For those new to music history, a discussion of the meaning of the term "classical music", and an introduction to the Western art music of the second half of the eighteenth century.

Music teachers, directors, and band mates can be very helpful when you are trying to become a better musician, but they cannot make you a better musician. They can only tell you how to improve. In fact, many developing musicians make great strides with no guidance from others, simply by practicing well and often.
Your lesson time is a time for showing your teacher how you are doing at the moment, and getting advice on what to work on next, and how to work on it. You don't really have time to practice or improve during your lesson, only to get the insight into how to improve. Your group rehearsals (band, orchestra, choir) are mainly for learning repertoire and improving the ability of the group to play together. Again, there is no time for you to actually work on improving your skills as a musician. Performances are for letting everyone enjoy the progress you have made. You should enjoy them, too, and not have to be worried about the technical details of the music. None of these times are ideal for actually making progress, so even if you show up for every lesson, rehearsal, and performance, you will have no time to improve! Individual music practice is absolutely necessary if you want to become a better musician. If your opportunities to work with teachers or be in groups is limited, it is even more important to practice well and often.

This collection is the first of five dealing with the rudiments of music.

This collection is the second of five dealing with the rudiments of music.

Tablature is an alternative form of music notation that some guitar players find useful.

This course may be used to introduce or reinforce music-reading skills for someone just learning to play an instrument, or the individual lessons can be used to expand on basic music-reading knowledge or to look up any music-notation terms that are still unfamiliar.

A standard chord diagram shows the proper fingering for a chord on a fretted, stringed instrument such as guitar.

Here are the symbols used in common music notation that tell you to do something other than go on to the next written measure.

Some practical suggestions for parents dealing with stage fright in a young performer in a music-education setting.

The musical sounds of aerophones (woodwinds and brass) are created by standing waves in the air inside the instruments.

Although it is significantly expanded from "Introduction to Music Theory", this course still covers only the bare essentials of music theory. Music is a very large subject, and the advanced theory that students will want to pursue after mastering the basics will vary greatly. A trumpet player interested in jazz, a vocalist interested in early music, a pianist interested in classical composition, and a guitarist interested in world music, will all want to delve into very different facets of music theory; although, interestingly, if they all become very well-versed in their chosen fields, they will still end up very capable of understanding each other and cooperating in musical endeavors. The final section of this course does include a few challenges that are generally not considered "beginner level" musicianship, but are very useful in just about every field and genre of music.