brettworks

thinking through music

March 24, 2017

Arrows Of Attention II: 100 Not-But Conceptual Pairings

1. Not virtuosity, but attention. 2. Not new ideas, but remixing old ones. 3. Not novelty, but classic form. 4. Not a large gesture, but a small one that sits comfortably under the hands. 5. Not saying too much, but saying little. 6. Not adding, but subtracting. 7. Not free form, but logical. 8. Not… Continue reading

arrows of attention, Uncategorized
March 22, 2017

Curating The Week: Emmanuel Carrère, Yuval Noah Harari, And The Ed Sheeran-TLC Similarity

• An article on Emmanuel Carrère. “Carrère has managed to renovate the idea of what nonfiction writing can be. Profoundly intimate, historically and philosophically serious but able to cast compulsive narrative spells, Carrère’s books are hybrids, marrying deep reporting to scholarly explorations of theology, philosophy, psychology, personal history and historiography.” • An interview with Yuval Noah… Continue reading

Curating The Week, Uncategorized
March 20, 2017

Ventrilo-Dialogue: A Conversation Between Beats And Musical Time

B: MT, hello! MT: Hi there, Beats. What’s on your mind? B: I’m tired. MT: Why? B: Because I feel like I’ve been overused in music. I’m like, everywhere these days. MT: It’s kinda true. Certainly you’re in every pop song. And of course the EDM, boom-boom-boom-boom thing…Craziness. B: Exactly! It’s just getting to be… Continue reading

beats, musical time, Uncategorized, ventrilo-dialogue
March 17, 2017

Curating The Week: The Grit-Boredom-Creativity Matrix, Irv Teibel’s Soundscapes

• An interview on the subject of grit and creativity. “Maybe we shouldn’t use the word ‘discover.’ Your interests and your passion develop over time. I want to disabuse people of this mythology of ‘it happens to you and if you’re lucky, you find it, and then that’s all you have to do.’ That’s not… Continue reading

Uncategorized
March 10, 2017

More Than Subliminal: On Music In TV Commercials

I really loathe TV commercials. Whenever possible, I’ll watch recorded television (sports or shows about sports, cooking shows or shows about cooks, or are you ready to see your new house?! home improvement shows) and zoom through the ads on at least triple speed, preferably quadruple speed. At this point my wife turns to me,… Continue reading

music and advertising, Uncategorized
March 7, 2017

Curating The Week: Repetition and Writing, Brian Eno, Rock Music And White Nostalgia

• An article by George Saunders about the repetition of the writing process. “How, then, to proceed? My method is: I imagine a meter mounted in my forehead, with ‘P’ on this side (‘Positive’) and ‘N’ on this side (‘Negative’). I try to read what I’ve written uninflectedly, the way a first-time reader might (‘without… Continue reading

Curating The Week
March 3, 2017

Owning The Phenomenal World: Jeong Kwan On Creativity

“Creativity and ego cannot go together. If you free yourself from the comparing and jealous mind, your creativity opens up endlessly. Just as water springs from a fountain, creativity springs from every moment. You must not be your own obstacle. You must not be owned by the environment you are in. You must own… Continue reading

analogies, Creativity, mindfulness, phenomenology, synesthesia, Uncategorized
February 27, 2017

Curating The Week: The Neuroscience Of Rhythm, Rhythmical Line Drawings, Music & AI

• An article on the neuroscience of rhythm. “A team of neuroscientists has found that people are biased toward hearing and producing rhythms composed of simple integer ratios — for example, a series of four beats separated by equal time intervals (forming a 1:1:1 ratio). This holds true for musicians and nonmusicians living in the… Continue reading

Curating The Week, Uncategorized
February 22, 2017

Time Flying By: Notes On Dawn of Midi At The Park Avenue Armory

“Up close one may see only dots, but stand back and the undulating image is revealed.” – Dawn of Midi Last week I went to (finally) see Dawn of Midi perform at the Park Avenue Armory. The group is nominally a piano-bass-drums jazz trio, but the music they make on their debut album Dysnomia, is… Continue reading

acousticity, concert reviews, polyrhythm, Uncategorized
February 17, 2017

Piano and Metals Music

My new recording, Piano and Metals Music, is available on Spotify, iTunes, and CD Baby. It’s scored for piano, kalimba, Thai gong, and Tibetan finger cymbals. It was mastered by Alain Van Achte. Here is the first track: Continue reading

shameless plugs, Uncategorized

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.