In a previous post, I listed examples of melodic suspensions. But I didn’t do a very good job of explaining how they work. So I will rectify that here.
Category Archives: Music Teaching
Explaining embellishing tones
This week in aural skills, we are covering embellishing tones. This topic is tough, because I can never remember the difference between an appoggiatura and an escape tone without looking it up, but it’s on the syllabus, so I have to try. In previous semesters, I have approached it by having students identify examples from …
New online songwriting class with Synthase
Sometimes people ask me if they can take one of my classes without being enrolled at NYU or the New School. For these people, I have good news: this summer, I will be teaching Songwriter’s Lab, an eight week online songwriting course that I’m collaborating on with the good people at Synthase. I met their …
Continue reading “New online songwriting class with Synthase”
Everybody Loves The Sunshine
For MusicRadar, I wrote an analysis of “Everybody Loves The Sunshine” to honor the passing of Roy Ayers. I have loved this tune for a long time, but I could never muster the energy to work out those chords until now.
My year in pop aural skills teaching
This year, in addition to teaching my first NYU pop music theory class, I also taught two semesters of pop aural skills. If you didn’t go through a university music program, you may not know what aural skills class involves. Traditionally, you identify chords and intervals by ear, practice sight-singing, and do dictation (meaning, you …
My year in pop music theory teaching
See also: my year in pop aural skills teaching This year I taught my first theory class in NYU’s new popular music sequence. It was not my first music theory class, or my first pop music class, but it was the first one in a university-level sequence dedicated specifically to pop. I think it mostly …
Adding vocal harmony to a Tears for Fears song
My theory students are going to be writing vocal harmonies for one of their assignments. To give them guidance, I will be talking through one possible approach to adding harmonies to “Shout” by Tears for Fears. Here’s the original song: Here’s the acapella. I’m not arguing that this song needs harmony vocals; it’s just a …
Continue reading “Adding vocal harmony to a Tears for Fears song”
Modern Band Music Theory
I met Dr Jim Frankel, the founder of MusicFirst, back when I was a grad student. We have been mutual admirers in a passive way since then. It was a pleasant surprise when, over the summer, he asked me to contribute to their new Modern Band curriculum, specifically, the music theory component. It’s now being …
I wrote a song to help my students with key signatures
Yesterday I was sitting in on a colleague’s theory class, and when she said that it was time to practice identifying key signatures, everyone groaned. I feel their pain and want to help. I myself learned the key signatures by reading and writing a lot of music in lots of different keys and eventually just …
Continue reading “I wrote a song to help my students with key signatures”
The harmonica as a metaphor for pop music theory
This is a reworking of an old post with clearer language and better examples Last semester was my first time teaching aural skills in NYU’s new popular music theory sequence. This semester will be my first time teaching a full-fledged theory class in the sequence. When I have taught music theory in the past, I …
Continue reading “The harmonica as a metaphor for pop music theory”