Hackneyed article about studied line in music? (10)
I believe the answer is:
threadbare
'hackneyed' is the definition.
(synonyms)
'article about studied line in music?' is the wordplay.
'article' becomes 'the' (the definite article in English).
'about' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'studied' becomes 'read' (I've seen this in other clues).
'line in music?' becomes 'bar' (type of line used in sheet music).
'read'+'bar'='readbar'
'the' going around 'readbar' is 'THREADBARE'.
(Other definitions for threadbare that I've seen before include "Hackneyed" , "Tired" , "Shabby" , "Well-worn" , "deprived of nap" .)