Music Basics – Introduction

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Following is the first in a series of articles on a Music Basics Guide for the Beginning Musician. For those just starting out or unsure of some of the terminology used in music theory and practice, this provides a good reference for the history and terms used by musicians.

– TipsForTheBand.com

By Jan Durrant

Hello! Welcome to the wonderful world of music.

Have you always dreamed of being able to learn how to play the piano, keyboard, guitar or any other instrument?

This dream of yours is not something so far away that it cannot become a reality in a very short while.

Did you know that pianos in some form have been around for over 500 years?

Some of the first instruments of this kind were called clavichords. They had a very light, metallic sound because the small hand-pounded ‘hammers’ were made of very lightweight metal-like material. These hammers struck strings of varying lengths to create different tones or pitches.

The next cousin to the clavichord was the harpsichord invented by Cristofori in Italy around 1450 A.D. This keyboard instrument had a mechanism in it called the plecktrum which ‘plucked’ the strings and produced a slightly stronger sound than its predecessor.

Whether you are playing an acoustic instrument, which is the closest relative to the history just mentioned, or an electronic keyboard, you are now participating in a centuries old musical art form.

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In the next few posts of this series, we’ll be taking a look at the basics of these topics:

• Musical Terms
• Introduction to the White Keys
• Treble Clef and Bass Clef Note Names
• Basics of Rhythm
• Chords
• All About Intervals
• Dynamic Markings

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Article source: GoArticles.com    About the author: Jan Durrant holds a Master’s Degree in Music from the University of Texas at San Antonio in Texas. She has over 25 years experience in both public and private school music teaching.