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Lessons From Dilla 2: Contrast Dry With Atmospheric
Contrast the dry beat with an atmospheric keyboard sample. Continue reading
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Theory As Poetry: John Mowitt’s “Music in the era of electronic reproducibility” (1987)
music, as an organization of noise or sound, arises within the structure of listening music’s social significance derives from the role it plays in the stabilization of this structure, that is, how it articulates and consolidates structurally necessary practices of listening. – John Mowitt, “Music in the era of electronic reproducibility” in Music And Society,… Continue reading
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On Cymbals, Music, And Nonlinearity
nonlinear – not sequential or straightforward; (physics) involving a lack of linearity between two qualities such as input and output; (mathematics) – involving measurement in more than one dimension One day a few weeks ago, while nowhere near any musical instruments, I found myself thinking about the sound of cymbals—how their infinite variety of pwssshhh sounds… Continue reading
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Freestyle: Musical Cliches (?)
Go by feel. Follow your bliss. Express yourself. Make it catchy. Practice, make it right, rehearse. Build your fan base. Mix up styles, fusionize. Make it relevant, contemporary. Keep evolving. Do your own thing. Hear it in its historical context. Cater to your fans. Self-deprecate. Continue reading
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Lessons From Dilla 1: High End Is Optional
Having high-end frequencies is optional: Do you need hi hats and cymbals? Does the kick need to be crisp or can it be muffled? Continue reading
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Resonant Thoughts: Ulf Olson’s “Listening For The Secret” (2017)
“There is…an interesting dialectic of tradition and Avant-Garde at the heart of the Grateful Dead’s music, a dialectic that might be generated by the larger dislocations taking place on a worldwide scale, but enacted within a community, forming around a group of musicians, that would gradually grow until it would become a national, and to… Continue reading
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Long Tail Listening
In music, we pay a lot of attention to the onset of sounds—the point at which the sound begins its audible life. The onset of a sound is its attack point where the stick hits the drum, the bow grabs the string, the finger presses the key, and so on. From a sound’s attack we… Continue reading
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Brett’s Sound Picks: Chad Lawsen’s “St. John Passion (Johannespassion), Bvw 245 (Bc D2)”
(This austere piano versioning of Bach reminds us that either we’re not reaching high enough or have momentarily forgot beauty’s reach.) (Follow Brett’s Sound Picks 2018 on Spotify.) Continue reading
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