How to Use
Categorization of Information
If clicked on, the main categories found on the navigation menu have a general overview of each page. These are: Brass, Guitars, Keyboards, Percussion, Strings, Voice, and Woodwind. If these buttons are hovered over, a new list of subcategories appears (e.g. over ‘Keyboard’ – ‘Harpsichord’, ‘Organ’ and ‘Piano’ appear). These direct the user to further pages about specific instruments. There are further subheadings within these subcategories, and these are found as links at the top of each page. Each instrument has an ‘Introduction’ page, a ‘Modern Instrument’ page, a ‘History’ page, etc. This allows you to focus in on the specific information that interests you the most with ease and efficiency.
Titles
The title of each instrument (or other sections) will be shown at the top of each page. In some cases, a shortened version of the full name has become conventional to use, so brackets have been used to show the original name given to the instrument. E.g. “The Piano (Pianoforte)” – ‘pianoforte’ is technically the correct name, but ‘piano’ has become more generally accepted instead.
Designating notes by letters, commas and apostrophes
It has become generally accepted to use combinations of commas, apostrophes and both upper and lower case letters to refer to specific notes within an octave; for example, middle C is usually denoted as C4 or c’.
Here is a table to show this pattern:
Note the use of upper case letters in the lower octaves.
Art Music, Jazz Music and Popular Music
Art music refers to music and musicians from the Western Classical Tradition which can be as far back as the Medieval & Renaissance era up until to Modern eras. This spans a huge selection of musical activity from the 15th century (and perhaps before) to the 21st century. Monteverdi (1567-1643) Mozart (1756-1791) & Messiaen (1908-1992) are all categorized as composers of Art music.
Jazz music encompasses many sub-genres (including Dixieland, Big-band, Bebop and Avante-garde) and has developed throughout the 20th century to the present day. It emerged from blues and ragtime and relies strongly on improvisation – for this reason, some more recent sub-genres of Jazz (like Experimental jazz) can be self-indulgent, and more meaningful to the performer rather than the audience. Jazz is not regarded as ‘Art music’. Artists such as Duke Ellington (1899-1974), Louis Armstrong (1901-1971), and Dizzy Gillespie (1917-1993) are all regarded as Jazz musicians.
Popular music refers to all the contemporary styles of music that rely on the more commercial aspects of the music business. Publicity, promotion, single releases, chart ratings and award ceremonies all play a major part in the success of Popular music artists. There are many different styles of Popular music developing from blues music (though taking a different route than Jazz) at the beginning of the 20th century. Rock n Roll, Dance, Country, Heavy Metal, Indie, Punk, Rap, Reggae and Soul are just a few of many other styles which come under the classification of ‘Popular music’. Elvis Presley, The Beatles and Michael Jackson are just a few of the best-selling pop musicians of all time.
It is interesting to note that music from all three ‘strands’ – Art, Jazz, and Popular –are being composed/created, and performed in the 21st century, and are all thriving in their continuation and active development.
History Sections
In the history sections, the information can be skimmed through using the bold highlighted sentences for a brief overview of facts. The subsequent paragraphs to these ‘subheadings’ provide extra information for those in search of more detail.
Glossary
There is also an easy to use glossary of musical terms to enhance your understanding. This can be found from the navigation bar, and is also linked to from words on other pages.
Categorization of Information
If clicked on, the main categories found on the navigation menu have a general overview of each page. These are: Brass, Guitars, Keyboards, Percussion, Strings, Voice, and Woodwind. If these buttons are hovered over, a new list of subcategories appears (e.g. over ‘Keyboard’ – ‘Harpsichord’, ‘Organ’ and ‘Piano’ appear). These direct the user to further pages about specific instruments. There are further subheadings within these subcategories, and these are found as links at the top of each page. Each instrument has an ‘Introduction’ page, a ‘Modern Instrument’ page, a ‘History’ page, etc. This allows you to focus in on the specific information that interests you the most with ease and efficiency.
Titles
The title of each instrument (or other sections) will be shown at the top of each page. In some cases, a shortened version of the full name has become conventional to use, so brackets have been used to show the original name given to the instrument. E.g. “The Piano (Pianoforte)” – ‘pianoforte’ is technically the correct name, but ‘piano’ has become more generally accepted instead.
Designating notes by letters, commas and apostrophes
It has become generally accepted to use combinations of commas, apostrophes and both upper and lower case letters to refer to specific notes within an octave; for example, middle C is usually denoted as C4 or c’.
Here is a table to show this pattern:
| (lower octaves) | Middle C | (higher octaves) | ||||
| C1 | C2 | C3 | C4 | C5 | C6 | C7 |
| C, | C | c | c' | c'' | c''' | c'''' |
Note the use of upper case letters in the lower octaves.
Art Music, Jazz Music and Popular Music
Art music refers to music and musicians from the Western Classical Tradition which can be as far back as the Medieval & Renaissance era up until to Modern eras. This spans a huge selection of musical activity from the 15th century (and perhaps before) to the 21st century. Monteverdi (1567-1643) Mozart (1756-1791) & Messiaen (1908-1992) are all categorized as composers of Art music.
Jazz music encompasses many sub-genres (including Dixieland, Big-band, Bebop and Avante-garde) and has developed throughout the 20th century to the present day. It emerged from blues and ragtime and relies strongly on improvisation – for this reason, some more recent sub-genres of Jazz (like Experimental jazz) can be self-indulgent, and more meaningful to the performer rather than the audience. Jazz is not regarded as ‘Art music’. Artists such as Duke Ellington (1899-1974), Louis Armstrong (1901-1971), and Dizzy Gillespie (1917-1993) are all regarded as Jazz musicians.
Popular music refers to all the contemporary styles of music that rely on the more commercial aspects of the music business. Publicity, promotion, single releases, chart ratings and award ceremonies all play a major part in the success of Popular music artists. There are many different styles of Popular music developing from blues music (though taking a different route than Jazz) at the beginning of the 20th century. Rock n Roll, Dance, Country, Heavy Metal, Indie, Punk, Rap, Reggae and Soul are just a few of many other styles which come under the classification of ‘Popular music’. Elvis Presley, The Beatles and Michael Jackson are just a few of the best-selling pop musicians of all time.
It is interesting to note that music from all three ‘strands’ – Art, Jazz, and Popular –are being composed/created, and performed in the 21st century, and are all thriving in their continuation and active development.
History Sections
In the history sections, the information can be skimmed through using the bold highlighted sentences for a brief overview of facts. The subsequent paragraphs to these ‘subheadings’ provide extra information for those in search of more detail.
Glossary
There is also an easy to use glossary of musical terms to enhance your understanding. This can be found from the navigation bar, and is also linked to from words on other pages.
