What Songs Were Defined by Their Solos?
That’s the question we’re asking, answering, and passing along in Episode 11 of our podcast, “Themes and Variation” with Kirk Hamilton.
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On This Day in 1971, Pink Floyd Received a Bill for Thousands of Dead Fish
Today marks the anniversary of an outdoor concert to remember — one that proved deadly for thousands of pond-dwelling fish. Read to learn more.
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Seven Beats to Heaven: Our 10 Favorite Songs in 7/4 and 7/8
Here are our 10 favorite songs written in the time signatures of 7/4 and 7/8. Check out what makes them tick and hopefully they’ll give you some ideas!
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Philip Tagg’s Everyday Tonality
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…
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Every Character Billy Joel Ever Played in His Music Videos
+ 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. I’m one of those people you look at and think, there’s no way that guy listens to Billy Joel. I even look at myself and imagine a person…
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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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12 Essential Guitar Pedals for Your 2016 Holiday Wish List
Happy holidays, dear Flypaper readers and Soundfly students! If you’re anything like me, that is, a chronically dissatisfied gear nerd, this is the time of year when many manufacturers and distributers offer great deals on their products, upon which we must pounce like the bargain-savvy consumers that we are. Heck, it’s our right as Americans! This year,…
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Uncovering the Jazz Influence in Pop, Rock, and Hip-Hop Classics
+ Bridge the worlds of theory, improvisation, and jazzy hip-hop, and improve your piano chops with Grammy-winner Kiefer in his course, Kiefer: Keys, Chords, & Beats. Jazz music is daunting to wrap one’s ears around. It is safe to say most Americans have a complicated relationship with one of our oldest art forms. Jazz is chronically…
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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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Finding Your Ideal Guitar Tone: Guitar Pedals
There isn’t a single guitarist who can possibly keep track of all the different pedals that are on the market today. With hundreds of boutique companies surfacing just in the last ten years, we know that the challenge isn’t finding cool pedals, but figuring out which ones are right for us, so let’s break down…
