Can Descending Chords Ever Sound Happy?
Descending melodies and progressions often sound sad, but one of the most resoundingly happy songs ever, Jackson 5’s “I Want You Back” begs to differ.
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A Harmonic Analysis of Michael Jackson’s Protest Song “They Don’t Care About Us”
Through means of Dancehall rhythms, modal interchange, and ostinato, Michael Jackson gives us glimpses of Black American heritage in his protest song.
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What We Learned from ‘Composers or Types of Pasta’
Thanks to a hilarious internet quiz, we’ve discovered works from 8 spectacular Italian composers that we definitely thought were types of pasta.
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Why Producers Need to Learn to Analyze Common Pop Song Structures
As a producer, it’s essential to have a knack for songwriting structures and forms so your music doesn’t feel aimless.
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Rehearsing Sucks… Or Does It? How to Make Practice the Best Part of Your Day
Here are some new tips for getting the most out of your practice sessions, and inserting a bit of fun and creativity where there may otherwise be stress.
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The Amen Break of Snobbery
Which obscure piece from the classical music canon has become so engrained and intertwined with cinematic snobbery that we’d all recognize it within seconds?
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Groundhog Day: How Theme and Variation Connects the Music to the Drama
In this article, we explore how the score music to Groundhog Day uses theme and variation to reflect elements of repetition, cycling, and resolution.
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The Top 5 Ways to Keep Music Students Engaged in their Online Learning Experience
Five helpful suggestions for effective learning and teaching music online techniques from the CEO and Founder of Notetracks.
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Getting Past Our Single Word Descriptors
Our new active learning column is intended to assist, inspire, and offer a peek into the types of discussions we have behind-the-scenes here at Soundfly HQ.
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4 Ways Electronic Music Can Be Used in Music Education
This post highlights some ways that electronic music can be brought into the classroom to help students explore new creative territories.
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What Are Your Favorite Rainy Day Songs?
For Episode 22 of “Themes and Variation,” we’re joined by musician Euan Gray to gab about our favorite songs for a rainy day!
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Why Improvisation Should Be Part of Every Young Musician’s Training
Based on neuroscience research, improvisation can deactivate the self-judgment in your brain, and help you engage more creatively with music.
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10 Films and TV Shows With Distinctive Sonic Worlds
These days, scoring for film and TV is as much about the sound palette a composer uses as it is about the music itself. Here are 10 examples.
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5 of the Most Unusual “Instruments” Used in Musical Scores
From natural sounds to mechanical devices, many unusual things have been incorporated into musical scores by daring composers. Here are 5.
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A Beginner’s Guide to Morton Feldman — an Intimate Encounter with Sound
+ Welcome to Soundfly! We help curious musicians meet their goals with creative online courses. Whatever you want to learn, whenever you need to learn it. Subscribe now to start learning on the ’Fly. By Soundfly Mentor Tim Maryon A student of mine recently said that they’d never been given the chance to “get into” famed American composer Morton…
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3 Atonal Techniques for Adventurous Songwriters
Inspired by Arnold Schoenberg and the Second Viennese School, here are three ways to use atonal composition techniques in your pop music-making!
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A Beginner’s Guide to Chords and Modal Interchange
Making chords from the scale you’re in is fine, but borrowing notes and bringing them in from other scales and modes, now that’s fun!
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What Is a Leading Tone?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m85qyA4Xekw + Welcome to Soundfly! We help curious musicians meet their goals with creative online courses. Whatever you want to learn, whenever you need to learn it. Subscribe now to start learning on the ’Fly. In the above video, courtesy of Soundfly’s very popular online course, Unlocking the Emotional Power of Chords, NYU and Montclair State University adjunct professor of music technology,…
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Sounds of the Future: A Historical Primer on Synths in Sci-Fi Movies
We live in the most exciting time one could possibly hope to be alive. Every day, new aspects of our earthly existence are being discovered, advanced, and technologically exploited to further improve our experience of reality on this planet and in this universe we humbly occupy. Yet, despite these fascinating daily occurrences, we still love…
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Orchestral Works for Children’s Education: Britten, Prokofiev, and Saint-Saëns
+ Pursue your dreams faster with a Soundfly Mentor! Share your musical goals with us and we’ll pair you up with a professional musician, engineer, educator, or music industry veteran who will help you achieve them in a customized four-week session. Inventive, exciting music plus an educational angle? Now that’s a Soundfly super combo! Here’s a topic we’ve wanted to…
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Off Notes: The Weird and Wonderful
Happy Friday! We here at Soundfly HQ have been swamped getting ready for Monday when we’ll be (drumroll, please) LAUNCHING THREE NEW COURSES!!! Huzzah! Fortunately, our friends weren’t going to let us get through the week without seeing all the weird and wonderful things the internet had to offer. And without a doubt, this week turned…
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Off Notes: Live from Japan
Happy Friday! This week’s edition of Off Notes is coming to you from Japan, where the masterminds behind Soundfly’s “Touring on a Shoestring” course have booked a tour of their very own (and where this Soundflyer tagged along in search of weird and wonderful goodies to spice up your Friday afternoon!). So read on for a (mostly) Asian-inspired…
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Elliott Sharp’s Essential Guide to Being Elliott Sharp
By Elliott Sharp Editor’s note: For many years, I’ve been challenged and inspired by the work of Elliott Sharp, who has etched a place as one of America’s most dynamic modern composers. He’s hard to pin down both musically and literally, since he regularly travels the world for performance, recording, commissions, and likely a bit…
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What the Heck Is a Shruti Box?
The shruti box’s warm, textural drone can be used as a backing track for soloing instrumentalists, accompaniment to throat singers, or as an iPhone app!
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What the Heck Is a Shakuhachi?
Like many historically significant Japanese things (Zen Buddhism, character writing, the kimono, temple architecture), the shakuhachi originated in China. And while, like the parenthetically aforementioned items on this list, the shakuhachi can claim Chinese origin, over the course of its history, it has diverged and evolved quite differently from its Chinese relative, the xiao. The shakuhachi is an…
