Here at Soundfly HQ, we’re always sharing new music with each other. But this year was so full of distractions — losing so many of our musical heroes, saying goodbye to arguably our most musical president, the music and media worlds being swept up in the madness of the election — that it’s been easy to forget about…
In most ensembles, a combination of drums, bass, guitar, percussion, and keys make up the rhythm section, which provides the rhythmic and harmonic direction of the band. Particularly for bass and drums, one of the most challenging things to understand is how to interact with each other to make music that achieves something specific. When…
The New York and Stavanger, Norway-based contemporary artist Cory Arcangel is widely known and respected for his use of hacked technology such as video games and software to produce thought-provoking, beautiful artwork across a range of media. His largely absurdist oeuvre explores technology from a number of theoretical angles and offers commentary on cultures that…
A canon (or round) is a single melody line that provides a counterpoint to itself. Canons can, at times, feel lighthearted and happy go lucky (“Row, Row, Row Your Boat” or “Frere Jacques” for example), but even the simplest sounding pieces require careful attention and are difficult to craft well, especially where more than two voices are…
Compared to most instruments, the modern guitar is a relatively new instrument. While classical instruments like piano, brass, and woodwinds all have hundreds of years of pedagogy behind them, the language of guitar music and how we learn to play is new and constantly changing. Today, we can find chords to any song on the internet…
+ 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. Welcome back to our new series on Flypaper, Album Histories Monthly, which brings you the story of a single album each month, in the month that it was originally released.…
+ 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. Oblique Strategies (subtitled: Over One Hundred Worthwhile Dilemmas) is a deck of cards developed by artists Peter Schmidt and Brian Eno as a series of ideas to help break…
Here at Soundfly, we’ve set out to create the most effective learning model possible. Sometimes that means going against what everyone else is doing.
+ 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. For audiophiles, there’s nothing quite like unwrapping the packaging after purchasing new vinyl, setting the record down onto the turntable, carefully placing the stylus at its outer edge,…
Tons of things can make a great music video. Epic drama, quirky graphics and animation, innovative camera techniques and coloring, elements of humor and even horror; these have all produced some memorable videos. But I’d like to talk about the most innately human, natural thing music makes us do — dance. However, watching people just dance,…
*Editor’s Note: I interviewed Bernie Krause for BESIDE Magazine’s second issue exactly a year ago, and it has become dramatically evident that a lot has changed since we last spoke. In preparing for this repost, we contacted Krause to request his permission to run this piece and his response floored us, sending uncontrollable tears down my face…
Honoring the great 19th century French symphonic composer who still to this day, hasn’t gotten her fair share of acclaim.
Songwriters and producers, ready to get jazzy? Here’s an introductory guide to building and using jazz chords in pop music!
Another exclusive video lesson from Soundfly’s Intro to Scoring for Film & TV course, this one on the creative composing power of leitmotif.
We invited master French ondist Christine Ott to talk about her beloved instrument through 7 of her favorite pieces written for it.
Almost 20 years later, Thomas Newman’s score to “American Beauty” still enchants us with its refreshing approach and seductive sonics. Here’s why.
When you enter a Tibetan shrine, you see objects lit by the flicker of candles, hear the sounds of chanting, and inhale the smell of incense. We are trained to look at art, but these objects have lives and relationships with humans that are contingent on all of our senses. In a museum we typically prioritize…
This is part 1 of a series on how to write a musical. If you can’t wait to start writing, jump forward to the purpose of the music or how to select song posts! A few weeks ago, I had drinks with a buddy of mine who’s writing a musical about an undercooked piece of pasta named Al Dente. He’s…
You’ve likely come across one of these terms, but which was it? We had no idea they were all different until now… Learn more here!
A dramatic slice of musical history that touches on counterpoint wars and private dabbles in alchemy, the Bitcoin of the 18th century.
Today we take a look at 10 essential scores that changed the game for what roles and responsibilities composers take to bring a film to life.
Underscore and sound design can serve a variety of different purposes in film and TV, here are a plethora of scene music function examples.
From natural sounds to mechanical devices, many unusual things have been incorporated into musical scores by daring composers. Here are 5.
In this exclusive video lesson, we attempt the impossible: to (briefishly) sum up the entire history of musical scoring in the film industry.
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.
