The Lille Piano Festival is taking place in a subway station, where pianists bring music to the train commuters for their enjoyment and perhaps a gentle introduction to jazz and classical music.

The pianist Alexandre Tharaud plays Beethoven and Chopin in the beautiful surroundings of the Chambord castle. It's an outdoor concert, but the acoustics are so powerful that the performers can hear a pin drop from the audience!

Discover a unique instrument called the ondes Martenot, a precursor to the synthesizer named after its inventor, Maurice Martenot. This electronic piano-like instrument, once a musical sensation in the 1930's, quickly fell into disuse, but is experiencing a revival thanks to Christine Ott, a talented pianist who adopted this unusual instrument and has worked alongside such musical greats as Radiohead and Yann Tiersen.

The Musée des Abattoirs (Slaughterhouse Museum) in Toulouse devoted an entire exhibition to dub music, a subgenre of reggae. The exhibition featured a selection of Jamaican-style sound systems and culminated in a big dub concert.

Meet the members of IAM, a very popular French rap group originating from Marseille. They discuss their successful career and their latest album, Arts Martiens (Martian Arts).

Meet Geneviève Morissette, a singer-songwriter from Montreal whose smart lyrics and beautiful compositions make her stand out on stage.

Lionel demonstrates some basic guitar techniques to help you familiarize yourself with the instrument. He also gives an overview of various percussion instruments. You may not get to play like Lionel overnight, but you are sure to learn some interesting music vocabulary.

In lesson two of this series on playing guitar, Lionel will talk to you about several playing techniques to create a rhythm that he will demonstrate on his guitar.

In guitar lesson number three of this series, it's time to learn a song now that you know how to play rhythms. The song is called "Les Mots" [The Words] by La Rue Ketanou. So pick up your guitar (if you have one) and play along while you learn a little French!

Corneille reflects on his fifteen-year career as a hip hop variety singer. Born in Germany but raised in Rwanda and now residing in Canada, Corneille absorbed various musical influences, which resulted in an eclectic and interesting mix of genres that he will explain in this video. You will also hear short music clips, one of which is from his latest album Entre nord et sud [Between North and South].

In his brilliant song "Papaoutai" (Dad, Where Are You?), Stromae depicts the endless game of hide and seek that some children play with their fathers. Stromae (né Paul Van Haver), who was raised by his mother, lost his own father in 1994 to the Rwandan Genocide.

Singer-songwriter Stromae walks us through his personal creative process and the many choices he has to make to create his beautiful songs, such as the one you will hear in the background called "Papaoutai" (Dad, Where Are You?). Knowing what goes into the complex process of making music only deepens our appreciation of his work.

Indila, a French singer whose first single "Dernière Danse" (Last Dance) topped the chart in 2013, talks about her debut as a singer. She felt more comfortable as a writer and composer of melodies and only recently started singing onstage.

Oldelaf's "Bérénice" is a beautiful love song with a somewhat tragic (but very comical!) ending. You'll both laugh at and be moved by Oldelaf's poetic language and soulful crooning.

Hardcore techno musician Manu le Malin [Wild Manu] is one of the oldest regulars at the Astropolis Festival in Brittany, which just celebrated its twenty-year anniversary. Its attendance has swelled from two thousand to ten thousand participants, but the rave-like spirit of the festival remains the same, and it keeps drawing big crowds every year.