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If you could choose just a handful of pieces of music for your children to know before they grow up, which would you choose? It’s an interesting question, isn’t it? There are thousands of beautiful works that have been written throughout history. We could spend a lifetime exploring them all—and I hope we do! But there are also certain pieces tha...

American history is often taught through dates, documents, and decisive moments—but one of the most revealing ways to understand who we are as a nation is through what we sang, played, and listened to along the way. From the very beginning of America’s founding, music has been both a mirror and a maker of American life. Long before the country h...

Last week in our SQUILT Musical Moment, we spent time with a melody many of us recognize instantly—even if we don’t always stop to think about what it means. Auld Lang Syne is one of those rare pieces of music that seems to belong to everyone. It’s sung at the close of the year, at graduations, at farewells, and at moments when one chapter is en...

Discover SQUILT Musical Moments: Simple, Free Music Lessons for Your Day If you’ve ever wanted to add more beautiful music to your day—but felt overwhelmed by planning “one more thing”—SQUILT Musical Moments are for you. These short, focused videos on YouTube are simple, completely free, and we have a growing library of them for you to use anyti...

Let’s travel back to the Renaissance, a time of beautiful art, discovery, and elegant music! One of the most famous composers from this period was John Dowland, an English musician who lived from 1563 to 1626. Dowland was known throughout Europe for his skill on the lute — a stringed instrument that looks a bit like a guitar but has a rounded ba...

This October, we are stepping back in time to explore one of the most fascinating eras in music history — the Renaissance (1400–1600). The Renaissance was a time of great rebirth in art, science, and ideas — and of course, in music. Polyphony, madrigals, sacred and secular works, and fascinating instruments like the lute and recorder came to lif...