The first musical groups

We tend to see musicians making music on their own and groups of musicians as very different. However, all music, whether a public solo performance, a melody produced on a home computer, or even a baby playing with a rattle, involves many people. For example, a single cellist playing an unaccompanied piece of music may not be a 'group' in the usual sense. However, he or she relies on the composer who wrote the music; the publisher that printed the music; the teachers who taught him or her how to listen to music, how to read a score, and how to play the instrument; the instrument maker who made the instrument (not to mention the instrument's original inventor), and so on. Then there are the people who taught others how to build cellos, compose, and teach, and the people who taught them, as well as the influence of all the other musicians that those involved may have listed to, learned from, or been associated with. All music is the result of the efforts of a large number of people. A solo performer is perhaps best thought of as the single playing member of the 'group' described above, a group that may extend all over the world and throughout history.