Why are some musical chords so inherently pleasing while others sound so obviously dissonant? A study of a group of people with the genetic condition amusia, which causes sufferers to incorrectly ...

Classical music has become little more than sonic wallpaper on many radio stations and in many concert halls across the country. It’s all about very old, familiar tunes, preferably in feel-good major ...

It’s an inescapable fact that most of our time playing guitar is spent on rhythm duties. So, whether you play in a band, write your own songs or just like to jam around some favourite tunes, you need ...

Many people dislike the clashing dissonances of modernist composers such as Arnold Schoenberg. But what’s our problem with dissonance? It’s long been thought that dissonant musical chords contain ...

One man’s music really is another man’s noise, based on a new study from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The researchers found that only cultures previously exposed to Western music formed ...

Music displays all the harmony and discord the auditory world has to offer. The perfect pair of notes at the end of the Kyrie in Mozart’s Requiem fills churches and concert halls with a single chord ...

A cappella is an odd little avenue of culture. People who do it tend to be quite enthusiastic, but if you aren’t down with it, it can strike a dissonant chord. However, haters and lovers of a cappella ...