I think I found a good solution to the dilemma of wanting my posts to reach the maximum number of people while also wanting to make some money from all this labor. I decided to keep the podcast free and to pair each episode with a subscribers-only newsletter that includes notated transcriptions and other musicological extras. So, that’s the plan for now, it feels like the right idea. In the meantime, I’m going to keep posting things here that need to be public-facing and accessible if/when Substack goes out of business or becomes intolerable.
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.
An homage to Otis Redding on the pod
Rockit on the podcast
One week left to register for Songwriters Lab
This summer I am teaching my first songwriting class open to the general public with the good people at Synthase. We are taking registrations for one more week, so if you want to sign up, now is the time! You don’t need any prior musical knowledge or ability, though if you have it, I can promise a challenging and horizon-broadening experience.
Here’s a conversation I had with Hujian Ling about the class and my general philosophy of songwriting.
I hope that this is the first of many such classes!
Circle of Fifths sequences on the pod (also me singing)
F-sharp, G-flat, and the mysteries of just intonation
This is a favorite topic of mine, and people on the internet are surprisingly receptive to learning about it. This is another one where the podcast format suits the material well, because being able to splice together verbal explanation of the music with the music itself is so easy and straightforward. It’s making me want to revisit some earlier episodes and edit some more musical examples in there. Every time I mention a note, that note should be there!
Listening to the Well-Tempered Clavier in actual well temperament
I tried this already as a YouTube video and a blog post, but I don’t think I did a good job explaining what was going on in each tuning system. This is because I didn’t really understand the tuning systems myself. I have been filling gaps in my knowledge and refining my examples, and the podcast version reflects that. My spiel could be refined further, but I’ve already decided that this first batch of episodes are rough drafts, and I’ll redo them all at some point. Anyway, hope you find this enlightening.
William Orbit’s polymetric groove in an All Saints song
MusicRadar asked me to write about “Pure Shores” by All Saints”, which I guess was a bigger deal in the UK than it was here, because I had never heard of it. Nice track though.
I had definitely heard of the producer, William Orbit, who made Ray of Light with Madonna. The coolest thing in “Pure Shores” is the polymetric organ riff, every three sixteenth notes. It gave me the excuse to talk about three vs four polymeter as a foundational concept in groove-based music generally.
Watermelon Man on the podcast
I continue to work through the greatest hits of my classroom practice. It’s fun and easy making episodes using material that I have presented many times in many contexts, informed by student discussions. Eventually I will run out of this stuff and my pace will slow down significantly, but for now, the episodes are pretty much producing themselves.
I am not, myself, much of a podcast listener because I would almost rather just read (or listen to the screen reader on my phone.) However, music is a good subject for podcasting, because it’s nice to have the examples right there with the surrounding discussion.