geekery.of.all.sorts

This week we looked in depth at how to think and communicate about rhythm. We discussed meter and rhythmic feel - how many beats per measure (aka, how do you count the music you're playing) and what feel does the song have: straight, swing, triplet, etc. We also delved into subdivision - how to break the beat into smaller pieces, to make your time more accurate and help communicate about the placement of notes. Check out the slides Homework includes: Listening and analysis Speak your subdivisions while listening to the radio Listen to music you find interesting and figure out where the melody falls in the subdivisions. Find challenging music to explore new rhythms, and study the history/culture. Practice Practice scales and other technique exercises at 60bpm, with a metronome.  Listen to where your notes fall, early, late or on time. Then fix it. Subdivide like crazy, to improve your time accuracy and feel.

Greetings to all - here's a synopsis of the second week of our music class! We talked a lot about hearing the individual notes of the major scale. We sing these notes all the time, but it can be really useful to learn to pick them out and recognize their distinct personality when used in a melody. We talked about how some of them are very stable sounds, and others have a lot of energy or tension, and want to move to a more resolved place. That interplay between stability and instability (or dissonance) is what adds motion and interest and direction to our melodies. We talked about listening to the radio while driving or working and attempting to do the following: sing 'do' for anything you hear on the radio sing the main melody, using numbers or syllables sing bass lines, using numbers or syllables sing hooks and instrumental parts using numbers or syllables You can find the slides on Google Drive Here's my Spotify playlists for songs that prominently fea...

Hi all - Here's a recap of my first music class for Practicing Musicians. We talked about our individual backgrounds in music, and set some goals for ourselves.  Listening and Practice goals for week one One big one was that we discussed picking a particular musician and learning their music by ear. For example, I'm learning a jazz solo by John Coltrane on tenor saxophone right now, listening to the recording and playing along with it. Some folks mentioned they knew the style or even the tune they wanted to learn, but they didn't know who the player was. No problem! That's what the internet is for! You can definitely start listening and playing along to your favorite tune, and then go research who played it and what else they did.  It's great to study a particular player (or singer!), and get a sense of their approach and individual style from several different recordings and examples of their playing. If you can copy them note for note and sound just lik...