Undermining Musicology & the Legacy of Barre Chords

So I don’t even know why, but I seem to have found myself beginning to read into some thesis & lectureal documents on alternative rock. Papers with names like Exploring modal subversions in alternative music (McDonald, 2000) and The Influence of Guitar Distortion on Harmonic Construction in Alternative Rock (Driesprong, 2011). I guess it’s fun to take everything you’ve learned whilst working on your Ph.D in music, and try to apply it to music that wasn’t written by people with Ph.Ds, but the results probably won’t be, um, good.

If I Were A Rich Man [MP3], and the Epiphany

What a day. My house is both spotless & dreadfully quiet right now, and I am exhausted. I dropped my iPod this afternoon, and now when I turn it on, it greets me with a frowny face and a URL for Apple Support. Oh Apple, how cheeky.

I have a new recording to share. I actually finished it late last night, but a strange thing happened before I had a chance to write it up & post it. You see, we had a really wet snow last night. And when I went to fold my laundry, I found that a portion of that awesome wetness was dripping in through my exterior wall into my bedroom. Needless to say my attention was required until the wee hours of the morning, and I slept on the couch. Likewise, today was spent rendering my home impeccable such that I might host representatives of the condominium management company for review about what to do. But I digress.

Lesson II – Gregory & the Hawk – Hemiola Finger Picking

Oh hai, and welcome to another exciting episode of Let’s Write. Today’s expository comes to us from college radio, which has fortuitously introduced me to a wonderful young lady by the name of Meredith Godreau, and her project, Gregory & the Hawk. She, and Iron & Wine, have got me finger picking, and now you get to reap the benefits of my blisters. 

Next Level Sweep Picking

Well, it’s damn early in the morning, so it must be the perfect time to reflect on the wonder that is all around us known as music. If only to interrupt terrible dreams about climbing the Great Wall of France. Who knew they had a Great Wall in France? And that it has a tram? Must be close to EuroDisney.

So yesterday I was driving home from work listening to the local jazz station when I had an epiphany. This epiphany was facilitated by a weekend spent under the influence of the flu, with nothing else to do but lie in bed and sweep pick. And because this is an epiphany that I have never seen anywhere in any magazine, web post, lesson, video, etc, I am forced to accept that perhaps this might not be part of the public lexicon for sweep picking. But it’s soooooo easy. 

Thinking in Intervals

Do you think in intervals, or in notes?

When I first started getting into music, I only thought in notes. I only memorized notes, and scale shapes. I used to have sheets and sheets of notes from songs I figured out. I understood what intervals were, but I didn’t think in intervals. I didn’t care. 

Phone Purchases and Decoding Music

So I was at my office humming a tune during a break in my ever hectic schedule the other day, and it occurred to me that I needed some sort of portable musical instrument to decode the melody of the tune I was humming. Both to sate my own curiosity for this particular tune, and with the further intent of being able to unlock any tune, anywhere. Sentence fragment.

Up until the dawn of the smartphone age, your options were a harmonica, and a Stylophone. Maybe a pan flute too. For those of you not familiar with a Stylophone, it is a 1960′s-era touch-sensitive synthesizer. You played it with a plastic stick.

It is my understanding that Stylophones aren’t too available these days, and unfortunately harmonicas & pan flutes don’t come with headphone jacks. 

Deconstruction, Reconstruction, and the Legacy of Barre Chords

I am shopping for a new guitar.

While I was at the guitar store, a nice young gentlemen asked me to help him and his son pick out an amplifier. By plugging in. I asked the son what kind of music he intended to play, and he said “Sum 41“, so I immediately thought to play Linoleum by NOFX. Unfortunately, I didn’t know how to play it.

So I learned it. 

Misdirection, Pulse, and Polyrhythms II

So I got the chance to listen to Ion Dissonance‘s new song You People Are Messed Up today, and it reminded me that I hadn’t posted the rest of my musings on misdirection. If you haven’t read the previous posting, in summary misdirection is a great way to make your songwriting more interesting and therefore more appealing to the listener.

And if you don’t listen to