Pop is all of the popular music of the 20th and 21st centuries and encompasses a vast amount. Early pop music developed from the swing music of the 1920s and 30s, focussing more on vocals – the singer being the centre point and the instruments accessories. However, the instruments were still highly important and the piano, keyboard and saxophone feature strongly throughout pop music with the flute and clarinet being used also. ‘Pop’ music includes many genres such as pop, motown, soul, rock, indie, britpop, reggae, grunge, metal and dance.

The piano and, later, the keyboard became one of the core instruments in a ‘pop band’ and is part of a high percentage of pop bands up to the present day. It varies in use from playing chordal accompaniment style to playing a full melodic style part in the song. Some singers are piano players and use the piano as the focus of their music as well as voice.

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The saxophone featured heavily in early pop music as it had been such a featured instrument in the swing dance music that pop music grew out of. It remained in place as an important part of many bands right up to the 80s where it was especially popular with many soulful sax solos. Its popularity in pop has dwindles but it is still used by many bands and artists, and a vast amount of pop music sounds brilliant played on the sax.

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The clarinet and flute are less used in pop music than the piano or saxophone but there are still hundreds of artists and bands who loved the sound of these instruments as part of their music both in early, later and present day pop. A lot of pop music also works really well well played on flute and clarinet.

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