Music On The Blog

Playing a musical instrument for personal pleasure and release is a great way to go. You may be thinking about learning to play an instrument and wondering how to pick your musical instrument…one that will be most suitable for you.

Musical instruments, even electronic keyboards, will be an excellent investment. They come in all shapes, sizes, and price ranges and are fun for both children and adults of any age to play. Music is a valuable resource for children to learn different sounds and find their rhythm.

By going over the history and the various types of musical instruments available, you may get a better feel for the instrument that would be most pleasing for you to learn to play. They can represent the dream of everyone to be a star.

Musical instruments developed independently in many populated regions of the world. Many instruments existed in this form for thousands of years before patterns of three or more tones would evolve in the form of the earliest xylophone.

Many instruments were used by the Egyptian culture before 2700 BC and bore striking similarity to those of Mesopotamia, leading historians to conclude that the civilizations must have been in contact with one another. Musical instruments such as zithers appear in Chinese literature written around 1100 BC and earlier.

Musical instruments can be grouped in five major classes: (1) stringed instruments, (2) wind instruments, (3) percussion instruments, (4) keyboard instruments, and (5) electronic instruments.

Instruments for producing musical sounds have long been classified as woodwinds, brass, percussion, or strings; to these must be added electrical and electronic instruments. Instruments such as the timpani (kettledrums) and xylophone are called percussion instruments because the sound is initiated by a blow.

Electronic instruments are more advanced musical instruments of our times and they produce music through electronic means such as keyboards, drums or guitars. Acoustic musical instruments are musical instruments that are capable of creating sounds entirely via acoustic means as opposed to by way of electronic means. While, digital instruments can talk to each other using a protocol called MIDI.

Comparing and organizing instruments based on their complexity is misleading, since advancements in musical instruments have sometimes reduced complexity. Common string instruments include the guitar, violin and piano, which is a musical instrument with 88 keys.

Instruments such as the celesta, pipe organ, accordion, and piano are usually put in a group called keyboard instruments, because the respective vibrating bars, pipes, reeds, and strings in these instruments are selected by use of keys in a keyboard.

String instruments are musical instruments that are played by plucking, strumming, picking, or bowing the strings. A typical string musical instrument is a guitar or mandolin and they generate sounds through plucking of the strings, which through vibration create what we call music.

Many believe that the The Drum is the Heart Beat of Music. Individuals enjoy drums as an instrument that is exciting and fun to play, but many music lovers truly believe that drums are the heart of music due to the way that they keep time and rhythm for the rest of the instruments.

Drummers have always held a certain mystique within the world of musicians. Drums depend on thickness and tension of the drumhead. Percussion instruments are musical instruments that are played by banging or shaking, like drums, marichi’s or maracas.

Brass instruments include the trumpet, french horn, trombone and tuba. Brass Instruments are musical instruments, producing tones by vibration of the lips, and are not only made of brass metal but also of wood. While, a double bass is a very large string instrument. The earliest known double bass type of instrument dates from 1516.

Wind instruments include the flute, pan-pipes, pitch-pipes, mouth organs, oboe, clarinet and saxophone. Typical wind musical instruments are trumpets, flutes, clarinets and bagpipes. An early flute, which was found in China, was the ch’ie.

The Didgeridoo is a long, slightly conical wooden instrument, used traditionally by the Aboriginal people of Northern Australia. Other names for the Didgeridoo are Yirdaki, Kanbi, and Ihambilbilg – although at least 40 different Aboriginal names are commonly used for this instrument throughout Australia. Playing the Didgeridoo well is not an easy task but it really is a beautiful instrument and it has a great sound when played well.

Known as the oldest wind instrument in the world, the origins of the didge may go back as far as 40,000 years. Though only one “note” can be played with the didge (called a drone), overtones and vocal sounds from the player give it a rich sound and countless textures.

As you can see there are countless musical instruments to choose from. Hopefully, you now have more information that has helped you become aware of how to pick your musical instrument.

About the Author

Jackie Spivey is the Author of this Article. He is an artist who has a very creative, eclectic collection of music that is available for your listening pleasure. You can listen to and/or download the song, Let’s Go Bye Yehe at JacSan Records.

If you like me have played and written music for some years, I bet you can recognize this simple but universal rule – less is more. All the great ones knew how to say some great things in music, sometimes with nothing more but a few tones, and we, being musicians from all around the world can and should learn from this.

Jazz-guitar guru John Scofield attended the yearly jazz festival my hometown Copenhagen and during an interview with a local reporter he stated that whenever he ended up with just playing something simple yet meaningful he finds that he’s at his best. He mentioned other big names like Miles Davis saying that his music – in some cases – was kept really simple and those where the times were he would top.

Think about the next time you are writing a song, it can actually be really hard if you are feeling uninspired, but on the other hand very rewarding if you can express what you want with just a few notes. Ask yourself some of these useful questions. What style is this? What is this melody trying to say? What is the story here? Listen to what others have done and compare that to the song you’re writing – there’s always a lot o inspiration to find out there!

Not too many years back I went to a G3 concert, you know the thing with three of the greatest guitarist in the world – Steve Vai, Joe Satriani etc and one thing the occurred to me was – despite the fact that I’ve always been greatly impressed by these guys’ talent – that I got really bored after no more than half an hour. I simply ended up with this feeling that I had heard all that there was to hear. I actually see these three great guitarist as great musicians that all look for ‘the good melody’, however, and let’s be hones here, it’s often lost in the name of showing off. It’s a part of the whole guitar-hero style obviously, but what they are trying to tell us as listeners, would often come through clearer with four notes instead of a million.

One technique that has worked for me quite a few times when I try to sort of narrow down what to play in a guitar solo for example is, that I play whatever I’ve come up with, I record and listen to it a couple of times, jam a long give it some small twists and turns just playing around with whatever I’m working on and, how hard I may ever seem, erase it! Oh yearh, back to scratch, maybe even leave the song for a day or two, forget it and then come back and have another approach to my solo. I’d listen to the verses the courses, where can I find some juicy notes that to me tells the story of the song, can I narrow it down to just one or two simple themes…? I’ll then probably end up with just 4 bars of notes cut from the chorus maybe, and now try to play that where the solo should be, going back to some of the initial ideas I had for the guitar solo. Mixing up these to things I’ve often – to my taste – made some of my best solos! If I can make a melody, tell the story when mixing up my more freely grasped ideas with the themes and rhythms of the song I find that I can play my best.

Less is more, it’s just and a universal rule that we as musicians will keep forgetting and rediscovering. Hope you’ll fell inspired and happy song writing.

Stay tuned

About the Author

Anders Harvest is a Danish musician, translator and computer programming enthusiast. He has recently become webmaster for a new site that you can visit at the following adress www.acoustic-guitar-tuner.com. Helping people in their search of a new guitar tuner. He has several years of experience writing for Danish newspapers.