Skip to content
    • about
    • ai in music resources
    • archives
    • art about music
    • atelier
    • books
    • brett’s sound picks
    • database (a cache of perceptions)
    • film
    • interview
    • keywords
    • music
    • thought tools
    • ventrilo-dialogues

brettworks

thinking through music


  • April 26, 2019

    Searches That Brought You Here: Jason Mraz, Ray Hudson, Tricia Tunstall

    • Jason Mraz why is he singing reggae. In a post on Mraz’s song, “I’m Yours” I write:  “It’s easy to think of reggae music as ‘laid back’ due to its easy tempo, effortless groove, and sense of cool. Perhaps it’s this laid back cool that Mraz chose to gesture with in his hit song?… Continue reading

    piano music, reggae, searches that brought you here, Uncategorized, verbal poetics
  • April 25, 2019

    A Short Piece On Listening

    Listen so hopefully that the music sings your solution. Continue reading

    listening, poetry, succinct thoughts, Uncategorized
  • April 24, 2019

    Resonant Thought: Marcus du Sautoy’s “The Creativity Code” (2019)

    “A creative thought needs to be balanced with a feedback loop which critiques the thought so that it can be refined and generated again.” – Marcus du Sautoy, The Creativity Code (2019), p. 125. Continue reading

    Resonant Thoughts, Uncategorized
  • April 23, 2019

    Art About Music: Jan van Hens’s “Musicians Outside The Tavern” (c. 1600)

    Continue reading

    art about music, Uncategorized
  • April 22, 2019

    On Copying, Manipulating, and Pasting Musical Parts 

    One of the few rules of composing music I almost always adhere to is to play every single part myself in real-time. Based on the kind of music I like to listen to, I’m convinced—or I’ve convinced myself—that this approach produces the most reliably interesting results in the shortest amount of time. If I want… Continue reading

    music performance, music production, Uncategorized
  • April 19, 2019

    Curating The Week: Chill Music Playlists, Music For Notre Dame, Hip Hop Country Music

    • An article on “chill” music playlists on Spotify. “These days, to describe someone as “chill” is to propose that they’re slightly apathetic, but in a delightfully easygoing way. The rise of chill as an aspirational state suggests that perhaps the best thing to feel is not much at all…Spotify presently classifies chill as a… Continue reading

    Curating The Week, Uncategorized
  • April 18, 2019

    Nine Books About Creativity

    Ferran Adria. A Day at elBulli: an insight into the ideas, methods and creativity of Ferran Adria  Ed Catmull Creativity, Inc. Marcus du Sautoy The Creativity Code: Art and Innovation in the Age of AI Ken Kacienda Creative Selection Kyna Leski The Storm of Creativity David Lynch Catching The Big Fish: meditation, consciousness, and creativity… Continue reading

    Creativity, Uncategorized
  • April 17, 2019

    Brett’s Sound Picks: Visible Cloaks, Yoshio Ojima & Satsuki Shibano’s “You” (2019)

    Continue reading

    Brett’s Sound Picks
  • April 16, 2019

    Dirck Hals’s “Music-Making Company On A Terrace” (c. 1620-1625)

    Continue reading

    art about music, Uncategorized
  • April 15, 2019

    Production Moves: Merging Sounds And Processes Through Tiny Cumulative Changes

    Much of my music production time is spent making tiny changes, often because I can’t figure what more significant thing I need to do.  So I go small.  Here’s the scene: the piece is just okay, and progress on it is just okay, and the finished thing may too be destined to be just okay.… Continue reading

    Electronic music, music editing, music production, Uncategorized
«Previous Page Next Page»

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

  • Database: Mark Clifford On Squeezing The Life Out Of Equipment
  • 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)

Subscribe To Brettworks


©

brettworks

2022, All Rights Reserved.

Blog at WordPress.com.

Loading Comments...

You must be logged in to post a comment.

    • Subscribe Subscribed
      • brettworks
      • Join 755 other subscribers
      • Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
      • brettworks
      • Subscribe Subscribed
      • Sign up
      • Log in
      • Report this content
      • View site in Reader
      • Manage subscriptions
      • Collapse this bar