Harmonic rhythm in two-chord shuttles

We devote a lot of attention in music theory pedagogy to chords. But it isn’t enough to look at what the chords are; you have to consider when they are too. The placement of chord changes in musical time is called harmonic rhythm. The easiest way to understand this idea is to look at songs (or song sections) with only two chords. Philip Tagg calls these two-chord shuttles.

You can’t get much harmonic variety out of a two-chord shuttle by definition, but you can create interest by considering the timing of those two chords.

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Inside the Super MAGFest Jam Clinic

I spent this past weekend at Super MAGFest, where I led some sessions in their Jam Clinic. I was there at the invitation of Ashanti Mills, with whom I have had some great online conversations about participatory music cultures over the years.

Before I explain what I was doing there, I need to explain the video game music (VGM) scene, which I myself only found out about recently. It’s a thriving amateur community that gets together to play music from games, as well as game-adjacent genres like anime themes and vocaloid. The format resembles a jazz or blues jam, but with much wider stylistic variety. Continue reading “Inside the Super MAGFest Jam Clinic”

New MusicRadar column on Music For Airports

Like all nerds, I revere Brian Eno. When MusicRadar asked for a column about him, I jumped on it. They wanted something about his generative music, and Music For Airports was the obvious choice.

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Subterranean Homesick Blues

I have Bob Dylan on the brain, because my socials are saturated with ads for the Timothee Chalamet movie, and because MusicRadar used the movie as the news hook for a column about Bob. I rewatched Don’t Look Back for the first time in forever. It’s a sign of my advancing age that Bob came across as unnecessarily obnoxious, especially to the poor Time Magazine reporter. But the music still sounds fantastic. “The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll” is a knockout, as is “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue.” The best thing in the film is the proto-video that starts it off.

This was apparently Bob’s idea, and it was a good idea! It was shot in an alley near the Savoy Hotel in London. The two guys talking in the background are Allen Ginsberg and Dylan’s friend and road manager, Bob Neuwirth.

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I want to write a book about the Grateful Dead

I wrote a lot of posts about the Grateful Dead last year. I started doing it for my own enjoyment and interest, and was pleasantly surprised by how many enthusiastic responses I got. I have also been surprised by how interested my students have been in hearing about these songs. I started thinking that I had enough to say for a book, and that there might be an audience for such a thing.

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MusicRadar column on one of Bob Dylan’s greatest hits

To tie in with the new Dylan movie, MusicRadar asked me to analyze “Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright.” My first choice would have been “It’s Alright Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)”, my favorite Dylan song and one of my favorite songs by anyone ever, but I was happy to go with their request too, it’s a beauty.

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Things I wrote in 2024

It has been a big year for my writing life. My work life continues to consist of badly paid contingent faculty work, but hope springs eternal. So here’s a list of things I wrote and what I am hoping happens as a result.

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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 listen to a piece of music a few times and then notate it.) Pop music is mainly aural, so naturally, aural skills are important. But what should a pop aural skills class look like? Pop musicians definitely need to be able to identify things by ear,  but reading and writing notation are less important for them than learning from recordings and improvising.

The internal ear

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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 went great, and certainly the feedback from the students has been positive, but there are some rough edges remaining to smooth out.

Like the rest of the theory adjuncts in the department, I was given a syllabus to follow, but I had broad discretion in how I addressed each topic. Here’s the topic list: Continue reading “My year in pop music theory teaching”

In defense of “Wonderful Christmastime”

New on MusicRadar, I take a mostly sympathetic look at Paul McCartney’s omnipresent and divisive earworm. I don’t generally like Christmas music, but this song is so goofy and odd that I can’t help but find it endearing. The main problem with it is that the tempo is too fast and the feel is too square. I thought it would be fun to hear it with a better groove, specifically, the one from “Superstition” by Stevie Wonder.

This is the collaboration that I wish Paul and Stevie had done.