Happy October, friends!  My favorite month of the entire year is finally here. On top of the beautiful Fall season transitions, October is a very special month in my home state for music therapists.  Every year, the Association of Ohio Music Therapists recognizes October as Music Therapy Month!  I love having this available as a chance…

To continue Classical Music Month, here’s another awesome composer! Meet Ravi Shankar – an Indian composer of Hindustani classical music. Shankar is known for his use of the sitar in his compositions, and using different rhythms to create a style different from other composers.  Not only was Shankar a composer, but he was a gifted…

Sofia Gubaidulina was born in the Soviet Union, and she loved music even from a young age. She associated music with spirituality and some of her music is considered abstract. She used the musical technique of improvisation (meaning making up music on the spot) and sometimes she uses unconventional combinations of instruments, like a saxophone…

We tend to get in the habit of listening to the same music over and over again, and only listening to new music when an artist we already like puts out an album. A study from Northwestern University showed that listening to different styles of music makes you use more parts of your brain, including…

What is music theory? Why do I need it? Music theory is the reasoning behind how music works. It starts with the fundamentals, and as you work through concepts you form a deeper understanding of what exactly you are hearing in the music you listen to. If someone asked you to describe a painting, but…