This blog post describes the earliest efforts to notate music in medieval Western Europe. It explores the pressures that lead to the emergence of standard musical notation, and it analyzes the inchoate forms that marked the progress of the system. Important figures like Boethius (c. 477 – 524) and Guido of Arezzo ((992 – 1033) are covered.
This blog post explores Gregorian chant and the psalms and hymns that comprise the Roman liturgy. It also describes variants of chant that evolved later in the tradition's history like tropes, sequences, and liturgical dramas.
This blog post describes the fall of the Roman Empire and the music that emerged as a consequence of that fall. It analyzes the musical habits of early Christians, and it inspects the early stages of Gregorian chant. Political and societal influences are considered for context and scope.
This blog post summarizes the events that lead to the birth of jazz. It covers the European and African traditions that conspired to create this style, and it inspects the important figures who contributed to its development.
This blog post covers humanity's earliest musical efforts. It begins with artifacts found in caves, and it ends with the music of ancient Greece and Rome. Along the way it covers Mesopotamian music, ancient musical philosophy, and the earliest efforts to notate.
This blog post explores the topic of improvisation. It analyzes a chord-centered method for composing on the fly, and it introduces a strategy for organizing the guitar fret-board known as the CAGED system.
Introduction This blog post covers the practice of putting bread into musicians' jars. The first part is my opinion on gratuity. It explores when I think tipping is recommended, when I think it's not, and when I think it's obligatory. The second part is my consideration on the psychology of tipping. It explores tipping behavior through the lens of reciprocity. As always,... Continue Reading →
Audio Blog: Introduction Self-doubt, like an invasive plant species, has the habit of taking over the wilderness of one's thoughts. This is especially true when considering professional choices. For this month's blog post, I imagined a conversation between two versions of myself: Me and Other Me. In the post, "we" take turns telling autobiographical stories about doubt... Continue Reading →
Adding an additional note to a triad (chord) creates a tetrad. This additional note can alter the flavor of a triad in surprising and interesting ways. The most common tetrad is the seventh chord. There are eight different kinds of seventh chords, each displayed below. I have provided formulaic explanations and three examples (fretboard diagrams) for... Continue Reading →
This month’s blog post is about my recent experience playing in a pit band. The gig, lasting a month, consisted of twenty-one rehearsal and eighteen performances over the course of two musicals: Alice In Wonderland and All Shook Up. For the first musical, Alice In Wonderland, I worked right from the piano-conductor score by making a harmonic... Continue Reading →
Chasing the Chords 