Title: Music Content: thumb|Horn Music Music is a form of art that uses sound organised in time. Music is also a form of entertainment that puts sounds together in a way that people like, find interesting or dance to. Most music includes people singing with their voices or playing musical instruments, such as the piano, guitar, drums or violin. The word music comes from the Greek word (mousike), which means "(art) of the Muses". In Ancient Greece the Muses included the goddesses of music, poetry, art, and dance. Someone who makes music is known as a musician. == Definition of music == Music is sound that has been organized by using rhythm, melody or harmony. If someone bangs saucepans while cooking, it makes noise. If a person bangs saucepans or pots in a rhythmic way, they are making a simple type of music. There are four things which music has most of the time: * Music often has pitch. This means high and low notes. Tunes are made of notes that go up or down or stay on the same pitch. * Music often has rhythm. Rhythm is the way the musical sounds and silences are put together in a sequence. Every tune has a rhythm that can be tapped. Music usually has a regular beat. * Music often has dynamics. This means whether it is quiet or loud or somewhere in between. * Music often has timbre. This is a French word (pronounced: "TAM-br"). The "timbre" of a sound is the way that a sound is interesting. The sort of sound might be harsh, gentle, dry, warm, or something else. Timbre is what makes a clarinet sound different from an oboe, and what makes one person's voice sound different from another person. === Definitions === There is no simple definition of music which covers all cases. It is an art form, and opinions come into play. Music is whatever people think is music. A different approach is to list the qualities music must have, such as, sound which has rhythm, melody, pitch, timbre, etc. These and other attempts, do not capture all aspects of music, or leave out examples which definitely are music. Music is a special shared relationship between a person, the persons behavior, and a sounding object.Clifton, Thomas. 1983. Music as heard: a study in applied phenomenology. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. p10 Musical experience and the music, together, are called phenomena, and the activity of describing phenomena is called phenomenology. == History == Even in the stone age people made music. The first music was probably made trying to imitate sounds and rhythms that occurred naturally. Human music may echo these phenomena using patterns, repetition and tonality. This kind of music is still here today. Shamans sometimes imitate sounds that are heard in nature.Diószegi 1960: 203 It may also serve as entertainment (games),Nattiez, Jean-Jacques. 1990. Music and discourse: toward a semiology of music. Translated by Carolyn Abbate. Princeton: Princeton University Press. or have practical uses, like attracting animals when hunting. Some animals also can use music. Songbirds use song to protect their territory, or to attract a mate. Monkeys have been seen beating hollow logs. This may, of course, also serve to defend the territory. The first musical instrument used by humans was probably the voice. The human voice can make many different kinds of sounds. The larynx (voice box) is like a wind instrument. The oldest known Neanderthal hyoid bone with the modern human form was found in 1983, indicating that the Neanderthals had language, because the hyoid supports the voice box in the human throat.McClarnon A.M. & Hewitt G.P. 1999. The evolution of human speech: the role of enhanced breathing control. Am. J. Phys. Anthropology 109, 341–363 Most likely the first rhythm instruments or percussion instruments involved the clapping of hands, stones hit together, or other things that are useful to keep a beat. There are finds of this type that date back to the paleolithic. Some of these are ambiguous, as they can be used either as a tool or a musical instrument. === The first flutes === thumb|The Divje Babe flute The oldest flute ever discovered may be the Divje Babe flute, found in the Slovenian cave Divje Babe I in 1995. It is not certain that it is really a flute. The item in question is a piece of the femur of a young cave bear, and is about 43,000 years old.Flute History, UCLA. Retrieved June 2007. However, whether it is a musical instrument or just a bone that got chewed on is an ongoing debate. In 2008, archaeologists discovered a bone flute in the Hohle Fels cave near Ulm, Germany. The five-holed flute has a V-shaped mouthpiece and is made from a vulture wing bone. The discovery is the oldest confirmed find of any musical instrument in history. Other flutes were also found in the cave. This flute was found next to the Venus of Hohle Fels and a short distance from the oldest known human carving. When they announced their discovery in 2009, the scientists suggested that the find showed that there was a well-established musical tradition when humans colonized Europe. The oldest known wooden pipes were discovered near Greystones, Ireland, in 2004. A wood-lined pit contained a group of six flutes made from yew wood, between 30 and 50 cm long, tapered at one end, but without any finger holes. They may once have been strapped together.http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/s1105308.htm In 1986 several bone flutes were found in Jiahu in Henan Province, China. They date to about 6,000 BC. They have between 5 and 8 holes each and were made from the hollow bones of a bird, the Red-crowned Crane. At the time of the discovery, one was still playable. The bone flute plays both the five- or seven-note scale of Xia Zhi and six-note scale of Qing Shang of the ancient Chinese musical system.  The Standard Notation was made to simplify the lecture of music notes, although it is mostly used to represent chords and the names of the music scales. These ways to represent music ease the way a person reads music. There are more ways to write and represent music, but they are less known and may be more complicated. == How to enjoy music == === By listening === People can enjoy music by listening to it. They can go to concerts to hear musicians perform. Classical music is usually performed in concert halls, but sometimes huge festivals are organized in which it is performed outside, in a field or stadium, like pop festivals. People can listen to music on CD's, Computers, iPods, television, the radio, cassette/record-players and even mobile phones. There is so much music today, in elevators, shopping malls, and stores, that it often becomes a background sound that we do not really hear. === By playing or singing === People can learn to play an instrument. Probably the most common for complete beginners is the piano or keyboard, the guitar, or the recorder (which is certainly the cheapest to buy). After they have learnt to play scales, play simple tunes and read the simplest musical notation, then they can think about which instrument for further development. They should choose an instrument that is practical for their size. For example, a very short child cannot play a full size double bass, because the double bass is over five feet high. People should choose an instrument that they enjoy playing, because playing regularly is the only way to get better. Finally, it helps to have a good teacher. === By composing === Anyone can make up their own pieces of music. It is not difficult to compose simple songs or melodies (tunes). It's easier for people who can play an instrument themselves. All it takes is experimenting with the sounds that an instrument makes. Someone can make up a piece that tells a story, or just find a nice tune and think about ways it can be changed each time it is repeated. The instrument might be someone's own voice. The fact is, there are tons of instruments in the world. == Related pages == * Classical music * Jazz music * Cuban music * Musical instrument * Orchestra * Pop music * Traditional pop * Scale (music)