“Enemy” Creates Desire — “Bruno” Fulfills It
What’s the difference between Imagine Dragons’ “Enemy” and Encanto’s “Bruno”? Not much! But music theory holds the answer…
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3 Scale Modes That Will Deepen the Emotions of Your Pop Song
If you’re looking to impart a sinister, mysterious, bittersweet, or jazzy quality into your songwriting, do it using scale modes! Here’s how.
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Exploring Tonal Hierarchies in Whitney Houston’s “I Wanna Dance with Somebody”
In his ongoing attempts to seek out the answers to why we like the music we like, Hunter Farris has uncovered a melodic hierarchy via Whitney Houston.
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We Analyzed Every Dang Song That Cracked the Billboard Top 5 in 2018
Welcome back, pop music scholars, and Look Alive… because we did it again. That’s right — we sent an even Better Now, out-of-this-WRLD probe past all the FEFE’s and ZEZE’s that were Meant to Be in the Top 5 of 2018’s Billboard Hot 100 charts, and what we got back was a tally of data and stats […]
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3 Atonal Techniques for Adventurous Songwriters
Inspired by Arnold Schoenberg and the Second Viennese School, here are three ways to use atonal composition techniques in your pop music-making!
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Why Ariana Grande’s “no tears left to cry” Is So Uplifting, Even in a Minor Key
+ 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. Last week I had the distinct pleasure of sitting down with super-knowledgeable music theory super-nerds Dean Olivet and K Marie Kim, and picking their brains about a […]
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Lots and Lots of Colored Dots: A Fretboard Explanation of Pop Tonality
Using the guitar fretboard as a template, music theorist Dean Olivet has redesigned harmonic notation in a colorful, intuitive methodology for learning.
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Ten Essential Pieces of Advice for Composers
Stuck in a creative compositional rut? Struggling to think outside the box musically? Here are ten essential tips to help you write something extraordinary!
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Get Ur Phryg On! Demystifying Timbaland and Missy Elliott’s Famous Beat
Why is the beat to Missy Elliott’s “Get Ur Freak On” so infectious? Maybe it has something to do with the mysterious Phrygian scale mode it’s written in…
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How to Convey These 8 Emotions Using Chords and Harmony
We polled members of the Soundfly staff and mentor community to ask about their go-to chords and progressions for certain emotional outcomes. Check it out!
