Take a load off, Fannie by Dr. Ethan Hein Take a load for free Read on Substack There is a truism that art makes the strange familiar and makes the familiar strange. The Band’s biggest hit is intimately familiar to every classic rock listener, but it is quite a strange song. The lyrics seem like …
Tag Archives: The Band
Identifying standard pop chord progressions
This week in aural skills, we are practicing identifying pop schemas, that is, chord sequences and loops that occur commonly in various kinds of Anglo-American top 40, rock, R&B and related styles. We previously covered the permutations of I, IV and V and the plagal cadence. Now we’re getting into progressions that bring in the rest …
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Blues tonality
Notes: I update and revise this post regularly to include new sources and better, more refined arguments. See a more beginner-friendly blues primer here. Read a translation treatise in Spanish by Jesús Fernández. Abstract The blues is a foundational element of America’s vernacular and art music. It is commonly described as a combination of African …