My 11 year-old has taken to saying things like “Mom, that is so 80′s”. I’m fairly certain that it is meant as insult but the 80′s were pretty awesome. Still, he has a point, the 2000′s have led to some pretty fantastic technological advances.  Back in the 80′s we didn’t have iPods and we didn’t have the ability download music from the internet. I remember having to sign tapes out at the library and sit at listening stations to study as an undergraduate at the Blair School of Music at Vanderbilt University. Many of you know me as a lover of technology and gadgets; I love my iPod, iPad, iPhone, and anything that gives me easy access to learning and discovering cool stuff. So, you can imagine my delight at having discovered this fun music puzzler on the NPR blog this morning.

The 2011 Deceptive Cadence Holiday Puzzler requires you to match up musical clips with their composers. Appropriate to this time of year, the unifying theme among the clips is the use of sleigh bells.

To test your knowledge, play the excerpt and then drag it onto the photo of the correct composer. The widget tells you right then if you are correct and keeps a tally of your correct answers and number of attempts. The selections are all very recognizable but can you match the clips to the pictures? Try it out and let me know how you did!