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This is what I was taught: There are two types of music: classical and folk. Classical music involves musicians having a high technical proficiency with their

This is what I was taught: There are two types of music: classical and folk. Classical music involves musicians having a high technical proficiency with their instrument and the ability to translate musical notation on paper into music through their instrument. Such musicians are said to be classically trained. Folk music also involves musicians having a high technical proficiency with their instrument; however, they rarely translate musical notation on paper into music through their instrument. Instead, they tend to memorize musical structures and are skilled at composing on the fly, i.e., improvisation. Folk music predates classical music by thousands of years. Both types of music have several genres. Classical has baroque, classical, romantic, modern, and contemporary. Folk has pretty much everything else! In this context, folk music is much more than American folk, bluegrass, and country: it also encompasses rock, blues, jazz, and pop, for example.

JohnFen 2y ago
> There are two types of music: classical and folk. I don't think that's a useful distinction at all. "Folk" music is music made by "the people" -- that is, not professional musicians. There is a lot of music aside from classical that doesn't have folk music roots to any greater degree than classical music does -- and even classical music has roots in folk music, as all music does if you go back far enough.
- taylodl 2y ago
  I'll simplify it further: classical music features musicians having sheet music and music stands, maybe even a conductor. Folk music doesn't. I think the irony here is you don't think that's a very useful distinction, which I think is what the article is getting at: even with this definition of classical music you may feel you don't know what classical music actually is. The whole distinction isn't that it's a kind of music, it's a process for creating, scoring, and playing music. Meaning from a pure music standpoint, there really isn't a distinction at all.

JohnFen 2y ago

> There are two types of music: classical and folk. I don't think that's a useful distinction at all. "Folk" music is music made by "the people" -- that is, not professional musicians. There is a lot of music aside from classical that doesn't have folk music roots to any greater degree than classical music does -- and even classical music has roots in folk music, as all music does if you go back far enough.

taylodl 2y ago
I'll simplify it further: classical music features musicians having sheet music and music stands, maybe even a conductor. Folk music doesn't. I think the irony here is you don't think that's a very useful distinction, which I think is what the article is getting at: even with this definition of classical music you may feel you don't know what classical music actually is. The whole distinction isn't that it's a kind of music, it's a process for creating, scoring, and playing music. Meaning from a pure music standpoint, there really isn't a distinction at all.