I wrote a tremendous amount this year, due to a combination of pandemic-induced academic underemployment and pandemic-induced confinement to quarters. The big headlines are that I published a book with Will Kuhn, and completed a draft of my doctoral dissertation. The book we really wrote in prior years and just did the final revisions and copyedits this year, but even the end stage of the editorial process was an epic journey unto itself. The dissertation has been coming together even longer than that, and I hope to defend it in the next month or two.
Related to the above, I also wrote a syllabus for teaching songwriting to music education majors, and a rap verse.
Here on the blog, I mostly wrote about music theory. I find it a soothing practice in troubled times, and also, I have a book proposal slowly coming together about it. The idea is to write a textbook about groove harmony, the way that chords and scales work in loop-based Black American styles: blues, R&B, funk, hip-hop, and dance music. This book will also address the parts of jazz and rock harmony that are not well explained by Western tonal theory. Its main contribution will be the way that it centers rhythm and meter, and it will also include my best effort at a theory of blues tonality.
To lay the groundwork for this groove harmony guide, I dug into just intonation, specifically to figure out whether the blues is a just intonation system. I also did deep dives into songs by people like Robert Johnson, John Lee Hooker, Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder and Prince.
I did other writing related to groove structures: showing how you can define key centers with rhythm, a swing primer, an exploration of groove melody, and a guide to my favorite Miles Davis album.
I spent some quality time with Bach, looking at the Chaconne and Art of Fugue. And speaking of classical music, I explained who Heinrich Schenker is and why you should care.
On the more academic side, I wrote a review of Ableton Live 11 for the Journal of the American Musicological Society, and wrote a draft of an article about the whiteness of music technology education.
I also wrote way too many Twitter threads. All the conversations I would normally be having in person with my friends, colleagues and students now have to take place online. Thanks to Omicron, I don’t see that changing anytime soon. Anyway, you get to enjoy reading it all!
Hi Ethan ”The main contribution will be the way that it (the book) centers rhythm and meter” I have been looking forward to your announcement of writing and producing a textbook about groove harmony, a work which you’ve been hinting at, with this promotion of the rhythmic aspects to be highlighted I’m sure it will be insightful rigorous and surprising It is amazing just how much you’ve written this year. The material concerning blues tonality and latterly just intonation has been personally liberating, I feel more confidence and competence when bending notes on the guitar, with a wider range of expression available which has been opened up through your exploration Thank you Wayne