If someone gave your child a drum for Christmas would you be pleased? I suspect not but the giver may know a thing or two that you don’t. Drumming with your offspring can bring about new levels of communication between you and take you both on an exciting journey of exploration and discovery. Our feeling for rhythm starts early. Babies have been exposed to the beat of their mothers heart since conception.

When first learning to play guitar, one of the biggest decisions that people face is whether they want to start learning with an electric guitar or an acoustic guitar. Both have distinct characteristics and sounds, and favor certain styles and genres of music over the other. So how should one go about making this choice between electric and acoustic? For some it might be obvious, but for others, there are some major factors that should be considered that we will explore. Let’s start with electric guitars.

The piano, that common instrument of school music programs, appears to be the ultimate expression of the stringed musical instrument, which date back to the lyre and the harp. Pianos (a shortening of the compound term “piano-forte”) work by striking wires with felted (or leather headed) hammers, with a redaction mechanism that pulls the hammerhead away from the wire before it can dampen out the sound. Because the force of the hammer strike is generally proportional to the stroke on the key, this allows a piano to play a note softly (piano) or loudly (forte), leading to its name.