The series is set in the “magical, musical world” of Taratabong, which is inhabited by the Meloditties (Musicilli in the original Italian)- sentient musical instruments.
The main cast of the show includes brother-sister duo Snaree (a snare drum) and Trumpee (a trumpet), their parents Bone (a trombone) and Drumba (a bass drum), sweet little Pino (an upright piano), the Xylo brothers (individual xylophone keys), and Maestro Nomo (a wise old metronome who teaches the young Meloditties at Music School); the series also has a surprising amount of one-off minor characters, some of whom are even fairly obscure instruments like barrel organs (Barrelorg), jew’s harps/lamellophones (Lam, El, and Phone) or ocarinas (Ocarina).
Tropes in this series include:
- Animate Inanimate Object: The cast of the series is composed of Meloditties, living musical instruments (or instrument-adjacent objects, in the case of Maestro Nomo the metronome and Taperee the tape recorder).
- Band Land: The world of Taratabong; the inhabitants are sentient musical instruments, and even the flowers grow bells.
- Birthday Episode: “Happy Birthday!”, as you may guess by the title; the birthday in question is Drumba’s,
- Character Name and the Noun Phrase: Well, “Character Name and Their Noun Phrase”, but one episode is called “Tarrita and Her Cousins”.
- Creative Closing Credits: The end credits are accompanied by scenes of various Meloditties dancing along to the Ending Theme.
- "Do It Yourself" Theme Tune: Naturally for a series starring musical instruments, the theme tune is shown being performed by the Meloditties themselves.
- Dub Name Change: In the original Italian, Trumpee is Truby, Snaree is Rullo, Drumba is Granca, and Grando is Forte.
- Ending Theme: The end credits of the show are accompanied by a reprise of the opening theme.
- Heat Wave: The episode “Ghing Gong” takes place on a very hot day in Taratabong; the Meloditties decide to cool down by taking a swim, and find something strange at the bottom of the lake.
- Heli-Critter: The Xylo Brothers are living xylophone keys that have their faces on small cubes that are connected to their actual “key” parts by struts; they fly by spinning their “key” parts around.
- Instrumental Theme Tune: The opening theme is an instrumental piece of classical-sounding music performed by the Meloditties themselves.
- Intelligible Unintelligible: The Meloditties speak by playing themselves (or, in the case of Maestro Nomo, ticking and making weird grunting noises), but the Interactive Narrator can understand them just fine. Naturally, a lot of Repeating So the Audience Can Hear ensues.
- Interactive Narrator: The only dialogue in the shorts is provided by the voice of a woman, who has a tendency to converse with the Meloditties and even tries to warn Snaree from his attempt to fly in “The Amazing Harp” (not that he listens to her).
- A Lizard Named "Liz": Most of the Meloditties have names done like this- examples include Trumpee the trumpet, Snaree the snare drum, Iolin the violin, and Tarrita the guitar.
- Location Title: The series is named after the “magical, musical land” that it takes place in.
- One-Word Title: The episode “Lamellophones” has one.
- Questioning Title?: One episode is called “Where’s Do?”, and involves one of the Xylo Brothers going missing.
- Repeating So the Audience Can Hear: As the Meloditties only speak in instrument noises, the Interactive Narrator spends most of her conversations with them doing this.
- Short Cuts Make Long Delays: “The Way to School” has Snaree and Trumpee running late to Music School and deciding to take a shortcut, which leads to them running into a number of obstacles that require the help of other Meloditties to get across.
- Sleepyhead: Trebass from “The Yawning Double Bass”; the plot of the episode mostly involves the other Music School students trying to play a song that’s fast and lively enough to keep him awake.
- Tertiary Sexual Characteristics: Female Meloditties (most notably, Trumpee and Drumba) have eyelashes.
- Wintertime Episode: “A Quiet Winter”, where the Meloditties play in the snow and Trumpee catches a cold that makes her sound as if she has a mute in.