There’s musical repetition that creates a groove, and repetition that stands in for having new ideas. In some musics these two functions co-exist. Electronic music instructional videos would be more inspiring if they showed emotional composing/improvising/performing in addition to problem-solving. Electronic music compensates for the lack of physicality in its production through an excess of Continue reading

Your resistance to a music is a measure of the music’s capacity to destabilize notions you didn’t know you hold dear. The singer of the pop song assumes that if she repeats the chorus enough someone will believe her. Classical music’s contemporary uses illustrate how the music has always been, among other things, an aspirational Continue reading

Like circus high wire artists missing one another’s fingertips by inches, your musical style is what transpires when your expectations are just out of reach of your capabilities and you go into freefall. Retail stores are where most popular music retreats to live out its days under fluorescent lights on Sirius life support, having faded Continue reading

The louder the music, the harder it is to listen to it. • Music silences verbal thinking, offering it another medium. • Music is vibration’s grand invention. • People are like tuning forks—always catching and matching one another’s vibes. • Big data misunderstands the nature of your musical tastes. • Music playlists are covert forms Continue reading