Rock music

Rock music is a genre of popular music with a prominent vocal melody, accompanied by electric guitar, bass guitar, and drums. Many styles of rock music also use keyboard instruments such as organ, piano, mellotron, and synthesizers. Other instruments sometimes utilized in rock include saxophone, harmonica, violin, flute, French horn, banjo, melodica, and timpani. Also, less common stringed instruments such as mandolin and sitar are used. Rock music usually has a strong back beat, and often revolves around the guitar, either solid electric, hollow electric, or acoustic.

Rock music has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll and rockabilly, which evolved from blues, country music and other influences. According to Allmusic, "In its purest form, Rock & Roll has three chords, a strong, insistent back beat, and a catchy melody. Early rock & roll drew from a variety of sources, primarily blues, R&B, and country, but also gospel, traditional pop, jazz, and folk. All of these influences combined in a simple, blues-based song structure that was fast, danceable, and catchy."

In the late 1960s, rock music was blended with folk music to create folk rock, blues to create blues-rock and with jazz, to create jazz-rock fusion, and without a time signature to create psychedelic rock. In the 1970s, rock incorporated influences from soul, funk, and latin music. Also in the 1970s, rock developed a number of subgenres, such as soft rock, heavy metal, hard rock, progressive rock, and punk rock. Rock subgenres that emerged in the 1980s included New Wave, hardcore punk and alternative rock. In the 1990s, rock subgenres included grunge, Britpop, indie rock, and nu metal.

A group of musicians specializing in rock music is called a rock band or rock group. Many rock groups consist of a guitarist, lead singer, bass guitarist, and a drummer, forming a quartet. Some groups omit one or more of these roles and/or utilize a lead singer who plays an instrument while singing, sometimes forming a trio or duo; others include additional musicians such as one or two rhythm guitarists and/or a keyboardist. More rarely, groups also utilize stringed instruments such as violins or cellos, and/or horns like saxophones, trumpets or trombones.

Pop Music

The Pop Music section of the British Library Sound Archive holds one of the most wide-ranging collections of popular music in the world. We do not believe in any simple definition of what
constitutes "Pop" music and our collection reflects the diversity of styles that have been popular over the years, from early 20th Century music hall to the latest rock, jazz and dance music.

We try to collect and preserve copies of every recording commercially issued in the UK. We also acquire pop videos, radio and television programmes and make our own recordings at festivals, conferences and seminars. All of these, together with our extensive reference library and on-line services combine to provide the premier public research facility for pop music in the UK

Classical music

Classical music is a broad term that usually refers to music produced in, or rooted in the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 9th century to present times. The central norms of this tradition became codified between 1550 and 1900, which is known as the common practice period.

European classical music is largely distinguished from many other non-European and popular musical forms by its system of staff notation, in use since about the 16th century. Western staff notation is used by composers to prescribe to the performer the pitch, speed, meter, individual rhythms and exact execution of a piece of music. This leaves less room for practices, such as improvisation and ad libitum ornamentation, that are frequently heard in non-European art music (compare Indian classical music and Japanese traditional music), and popular music.

The public taste for and appreciation of formal music of this type waned in the late 1900s in the United States and United Kingdom in particular. Certainly this period has seen classical music falling well behind the immense commercial success of popular music, in the opinion of some, although the number of CDs sold is not indicative of the popularity of classical music.

The term "classical music" did not appear until the early 19th century, in an attempt to "canonize" the period from Johann Sebastian Bach to Beethoven as a golden age. The earliest reference to "classical music" recorded by the Oxford English Dictionary is from about 1836

What is Music Therapy?

Music Therapy is the enhancement of human capabilities through the planned use of musical influences on brain functioning.

Music Therapy is useful because music triggers whole brain processes and functioning which directly affect one's cognitive, emotional, and physical functions and abilities. Music permeates our society and culture making it familiar and easily accessible for our clients. Thus, a professional music therapist can select and apply appropriate music for effective treatment of our clients. This treatment is often faster and more effective than treatment without music. Additionally, our clients report the treatment is more enjoyable and normalizing.

A full spectrum model of music therapy is offered at the Center for Music Therapy. We incorporate the wide breadth of music-based interventions, techniques, research, and philosophies to meet the individual needs of our diverse client population. Music therapy is used as a tool to assist in making non-musical gains in order to apply the focus of the patient's music therapy treatment directly to the patient's desired needs, outcomes, and appropriate diagnosis and treatment setting. For example, if a patient has aphasia and is in a rehabilitation setting, music therapy can be implemented to increase expressive language by using MIT (Melodic Intonation Therapy) or singing techniques. Likewise, if a person has depression and aphasia yet is in a psychiatric partial hospital program, music therapy can be implemented to assist in emotional expression and healing by using imagery and/or non-verbal musical expression. These are just two examples that illustrate how we use our skills and knowledge as music therapists to benefit the client appropriate to the client's desired treatment outcomes, setting, and client's diagnosis. All our therapists practice the uses of music in a variety of ways:

• Education/Resource Room - To motivate, reinforce, teach, shape behaviors, and increase social skills and expression.
• Psychiatric - To identify and express feeling through verbal and non-verbal musical expression.
• Alzheimer's - To cue memory recall and socialization.
• Medical - To manipulate biomedical levels and reactions (ACTH stress hormones, cortisol levels, immune responses, and endorphins), as well as to address social-emotional aspects of treatment.
• Rehabilitation - To neurologically manipulate neurological functions (motor, speech, and cognitive processes).
• Wellness - To reduce anxiety, to promote progressive and autogenic relaxation, to maintain function and facilitate life enrichment experiences which facilitate an overall sense of well-being in an individual.

We work with an interdisciplinary model which incorporates medical, neurological, and biochemical research and philosophies. Additionally, we use a cognitive/behavioral approach in our psychological model-integrating psychodynamic principles, such as transference/countertransference or aspects of the iso-principle, in everything we do. Although medicine, education, and psychology are usually considered separate fields of treatment, we find that information from each field can often be applied for the benefit of another field. Thus, we integrate these fields in our practice to yield new and enhanced benefits for our clients. In conclusion, the underlying principle in every therapeutic interaction at the Center is: Music is a defining feature of our humanity and gives voice to our deepest and most intimate experiences. Therefore, the therapeutic directive is: Value the power of each moment and the persons within it with great awe and care.

Music

Music is an art form in which the medium is sound organized in time. Common elements of music are pitch (which governs melody and harmony), rhythm (and its associated concepts tempo, meter, and articulation), dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre and texture. The word derives from Greek μουσική (mousike), "(art) of the Muses".