Seven and Nine

I did two more podcast episodes about odd meter, about septuple and nonuple respectively, enjoy. Seven mysteries by Dr. Ethan Hein Read on Substack Nine he gave to mortal men, proud and great, and so ensnared them by Dr. Ethan Hein Read on Substack This is going to be it for odd meters, unless there’s …

Take Five

Even before I posted this one, I started getting suggestions for songs in 5/4, and a few in 10/4. I’m sorry if I didn’t mention your favorite, this isn’t meant to be exhaustive, it’s just some representative examples that I find interesting or personally significant. Take Five by Dr. Ethan Hein The meanings of quintuple …

Podcast episode on songs vs grooves

I don’t know whether this is my best podcast episode, but it is definitely my most podcast episode. It covers the Beatles, James Brown, Parliament, Michael Jackson, Dizzy Gillespie, Underworld, The Orb, Run-DMC, Ella Fitzgerald, Simon and Garfunkel, the Grateful Dead, Stevie Wonder, Sabrina Carpenter, the Temptations, Herbie Hancock, Count Basie, Eddie Harris, Miles Davis, …

Blackbird singing in the dead of night

I have mentioned the Beatles on the podcast before, but this is the first episode entirely about one of their songs. It will probably be the first of many. Blackbird singing in the dead of night by Dr. Ethan Hein Take these broken wings and learn to fly Read on Substack

A unified theory of rock harmony in one sentence

All the chords you need for rock by Dr. Ethan Hein can be found using a simple formula Read on Substack When I was learning guitar, I did a lot of studying and memorizing chord progressions. I did even more thinking about chords when I was learning to play jazz. When I shifted over to …

Happy In A Silent Way Day to all who celebrate

Today is the anniversary of the recording session for the best Miles Davis album, and in its honor, I did a podcast two-parter. In A Silent Way, side A: “Shhh/Peaceful” by Dr. Ethan Hein The conceptually weirdest Miles Davis album is also the best one Read on Substack In A Silent Way, side B: “In …

Two-chord shuttles on the pod

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

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 …

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.)

Podcast update, and I guess blog update

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 …