Tuesday, January 10, 2012
The mind constantly works to find tonal centers in any music. The best atonal music is really just very complex tonal music, challenging our ability to get our harmonic bearings without totally overwhelming us. Music that strikes the right balance between predictable, functional harmony and randomness is the stuff that people find exciting; the unexpected [...]
Several US presidents and other prominent politicians have also been musicians. Here are some highlights. Harry Truman played classical piano.
Filed in Music, Politics
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Also tagged alan greenspan, america, bill clinton, condoleeza rice, harry truman, jazz, john ashcroft, mike huckabee, Music, Politics, presidents, richard nixon, rock
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Thursday, November 17, 2011
There’s a certain jazz lick that’s so heavily used that it’s just known as The Lick. It’s the only jazz lick I know of that has its own Facebook page. Here’s a greatest hits compilation:
Filed in Copyright and Authorship, Music, Sampling
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Also tagged akon, bobby hutcherson, cliches, digging the crates, Evolution, facebook, freddie hubbard, grant green, Improvisation, jazz, john coltrane, memes, miles davis, Music, player, pop, reggae, rock, santana, stravinsky
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Monday, November 14, 2011
For my tastes, you can’t beat the Ellington Nutcracker. Ellington’s Peer Gynt suite is also pretty wonderful. This one has inspired some remixing from me.
Filed in Music
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Also tagged aaron copland, chick corea, django reinhardt, duke ellington, eumir deodato, jazz, john coltrane, oliver nelson, quora, remixes, sibelius, uri caine, wayne shorter
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It’s hard to figure out what key a piece of music is in. There are a lot of conflicting answers from different music theory texts. To make matters worse, it’s not at all unusual for a song to change keys, even within a section or phrase. Even rock songs written by totally naive songwriters can [...]
Filed in Music, Music Theory
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Also tagged blues, hall and oates, harmonic minor, jazz, keys, major scale, melodic minor, Music Theory, pop, rock, scales
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Today is the Fourth of July, and I can’t think of anything more patriotic than a post about our most significant contribution to world musical culture: swing. The title of this post refers to the classic Duke Ellington tune, sung here by Ray Nance. Check out the “yah yah” trombone by Tricky Sam Nanton. The [...]
Filed in Dance, Emotion, Music, Music Teaching
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Also tagged america, charles mingus, count basie, drum machines, duke ellington, ella fitzgerald, funk, hip-hop, janet jackson, jazz, louis armstrong, ray nance, rhythm, soul, swing, syncopation, tchaikovsky, time, tricky sam nanton
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My friend and sometime musical collaborater Leo Ferguson is releasing an album of his adventurous jazz compositions and arrangements. Leo Ferguson Ensemble (2011) by Leo Ferguson As part of the album’s extended liner notes, I interviewed Leo on May 5, 2011. Here’s an edited transcript; you can also hear the audio on Leo’s site.
Filed in Composition, Improvisation, Music, Race and Identity
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Also tagged barack obama, composing, jazz, john coltrane, leo ferguson, miles davis, steve reich, wayne shorter
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Since it was Easter yesterday, Anna wanted to listen to Bach’s St Matthew Passion while we pottered around the house. A certain passage grabbed my ear, a hymn called “O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden” — in English, “O Sacred Head, Now Wounded.” This beautiful tune was immediately familiar to me, but I couldn’t quite [...]
Filed in Composition, Copyright and Authorship, Music, Sampling
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Also tagged bach, easter, folk, genealogy, hymns, memes, Music, paul simon
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Saturday, February 12, 2011
I’ve read that Quincy Jones carries around copies of Miles Davis’ Kind Of Blue in his briefcase, and that he hands them out to kids whenever he meets them. Q-Tip compares Kind Of Blue to the Bible — you’re just expected to have a copy around the house. If you’ve never heard jazz before, Kind [...]
Filed in Composition, Improvisation, Key Musicians, Music, Music Theory, Sampling
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Also tagged ahmad jamal, debussy, erykah badu, gil evans, james brown, jazz, john coltrane, mashups, mccoy tyner, memes, miles davis, morton gould, Music Theory, public enemy, Sampling, the heavy
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Saturday, January 22, 2011
When you first set out to learn your scales, it can be discouraging. There are so many of them, and their names are so bewildering. The good news is that when you learn one scale, you get a bunch of other scales that you get “for free.” This is because many scales share the same [...]
Filed in Music, Music Teaching, Music Theory
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Also tagged beatles, benny golson, bjork, blues, dizzy gillespie, jazz, lynyrd skynyrd, miles davis, modes, Music Theory, rock, samuel barber, scales
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