Traditional Music is a term used by ethnomusicologists in preference to folk music, this refers to types of music that are handed down within a particular culture, by a variety of means that may include oral transmission, written notation, study with professional teachers, or improvisation within culturally-defined parameters. Traditional music may have a place in society that makes it more like the Western conception of classical music than like folk music, but it does tend to be associated with rural societies or conservative areas of society.