musical sociality
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Music’s Invisibles
Often when we think about music, we’re thinking about its visibles: the people making it (how they look and self identify, their gender, how they play), the instruments they play (acoustic or electronic? traditional or new? homemade or mass-produced?), and the contexts in which they perform (formal concert hall or the street? the recording Continue reading
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On Portlandia’s Music-Cultural Critiques
The sketch comedy series Portlandia, starring Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein and now in its third season, humorously riffs on social life in Portland, Oregon. The show skewers–or is it homage?–a range of Portlander-types, from self-employed creatives to self-absorbed nouveau yuppies to touchy-feely uber-alternative characters almost beyond precise description. Portlandia excels at noticing the many Continue reading
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On Piano Lessons: Tricia Tunstall’s “Note By Note”
“An instrumentalist is an athlete.” –Tricia Tunstall For many people, taking piano lessons is an initial gateway to learning to make and understand music for themselves. Knowing that 88-key terrain of black and white tones and semitones is a giant step towards understanding the pushes and pulls of tonal music, and piano playing makes mind and Continue reading
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