Bluenote's actual ability has been wondered about a few times (most recently in the comments of Flight of the Parasprite, Planetarian's excellent new work), and it occurred to me that we might not necessarily know, for example, how good the others are either. We know that Vinyl, for example, wants to be Equestria's best DJ and works crazy hard and has cool tech, but we don't know exactly how well she stacks up against the competition. So this is a thread to discuss that.
In general, I think the characters should be good, but not yet the best in their fields; they need room to grow, after all.
My thoughts on particular characters (note that none of this is set in stone yet):

Octavia: Probably the best at technique of the C6. Ranked against other classical musicians, she could qualify for any number of string quartets/small musician groups, and would have a decent shot at a position in a bigger orchestra. She's not yet able to, say, be a cello chair for the Canterlot Symphonic; she's still a student in that respect. But she is indeed very good.

Medley: She doesn't usually play instruments to audiences, but she is able to run through scales and simple tunes on almost any instrument in her shop. Her crafted instruments are artisan-quality and very well made; they can surpass the mass-produced factory stuff, and are comparable to other artisans in the surrounding area. There's stuff that's better than hers which, say, Filthy Rich could order from an elite supplier, but for most mares of modest means in the area, hers is the best option.

Vinyl: Probably the second-best in terms of technique of the C6, though of course her technique is very different from Tavi's. Currently a moderately popular DJ; being from a rural town, as well as being somewhat new to the professional DJ business, renders her at a disadvantage. In terms of music, she's very good but still nowhere near the top yet; while she does have a strong edge in magitech, in terms of actual music she's behind musicians with more experience and training than her. (Indeed, I could see a future episode where Vinyl is accused of relying on her tech too much and trusting in her own music too little). Vinyl is probably rising faster than any other member of the C6, though.

Fluttershy: Mostly performs at small charity events, and is more than good enough for this. She is trying to move into bigger events, but being a part-time musician, she isn't quite as good as the professional entertainers who do this for a living. Her concern for the welfare of her animals also means she doesn't train them as hard as she could... although, as Octavia learned, that's not really a bad thing. If she tried, she could qualify for small music groups.

Lyra: A busker, her drive to improve is more due to her general enthusiasm and urge to be awesome rather than professional obligations. She's probably the best of the C6 at telling a story via music. Her technique is above average, and her music does sound very good, but it wouldn't really be remarked on in the big cities where there's lots of competition. She probably wouldn't be able to qualify for professional music groups.

Bluenote: A competent teacher in all sorts of instruments, and an above average tubist, though not at professional ability. Probably the best at evoking a sense of fun with her music. She wouldn't be able to join professional groups.

Again -- this doesn't mean that Lyra and Bluenote are bad musicians. They are still much better than average. (There are vastly more applicants for music groups, particularly paid ones, than there are openings. Not being able to join one in no way makes one a bad musician). But I do think it's important that there be some musicians in the group who aren't quite as good as the others, yet are able to contribute and are counted as valuable -- as Elements, as friends, and also as musicians -- anyway. You don't need to be a virtuoso to do some good with your music, after all.

Thoughts?

The feeling that I have is that Medley has to know how to use, tune and play scales with everything in her inventory. This is expected of a music store owner! You cannot run a store if you cannot give a demonstration of the typical range that these instruments will operate in.

I think that Bluenote will only able to perform to superb technical ability on very few repertoires... music teachers tend to be 2nd player in local bands or maybe 3rd in major orchestras in technicals. This is what I've made my assumption with.

1225155

The feeling that I have is that Medley has to know how to use, tune and play scales with everything in her inventory. This is expected of a music store owner! You cannot run a store if you cannot give a demonstration of the typical range that these instruments will operate in.

Yes, definitely this. She can probably play something simple, even if just a scale, on just about anything she sells.

I think that Bluenote will only able to perform to superb technical ability on very few repertoires... music teachers tend to be 2nd player in local bands or maybe 3rd in major orchestras in technicals. This is what I've made my assumption with.

Yes... I could see Bluenote having superb ability on a couple of pieces, maybe ones that she really loves or have special meaning to her.

I wonder what the average is in the C-verse.

If the supreme ruler of your country has shown a love of music for 1000 years I could see a situation where almost everypony plays an instrument of some sort almost as a symbol of loyalty.

It might be interesting at some point to have an orchestra / Band which consists of the entire population of ponyville working together.

Most foals are probably taught by the rest of their family with professional teachers being used for the more wealthy / busy / skilled students.

This might push up the average throughout the country.

Musically I'd be inclined to say...

Blue Note: Brilliant But Lazy, she's got the raw natural talent to be the top of her field, but prefers to just cost by and take it easy, lacking the drive and determination to push herself to actually become the best. I'd also like to say that she's less lazy and more so just content; for her music is supposed to be fun after all, ad she doesn't really see the fun in training purely for its own sake.

Lyra: Genius Ditz, like Blue Note she's got a lot of natural talent, but of course we all know that music is at best a secondary priority to her (). Still, her enthusiasm and energy are hard to match, so despite her lack of formalized technical proficiency she can play with surprising skill when it's least expected. She's probably also one of the best at improve performance (second only maybe to Vinyl, though since the DJ needs more equipment to perform, arguably Lyra beats even her should true spontaneity).

Octavia: Awesomeness By Analysis, give her enough time to practice a piece and study the acoustics of her surroundings and there is nopony better, but her ability to improvise or adapt to the unexpected is probably the lowest of all the C6. This is also why she's really not ready for an orchestral seat, since if even one other member of company were sick, injured, or other wise unable to perform it would through off Octavia's entire rhythm.

Medley: Not sure what trope this is, but I've commented before on Music of Ponyville that I see her as not being any way a proficient soloist. She can run the scales, perform a few ditties, but nothing really worthy of a public performance. Where her talent truly shines though is when she is part of a group. She's got an excellent ear and keen grasp of what's missing in any performance and can use her own music to fill the gaps. She's basically a musical support specialist who makes anypony she's performing with sound better, which to me at least seems very fitting to the Element of Loyalty.

Vinyl: Her music talent lies chiefly in experimentation. She's the kind of musician that is always trying something new, living on the edge, and trying push the very limits of what music can be.

Well, one thing to keep in mind is that C!verse is at a time of explosive musical growth, with the emergence of dubstep and the like, and jazz is not even half a century old. Orchestras are huge as there's no popular mean to store huge volume of music, with every town having its own band essentially.

Vinyl would be at the bleeding edge of this age. Octavia is not as old-guard as we may think (with the age of waltz almost a century old), while Bluenote's Jazz was finally getting to mainstream recognition as a genre (begrudgingly)

(The funny thing for Bluenote would be that a Tubaist is actually pretty hot stuff, just as Bassoonists are. They are not that many of them around, and their costs made the instrument unpopular with beginners. Hotly contested positions would be the violin, piano, flutes)

I've been Frankfurt Musikmesse before, so it does make me think of Medley and the whole of musical instrument trade as the thing to talk about when it comes to her musical abilities. From what I've come across, the ability to read scales, identify pieces and the lot is pretty much universal. These artisans work with profile artists very closely and it's a positive feedback cycle of sorts.

C!6 pushing musical abilities of each other in a mutual fashion is very possible. Electric guitar or synch for example would need Vinyl and Medley working together to build. Choir work with reconstructed manuscripts would take Fluttershy and Lyra's efforts. You will even need the townfolks even for things such as Big Band.

1225307

Although most of the stories so far have focused on music, from the opening of Music of Ponyville I think Cadance is a more general patroness of the arts; Octavia is sent to Ponyville after watching another student of Cadance's, Moondancer (who as you might guess is a dancer) perform, for example. I would guess that there are also painters, sculptors, dramatists, writers, and so on stalking the halls of Canterlot, we just didn't see them because it wasn't necessary for the story.

So it's not necessarily that almost everypony plays music, but I would expect there to be a broad diffusion of the arts throughout the country, in that almost everypony has some kind of artistic trade, whether writing, music, art proper, dance, etc. that they at least dabble in. For the nobility, I expect education in the arts would form a major part of their upbringing and they would likely be expected to have a strong level of background in most artistic fields, including playing an instrument. After all, nobility on our Earth during the 19th and early 20th centuries (which is what I gather GrassAndClouds2 is trying to channel) generally did just that, despite not having an immortal arts-loving monarch around to encourage it. For commoners, I expect they would only know very much about whatever they happened to be interested in, and perhaps some related fields (for instance, a big fan of opera would probably know a bit about writing, music, and drama as well), depending on wealth. A wealthy commoner might educate him or herself (and particularly his or her children) more extensively to fit in better with the (metaphorical) blue bloods.

That could even make for an interesting story, come to think of it. One of the C6--perhaps Octavia, for reasons that should become apparent--meets somepony who just isn't very interested in music, for whatever reason(s), but is very involved in some other artistic area. In turn, Octavia isn't very interested in whatever this other pony does but doesn't understand how he/she isn't very interested in music. Cue both parties trying to convince the other that their area of effort is superior to the other's. The theme/lesson would be "Everypony has their own tastes, and that's okay," of course. A lighter, more slice-of-life story.

(Note that I disclaim any interest in writing this myself: I have more than enough on my plate as it is and don't know very much about music)

1225986
You're referring to the system of patronage that went far further than 19th Century.
Powerful entities and families such as the Papal household and the Medici were instrumental in allowing the renaissance to become what it had been. Patrons of art wanted the artists to promote their value, and glorify them for posterity. Italian city states vie for the artists of the day, while major European powers all seek to justify themselves through art.

In fact, you see enlightenment period as a bit of a throwback to the Renaissance... and that stagnant period would be challenged by the rise of romanticism and more abstract forms than the classical propositions of Michelangelo and Raphael.

Artists only started to become freelancers by the 18th-19th century, when popular mediums were available. Prior to this, they had to be sponsored by somebody.

1226814

While I completely agree that patronage is an ancient system that likely dates back to the beginning of civilization, when I mentioned the 19th and early 20th century I was referring to the education of wealthy persons, especially nobility, not their spending on the arts. At the time it was pretty typical for the nobility, especially the women, to receive at least a basic education in the arts, and fairly expected for them to learn to play an instrument. The same was true of many if not most wealthy and middle-class families, even if not of the nobility. The poor of course generally did not receive much of an education in anything, arts or no (I expect this would be less the case in Equestria, whether C!verse or not).

In fact, the only mention of patronage I had throughout my post was very early on, when I argued Cadance was likely financially supporting more than just musicians. In everything else, I was discussing education or interest in the arts, not the source of funding. Given the apparent time period, patronage is likely to play a second fiddle to popular support for most ponies actively plying an artistic trade in any case.

What about musical knowledge itself? We've seemed to have established their abilities, but what about their smarts?

I imagine that Vinyl would be the best theory-wise in practice, it would be what lets her compose so much of her own music. (I saw someone saying Bluenote as jazz musician, in which case she'd be here too) While either girl probably couldn't tell you what makes a D melodic minor piece, they sure could show you with no problem at all. (It's all how they process the sounds and ratios [yes, ratios] between the sounds. If you look at the classically trained musician, improv is like pulling teeth. It's the exact opposite of how we are trained that doing so feels wrong. To anyone who improvs often, or was taught/learned by ear, this in-practice theory is second nature. After all they usually learned by derping around on their instruments in the first place.)

Tavi would be the bookworm equivalent, in that she knows the theory of how music works and it's history. I base this off the impression I got from the first story about Tavi's perfectionist view to her music. While all the others would see the big picture (and that mistakes happen but don't let them ruin the show), the cellist sweats ALL the details. If you gave her a random piece of music, she could have the whole thing broken down into the modes and chord progressions, alone with what era of music the piece came from/is styled from.) She wouldn't be so good at composing though. Weell, she'd be really good at our Classical era style (Mozart and Vivaldi) where it's all straightforward and follows pretty much all the rules of music theory. But on-spot improv would be a skill she'd need to learn.

Melody would know the physics of music (or acoustics), Frequency, resonance, vibrations, and sound waves would most likely be what she would know most of. This would all come in handy when building her instruments and how to get the best sound out of them. Also this would allow her to answer the inevitable question asked by curious foals; "How does it do that?".

Lyra is your CD collection. If you need a song for anything, she'd be the one to know it (though be warned, her sense of epic would probably mean it's a ballad of some sort). She collects stories and songs from around the world, and would be able to recognize where pieces originated. Ie, X country/region has a strong rhythmic cadence due to the forcefulness of the language. Similarly Y country/region has long flowing motifs (a musical theme that's repeated throughout a piece) because their language has a more relaxed nature. Whereas Z country/region, the music is to imitate the words of the poem, so a sequence about rain would have a light, fast pizzicato effect to mimic the sound of actual rain.

Bluenote could also be the style specialist, but possible not even aware of it. She picks up the different styles based on what her foals like to hear. After awhile, she would even be able to start segregating them into groups (happy, sad, sleepy, ect). If you needed a certain vibe, she would be the one to tell you what you'd need.

And finally Fluttershy... I got nothing As of right now, she just comes off as a hobbyist to me. She knows what she knows, but that's pretty much it. I'm sorry Flutters! please don't hurt me

I have no idea what color Melody is supposed to be! Gotta work on that.

1241520
I see Fluttershy as someone with talents in direction (even if she is terrifically shy.) She can infuse an interpretation on a piece and bring it about, which require coordination on various sections. If she gets emotional and into flutterage, you get Leonard Bernstein. When Fluttershy is stiff and serious, you get Mravinsky.

1241552
Makes sense. I know I'll come up with something for her once we've seen more of the C!verse. I haven't started "Flight of the Parasprite" yet, so I could be missing something already.

1241520:

I imagine that Vinyl would be the best theory-wise in practice, it would be what lets her compose so much of her own music. (I saw someone saying Bluenote as jazz musician, in which case she'd be here too) While either girl probably couldn't tell you what makes a D melodic minor piece, they sure could show you with no problem at all. (It's all how they process the sounds and ratios [yes, ratios] between the sounds. If you look at the classically trained musician, improv is like pulling teeth. It's the exact opposite of how we are trained that doing so feels wrong. To anyone who improvs often, or was taught/learned by ear, this in-practice theory is second nature. After all they usually learned by derping around on their instruments in the first place.)

Tavi would be the bookworm equivalent, in that she knows the theory of how music works and it's history. I base this off the impression I got from the first story about Tavi's perfectionist view to her music. While all the others would see the big picture (and that mistakes happen but don't let them ruin the show), the cellist sweats ALL the details. If you gave her a random piece of music, she could have the whole thing broken down into the modes and chord progressions, alone with what era of music the piece came from/is styled from.) She wouldn't be so good at composing though. Weell, she'd be really good at our Classical era style (Mozart and Vivaldi) where it's all straightforward and follows pretty much all the rules of music theory. But on-spot improv would be a skill she'd need to learn.

I like this. Octavia probably would indeed be the best in terms of classical music theory, while Bluenote would likely be superior at sort of 'intuitive' theory, being able to feel out a D melodic minor piece without necessarily being able to write down all the ratios. Bluenote would be better at improv than Octavia, while Octavia could dominate in playing a piece to a score. Vinyl would likely be between them, though probably more towards Bluenote's end than Tavi's.

Melody would know the physics of music (or acoustics), Frequency, resonance, vibrations, and sound waves would most likely be what she would know most of. This would all come in handy when building her instruments and how to get the best sound out of them. Also this would allow her to answer the inevitable question asked by curious foals; "How does it do that?".

I think you mean Medley. (Melody is Tavi's eldest sister). And yes, she'd be very good at this. Vinyl would probably also know some acoustics too, though mostly for the lowest frequencies, while Medley would be better at everything above deep bass.

Lyra is your CD collection. If you need a song for anything, she'd be the one to know it (though be warned, her sense of epic would probably mean it's a ballad of some sort). She collects stories and songs from around the world, and would be able to recognize where pieces originated. Ie, X country/region has a strong rhythmic cadence due to the forcefulness of the language. Similarly Y country/region has long flowing motifs (a musical theme that's repeated throughout a piece) because their language has a more relaxed nature. Whereas Z country/region, the music is to imitate the words of the poem, so a sequence about rain would have a light, fast pizzicato effect to mimic the sound of actual rain.

Medley might be good for this too a little bit, insofar as she might need to special-order a foreign instrument or something. But Lyra probably does know more songs than just about anypony else in the village. She's got ballads and legends from all over the world. :-)

And Fluttershy...I agree with Planetarian in that her special knowledge lies mostly in directing. 1241552

One other facet is in relating to one's audience; that is, not just playing a certain piece but inducing particular emotions in the crowd. Tavi, Medley, and Lyra are probably the worst at this (esp. Lyra, who would tend to get so caught up in the music itself she forgets to check for crowd feedback). Vinyl and Fluttershy would likely be best at it (since both play primarily to large audiences; Vinyl's DJ crowd and Fluttershy's charity balls and other events) and need to make sure the audience is leaning the right way. Bluenote is also good at it, although I'd bet that Fluttershy is maybe a tiny bit better.