Listen to the following songs, can you tell which countries are they from?
Song #1
Song #2
Song #3
Whether you are trained or untrained in music, it is not difficult for you to differentiate a piece of Chinese music and a piece of Western music. That comes from past exposure to music (conscious or sub-conscious). A child growing up in Hong Kong can easily pick out the sound of Chinese music because they have heard it on TV during Chinese festivals and have become familiar with the tonality.
This is the first exercise I give to my students before I introduce pentatonic scale to them. I want to get them to ask themselves what is it in the music that distinguishes one piece to another.
