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brettworks

thinking through music


  • January 29, 2020

    Musical Lines

    Translate the sense of indecision the composer feels when beginning you’ll recognize that no place sounds like the right way to start so how to know that chosen options will set a tuneful path paved by intentions not random timbres that if we begin here we won’t box ourselves in like notes on the stave a cage… Continue reading

    composition, Uncategorized
  • January 28, 2020

    Brett’s Sound Picks: Stenny’s “Cursed” (2019)

    (Follow Brett’s Sound Picks 2020) Continue reading

    Brett’s Sound Picks, Uncategorized
  • January 27, 2020

    Resonant Thoughts: Agnes Martin’s “Beauty Is The Mystery Of Life” (1989) 

    “We make art work as something that we have to do not knowing how it will work out.” “An artist is a person who can recognize failure.” “The response to art is the real art field. Composition is an absolute mystery.” – Agnes Martin, “Beauty Is The Mystery Of Life.” Continue reading

    Resonant Thoughts
  • January 24, 2020

    Notes On Craft

    “We must never lose sight of the fact that the most intelligently designed, the most versatile and the most complex piece of kit we have at our disposal is our own body.” -Deckle Edge, Craeft, p. 24 When I think about musicians I admire I always return to their sense of craft. These musicians are… Continue reading

    craft, Uncategorized
  • January 22, 2020

    Brett’s Sound Picks: Jacob Pavek and Philip Daniel’s “Morrow” (2020)

      Brett’s Sound Picks 2020 Continue reading

    Brett’s Sound Picks, Uncategorized
  • January 21, 2020

    Okay For Now

    One of the concepts that’s on my mind when I’m producing music is the notion of okay for now. Though it may sound slacker-ish, the mindset describes a settling for whatever I’m doing at the moment and not worrying about if it’s good or bad or where it may or may not be going. (Note:… Continue reading

    heuristics, music production, Uncategorized
  • January 17, 2020

    Curating The Week: Excellence, Learning, and Magicians

    • An article about excellence. “Excellence is mundane. Excellence is accomplished through the sound of actions, ordinary in themselves, performed consistently and carefully, habitualized, compounded together, added up over time. While these actions are ‘qualitatively different’ from those of performers at other levels, these differences are neither unmanageable nor, taken one step at a time,… Continue reading

    Curating The Week, Uncategorized
  • January 16, 2020

    Musical Vantage Points

    What is your vantage point on the music? From what position do you listen—from a point of doubt, sympathy, skepticism, good cheer, confidence, or anxiety? Does your vantage change as the music changes, moving from a positive glance to a negative sneer? Does your positioning allow you to hear the music as it is, as… Continue reading

    Electronic music, enchantment, listening, mixing, Uncategorized
  • January 15, 2020

    On The Ambiguous Appeal Of The Musically Worn

    As I produce a track I’m constantly looking for ways alter its sounds so that they’re damaged and unclear, and some of my favorite effects processing plug-ins are those that destroy or roughen what is pristine and soft to make it more textured and fascinating to listen to. An analogy of the radio dial comes… Continue reading

    aesthetics, Uncategorized, wabi-sabi
  • December 31, 2019

    Brettworks 2019 Posts On Music Production

    Notes On Perfect On Musical Stasis And Directionality Notes On Working In Layers On Minimalism and Maximalism On Micro-Adjustments And The Game Of Amounts Losing Objectivity Musical Endings Differ, Be Important: The Make It More Interesting Concept Journal Note: Tweaking Audibility, One Part At A Time Without Methods, But With Principles The One Fell Swoop… Continue reading

    music production, Uncategorized, year end review
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Thomas Brett is a musician and writer who holds a PhD in ethnomusicology from New York University. He is the author of Principles of Electronic Music Production and The Creative Electronic Music Producer, a book described by Sound On Sound magazine as “a deep philosophical analysis of the various creative inspirations, ideas and processes involved in producing electronic music.” His essays have appeared in the journals Popular Music and Popular Music and Society, as well as edited collections by Routledge, Oxford, and Cambridge University presses. Thomas has played percussion on Broadway since 1997 and writes about music at brettworks.com.

Recent Posts

  • Drumming Diaries: Energies of Performance
  • Brett’s Sound Picks: øjeRum’s “I (2026 remaster)”
  • In The Works: 28 April
  • Resonant Thoughts: John Berger’s “Permanent Red: Essays in Seeing” (1960/2025)
  • Stolen Moments Are Open-Ended

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