These are stories and test questions accumulated by music teachers in
the state of Missouri, USA.
Agnus Dei was a woman composer famous for her church music.
Refrain means don't do it. A refrain in music is the part
you better not try to sing.
A virtuoso is a musician with real high morals.
John Sebastian Bach died from 1750 to the present.
Handel was half German, half Italian, and half English.
He was rather large.
Beethoven wrote music even though he was deaf. He was so
deaf he wrote loud music. He took long walks in the
forest even when everyone was calling him. I guess he
could not hear so good. Beethoven expired in 1827 and
later died from this.
Henry Purcell is a well known composer few people have
ever heard of.
Aaron Copland is one of your most famous contemporary
composers. It is unusual to be contemporary. Most
composers do not live until they are dead.
An opera is a song of bigly size.
In the last scene of Pagliacci, Canio stabs Nedda who is
the one he really loves. Pretty soon Silvio also gets
stabbed, and they all live happily ever after.
When a singer sings, he stirs up the air and makes it hit
any passing eardrums. But if he is good, he knows how to
keep it from hurting.
Music sung by two people at the same time is called a
duel.
I know what a sextet is but I had rather not say.
Caruso was at first an Italian. Then someone heard his
voice and said he would go a long way. And so he came to
America.
A good orchestra is always ready to play if the conductor
steps on the odium.
Morris dancing is a country survival from times when
people were happy.
Most authorities agree that music of antiquity was
written long ago.
Probably the most marvellous fugue was the one between the
Hatfields and McCoys.
My very best liked piece of music is the Bronze Lullaby.
My favourite composer is Opus.
A harp is a nude piano.
A tuba is much larger than its name.
Instruments come in many sizes, shapes and orchestras.
You should always say celli when you mean there are two
or more cellos.
Another name for kettle drums is timpani. But I think I
will just stick with the first name and learn it good.
A trumpet is an instrument when it is not an elephant
sound.
While trombones have tubes, trumpets prefer to wear
valves.
The double bass is also called the bass viol, string
bass, and bass fiddle. It has so many names because it is
so huge.
When electric currents go through them, guitars start
making sounds. So would anybody.
Question: What are kettle drums called?
Answer: Kettle
drums.
Cymbals are round, metal CLANGS!
A bassoon looks like nothing I have ever heard.
Last month I found out how a clarinet works by taking it
apart. I both found out and got in trouble.
Question: Is the saxophone a brass or a woodwind
instrument?
Answer: Yes.
The concertmaster of an orchestra is always the person
who sits in the first chair of the first violins. This
means that when a person is elected concertmaster, he has
to hurry up and learn how to play a violin real good.
For some reason, they always put a treble clef in front
of every line of flute music. You just watch.
I can't reach the brakes on this piano!
The main trouble with a French horn is it's too tangled up.
Anyone who can read all the instrument notes at the same
time gets to be the conductor.
Instrumentalist is a many-purposed word for many player-types.
The flute is a skinny-high shape-sounded instrument.
The most dangerous part about playing cymbals is near the
nose.
A contra-bassoon is like a bassoon, only more so.
Tubas are a bit too much.
Music instrument has a plural known as orchestra.
I would like for you to teach me to play the cello. Would
tomorrow or Friday be best?
My favourite instrument is the bassoon. It is so hard to
play people seldom play it. That is why I like the
bassoon best.
It is easy to teach anyone to play the maracas. Just grip
the neck and shake him in rhythm.
Just about any animal skin can be stretched over a frame
to make a pleasant sound once the animal is removed.
We are a friendly Brass Band with an active concert and contesting schedule.
We rehearse in Hitchin on Monday and Thursday evenings.