Cyclic Defrost, the uber-hip online Australian music magazine, features an interview I did with Jason Richardson. We talk blogging, sample culture, music visualization, mumble rap, and many other subjects. Check it out!
Author Archives: Ethan
Testing the effects of game music on cognition
For Jan Plass‘ class on research in games for learning, I’m working on an experiment testing the effects of game soundtracks on cognitive performance. The game in question is All You Can ET, developed by the NYU CREATE Lab. Here’s the music: https://soundcloud.com/ethanhein/all-you-can-et-soundtrack You’re hearing four versions of the basic 32-bar loop: fast major, fast minor, slow …
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Breaking down the harmony in Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy”
Over on the Soundfly blog, you can see a video from our new harmony course in which I talk through the fascinating chord progression from “Crazy” by Gnarls Barkley. Check it out!
Meet the audio file formats
There are a lot of audio file formats. Here are the ones you encounter most commonly. Analog formats Recorded sound consists of fluctuations in electrical current coming off of a microphone or mixing desk. Before computers, you translated that current into tiny smooth wiggles in the shape of the groove cut into a vinyl record, or …
New online music theory course with Soundfly!
I’m delighted to announce that my new online music theory collaboration with Soundfly is live. It’s called Unlocking the Emotional Power of Chords, and it gives you a practical guide to harmony for creators of contemporary pop, R&B, hip-hop, and EDM. We tie all the abstract music theory concepts to real-world musical usages, showing how you can …
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Milo’s first original song
At age four, Milo wrote a song! It was inspired by an episode of Thomas the Tank Engine, where Stephen is lost in the old mine, and Sir Topham Hatt organizes a search party. The verses are a little confusing and are different every time he sings them, but the chorus is remarkably catchy.
Marked
Note-taking for Principles of Empirical Research with Catherine Voulgarides Pager, Devah. (2007). MARKED: Race, Crime, and Finding Work in an Era of Mass Incarceration. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Page 21 of Pager’s book includes this chart, showing annual prison admissions for drugs by race in the United States. In the 1980s, we imprisoned roughly the same …
Ain’t No Makin’ It
Assignment for Approaches to Qualitative Inquiry with Colleen Larson If you’re looking for a gripping and highly readable (though depressing) sociological study, I strongly recommend this one. The purpose of MacLeod’s study is to understand how class inequality reproduces itself, using the example of two groups of young men living in a housing project. He …
Durkheim – Suicide
Note-taking for Principles of Empirical Research with Catherine Voulgarides Durkheim’s sociological classic sounds so much more sophisticated in the original French: “Le Suicide.” All jokes aside, this is a personal topic for me, due its impact on my friends and extended family, not to mention artists I admire.
Ideological and Theoretical Assumptions
Note-taking for Principles of Empirical Research with Catherine Voulgarides Artiles, A. J. (2011). Toward an Interdisciplinary Understanding of Educational Equity and Difference: The Case of the Racialization of Ability. Educational Researcher, 40(9), 431-445. Artiles explains how a civil rights victory for learners with disabilities has become a way to oppress racial minority students. He cites …