Tag: West Side Story

  • 10 of the Most Beautiful Concert Halls in the World

    10 of the Most Beautiful Concert Halls in the World

    Today we’re taking a look at 10 of the most beautiful, acoustically pristine, and historically significant concert halls in the world.

    Read more

  • A Closer Look at Leonard Bernstein’s Music in West Side Story

    A Closer Look at Leonard Bernstein’s Music in West Side Story

    In the above video (courtesy of our free course The West Side Story Companion created in partnership with Carnegie Hall), we dive deep into the score of the greatest American musical of all time. This video features insights from Grammy-winning conductor Marin Alsop about the harmonic, melodic, and rhythmic backbone of the piece’s musical score. In West Side Story, composer…

    Read more

  • Every Character Billy Joel Ever Played in His Music Videos

    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…

    Read more

  • The Four Ingredients That Made West Side Story Great

    The Four Ingredients That Made West Side Story Great

    In anticipation of Carnegie Hall’s upcoming production of West Side Story at the Knockdown Center in Queens, New York this weekend, we’ve been binge-watching anything and everything we can find about the well-loved musical and its creators on YouTube. Of course, it helps that we recently made a series of videos about the show for the aptly named course, The West…

    Read more

  • Nothing is Perfect: A Guide to Analyzing Musical Theater

    Nothing is Perfect: A Guide to Analyzing Musical Theater

    Musical theater nerds are nothing if not extreme. Some people shamelessly love The Music Man and hate Wicked with a fiery green passion. Some people are moved by the rock anthems of Spring Awakening and left cold by the soaring melodies of South Pacific. This enthusiasm for shows of such variety is wonderful, but some…

    Read more

  • Interval Cheat Sheet: Songs to Help You Remember Common Intervals

    Interval Cheat Sheet: Songs to Help You Remember Common Intervals

    [The above video and below post both cover ascending intervals. If you’re looking for help with descending intervals, check out our “Memorize Descending Intervals with This Handy Guide.”] Being able to recognize intervals in music is one of those classic hallmarks of being a pro. If you’re a singer, it means you can walk into an audition…

    Read more

  • 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…

    Read more

  • Announcing Our New West Side Story Course with Carnegie Hall

    Announcing Our New West Side Story Course with Carnegie Hall

    A few months ago, we heard that the good people over at Carnegie Hall would be celebrating their 125th anniversary this year with a very special project. The idea is to unite all of New York City around one theme — the song “Somewhere” from the timeless musical West Side Story. As big musical nerds, especially concerning 1950s hybrid musical/opera/gang-ballets,…

    Read more

RJD2: From Samples to Songs