Instrumental Music | Your Instrumental Music Education Fix Of Todays Top Artists

Which came first: Music or the lyrics? There had to of been a time in the past when someone said, “You know what? I’m sick and tired of lyrics. Why can’t I have just the music?” and poof, instrumental music was born. I don’t know if that’s exactly how instrumental music came to be, but what I do know is it dates way back to the roots of music.

Instrumental music is pretty much in my opinion anything that makes a melodic sound without any clear and present lyrics that take front stage. With instrumental music, the music takes the spotlight.

In this article follow along with me as I cover several genres in the instrumental world and give out some great trivial tid-bits on different musicians that brought this music to light. And if I am feeling up to it, which I am, I’ll throw in some instrumental music videos of the best instrumental music online to sweeten your reading experience.

Gospel has a unique sound and its own character brought about through the creativity of its musicians. Gospel is known for its looping rhythms, heavy string arrangements, and lush orchestration. Some people have a hard time knowing whether an instrumental is gospel or not without the lyrics as a guide. A simple trick I use is to imagine myself preaching to an audience with the instrumental playing in the background. If it fits, it’s a gospel instrumental. If not, then it doesn’t fit into the gospel genre.

Now that I have made that clear let’s have a glimpse into the world of gospel shall we?

To get a feel of what a gospel instrumental is, let me introduce you to a great musical piece “Freedom” by Michael W. Smith.

Soft instrumental gets its roots from way back to the beginning of man. It is essentially any sound that can evoke a calming soothing feeling. From the trickling of a running stream to the distant rumblings of a far off distant storm, this is the beginning of soft ambient music.

A great and talented musician that has been known for some time for her soft instrumentals is none other than Enya. Born in Co. Donegal, Ireland, Enya studied classical music in college. She is known widely for her various songs like the BBC series “The Celts” and the movie soundtrack for “The Lord of The Rings”. She has an amazing ability to make her lyrics blend right into the music giving the illusion that there are no lyrics at all.

One of my favorites, instrumental pop music stands out with its rhythmic elements and creative hooks and is great alternative to instrumental rock. But what makes instrumental pop stand out amongst the instrumental crowd the most is the beat of the music. The beat is simple in nature, but “catchy”. Pop songs are short by nature and are usually built upon instruments like keys, saxophone, or even the pan flute.

A great example of pop instrumental music is a song played by a great musician and composer: “Swept Away” by Yanni. You will immediately see what I’m talking about with this songs “catchy” rhythm and creative hooks mixed with a dominant beat throughout.

The word “jazz” alone is typed into Google over a million times per month making it one of the most popular genres of music online. And its cousin instrumental jazz has its own large following as well. Instrumental jazz music is characterized by its use of blues notes and improvisation. The best thing I like about instrumental jazz is how it takes on the individuality of its musician. It’s the musician breaking free of the traditional rules of music and showing a freedom of expression that sounds chaotic, but for some reason keeps itself together. Kind of like most peoples lives. Everyone wants to be free and most people don’t know how they make it through life, but manage to somehow keep it together.

A great example of instrumental jazz that I think emphasizing beautifully what jazz is all about is John Coltrane’s “Giant Steps”. Known as one of the best jazz saxaphonists in jazz history, John Coltrane has been a great influence on jazz musicians. His 12 year recording carreer and over fifty notable recordings landed him in 2007 a special citation for his “masterful improvisation, supreme musicianship and iconic centrality to the history of jazz” by the Pulitzer Prize Board. Here he is now in “Giant Steps”…

Thanks for following along with me as I covered several awesome genres in the instrumental world. I hope you got some great trivial tid-bits on the different musicians that brought this kind of music to us to enjoy. I hope you enjoyed the instrumental music videos and encourage you check out a few of your own. Until next time…