Thomas Brett
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On Beginning Music Not With Silence
Consider an idea: begin a piece of music not with silence, but with a soundscape from nature playing through your speakers or headphones. Use this soundscape not as a part of your piece or the piece itself but as a springboard for the first sounds you’ll make or use, the first first chords you’ll play, the first beat you’ll Continue reading
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Resonant Thoughts: Ira Glass On Taste And Work
“All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But it’s like there is this gap. For the first couple years that you’re making stuff, what you’re making isn’t so good. It’s not that great. It’s trying to be good, it has ambition to be good, but it’s Continue reading
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Brett’s Sound Picks: Girolamo Frescobaldi’s “Fiori musicali: Toccata per le levatione, F 12.31” (1635) Arr. bY Anna-Liisa Eller
(One of my favorite recordings of 2021. Information on the kannel is here.) (Playlist.) Continue reading
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Curating The Week: DAWs, The Creator Economy, How To mix
• An article about DAWs (digital audio workstation software). “In some ways, the DAW replaced the piano as the primary site of solitary musical expression, retreating from living rooms to glowing screens in share house bedrooms. Music creation ever since has never been so lonely.” • An article on the creator economy. “When I imagine Continue reading
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Resonant Thoughts: Edward Tatnall Canby’s “Synthesized Music” (1955)
[The writer is referring to the recording, The Sounds and Music of the RCA Electronic Music Synthesizer, 1955] “The fancy music that is here synthesized is absolutely astonishing. Few of us would have imagined that so much progress had been made. But most listeners won’t be able to suppress a snicker or two, in the Continue reading
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