One week left to register for Songwriters Lab

This summer I am teaching my first songwriting class open to the general public with the good people at Synthase. We are taking registrations for one more week, so if you want to sign up, now is the time! You don’t need any prior musical knowledge or ability, though if you have it, I can promise a challenging and horizon-broadening experience.

Here’s a conversation I had with Hujian Ling about the class and my general philosophy of songwriting.

I hope that this is the first of many such classes!

Circle of Fifths sequences on the pod (also me singing)

This is a seemingly dry music theory topic, but it gave me an excuse to sing “You Never Give Me Your Money” and “Fly Me To The Moon” over the instrumental to “I Will Survive”. Should I sing more on the podcast?

Chord progressions on the circle of fifths part one by Ethan Hein

The harmonic sequence that unites JS Bach and Gloria Gaynor

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F-sharp, G-flat, and the mysteries of just intonation

This is a favorite topic of mine, and people on the internet are surprisingly receptive to learning about it. This is another one where the podcast format suits the material well, because being able to splice together verbal explanation of the music with the music itself is so easy and straightforward. It’s making me want to revisit some earlier episodes and edit some more musical examples in there. Every time I mention a note, that note should be there!

Why are F-sharp and G-flat two different notes? by Ethan Hein

Let’s get even deeper into the weeds with tuning!

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Listening to the Well-Tempered Clavier in actual well temperament

I tried this already as a YouTube video and a blog post, but I don’t think I did a good job explaining what was going on in each tuning system. This is because I didn’t really understand the tuning systems myself. I have been filling gaps in my knowledge and refining my examples, and the podcast version reflects that. My spiel could be refined further, but I’ve already decided that this first batch of episodes are rough drafts, and I’ll redo them all at some point. Anyway, hope you find this enlightening.

What does The Well-Tempered Clavier sound like in actual well temperament? by Ethan Hein

TL;DR very different than it does in twelve-tone equal temperament and in my opinion way cooler

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William Orbit’s polymetric groove in an All Saints song

MusicRadar asked me to write about “Pure Shores” by All Saints”, which I guess was a bigger deal in the UK than it was here, because I had never heard of it. Nice track though.

I had definitely heard of the producer, William Orbit, who made Ray of Light with Madonna. The coolest thing in “Pure Shores” is the polymetric organ riff, every three sixteenth notes. It gave me the excuse to talk about three vs four polymeter as a foundational concept in groove-based music generally.

Watermelon Man on the podcast

I continue to work through the greatest hits of my classroom practice. It’s fun and easy making episodes using material that I have presented many times in many contexts, informed by student discussions. Eventually I will run out of this stuff and my pace will slow down significantly, but for now, the episodes are pretty much producing themselves.

Watermelon Man by Ethan Hein

Jazz, Latin, R&B, funk, and the complexities of cultural appropriation

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I am not, myself, much of a podcast listener because I would almost rather just read (or listen to the screen reader on my phone.) However, music is a good subject for podcasting, because it’s nice to have the examples right there with the surrounding discussion.

The name of this tune is The Funky Drummer

I have written about the Funky Drummer break several times here before, but this podcast episode is my best explanation of it. The main thing that’s new is the connection between this break and Afro-Latin tresillo patterns. I also programmed a bunch of variations on the groove for comparison purposes.

The name of this tune is The Funky Drummer by Ethan Hein

The Funky Drummer… The Funky Drummer… The Funky Drummer… The Funky Drummer

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Check out this beautiful EP by one of my former songwriting students

Savelle was in my Song Factory class at the New School, and she just released her first EP. I could not be more excited for her, and I really dig these songs.

My favorite of the three is the bluesy opener, “Company.” I take no credit for any of this. Savelle came into class as a fully-formed musical persona. All I and her peers did was offer her encouragement and feedback (mostly “wow, that was beautiful.”) She did tell me that she found it helpful having to work outside her stylistic comfort zone, especially when she had to write a fun, upbeat pop song. Anyway, I don’t think anyone needs to publicly release music to get a benefit from songwriting, but when my students do, I am always happy for them. And it helps when the songs are this well-written and well-performed.

Podcast episode on swing

Here’s a subject that I tried hard to explain using songs, without apparent success. Maybe the podcast format will work better.

It don’t mean a thing if it ain’t got that swing by Ethan Hein

But what actually is swing?

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Podcast episode on blue notes

Here’s a subject I have written about a few times before, and it provoked a lot of debate in the comments and elsewhere. Let’s see how folks react to the audio version.

Are blue notes out of tune? by Ethan Hein

Or are they more in tune than the piano-key pitches are?

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