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Studio Observations: Listening To Improvisation
(Detail from Judith Leyster, Merry Company, c. 1629) A friend of mine, who isn’t a musician, enjoys my piano music. So occasionally I’ll email him an mp3 of something I’ve done to get feedback. Music inspires him to ask thought-provoking questions. One day he texted, Do you play music with your heart or your body? Uhh,… Continue reading
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Database: Shane Parish on Revoicing and the Game Of Subtraction
“My basic mantra when working up an arrangement, applying fingers to strings and frets, is ‘revoice, revoice, revoice.’ I will trial-and-error several versions of a phrase in search of resonance, playability, and emotional conviction.” “This approach is more of a game of subtraction, rather than construction. Instead of building up my arrangement from my own… Continue reading
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Resonant Thoughts: Daniel Poppick’s “The Copywriter” (2026)
“No art, no melody, no time that is not bound up in some dark labor” (24). “Everything has a schedule, if you can find out what it is” (28). “The time we have at our disposal every day is elastic, the passions we feel expand it, those that we inspire contract it, and habit fills… Continue reading
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Aftertouch
Johannes Vermeer, A Young Woman seated at a Virginal (c. 1670-72) In MIDI parlance, aftertouch refers to MIDI data that’s transmitted when a key or pad on an electronic controller is held down after the initial attack to control parameters such as volume, vibrato depth, or filter brightness. One of the first synthesizers to incorporate… Continue reading
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Database: Jennifer Loveless On The Quality Of First Takes
“Speed is really important to me in production, and I love taking the first take of things and making that work. There’s something in the first take that has a quality I can’t quite put my finger on, but it’s almost like you can hear the excitement of playing something for the first time. Maybe… Continue reading
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