After talking about them in aural skills class, I figured it was time to do an episode about them. This one includes some compositional ideas of my own in addition to all the examples from the pop canon. The two-chord shuttle by Dr. Ethan Hein A foundational building block of funk Read on Substack
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Season two of the podcast
I took a long break from podcasting, not intentionally, just focusing on other things. I guess it makes sense to call the 30 episodes I did last year the first season, and the latest episode the beginning of the second season. Happy listening! Calling out around the world, are you ready for a brand new …
A couple of media hits
I’m quoted in an Associated Press article talking about why pop music in 2025 is so bleak and in MusicRadar talking about Radiohead’s “Let Down”, the template for every Coldplay song and an expression of Jonny Greenwood’s love of Steve Reich. MusicRadar wanted an explainer on “Let Down” because it’s currently red hot on Tiktok. I suspect …
Yet another podcast update
Apparently some people listen to podcasts on YouTube. So, if you are one of these people, now you can listen to mine there (though some episodes might be unavailable due to copyright strikes; I’m working on that.)
Aretha Franklin and Art Garfunkel on the pod
The podcast format doesn’t allow me to show notation like my blog post on the subject does, but it does allow me to overlay Aretha and Art Garfunkel with their tempos aligned so you can compare their rhythmic phrasing aurally. So, pros and cons. Aretha Franklin sings Bridge Over Troubled Water by Ethan Hein way …
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An homage to Otis Redding on the pod
This episode includes some reharmonization of “(Sittin’ on) The Dock of The Bay” to show how goofy it would sound if Otis had used the “correct” chords from the key of G major. I want to do more of these kinds of “remixes” in future episodes, I like the idea of making songs worse by …
Rockit on the podcast
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 …
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
Podcast episode on blue notes
Here’s a subject I have written about a few times before, and it provoked a lot of debate in the comments and elsewhere. Let’s see how folks react to the audio version. Are blue notes out of tune? by Ethan Hein Or are they more in tune than the piano-key pitches are? Read on Substack
New podcast episode on McCoy Tyner and the fourths chord
Making my first podcast episode really lit a fire under me, so I quickly produced a second one, about quartal harmony in jazz, classical and film music. The Fourths Chord by Ethan Hein The sound that connects McCoy Tyner, Erik Satie, Miles Davis and Star Trek Read on Substack