What Songs Are Gateways Into Enjoying Jazz?
Ep. 30 of Themes and Variation features Peter Martin, jazz pianist and composer, educator, and founder of the e-learning site, Open Studio.
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The Birth of the Unjazz
Modern songwriters, producers and artists are reinventing the way jazz idioms and foundations are applied in modern pop. Let’s break it down!
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What Songs Have Taken You on an Emotional Journey?
For this special Episode 26 of “Themes and Variation,” we sit down with songwriter Max Swan about his favorite wildly emotional songs.
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What Are Your Favorite Sample Fodder Songs?
For this special Episode 25 of “Themes and Variation,” we chat with RJD2 about sampling, song idea fodder, and his new course on Soundfly!
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Did Lorde Rip Off George Michael?
Thoughts on Lorde’s new single, a familiar ’50s rock groove, and the hyper-litigious state of the music industry’s copyright law.
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How The Weeknd’s “Blinding Lights” Takes Beethoven’s Ideas to #1
In this analysis, pop music theorist Ben Morss shows how The Weeknd’s “Blinding Lights” is built from four-note scale segments.
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How to Use Borrowed Chords
A handy guide for using borrowed chords in parallel scales and modes, to make your chord progressions more refreshing and unpredictable.
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How D’Angelo Uses Funky Dominant Sevenths in “Sugah Daddy”
In this short analysis, we break down the source of D’Angelo’s funky sound, his impeccable use of dominant sevenths in spread voicings.
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A Harmonic Analysis of Radiohead’s “Weird Fishes/Arpeggi”
Let’s revisit one of Radiohead’s most propulsive and intricately layered songs, to deconstruct all the elements at play and how they function.
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How Secondary Dominants Can Make Your Chord Progressions Less Boring
It’s not hard to break out of predictable chord patterns with a new mindset on harmony, and a bit of easy help from secondary dominants, too.
