Wednesday, April 17, 2013
My NYU masters thesis is a drum programming tutorial system for beginner musicians. It uses a novel circular interface for displaying the drum patterns. This presentation explains the project’s goals, motivations and scholarly background. If you prefer, see it on Slideshare.
Filed in Autobio, Interfaces, Music, Music Teaching, Software
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Also tagged ableton, dance, drum machines, drumming, electronica, hip-hop, looping, midi, music notation, nyu, propellerhead, thesis
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Wednesday, March 27, 2013
For those of you curious about what I’m up to in grad school, this is the big thing. Pardon the stilted language, but, you know, academia. See the slideshow! Title The Drum Loop: a Self-Guided Tutorial System for Programming Dance Rhythms Introduction Dance music production software has never been more accessible. However, even “beginner-oriented” programs [...]
Filed in Autobio, Interfaces, Music, Music Teaching, Software, Video Games
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Also tagged dance, design, drumming, hip-hop, interface, looping, nyu, programming, thesis
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Computers have revolutionized the composition, production and recording of music. However, they have not yet revolutionized music education. While a great deal of educational software exists, it mostly follows traditional teaching paradigms, offering ear training, flash cards and the like. Meanwhile, nearly all popular music is produced in part or in whole with software, yet [...]
Filed in Interfaces, Music, Music Teaching, Software, Technology
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Also tagged algorithmic composition, classical, Composition, computers, dance, dj, figure, garageband, guitar, Hardware, hip-hop, Improvisation, interfaces, ipad, keybs, logic, looping, midi, morton subotnick, Music, music teaching, nyu, pro tools, propellerhead, reason, skeuomorphism, Software, synths
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Check out this presentation I gave at the December 2012 Advanced Ableton User Meetup at Tekserve, hosted by Hank Shocklee of Public Enemy. I speak about how useful Ableton Live is as a music teaching tool, using Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy” as an example. Very shortly after I concluded my talk, my wife went into labor [...]
Filed in Autobio, Interfaces, Music, Music Teaching, Software, Technology
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Also tagged ableton, gnarls barkley, hank shocklee, interfaces, midi, music teaching
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The most fun Music Technology class I’m taking this semester is Advanced Audio Production with Paul Geluso. A major component of the class is learning how to listen analytically, and to that end, we were assigned to pick a song and do an exhaustive study of its sonic qualities. We used methods from William Moylan’s [...]
Filed in Composition, Music, Recording
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Also tagged ableton, analysis, attention, big boi, funk, hip-hop, janelle monae, melodyne, michael jackson, Music Theory, nyu, omnigraffle, paul geluso, production, r&b, Recording
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Wednesday, October 17, 2012
Big question! First, a little philosophical throat-clearing: I don’t believe that modern/contemporary art is as radical a break with the past as it likes to think. I had an art professor in college argue that, really, all abstract art is representational, and all representational art is abstract. Any abstract art has to refer to particular [...]
There’s no single standard method for notating pop, rock and dance songs. Some musicians write everything out in standard western notation; some don’t write anything down at all; many fall somewhere in between. One such compromise system in widespread use is the lead sheet: Other systems for song documentation include chord charts and the Nashville [...]
Filed in Composition, Music
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Also tagged ableton, beatles, carly rae jepsen, dance, diana ross, disco, eric b & rakim, funk, hip-hop, michael jackson, nile rodgers, pop, rock, song structure, songwriting
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As I contemplate my masters thesis, I’m looking for good examples of beginner-centric musical user interface design. Propellerhead’s new Figure app has been a source of inspiration for me. It’s mostly wonderful, and even its design flaws are instructive. I have a long history with Propellerhead’s software, beginning with Rebirth in 1998. I’ve made a [...]
Filed in Composition, Interfaces, Music Teaching, Software
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Also tagged beginners, design, drumming, electronica, figure, graphics, hipsters, interfaces, ios, linkedin, music teaching, propellerhead, reason, rebirth, retro, skeuomorphism, synths, touch
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For my grad school thesis, I’m designing an intro-level music education app. I’m operating within the techno/hip-hop paradigm, with an Afrocentric rhythm-oriented approach. Electronic dance music production software had brought me much joy over the years, joy that I’m eager to spread to more people. I firmly believe that everyone is a potential musician, and [...]
Filed in Hardware, Interfaces, Software, Video Games
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Also tagged accordion, brian eno, drumming, haptic feedback, interfaces, keybs, linkedin, midi, moog, morton subotnick, music notation, nyu, Video Games, xenakis
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I’m doing a ton of writing for grad school, and will be posting the highlights here. First off, an abstract and discussion of this article: Katie Wilkie, Simon Holland, and Paul Mulholland. Winter, 2010. What Can The Language Of Musicians Tell Us About Music Interaction Design? Computer Music Journal, Vol. 34, No. 4, Pages 34-48 [...]