What is music? This is a very good question and its answer varies depending on where one is located, the creation, performance, significance and cultural, depending on the social context. We are aware that music has to do with sound and that it is an art form. As an art form it can be classified as fine art, performing art, and auditory art. With this in mind, we can conclude that music is an art form communicated through sound.  It is somewhat a language we all recognize and it is very diverse. Even though the diversity varies, there are some commonalities such as pitch (melody, harmony), rhythm (tempo, meter, and articulation), dynamics (volume, sound, and note), timber (quality) and texture (melodic, rhythmic, and harmonic). To the many people in the many cultures, music is an important aspect of their way of life. Music makes you feel good. It excites the emotions; both new emotions and the ones we already there and it make us want to dance or sometimes cry, both joyfully and sorrowfully. Listening to music from a CD, looking at a music video, or listening to it via any other source, often triggers people’s response.

The common saying, “it is music to the ear,” points to the notion that music is often pleasant to listen to but that is not always the case. We tend to judge music bases on our taste and our cultural background. Who determines what music is and what is noise?

Nevertheless, I thought it would be important to share:

1.            The word Music was derived from the Greek word pronounced mousike, which means, art of the Musis.

2.            Interestingly, there is a strong connection between music and mathematics. 

Mathematics is said to be the basis of sound and in a musical sense the sound produces an amazing array of numbers properties.   I recall some years ago there was a study conducted and it was found that children who listened to a lot of music while growing up were better math students than their peers. I must say I found the finding to be true as it relates to me. One neighbor in particular feared that I was going to fail my Common Entrance Exams because music was constantly being played in our house and I was often singing and dancing. Nevertheless, to think of it, nature is amazingly mathematical. 

Caribbean Music

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