The Altered Scale: The One That Breaks All the Rules.
This is the A1 barbecue sauce of all musical scale modes… (As in, it doesn’t go on everything but when it works, it REALLY adds some tang!)
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Is “If I Fell” The Beatles’ Hippest Pre-Revolver Tune?
What’s going on in this subtly sophisticated pop hit? Turns out… a lot! Let’s break down this romantic ballad off of “A Hard Day’s Night.”
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THIS Is the Most Defiant Song of All-Time.
Did Rage Against the Machine use EVERY. SINGLE. NOTE in the scale in their iconic 90s protest song, “Killing in the Name”? Let’s take a look!
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Watch 10 of Our Favorite Free Videos on Our YouTube Channel Right Now
Watch 10 of our all-time favorite free videos, culled from our courses, courtesy of weekly growing our YouTube channel.
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What Does “Diatonic” Actually Mean?
Are all major and minor scales diatonic? Did Pythagoras invent chromaticism? What’s up and what’s down with diatonicism… Find out here!
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Crying in the Club: Songs Within Songs and Intertextuality in Pop Music
A lengthy, in-depth look at the self-referential nature of pop music and what that means for legality and creativity in music.
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A Beginner’s Guide to Using Dissonance for a Bigger, More Joyful Resolution
New to songwriting? It always helps to create pull for your listener using harmony. Here are some chord options for resolving tension!
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Why Joker’s Score Makes It a Prequel
An analysis of how Hildur Guðnadóttir’s score for Joker helps anchor the narrative and characters in both their story and their timeline.
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Isn’t It Iconic? (Nirvana, That Is.)
What happens when a computer decides what makes popular songs formulaic versus iconic? Total controversy. But let’s take a deeper look…
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Thundercat Chord Theory
In this post, courtesy of Reverb Machine’s Dan Carr, we break down the chord progressions of Thundercat’s most beloved jazz-inspired songs.
