(all for fun – not all tried & tested!)
- The information stored on an iPod Nano would fill up 8 pickup truckloads of paper. The iPod’s Name was Inspired by the Line from the Movie 2001: A Space Odyssey: “Open the Pod Bay Doors HAL”
- Termites eat wood 2 times faster while listening to heavy metal music!
- The drummer of the band Def Leppard only had one arm
- A single violin is made from over 70 individual pieces of wood
- The London Symphony Orchestra was booked to travel on the Titanic’s maiden voyage, but they changed boats at the last minute
- Havergal Brian’s Symphony No. 1, the ‘Gothic’, requires over 800 musicians to perform, including 82 string players
- The Japanese word ‘karaoke’ comes from a phrase meaning ’empty orchestra’
- Johnny Cash’s estate was approached by an advertising company asking for permission to use Ring of Fire on an ad for haemorrhoid cream. The request was refused
- Prince played 27 different instruments on his debut album For You
- In 1996, Ringo Starr appeared in a Japanese advertisement for apple sauce, which is what “Ringo” means in Japanese.
- Violin strings are not made of catgut, and never have been. This is a myth started by medieval Italian violin-makers who had discovered that sheep intestines made good strings for their instruments. Killing a cat brought bad luck, so they protected their invention by telling everyone else their strings were made from the intestines of cats.
- The word “cello” is actually an abbreviation of its proper name “violoncello”. This means “little big viola” because the instrument is a small “violone”, which itself is a type of large “viola”. For this reason the word “cello” used to be written with an apostrophe at the beginning.
- Playing music regularly will physically alter your brain structure
- An “earworm” is a song that you can’t seem to get out of your head
- Music is often prescribed to patients with Parkinson’s disease and stroke victims