My kids have been watching The Sound of Music a lot lately. I have known many of the songs since elementary school, but I somehow never got around to watching the movie until now. Apparently it was Rodgers and Hammerstein’s last musical, and boy did they leave it all on the stage. I was sitting …
Author Archives: Ethan
Adam Neely video on “Hey Joe” and blues tonality
It’s a delightful sensation to be watching a new Adam Neely video and then being startled by hearing my own name. A commenter says, “he just humiliates you with terminology while looking through pages of his thick clever books and then casually quotes some random guy on the internet like yeah whatever.” That random guy …
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The best guitar solo ever recorded
The best guitar solo ever recorded is in Prince’s 1986 classic “Kiss.” Don’t be fooled by Wendy Melvoin’s mimed guitar playing in the video; Prince himself played the solo. It might seem unfair that one of the best singers, songwriters, dancers, bandleaders and producers in history should also have played history’s best guitar solo, but, …
Groove harmony
See also a study of groove melody Chords work differently in grooves than they do in songs and linear compositions. In his book Everyday Tonality, Philip Tagg proposes that chords in loops are mainly there to signpost locations in the meter. By his theory, the metrical location of a chord matters more than its harmonic …
Keep On Truckin’
Eddie Kendricks only topped the charts once after leaving The Temptations, but when he did, it was with a doozy of a track. Tom Breihan makes the case that “Keep On Truckin’” was the first disco song to top the charts, which may well be true. He also says that it’s more of a groove …
You Are What I’m All About
I fell down a WhoSampled rabbit hole and landed on “You Are What I’m All About” by The New Birth, produced by the great Harvey Fuqua. The album cover might suggest some kind of goth techno, but the actual music is gospel-inflected R&B. This track has been sampled many times, mostly the clave part from …
Who is Heinrich Schenker and why should you care?
Everyone’s favorite music theorist is back in the news. If you are curious about the controversy surrounding him and don’t have a music theory background, I wrote a Twitter thread for you: Okay! Clearly, you people want to read about Schenker! Here, I will add some context to this NY Times article so you can …
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Swing primer
“It don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing, doo-wah doo-wah doo-wah doo-wah doo-wah doo-wah doo-wah doo-wah” – Duke Ellington Aside from the blues, swing is the United States’ most significant musical innovation. People typically associate its rubbery, sensual feel with jazz, but swing is everywhere in the musics descended from the African …
Miles Davis – In a Silent Way
In a Silent Way is my favorite Miles Davis album, possibly my favorite jazz album, and one of my favorite works of music generally. Most of Miles’ music of this era is ornery and angular, but In a Silent Way is like slipping into a warm bath. The music hardly sounds like “jazz” at all. …
The Roots, “Don’t See Us”
I advocate for the study of hip-hop because it shows that harmony is not the only aspect of music worth studying. However, hip-hop is also underappreciated as a source of harmonic ideas in and of itself. The Roots’ “Don’t See Us” is a fascinating example of groove harmony. The live version has an amazing acapella …