Another reason why a large majority of people are not very comfortable with classical music is its complexity and a sense of distance from the artist. Light music can be easily sung by ordinary artists with whom ordinary listeners can identify easily. It expresses the feelings of ordinary persons in their own language. Classical music, on the other hand, is rather mysterious and is rendered in diverse styles and it takes years, sometimes a life long time to understand .But its study has its rewards too. The more you study it, the more you enjoy it and the more you find it wonderful and worth the effort and hard work to study it. The study or appreciation of classical music depends upon your individual taste. A form of music that appeals to you may not appeal to another person. You may come across experts who may try to influence you by their judgments about the quality of music. You may listen to them, but you should not compel yourself to like the music that they like. Or if you come across a much-acclaimed piece of music that you cannot really appreciate, you do not have to blame yourself for not liking it. You may of course try to find out why the particular expert likes a given piece of music. May be, you find some point to learn.

The plucking of the classical guitar strings can be done in two ways. The “”rest”" stroke is where the thumb or the fingers pluck the string and come to rest on the next string. The “”free”" stroke is where the thumb and fingers attack the string in such a way as to avoid the adjacent strings. If you need to know more about the difference between these two techniques a search on the internet will give you videos and pictures that illustrate the two strokes. When you try to use these techniques you will notice the marked difference in sound. Another technique used in classical guitar playing is the tremelo technique where the right hand thumb plays a bass note followed by the index, middle and ring fingers playing melody notes in quick succession. A famous piece employing the tremelo is Recuerdos de la Alhambra by Francisco Tárrega. Finally a rather tricky technique is used for playing solos using the sound of harmonics. This involves the right hand index finger damping the string while the ring finger plucks. When you play chords by scraping the right hand fingers or thumb across the strings it is called a rasgueado. You can strum chords with the thumb using a down stroke, the index finger using up or down strokes or, less commonly, by using the flamenco rasgueado which entails the little finger, ring finger, middle finger, index finger and thumb following each other in a down stroke across the strings.

Mozart, widely regarded as one of the greatest classical composers of all time, wrote his first symphony at age eight and was dead by the age of 35. Schubert also died when he was 31, while Chopin famously didn’t live past the age of 39. Moreover, the phenomenon of the castrato in classical music in the 1700s shows that young people haven’t just been interested in classical music throughout the years – they’ve practically been canonised as part of a classical music tradition that, although lost, is not forgotten.

Today’s orchestras, choirs and opera houses are packed with young singers and musicians, many of whom are still in their twenties. Moreover, almost all modern, successful classical musicians will have undergone training from a very young age. Charlotte Church may have made headlines when she released her debut album “Voice of an Angel” in 1998 aged just thirteen, but while her phenomenal mainstream success was not typical, the fact that she was such a young musician in the classical industry was.

In the twenty-first century, the likes of Katherine Jenkins and “male soprano” Michael Maniaci, 28 and 29 years of age respectively, are making headlines the world over for their innovative approach to classical music and their stunning vocal range. Edward Gardner, the new Music Director of Glyndebourne on Tour (one of the UK’s premier operatic fixtures), is also only 28, proving that there is certainly no dearth of young people performing classical music, although there may be fewer youths than OAPs listening to it.

But as classical music institutions and performing arts organisations try their best to reduce their median audience age, classical music isn’t just becoming more accessible to young people – it’s also becoming more affordable. Scottish Opera, for instance, offer special ticket deals for people under 26, while many music-specialist booksellers are making classical music books and guides that will help younger classical listeners learn more about the craft. So while many may lament the loss or decline of youth interest in classical music in today’s world, they need only look towards the country’s concert halls to see where the future lies.

It’s a rare day indeed that I get a CD from an artist that I can truthfully say does not have a bad track in the bunch. I’m more than happy to announce that’s exactly what I must say about this one. There simply is NOT a bad one in the bunch. No fillers here at all.

These days it’s a very rare CD on which every single song is good or better than the one before it. This CD is certainly one of those rare CDs.

I’m of the opinion that Melt is certainly some of this groups best work in a few years. A totally enjoyable CD and an outstanding release. What I call must have music. I give it two thumbs up because it’s a collection that even the casual Country fan can appreciate and enjoy.

While this entire CD is really very good some of my favorites are track 2 – Too Good Is True, track 6 – Dry County Girl, and track 10 – Shine On

My SmoothLee Bonus Pick, and the one that got Sore [...as in "Stuck On REpeat"] is track 5 – Love You Out Loud. What a nice track!

Melt Release Notes:

Rascal Flatts originally released Melt on Oct 29, 2002 on the Lyric Street Records label.

CD Track List Follows:

1. These Days 2. Too Good Is True 3. I Melt 4. Mayberry 5. Love You Out Loud 6. Dry County Girl 7. Like I Am 8. You 9. Fallin’ Upside Down 10. Shine On 11. My Worst Fear

Rascal Flatts: Joe Don Rooney (acoustic & electric guitars); Jay Demarcus (bass); Gary Levox. Additional personnel: Larry Beaird (acoustic guitar, banjo); Jerry McPherson, Dan Huff (electric guitar); Paul Franklin (steel guitar); Jimmy Stewart (dobro); Jonathan Yudkin (mandolin, fiddle, violin, viola, cello); Tim Akers (accordion, keyboards); Steve Nathan (keyboards); Lonnie Wilson (drums). Producers: Mark Bright, Marty Williams, Rascal Flatts.