October 5, 2020 | Instruments, Resources
In Austria and Germany, records of the contrabassoon’s precursors exist as early as 1590. At this time, the increasing popularity of doubling the bass line resulted in the development of lower-pitched dulcians. Octavebass, quintfaggot, and quartfaggot are some...
June 12, 2019 | Blog, Music Composition
So you’re a composer, huh? What’s your real job? You must be really good with classical music… Are you sick of hearing this? Me too. Proper composing requires hard work, time, and commitment. Early in your composing practice, especially when facing obstacles and...
January 24, 2022 | Instruments, Resources
The melodica, like the pump organ and harmonica, is a free-reed instrument. Performers blow air through a mouthpiece that fits into a hole on the side of the instrument. A musical keyboard lies on top. Pressing a key opens a hole, and enables air to flow through the...
November 16, 2021 | Instruments, Resources
A set of chimes is a pitched percussion idiophone instrument consisting of 22 or fewer cast bronze bells, similar to a carillon (from medieval Latin Cymbala, meaning “bells”). They range from two to twenty bells. Although the Voorslag (automatic clock...
December 10, 2019 | Blog, Music Composition
Firstly, the majority of popular music is diatonic. This means it was composed within a major or minor key signature and does not modulate. Furthermore, a key signature determines the set of pitches that “agree” with each other harmonically. There are usually 7...
