This is a subject that is ideally suited to the podcast format. Not only can I gather the music examples together, I can seamlessly weave a vocoder demonstration in there too. I also do a little remixing as a comparison method. This is going to be more of a method going forward and I am …
Author Archives: Ethan
One week left to register for Songwriters Lab
This summer I am teaching my first songwriting class open to the general public with the good people at Synthase. We are taking registrations for one more week, so if you want to sign up, now is the time! You don’t need any prior musical knowledge or ability, though if you have it, I can …
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Circle of Fifths sequences on the pod (also me singing)
This is a seemingly dry music theory topic, but it gave me an excuse to sing “You Never Give Me Your Money” and “Fly Me To The Moon” over the instrumental to “I Will Survive”. Should I sing more on the podcast? Chord progressions on the circle of fifths part one by Ethan Hein The …
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F-sharp, G-flat, and the mysteries of just intonation
This is a favorite topic of mine, and people on the internet are surprisingly receptive to learning about it. This is another one where the podcast format suits the material well, because being able to splice together verbal explanation of the music with the music itself is so easy and straightforward. It’s making me want …
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Listening to the Well-Tempered Clavier in actual well temperament
I tried this already as a YouTube video and a blog post, but I don’t think I did a good job explaining what was going on in each tuning system. This is because I didn’t really understand the tuning systems myself. I have been filling gaps in my knowledge and refining my examples, and the …
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William Orbit’s polymetric groove in an All Saints song
MusicRadar asked me to write about “Pure Shores” by All Saints”, which I guess was a bigger deal in the UK than it was here, because I had never heard of it. Nice track though. I had definitely heard of the producer, William Orbit, who made Ray of Light with Madonna. The coolest thing in …
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Watermelon Man on the podcast
I continue to work through the greatest hits of my classroom practice. It’s fun and easy making episodes using material that I have presented many times in many contexts, informed by student discussions. Eventually I will run out of this stuff and my pace will slow down significantly, but for now, the episodes are pretty …
The name of this tune is The Funky Drummer
I have written about the Funky Drummer break several times here before, but this podcast episode is my best explanation of it. The main thing that’s new is the connection between this break and Afro-Latin tresillo patterns. I also programmed a bunch of variations on the groove for comparison purposes. The name of this tune …
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Check out this beautiful EP by one of my former songwriting students
Savelle was in my Song Factory class at the New School, and she just released her first EP. I could not be more excited for her, and I really dig these songs. Three by Savelle My favorite of the three is the bluesy opener, “Company.” I take no credit for any of this. Savelle came …
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Podcast episode on swing
Here’s a subject that I tried hard to explain using songs, without apparent success. Maybe the podcast format will work better. It don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing by Ethan Hein But what actually is swing? Read on Substack