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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Write It Tight: Tips for Writing More Successful Notation
Your charts say a lot about you and your music. Make sure your players understand your vision with clear notation that helps everyone sound their best.
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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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How ‘Hamilton’ Put the Music Back at the Center of the Musical
It’s been dissected as a runaway commercial success. It’s been analyzed as an incisive commentary on current race relations. It’s even, at times, received its due as an example of complex poetry in rap. But, rather counterintuitively, relatively few trained musicians have talked about this Broadway hit as pure music in and of itself. Leaving the…
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The Statistical Analysis of the 70 Most Popular Disney Songs You’ve Always Wanted
+ 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. Have you ever wondered if there was some kind of magical formula to all those memorable Disney movie songs you grew up with? I always did, because they…
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Why the Gorillaz’ “5/4” Isn’t Actually in 5/4
+ 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. If a music lover happens to be a fan of both technically complex music, and popular genres like rap, electro, hip-hop, and dance EDM, then the Gorillaz’ 2001…
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Funk School: Breaking Down the i-IV Tritone Flip in “Uptown Funk”
“Perfect – fourth / Perfect – fourth / Tri – tone / Tri – tone” “Perfect – fourth / Perfect – fourth / Tri – tone / Tri – tone” Can you hear it in your head? If you did, you’re funky enough — go do something else, smarty. If not, feel free to help me…
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Who Needs Triads? The Magic of Intervals in Justin Bieber’s “Love Yourself”
+ 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. “Less is more! Einstein proved it! Less is more! Einstein proved it!” my old boss, Dave, used to say on repeat. This was at the pizzeria I…
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4 Tips to Help You Start Writing in Irregular Time Signatures
With Soundfly Mainstage, you’ll get personalized mentor support and feedback on your work over a six-week course session, whether you’re looking to write music for a string quartet, improve your understanding of composition, or insert more climactic emotion into your harmony, and more! Introducing irregular time signatures into your compositional practice can be a liberating…
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Music Theory Breakdown: Kanye West’s “Ultralight Beam”
The first song on Kanye West’s The Life of Pablo album, and my favorite so far, is the beautiful, gospel-saturated “Ultralight Beam.” The song uses only four chords, but they’re an interesting four: C minor, E♭ major, A♭ major, and G7. To find out why they sound so good together, let’s do a little music theory. “Ultralight Beam” is…
