Music and related topics
See also a discussion of our kickoff song. The course will have two components: weekly listening, reading and discussion assignments, and an ongoing public-facing writing project. You and your classmates will assemble a public-facing annotated playlist of key songs from across the 20th century. For the midterm, you will choose a song released between 1900 Continue reading "My 20th Century American…
Content warning: this post includes offensive imagery. One of my tasks for the next two weeks is to put together my syllabus for NYU’s new music history class on 20th century American popular music. To start the semester off, I wanted to find a song that spans many styles and eras, and that lays the thematic foundation Continue reading "I decided what song I m going to start my History of 20th…
Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens by Dr. Ethan Hein Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens Read on Substack Last week I was at the International Society for Music Education conference, which is by a wide margin the biggest academic conference I have ever been to. I presented about teaching pop music theory Continue reading "My Favorite Things update"
I did two more podcast episodes about odd meter, about septuple and nonuple respectively, enjoy. Seven mysteries by Dr. Ethan Hein Read on Substack Nine he gave to mortal men, proud and great, and so ensnared them by Dr. Ethan Hein Read on Substack This is going to be it for odd meters, unless there s Continue reading "Seven and Nine"
Even before I posted this one, I started getting suggestions for songs in 5/4, and a few in 10/4. I m sorry if I didn t mention your favorite, this isn t meant to be exhaustive, it s just some representative examples that I find interesting or personally significant. Take Five by Dr. Ethan Hein The meanings of quintuple Continue reading "Take Five"
I am teaching two new NYU classes this fall. One of them is History of 20th Century American Popular Music, which I wrote about recently. The other is Pop Music Analysis for Non-Majors. I enjoy teaching new classes, even though they require a lot more work than teaching an existing class. The history class takes Continue reading "Teaching Pop Music Analysis for Non-Majors"
The album Coltrane’s Sound begins explosively. There’s a single-note saxophone pickup, and then bang, straight into the full band playing a big, bright latin tune. A few seconds in, the feel changes to swing, then back to latin. Sometimes the chords are pedaled, floating and modal; other times they seem like regular functional circle-of-fifths changes, Continue reading "The Night Has a Thousand…
In the fall, I’m teaching a new music history class at NYU on 20th century American popular music. This is not a history of rock. When the department says “20th century”, they mean the entire 20th century. We don’t get to Elvis until after the midterm. The most difficult part is going to be the Continue reading "Teaching the history of 20th century American popular music"
Improvisation is the easiest and the hardest thing in music. Little kids do it effortlessly, while world-class performers and composers find it terrifying. I am a confident improvisor, but it took me a few decades to get here. Now I’m teaching classrooms full of undergrads to do it, which means coming up with more of Continue reading "How to learn to jam"
Most of the music I write about ranges from well known to iconic. I am not one of these people who takes pleasure in knowing about obscurities that other people don’t. However, I do have one intense fandom for a couple of guys who you are likely not to have heard of: Tim Eriksen and Continue reading "More people should be listening to Tim Eriksen and Peter Irvine"