Welcome back to Soundfly’s weekly interview series, Incorrect Music, curated by guitarist, singer, and composer Lora-Faye Åshuvud (of the band Arthur Moon). In this series, we present intimate conversations with artists who are striving to push the boundaries of their process and craft. The multi-instrumentalist and composer Cale Hawkins has been steadily releasing a stream of unusual and elegant avant-pop…
Son Lux is a trio of versatile musicians comprised of vocalist, producer, and multi-instrumentalist, Ryan Lott, guitarist, Rafiq Bhatia, and drummer, Ian Chang. While all three make beautiful work on their own (Lott has scored films such as The Disappearance of Eleanor Rigby, Bhatia’s latest offering, Breaking English is coming in early April, and Chang’s 2017 EP, Spiritual Leader…
We polled members of the Soundfly staff and mentor community to ask about their go-to chords and progressions for certain emotional outcomes. Check it out!
Like thousands of other young music fans with a penchant for the delicate beauty born through the combination of musical genius and a great deal of misery, I obsessed over Elliott Smith’s music back in college, and was affected deeply by the news of his tragic and sudden suicide in 2003. Performed on Saturday Night Live in…
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.
New course announcement! Over the past few months, the most popular course on Soundfly has resoundingly been Ethan Hein’s Unlocking the Emotional Power of Chords. This 101-level harmonic theory course dives deep into the ways certain intervals and chord progressions tug at our heartstrings while others fall flat, providing the student with the newfound ability to…
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…
+ 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. So there I was, doing research on topics such as “summer 2017 songwriting trends,” when it hit me. You guys, this is getting ridiculous — where did…
Afrobeat is as eclectic as it is mesmerizing. Its roots stem from a few different areas geographically, socially, and musically. Genres such as jazz and funk, which were defined and carved out by black Americans who came of age during the Civil Rights Movement, helped contribute to its improvised foundation and its generally elastic nature.…
By Mike Casey Raise your hand if you’ve heard this cliché before: “Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” Well, as cheesy as that sounds, I happen to believe it’s right on the money. After all, advanced musical devices, concepts, and patterns are usually just a slew of basic fundamentals stacked on top of one another, inverted,…
