Tag: kendrick lamar

  • Recognizing Jazz Idioms in Modern-Day Rhythms

    Recognizing Jazz Idioms in Modern-Day Rhythms

    By Emanuel Harrold As I go out and listen to new music on a daily basis, I can’t help but hear the nuances of jazz music in everyday moments. Sometimes, it’s the syncopation and spacing of sounds, other times, it’s the rhythms. And, sure, I’m a jazz drummer, so I’m biased, but it’s true that…

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  • Trap Rap Has Been Around for a Minute Now – So Why Does It Keep Working?

    Trap Rap Has Been Around for a Minute Now – So Why Does It Keep Working?

    + Learn the nuances of producing beats, arranging tracks, and creative sampling, drawing on the rich history and influence of hip-hop in Soundfly’s acclaimed online course, The Art of Hip-Hop Production.  If you walk down the street of any major city and open your ears to the cars driving by, there’s a good chance that the music roaring out…

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  • Where Have All the V Chords Gone? The Decline of ‘Functional’ Harmony in Pop

    Where Have All the V Chords Gone? The Decline of ‘Functional’ Harmony in Pop

    + 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…

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  • 8 Ways to Perform with a Backing Track (and Still Engage Your Audience)

    8 Ways to Perform with a Backing Track (and Still Engage Your Audience)

    If your onstage MO includes a backing track or other electronic support, follow these steps to still give a live performance your fans will love.

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  • Unsung: In Praise of Rap’s Studio Musicians

    Unsung: In Praise of Rap’s Studio Musicians

    Rappers used to say, “The real backbone of hip-hop is disc jocks.” Nowadays, though, the real backbone of hip-hop is ostensibly the virtuosic studio musicians dominating the most heralded releases of the past few years. In leaving their indelible marks on records by award-winning artists like Chance The Rapper and Kendrick Lamar, instrumentalists like Nico Segal (a.k.a. Donnie Trumpet), Robert…

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  • These Four Classic Covers Can Tell Us Everything About What Makes Great Album Art

    These Four Classic Covers Can Tell Us Everything About What Makes Great Album Art

    Four albums top my all-time favorite records list. They’re some of my favorite albums musically, but their impact and significance to me and other listeners run deeper than that. After spending so many cumulative hours engaging deeply with these works, I realized that these four great covers can teach us everything we need to know about…

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  • How Jazz Is Secretly Rewriting Its Own Future in Camouflage

    How Jazz Is Secretly Rewriting Its Own Future in Camouflage

    You may not have known this, but yesterday was International Jazz Day. Look around, and you’ll find a ton of jazz festivals happening right this moment worldwide — from Denton, Texas to Espoo, Finland, and not to mention New Orleans. On the surface, it might seem like jazz is doing just fine, chugging along and as…

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  • How Kendrick Lamar Achieves Mainstream Appeal with a Complex, Innovative Approach

    How Kendrick Lamar Achieves Mainstream Appeal with a Complex, Innovative Approach

    + Learn the nuances of producing beats, arranging tracks, and creative sampling, drawing on the rich history and influence of hip-hop in Soundfly’s acclaimed online course, The Art of Hip-Hop Production.  One of Kendrick Lamar’s greatest benedictions as an artist is his ability to connect, which, on the surface, seems strange, because his stories are so…

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  • President Obama’s Hit Playlist and Using Music to Cope with the Madness of Politics

    President Obama’s Hit Playlist and Using Music to Cope with the Madness of Politics

    For the last three months I’ve been doing something I rarely do: watching the news. Not only have I watched the news, but I’ve watched on a semi-regular basis. This is a huge step for someone who admittedly keeps abreast of world events through his Facebook timeline. However, after a self-imposed exile from mainstream television…

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  • 5 Times Artists Have Changed the World

    We often forget when we’re bobbing our head to a song we love or admiring some splash of color on a canvas, just how powerful art and music truly are. As one of the most profound expressions of humanity we’re capable of, art has the power to open minds, to encourage empathy, to breed understanding, to force questions…

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Elijah Fox at the piano