When Truman Touches the Wall
We break down the small yet significant harmonic effect that makes the climactic scene in The Truman Show break down all of our emotional barriers.
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Consonance Is Nice. Dissonance Is Delicious
A practical guide to using intervals to create a range of emotional effects, because despite what you’ve heard: dissonance is king.
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How to Use 7th Chords in 7 Minutes
Are 7th chords big scary harmonic monsters for you? Here, we go through how to build and use them in a chord progression step-by-step, in 7 minutes.
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How Do You Make an Audience Feel Nostalgic with Music?
Writing music for a show or film? Check out this beginner’s lesson on creating a sense of nostalgia in your music to fit the narrative.
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How to Add Bittersweet Emotion to Your Chords with 7ths
You might understand the construction of a chord or triad, but here’s how to make your music express the heartbreaking lilt of a seventh chord.
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The Flurry of Harmonic Surprises in Gnarls Barkley’s ‘Crazy’
+ The above video is taken from Soundfly’s course Unlocking the Emotional Power of Chords. Learn harmonic theory and maximize the emotional impact of your tracks. When “Crazy” hit in 2006, it seemingly came out of nowhere. CeeLo Green was known among hip-hop aficionados as a member of Goodie Mob. While the group had the heads’ respect, it didn’t always translate…
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Are There “Happy” Blue Notes? Well, Maybe…
Okay, so there’s no such thing as a “happy” blue note, I made that up. But if you’re curious as to why I did that, read on. To start, if you don’t know what a blue note is — or what the difference is between a “blue note” and a “blues scale note” — you should…
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The Basics of the Minor Pentatonic Scale for Guitar
By Kathy Dickson If you have been a guitarist for any length of time, you’ve no doubt heard about scales and how you need to know them. But let’s face it, the sheer number of scales to learn can be overwhelming. They smack of theory and are boring to play, right? In truth, scales are…
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Using Open Strings for New, Colorful Chords
If there’s one thing I’ve heard guitar students say over and over again, it’s that they love guitar and can’t wait to practice every single day of the week until they lose feeling in their fingers. But if there’s a second thing I’ve heard from guitar players, it’s that they feel trapped inside the patterns and…
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Interval Cheat Sheet: Songs to Help You Remember Common Intervals
[The above video and below post both cover ascending intervals. If you’re looking for help with descending intervals, check out our “Memorize Descending Intervals with This Handy Guide.”] Being able to recognize intervals in music is one of those classic hallmarks of being a pro. If you’re a singer, it means you can walk into an audition…
