Now that my semester is done, it’s time to start thinking about the next one. I like to spend the first day of class on a song that encompasses all the big themes and topics we’ll be covering. For this spring’s pop theory kids, I chose “Dancing in the Streets” by Martha Reeves and the Vandellas (1964).
I was reminded of this timeless banger by Andrew Hickey’s 500 Songs podcast episode on “Heatwave”, which gives much better background on the song and the people behind it than I could. The episode mentions that this song was unusual for its era because it sits on one chord for long stretches, well before James Brown or Parliament started using single-chord grooves. The song is musically interesting for many other reasons too. Here’s an annotated listening guide. Continue reading “Dancing in the Street”
The other night, the family and I went to a Handel’s Messiah singalong at Lincoln Center. This is an enjoyable holiday tradition where professional singers, conductors and musicians perform the Messiah, and the audience sings along for all the choral parts. You have to bring your own score, and this attracts a very specific kind of person, which my wife is proud to be. The Hallelujah chorus is the famous part but “All We Like Sheep” is the real musical high point.
I just concluded my first semester teaching Advanced Popular Music Transcription in NYU’s new pop theory and aural skills sequence. The students transcribe recorded music into notation, and also analyze production techniques and timbre. Learning by ear is an essential skill for pop musicians. Even when you are using charts, accurate ones are rarely available. There are some AI tools that promise automated transcription, but so far, they are hilariously terrible. So students need to learn to rely on their ears.
One of my back burner writing projects is a book chapter about generative AI in music education and why I think it’s a Bad Thing. In preparation, I reread Ted Chiang’s New Yorker essay about why AI isn’t going to make art, which I completely agree with. To put ourselves in the right frame of mind for this discussion, let’s enjoy some beautiful patriotic AI output.
In Advanced Pop Transcription, we continue to talk about instrument timbres that are widespread but not easy for most listeners to identify. Fretless bass is a case in point. Few people even listen to the bass intentionally, and even fewer distinguish between acoustic, electric and synth bass. That’s understandable! The bass isn’t usually supposed to be the focus of your attention. But musicians know that the bass is the cornerstone of the groove, and its sound can make a big difference in how the music feels, even if you aren’t conscious of it. Sometimes you hear a bass part that sounds especially mysterious or vocalistic, and that’s because it was played on a fretless.
If you are not a stringed instrument player, you will need a little background. Non-fretted stringed instruments like violin, cello and upright bass are so difficult because if your fingers are not in exactly the right place, then your notes won’t be in tune. Also, plucked notes on these instruments don’t sustain very long. Frets are little metal ridges on the fingerboard that provide two benefits: easier in-tune playing and longer sustain. If you press the string down anywhere in the general area behind the fret, it will produce in-tune notes that ring out much longer. This gives you a lot more ergonomic freedom. The Fender Precision Bass, introduced in 1951, was named after the precise intonation that the frets provide.
Convenient though frets are, some bass guitarists discovered that the instrument nevertheless sounds better without them. Your soft, round finger produces more nuances of tone and envelope than the metal fret, and you can do nice smooth slides and glissandos. And because bass guitar is amplified, note sustain isn’t such an issue.
The Rolling Stones – “Paint It Black” (1966)
I have seen it claimed that this song was the first recording to feature a fretless bass guitar, and I have no idea whether that’s true. It hardly matters, the bass isn’t a foreground element anyway. Great song, though. Continue reading “Fretless bass”
We’re spending the last chunk of Advanced Popular Music Transcription talking about the sonic and timbral aspects of pop production. This week we’re focusing on identifying various instrument timbres and talking about their stylistic associations. I won’t be talking (much) about the guitar, because my students already know what guitar sounds like. Instead, I’ll focus on electronic instruments that are less familiar.
Electric piano
The two most commonly used electric pianos are various incarnations of the Fender Rhodes and the Wurlitzer. They sound similar and work in the same way: when you press a key, a hammer strikes a thin metal tine like a tuning fork. This tine vibrates next to a magnetic pickup like the ones in an electric guitar. Rhodes and Wurli sound guitar-like not only because they use the same basic physics, but also because people often run them through guitar amps, and sometimes through guitar effects pedals too.
In Advanced Pop Transcription class, we are entering the part of the semester where we turn our focus away from notes and rhythms and toward sound. One of the most important sounds in the past five decades of dance and hip-hop is the Amen break. In this post, I give context for the break and highlight some noteworthy usages over the past four decades. Continue reading “Amen break listening guide”
This post discusses a book, a web column, a podcast, and an academic research project that all have the same goal: to get their arms around the past 50 to 100 years of Anglo-American popular music. There have been plenty of surveys of rock and pop history, but data analysis and online platforms are making it possible to expand their scope. Continue reading “Uncharted Territory, The Number Ones, 500 Songs, and a different 500 songs”
