Category: Mostly Musical Mini

Words:  19

Average Length:  4.63

Difficulty:  Medium-ish

This one has a bit more music theory than usual, but there should be enough gimmes to let any musical neophytes solve without too much resistance.  Enjoy!

online | puz | pdf | solution

Words: 18

Average Length: 5.00

Difficulty: Mezzo Forte

Well You Needn’t be concerned.  Even if you don’t solve this til Round Midnight, it’s Straight, No Chaser.  If you know all these tunes, 9 Across will drop right into the grid.  If you don’t, check them out!

online | puz | pdf | solution

Words:  24

Average Length:  4.67

Difficulty:  Maybe a tad tougher than usual.  Or maybe not.  I don’t know.

This week’s MMM features a brilliant musician who is also very funny (whom you all know), another brilliant musician who is also very funny (whom you probably don’t know but should), a major earworm, and a smattering of rock, K-Pop, standards, and rap.  Enjoy!

online | puz | pdf | solution

Words: 16

Average Length: 5.25

Difficulty:  A smidge tougher than average maybe?

Mix one cup of rock, a couple of tablespoons of pop, indie, and rap, and a dash of other music stuff, pour the mixture over 7 artfully arranged squares of very dark chocolate, marinate for a few weeks in your “Upcoming Puzzles” folder, and voila – Mostly Musical Mini 13, where, fittingly, 13 of the 16 clues are legitimately music-related.  I hope you find it tasty!

online | puz | pdf | solution

Words:  16

Average Length:  5.00

Difficulty:  Listening-habits specific – this one leans heavily jazz and rock

I started with the cold/hot pair at 4D and 12A and ended up with a bit of R&B, jazz, disco, and classic rock.  Which is an indirect way of saying that none of the theme entries is more recent than around 1976.  I’ll try to be more chronologically inclusive (i.e., less fusty) in future offerings, I promise.

online | puz | pdf | solution

Words:  16

Average Length:  5.25

Difficulty:  Moderato

Yesterday’s LA Times/Wash. Post puzzle, 23 Across:  Clue – *Tunes for fogies.  Answer – Classic Rock.  The clue was asterisked to indicate an answer fitting the “sugar coat” theme, or as the clue for the “sugar coat” answer put it, “make sweeter, in the way the theme answers do to their starred clues.”  As an old college friend of mine used to say, “I resemble that remark.”  (I graduated college in 1980, so any college friend of mine is an old friend.)

Having said that, note that out of 12 music-related clues in this week’s mini, only one answer (11 Across), a mere 8.3%, is arguably classic rock-related.  Don’t claim that 4 Down were classic rock.  They were a classic band, but a decade too late.

online | puz | pdf | solution