Tag: harmonic content

  • Talking Points: Caterina Barbieri Explains Her Psychoacoustic Approach to Music

    Talking Points: Caterina Barbieri Explains Her Psychoacoustic Approach to Music

    In this edition of “Talking Points,” Berlin-based electronic artist Caterina Barbieri explains her psychoacoustic approach to making machine music.

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  • How Blood Orange Uses Chasms of Harmonic Ambiguity on “Negro Swan”

    How Blood Orange Uses Chasms of Harmonic Ambiguity on “Negro Swan”

    + Bridge the worlds of theory, improvisation, and jazzy hip-hop, and improve your piano chops with Grammy-winner Kiefer in his course, Kiefer: Keys, Chords, & Beats. When it comes to music, balancing invention and convention is like baking the perfect cake. Artists that deviate too far from an already established sound run the risk of becoming…

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  • Why Ariana Grande’s “no tears left to cry” Is So Uplifting, Even in a Minor Key

    Why Ariana Grande’s “no tears left to cry” Is So Uplifting, Even in a Minor Key

    + 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. Last week I had the distinct pleasure of sitting down with super-knowledgeable music theory super-nerds Dean Olivet and K Marie Kim, and picking their brains about a…

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  • One Chord to Rule Them All

    One Chord to Rule Them All

    When Bob Marley toured New Zealand for the first and only time in 1979 (he died in 1981), I’d never heard music like it. His visit was so significant that he was a lead item on the nation’s main TV channel’s prime time news. He left a significant impression on our own musical culture, from…

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  • What Are Chord Pizzas?

    What Are Chord Pizzas?

    + 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. This article originally appeared on Ethan Hein’s blog. The Groove Pizza uses geometry to help visualize rhythms. The NYU MusEDLab (who we partnered with to create our free Theory…

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  • John Coltrane and the Economy of the Blues

    John Coltrane and the Economy of the Blues

    Coltrane pioneered a new language in jazz harmony, rooted in some pretty basic blues progressions, but with his own added twist. Watch our video to explore!

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  • How to Orchestrate an Endless Rising Tone Effect

    How to Orchestrate an Endless Rising Tone Effect

    + 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. The “Shepard Tone,” also known as the “Shepard Scale” or “Shepard Illusion,” is an auditory illusion discovered by American cognitive scientist Roger Shepard in 1964. Shepard presented…

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  • How to Create Bigger Sounding Chords with Open-Voiced Sevenths (Like Björk)

    How to Create Bigger Sounding Chords with Open-Voiced Sevenths (Like Björk)

    In this article, we’re going to be exploring how to use different voicings of seventh chords to create progressions that sound bigger, wider, and more complex than your average pop chord structure. If you need a refresher on how to build a basic seventh chord, read this article or watch the video below. (For all you electronic…

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  • Can Descending Chords Ever Sound Happy?

    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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  • Philip Tagg’s Everyday Tonality

    Philip Tagg’s Everyday Tonality

    This article originally appeared on The Ethan Hein Blog. I complain a lot on my blog about the traditional teaching of music theory. Fortunately, a better alternative exists: Everyday Tonality by Philip Tagg. Don’t be put off by the DIY look of the website; the book is the single best explanation I know of for how harmony works across…

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