The Musical Bridge – Celebrating Cherry Blossom Season with Japanese Arts – Part 2 – Hanami and Haiku In our previous post, we were...

What are a performing rights organizations they and what do they do for music creators? You’ve been creating music for a while now, and...

Honor the Cultures of Indigenous Peoples of Turtle Island No, Columbus did not “discover the America” in 1942, nor were the Pilgrims who...

Bringing the Baroque into the 21st Century What is Counterpoint? Counterpoint refers to an argument, idea, or theme used to create a...

May is #AAPIHeritageMonth May is Asian-American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, a celebration of Asiana and Pacific Islanders in the...

Ruth Crawford Seeger: Modernist Composer, Music Educator, Ethnomusicologist, and Mother Before we get into our Mother's Day themed post,...

Celebrating The Legendary Career of American Composer John Williams Before we get into our celebration of Star Wars Day with a bit about...

The Stories Behind the Songs April is Jazz Appreciation Month, also cleverly called as "JAM."It was founded at the Smithsonian's Museum...

Five Creativity Challenges for Artists of All Ages This February Here in Chicagoland, February is one bitterly cold, sometimes...

Music for Remembrance We've reached Fall 2020, a year that will no doubt be remembered as a year of transition and mourning. This past...

New Subscriber-Only Content and More Coming Soon! Like what you read in the Perennial Blog? This blog, while a labor of love, takes...

More Than "Just A Singer" – Voices As Instruments In the last post, I introduced the four main voice types, as well as additional...

Add These Sounds to Your Earbox In previous posts, we have touched on the instruments of the conventional Western orchestra, some...

What images pop into your heard when you hear the word "texture"? Soft or hard? Dry or wet? Alive or inanimate? Slimy? Sticky? Fur, skin,...

A Brief Introduction to Sampling in Music: Part Three Breakbeats, Turntables, Early Hip Hop In the previous installments, we continued...

Get Inspired this Winter Snow. Ice. Sleet. Slush. Wind chill factors. Here in Chicagoland, it can be tempting to stay home and hibernate...

Part 2 of the Sample This! series where we learn about new instruments including the Mellotron and the Chamberlin

Part 1 of the Sample This! series where we discover what sampling is in music.

What rings in the Holiday Season for you? Is it the sound of Jingle Bells, a Sunday afternoon Sleigh Ride, or the scent of Chestnuts...

Just as DNA is made up of the building blocks (nucleotides) that tell cells how to make up organisms, there are building blocks that make...