the Western world, classical performances still attract an overwhelmingly Caucasian, Eurocentric, upper-middle-class, elderly audience. Surely that wouldn’t have satisfied the great composers, who poured out their hearts for all humanity. Musicians could go a long way toward refuting the cry of elitism by changing their uniforms. Seriously, what’s with the black and white? Tuxedos or black suits are fine for certain occasions, such as funerals — but must they be the norm in concert? They smack of exclusivity. They create a distance that the composer never intended. Surely someone can come up with a uniform that’s classy, elegant, modern, welcoming, and chic. If the Beatles could do it more than half a century ago, it can be done now. Classical music will attract some people more than others — and it’s a harder sell to teenage audiences. But look at the enormous success of Video Games Live — a sampling of video game images set to lush and dramatic (and overly amplified) orchestral music — which has filled classical concert halls to the brim throughout the world, with hardly a gray hair in sight. The same goes for the Lord of the Rings Symphony, complete with full orchestra and 200-voice chorus, which sold out multiple performances in prominent classical venues. Have you listened to this music? Seldom have the soundtracks of movies or video games so closely resembled the German Late Romantics. And young people love it. The visuals get them in the door, but it’s the music that makes their pulses race. Could it be that those who have fallen for The Return of the King or World of Warcraft could come to crave Brünnhilde’s immolation scene from Götterdämmerung — with appropriate visuals? In the last century, venerable conductors such as Leopold Stokowski and Herbert von Karajan experimented with every medium, using technology to enhance the art form. Today’s classical musicians should follow their example. Society is increasingly visual; there’s no question that the next few decades will bring more video into the concert hall. Finding the truest solution Of course, visuals can go only so far; this is a medium of sound. Orchestras evolve at different rates, and there will always be room for the concert of the past. How do musical organizations give audiences a thorough understanding of why sounds matter? One way or another, the key is education. Young children eagerly embrace classical music. Their minds are fully open; they immediately grasp the playful spirit of the great composers. It’s rare to meet a child who doesn’t love classical music. Early exposure to classical music can ignite a lifelong passion. This is the truest solution, the kind that will ensure that future generations can share in the riches of classical music. The fact that you’re discovering these riches is a wonderful start. The best thing you can do now is share them with someone even younger.

Cheat Sheet / Updated 03-02-2022

It seems like there are so many different aspects to the music business, and so little time to learn it all and hone your skills. From keeping yourself healthy and keeping your musical edge, to knowing how to confidently sell your act and when to post on social media sites, life in the music business offers a wide variety of daily tasks. And then there’s the part where you get to play your songs!

Cheat Sheet / Updated 02-23-2022

The world of classical music becomes quite a bit less mysterious when you know the names and functions of all the musical instruments, and a basic timeline of the music itself. This Cheat Sheet will help you discuss classical music with confidence.

Article / Updated 11-23-2021

This resource center is an interactive addition to Classical Music For Dummies, with bonus material created to help you better understand the concepts and techniques from the book. You can navigate to your desired audio tracks by selecting individual tracks in the content menu. Please note that the audio tracks do not feature any video, so the player may display a blank screen while playing. If you would like to download the audio tracks for offline playing, use the Download links provided below. Be sure to download to your computer first, unzip the files, then transfer the audio files to any portable devices after that. Download the audio tracks Audio Tracks 1-9 Listen to the Audio Tracks

Article / Updated 04-06-2017

The clarinet looks somewhat like an oboe, but it makes a very different sound in classical music: full, but without the edge of the oboe’s sound. One important reason for this difference is that, whereas the oboe has a double reed (a piece of shaved cane doubled over on itself), the clarinet has a single reed. Credit: Source: Creative CommonsA clarinet. Unlike oboists (and bassoonists), clarinetists don’t need to make their own reeds; they can buy reeds ready-made because clarinet reeds are much less temperamental than oboe reeds. Consequently, clarinetists — like their instruments — tend to be quite mellow as a species. The following information covers the most important clarinet facts to remember. Transposing instruments Clarinetists’ mellowness is fortunate, because they must contend with one of the strangest musical concepts: that the clarinet is a transposing instrument (one of several in the orchestra). This means that when you play one note, you get another. Don’t panic: there’s an explanation. On your average instrument — a flute, for example — what you play is what you get. You see a G on your sheet music, you play a G, and a G comes out. But play a G on a standard clarinet, and the note F comes out! In other words, it transposes down by one note. And that’s just the most common kind of clarinet. Since ancient times — long before the Age of Reason — clarinets have been available in a mind-blowing array of different sizes: big ones to play low notes, small ones to play higher notes. And each size of clarinet transposes by a different amount; that is, on a bigger clarinet, you might play what should be the note G, but an E comes out! As you can imagine, the mathematical complexities of trying to make the correct notes come out of the correct clarinet model drove decades of clarinetists quietly mad. Thankfully, some hotshot musician of the past had a great idea. How about making the composer do all the math? Suppose the composer compensated for the clarinet’s tendency to produce notes that were actually lower than what the player played — by writing the notes too high in the first place? Then all the player would have to do is play what she saw, and the right notes would come out. So suppose you’re playing the most common kind of clarinet, the one that transposes down one note. The composer wants to hear an F. No big deal — he just writes a G in the sheet music. You see the G, you play it — and F comes out. Just what the composer intended in the first place. The composer gets what he wants, nobody has to know about it, no money changes hands, and everybody’s happy. Clarinetists can now play any kind of clarinet with no adjustments whatsoever, thanks to composers’ extra effort of writing clarinet sheet music in a different key than the rest of the orchestra. Composers, conductors, and music lovers have come to accept that this sheet music is printed in the “wrong” key — for the sake of clarinetists all over the world. Most trumpet, saxophone, and French horn music works the same way; all of those are transposing instruments, as well. Hearing the clarinet Clarinets are instruments of great grace and agility, with a smooth, lovely sound; they blend beautifully with just about every other instrument in the orchestra. You might say that they’re easy to get along with — much like the people who play them. Check out some wonderful clarinet playing. Check out the finale of Mozart’s Piano Concerto no. 22 (Track 03; 0:59). Then listen to a very different sound — a high clarinet bird call in Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring (Track 09; 1:14). If you’d like to hear some great concertos for the clarinet, you should definitely listen to the following compositions: Mozart: Clarinet Concerto in A major, K. 622 Aaron Copland: Clarinet Concerto Debussy: Première rhapsodie for clarinet and orchestra Or check out these beautiful pieces: Brahms: Sonatas for clarinet and piano, opus 120, no. 1 (in F minor) and no. 2 (in E-flat major) Mozart: Clarinet Quintet in A major Franz Schubert: The Shepherd on the Rock, songs for voice, clarinet, andpiano And, finally, you really should hear these beautiful clarinet parts within the orchestra: Mendelssohn: Incidental Music to A Midsummer Night’s Dream Sergei Rachmaninoff: Symphony no. 2 in E minor (third movement)

Article / Updated 03-26-2016

Although jazz listeners may not agree on which music and musicians qualify as jazz, at a basic level, you can identify jazz by a few distinguishing traits: swing and syncopation, improvisation, bent notes and modes, and distinctive voices. Duke Ellington wrote "It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing),"and jazz singer and bandleader Cab Calloway popularized it. Critics and historians expend thousands of words attempting to define jazz, but Cab covered most of it with just these 11 words. After all the searching, only a handful of elements exist that musicians and experts commonly accept as defining characteristics of jazz. Swing and syncopation Swing is the rhythmic momentum that makes you want to dance or snap your fingers to a good jazz tune. Part of what makes jazz swing is the use of syncopation. Syncopation is the technique of placing accents or emphasis in surprising places. When jazz truly swings, the beat bombards you, even if the players emphasize the beat by playing right with it some moments or just before or after it at other times. To get a better understanding of this, think of classical music. Classical music is primarily written music — musicians rely on sheet music which shows them phrasing, where the beats fall, and what notes to play. Jazz, on the other hand, is felt. Sure, a lot of jazz standards (songs known and played by many musicians) exist as sheet music, but usually only in an outline form showing the basic changes (chord structure) of the song and its melody. The swing feel and syncopation can't be captured in musical notation, only in live jazz, where players either have the rhythmic stuff, or they don't. To hear what syncopation sounds like, take a look at a common holiday song: "Jingle Bells." Sing the first line the usual way, just like you learned it: "Jin-gle bells, jin-gle bells, jin-GLE all the way." The "GLE" on the third "jingle" gets special emphasis. Now sing it a few times and change some accents like this: "JIN-gle bells, JIN-gle bells, jin-gle . . . ALL . . . the way." Make up your own interpretations. Try it with other songs such as "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" or "Somewhere Over the Rainbow." The variation is the basic idea behind syncopation. And when you get a few players bouncing these ideas back and forth, some of them hitting one beat harder, others hitting a different beat harder, you begin to feel the magic of great jazz. Improvisation Good jazz demands tremendous technical and creative ability because its players invent at least half of the music spontaneously. Famous jazz tunes have familiar melodies set to consistent chord changes, but legendary jazz players from trumpeter Louis Armstrong to saxophonists Lester Young and Charlie Parker made their mark with their phenomenal ability to improvise. The melody and changes of a jazz tune make up a framework and starting point for exploring the possibilities of a song. Blues has the most basic structure for improvising in jazz. A basic blues song comprises 12 measures or bars. (Blues that most people can instantly recognize is commonly called 12-bar blues: Each bar, or measure, contains four beats.) Here's a basic blues song, invented on the spot. Wait . . . before you sing, start tapping your foot slowly and steadily: 1-2-3-4, 1-2-3-4. Each line gets one measure or group of four beats."Well, I woke up this morning . . .got on Dummies (dot) com.(pause)(pause)"Well, I woke up this morning . . .got on Dummies (dot) com.(pause)(pause)"Put on some Coltraneman my soul was shook."(pause) (pause — and back to the beginning!) Now, expand the song on your own. Make up a couple more verses and invent your own words, melody, and accents. Congratulations! You've now completed a basic seminar in improvisation. And while 12-bar blues is just one simple structure used in jazz, you're starting to get a feel for how jazz players invent music within a framework. Bent notes and innovative modes Jazz players often use note combinations that can't be produced on a piano. They bend a note (by bending a string on guitar or sliding between notes on a saxophone) to alter its pitch and make a sound that doesn't exist in the western chromatic scale (start at middle C on a piano, and move up key by key to B, just before the next C. Those 12 tones constitute the western chromatic scale). Bent notes help give jazz its mystery, tension, and energy. Another unusual jazz technique is the use of modes. Modes are various scales or groups of notes. The term modal jazz refers to a new approach pioneered by Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and others in the late '50s and early '60s. Instead of using rapid chord changes that required a soloist to employ many different scales, modal jazz songs (and improvisations) build around one or two scales — either chromatic scales or scales from Indian, African, Arabic, and other world music. Many nonwestern scales subdivide an octave into smaller increments, or microtones. Arabic scales, for instance, have 17, 19, or 24 notes; an Indian scale has 22. Other American music, including Broadway show tunes and modern classical compositions, uses many more different chords and scales instead of modal jazz's minimalist approach. These types of music possess their own assets, including surprising melodies and intricate harmonies, but they don't give the same freedom to a soloist that modern jazz does. In addition, the leader of a jazz group may say, "I like these nine notes. Improvise with them any want you want, but only choose from these nine notes." That's also modal. And guess what? It's also okay, and it's part of the invention and innovation that keep jazz evolving and exciting. Distinctive voices In the same way that every person has a distinctive voice, so does every jazz musician. With experience, you can detect variations in phrasing (the way a musician puts together a string of notes, similar to our patterns of speech), tone, rhythmic sense, improvisational style, and other elements that mark each player's musical personality. These original voices characterize modern jazz, which is often music designed to showcase great soloists and their voices. For example: Miles Davis played the trumpet in a muted whisper. Charlie Parker's saxophone had a sharp edge, and he soloed with phenomenal speed and variety. Jo Jones, on drums, invented a symphony of sounds using only his cymbals. With a little listening experience, you can recognize the distinctive voices of many players. A jazz musician isn't only a musician, but also he's an unusual type of composer who invents music spontaneously and whose style and preferences affect his performance just as much as the structure of the song does.

Article / Updated 03-26-2016

Although jazz is performed by musicians of many colors and mixes elements of many kinds of music, it's essentially African-American music. Interwoven with jazz's history is the history of the black experience in America. However, European music and blues also influenced jazz. Adapting West African traditions Essential elements of jazz arrived in America in 1619 with the first Africans brought as "cargo" by Dutch sailors who landed in Jamestown, Virginia. Various African musical elements that eventually surfaced in jazz came from areas where slaves were taken along the West African coast, known as the Ivory Coast or Gold Coast, stretching from Dakar in the north to Congo in the south, and including Senegal, Ghana, Guinea, Dahomey (now part of Benin), and the Niger delta. Many of the Africans sold into slavery weren't commoners but, instead, were kings and priests who led tribal rituals and musical performances. Among the tribes raided for slaves were the Yoruba, Ibo, Fanti, Ashanti, Susu, and Ewe; many of these musicians eventually became leading performers in both black and white cultures in the New World. Various traders preferred slaves from particular regions and tribes, and the traditions of those slaves influenced the music in the traders' home regions. For example, the French acquired Dahomeans. Thus, Dahomeans who worshipped vodun (spirit) and the snake god, Damballa, brought rituals to New Orleans that became known as voodoo — elements of which appeared in early blues and jazz. Various bluesmen referenced mojo hands and black cats, and jazz pioneer Jelly Roll Morton blamed a voodoo curse for ill health and a declining career. In Africa, music was a vital part of daily life and members of a community all participated. African musicians played a variety of string, percussion, and wind instruments, but after these musicians landed in America, they adapted to a new array of drums, fiddles, trumpets, French horns, and other instruments. Musicians found themselves relocated within a musical culture partially based on formal notation instead of the unwritten and improvised traditions of Africa, where griots — resident tribal poet-historians — sang and told tales that preserved tribal history, arts, philosophy, and mythology. Much of the adaptation to the new musical setting occurred in white churches, where slaves were taught to read music from hymnals and song books and where they often performed alongside white people at services. The harsh change was difficult for African musicians who found their music restrained or redirected along Euro-American lines, yet the blending of African rhythms, melodies, harmonies, and improvisation, with more formal Euro-American music, was at the heart of the invention of jazz. Even in the early stages, the impact of African musicians on American music began to emerge. Here are key elements: Call and response: like when a preacher or dance leader shouts a statement, and his audience shouts back; when instrumentalists have a "conversation" consisting of traded musical "statements" Improvisation: embellishment around a song's primary melody Pentatonic scales: five-tone scales later used as primary scales in blues Polyrhythms: the overlapping of different rhythmic patterns Swing or forward momentum: a sense of urgency created by relentless rhythmic drive Syncopation: rhythmic accents around the underlying beat Borrowing from European classics European musical traditions also make up a vital part of jazz. Elements like swing and improvisation found their way into jazz from Africa, but jazz's major instruments, including the piano, saxophone (invented in Belgium about 1840 by Adolphe Sax), and assorted horns came to jazz by way of Europe. Largely because of the availability, popularity, and portability of violins, slaves received training in classical music and performed a range of music that also included dance and folk. In the 1700s, slaves sometimes accompanied their owners to colleges such as William & Mary for musical education. This classical training eventually turned up in jazz. Violin found its way into jazz in the '20s, playing the same sorts of melodies and solos as saxophonists and trumpeters. Blacks who worshipped at some churches in East Coast cities often received training in European music including classical. During the 18th and 19th centuries, some congregations (and choirs) were interracial. Contrary to the common belief that jazz was created primarily by uneducated blacks with roots in blues, folk, and field chants, African Americans had the ability to read music and to play classical and other styles of music well before the inception of jazz. Jazz pioneers such as Scott Joplin, Jelly Roll Morton, and James P. Johnson brought sophisticated musical knowledge to their music. While jazz musicians brought classical elements into jazz, classical composers borrowed from African-American music. This transferring of styles proves that even before the invention of jazz and before African-American music was valued by American universities, concert halls, and arts patrons, the quality and originality of black music had already captivated the leading artists of classical music. In turn, classical composers such as Bartok and Debussy inspired jazz bassist and composer Charles Mingus. These classical composers utilized folk music in their creations. Mingus, in the '50s and'60s, composed ambitious suites such as "The Black Saint and the Sinner Lady" (1963) that, like pieces by Bartok and Debussy, combined a variety of influences (blues, jazz, folk, classical) into an elaborate piece that explored various themes using an 11-piece ensemble. From Joplin and Johnson, to Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn, Gil Evans, and, today, Maria Schneider, some jazz composers have brought a knowledge of classical arranging, composing, and musical theory to their masterful jazz compositions. Adding some blues Jazz partially builds on the blues, and some jazz directly grows on a blues foundation, utilizing the structure of the traditional blues known as 12-bar blues. The tradition of call and response, and more simply improvisation, is a big part of jazz. In good blues, jazz, and gospel, players listen intently to each other's playing, and have an almost intuitive connection — an uncanny sixth sense felt between musicians. Here are some examples: In the gospel church, the preacher sings out a line of sermon, and his congregation tosses it back to him. In blues and jazz, one musician plays or sings something, and another player throws it back in slightly new, altered form, adding a new variation to the theme and exploring a song further. Still another player may take a swing at the musical phrase, even adding a new melodic run. Some of the earliest jazz musicians were vocalists who branched into jazz from roots in blues. Some notable singers give jazz its bluesy beginnings: Ida Cox Ma Rainey Jimmy Rushing Bessie Smith Mamie Smith Jack Teagarden Ethel Waters Louis Armstrong

Article / Updated 03-26-2016

The rap music of today is an outgrowth of the mid-1970s hip-hop, a brash mixture of rhythm and boastful talking. Out of nowhere, the Sugarhill Gang's "Rapper's Delight," rhymed over CHIC's "Good Times" and cut in 1979, became a commercial hit on the R&B, pop, and U.K. charts. By the early 1980s, hip-hop pioneers such as Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five, Kurtis Blow (the first rapper signed to a major label, Mercury Records), the Funky Four Plus One, and Run-D.M.C. were changing the music scene. Run-D.M.C.'s 1986 album Raising Hell, which became the first rap album in the Billboard Top 10, along with their rock collaboration with white rock band Aerosmith on "Walk This Way," paved the way for hip-hop's subsequent dominance. Hip-hop matures Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five had shown rap's political potential with 1982's "The Message," which detailed the horrendous conditions of ghetto life, but Public Enemy completely embodied it. Signed to Def Jam Records, Public Enemy, marked by lead rapper Chuck D's preacher-like presentation, directly politicized rap in the late 1980s and beyond with hits like "Fight the Power." Hip-hop also came into its own artistically. The Bomb Squad, Public Enemy's producers, took hip-hop production to another level with multitextured layering and customized beats. Artists such as Rakim from Eric B & Rakim and KRS-One placed a greater emphasis on lyricism, as metaphors became a hip-hop staple. Others, such as X-Clan, the Jungle Brothers, and A Tribe Called Quest, comfortably flexed their Afrocentric views. During the late 1980s into the early 1990s, a variety of hip-hop styles flourished. Def Jam's first artist, LL Cool J, even emerged as a sex symbol. The West Coast opens rap up The West Coast was the first area to expand hip-hop beyond the East Coast. Initially, Too Short, Ice T, and N.W.A. were the artists that shined the brightest. Too Short injected the pimp game into rap lyrics, and Ice T incorporated themes of pimping and hustling into his rhymes. N.W.A., however, had the biggest impact. The brainchild of Eric "Eazy-E" Wright, N.W.A. core members included Dr. Dre, Ice Cube, MC Ren, and Eazy-E. Although "Boyz-N-the-Hood" was their first hit, the group headed in a bolder direction with their second album, Straight Outta Compton, released in 1988. Guns, women, liquor, and other aspects of urban life weren't new to hip-hop, but those things viewed from the perspective of a gangster were. Ironically, N.W.A. uncovered both the hopelessness and resiliency borne out of oppressed conditions. "F*** Tha Police," a response to police brutality, officially placed N.W.A. on the FBI's radar and labeled hip-hop, and gangsta rap in particular, America's real public enemy number one. After leaving N.W.A., Ice Cube successfully established a solo career as a lyricist from the West Coast with his 1990 debut, AmeriKKKa's Most Wanted. Meanwhile, Dr. Dre's 1992 multi-platinum solo debut, The Chronic, officially ended the East Coast's rap dominance. It also formalized a new sound, G-Funk, inspired by the music of funkateers Roger Troutman (and Zapp) and George Clinton, and established Snoop Doggy Dogg, whose 1993 debut Doggystyle entered the charts at number one, as a star. Heavily influenced by his family's Mississippi roots, Snoop's rap style arguably made the Southern drawl more acceptable to the rap masses. Personal arguments and misunderstandings between the West and East Coast rap communities — most notably between label owners Suge Knight and Sean "Puffy" Combs and their rappers Tupac Shakur and the Notorious B.I.G. (also known as Biggie) — culminated in the violent, unsolved murders of Tupac in 1995 and Biggie in 1996. Stunned by the tragic loss of two hip-hop titans, the rap community took steps to mend the rift between the coasts. Violence, however, has remained an issue. In 2002, Run-D.M.C.'s Jam Master Jay became another victim of violence. Equally as frustrating to the rap community has been the police's inability to make arrests in any of these murders. Women and the state of rap Rap has continually battled allegations of misrepresenting women. Miami-based 2 Live Crew fueled those objections with its signature Miami Bass music, featuring pulsating rhythms and sexually explicit lyrics such as those on the 1989 hit "Me So Horny" off the Nasty As They Wanna Be album. In addition, the mostly naked women featured on the group's album covers and in their videos generated more outrage. Some women, however, have grabbed the mic to represent for themselves. Rap's most visible female pioneers have been Salt-N-Pepa, MC Lyte, Queen Latifah, and Yo Yo. Guided by Atlanta-based hip-hop producer Jermaine Dupri, Chicago native Da Brat became the first female rapper to go platinum with 1994's Funkdafied. Beginning in the mid-1990s, Lauryn Hill made a big splash, first as a member of the Fugees and then as a solo artist, with her hip-hop infused The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill, her 1998 album that won five Grammys. Lil Kim, Foxy Brown, Missy Elliott, Eve, and Trina created a second wave of female rappers. Mary J. Blige, known as the queen of hip-hop soul, mastered the fusion of hip-hop with R&B, especially with her 1992 debut What's the 411?, to give the everyday young urban woman a voice within the hard-edged genre.

Article / Updated 03-26-2016

Delta blues also goes by the moniker Mississippi blues, but either term refers to the blues style of playing that came out of the Delta region of Mississippi, the fertile cotton-producing area of the state (not to be confused with the Mississippi River delta). Most Delta blues is played acoustically, in the manner of the original recordings of the 1920s and 1930s, with hollow-bodied guitars that were made before the electric guitar was introduced to the blues in the late 1940s. This brand of blues stands as the first guitar-based blues to be recorded. In the Delta style, performers typically work solo and are usually self-accompanied on an acoustic six-string guitar. In the Delta style, you can also hear the first flowerings of the small combo format — sometimes called a string band combo — that would reach its zenith with the Chicago and modern electric blues styles. The Delta blues style features plenty of great guitar playing with elaborate finger-picking, slashing slide work, and deep boogie rhythms, and all of it delivered with an emotional depth that oozes from each recording. In the slide guitar style of playing, the guitarist depresses the strings of the guitar with a cylindrical slider worn over a finger of the left hand, rather than using his or her fingertips. This style is also called bottleneck guitar because early sliders were fashioned from glass bottlenecks that were fired to create a smooth surface. Slider material has included everything from bones to knives to various metals, such as brass. Notable early blues artists who played in the Delta style include some of the very greatest: Son House Robert Johnson Mississippi Fred McDowell Charlie Patton Here are a few recordings to check out: Various Artists — Deep Blues (Atlantic). This collection contains modern-day Delta blues (recorded in 1992) played with a passion that's seldom heard on today's records. Features great performances by R.L. Burnside, Junior Kimbrough, Big Jack Johnson, Booba Barnes, and others. Various Artists — The Friends of Charlie Patton (Yazoo). This superb collection contains original Delta-Mississippi blues recordings by some of the all-time greats, including performances by Tommy Johnson, Son House, Willie Brown, Kid Bailey, Bukka White, and Ishmon Bracey. Searching For Robert Johnson by Peter Guralnick (E.P. Dutton). A small (83 pages) biography of the life, times, and music of the most famous (and mysterious) Delta bluesman of all time. While hard-and-fast facts about Robert Johnson are in short supply, Guralnick assembles as many of them as possible, and his quotes from legendary blues players Johnny Shines and Robert Jr. Lockwood are so provocative that they alone are worth the cover price. Guralnick carefully speculates — and sheds new light — on how Johnson created the timeless music he did during his short and tragic life. King of the Delta Blues: The Life and Music of Charlie Patton by Stephen Calt and Gayle Wardlow (Rock Chapel Press). Patton ruled the Delta blues circuit during the 1920s and early 1930s, packing the barrelhouses and selling loads of records to prove it. An essential read in finding out about the early history of the Delta blues, it includes an appendix featuring examples of Patton's songs and a glossary of expressions used in his lyrics.

Article / Updated 03-26-2016

A musical rest is simply a pause in which you play nothing. You'll see rests all over your sheet music; it's inevitable. The beat goes on — remember it's a constant pulse — but you pause. This pause can be as short as the length of one sixteenth note or as long as several measures. However, a rest is usually not long enough to order a pizza or do anything else very useful. During a rest, you should get your fingers and hands ready to play the next set of notes. Don't put your hands in your lap or your pockets. Keep them on the keys, ready to play whatever may follow. For every note length, a corresponding rest exists. And, as you may guess, for every rest there is a corresponding symbol. Here they are for the taking. Whole and half rests: Hold on to your hat When you see a whole note F, you play F and hold it for four beats. For a half note, you play and hold the note for two beats. A whole rest and half rest ask you to pause, not play anything, for the corresponding number of beats. Figure 1 shows both the whole and half rests. They look like little hats, one "on" and one "off." This hat analogy, and the rules of etiquette, make for a good way to remember these rests: If you rest for only half of the measure (two beats), the hat stays on. If you rest for the entire measure (four beats), take off your hat and stay for a while. Figure 1: Wearing more than one hat. These hats, er, rests always hang in the same positions on both staves, making it easy for you to spot them in the music. A half rest sits on the middle line, while a whole rest hangs from the fourth line up, shown in Figure 2. Figure 2: Hanging your hat. To see whole and half rests in action, take a peek at Figure 3. In the first measure of Figure 3, you play the two A quarter notes, and then the half rest tells you not to play anything for the next two beats. In the next measure, the whole rest tells you that you're off duty — you rest for four beats. In the third measure, you put down your donut and play two G quarter notes, two beats of rest, and finally, the whole show ends in the next measure with a whole note A. Figure 3: Rocking and resting. Quarter rests and more Composers also use rests to tell you to stop playing for the equivalent of quarter notes, eighth notes, and sixteenth notes. Figure 4 shows you the musical squigglies that correspond to each of these resting periods. Figure 4: Quarter, eighth, and sixteenth rests. Think of the quarter rest as an uncomfortable-looking chair. Because it's uncomfortable, you won't rest too long. In fact, you don't rest any longer than one beat in this chair. The eighth rest and sixteenth rest are easy to recognize: They have the same number of "flags" — although slightly different in fashion — as their note counterparts. An eighth note and eighth rest each have one flag. Sixteenth notes and rests have two flags. Quarter rests are easy to count — they last only one beat. Eighth rests are a bit harder to count simply because they happen faster. When you play eighth rests, count out loud "1-and, 2-and," and so on. Doing so helps you place the eighth rests more precisely, and may even cause others to sing along. Figure 5 gives you a chance to count out some quarter and eighth rests. Figure 5: Counting smaller rests. Sixteenth notes also have a corresponding rest, but these are very tricky to play, except at very slow tempos. Until you get into more advanced music, you really don't need to know much more about these rests than what they look like (refer to Figure 4).