Levels of musical genius

I often think about what kind of unique musical talent some performer I enjoy possesses. A few examples:

  • J-Dilla was at the center of many groups doing amazing things creating an exciting moment in time, but at the same time was a master composer himself
  • Prince or Quincy Jones were often running multiple performers and groups, serving as sort of the well from which their respective musical ideas came from
  • Tom Petty isn't particularly gifted technically and doesn't write ground-breaking songs but is very, very good at working within a specific form and genre, one of the best in that space
  • Jimmy Page is not musically the best or most innovative, but very adept at the style he created for himself, is technically a good guitarist
  • Pete Townsend holds a group together, is the glue that leads a group of virtuosos, somehow the master creator and craftsperson who runs the group with a solid hand without making it all about him
  • Brian Wilson plays a whole ensemble, a studio as an instrument, micromanaging every detail to produce a sublime musical whole; Bruce Springsteen is close to this
  • Bob Dylan or Leonard Cohen are excellent wordsmiths who get great results when the music around them is also pretty good
  • Annie Clark is a guitar-shred-meister who runs with the avant-alt mantle set forth by The Talking Heads
  • Merrill Garbus builds amazing lo-fi layered music of incredible stylistic range that sounds right at home on the festival circuit

The connection amongst these individuals is more than playing their instruments or writing their songs. They’re working a level above that, whether it’s Tom Petty and Jimmy Page making fine-tuned rock or J-Dilla, Prince, and Merrill Garbus micromanaging a subgenre into existence. I’m a little envious of that level of musical acumen.

Stevie Wonder, for our times of need

Tim Carmody writing for Kottke.org, Stevie Wonder and the radical politics of love:

Songs in the Key of Life tries to reconcile the reality of the post-Nixon era — the pain that even though the enemy is gone, the work is not done and the world has not been transformed — with an inclusive hope that it one day will be, and that faith, hope, and love are still possible.

It’s what makes the album such a magnificent achievement. But I’m not there. I don’t know when I will be. So for now I’m keeping Songs In the Key of Life on the shelf. An unopened bottle of champagne for a day I may never see. But I’d like to.

On three of Stevie Wonder's best albums, his political writing, and how he bridges saying something and making a good song.

I cannot wait to listen to Songs in the Key of Life again.

I love overproduced music

It seems like some folks don’t like music with a lot of studio work. Overproduced, they call it. Maybe this is a relic of the days when producers weren’t a creative force on par with the actual performers and artists.

I don’t know, because I love overproduced music. Phil Spector, “Wall of Sound”? Bring it. Large band efforts like “Sir Duke”, “You’re not from Texas”, or “Good Vibrations”? Love it. Super-filtered drum sound? Gotta have it.

It probably has everything to do with, at one point, wanting to pursue a career as a double bassist in symphony orchestras. The pieces I loved the most were the big Romantic tone poems and symphonies with a chorus. Hundreds of people, dozens of unique parks, all playing at the same time, often loudly. It’s the essence of overproduced.

Here’s a curious thing. When I hear “Wouldn’t it be nice?” in my head, it’s much bigger and Wagnerian than it is on Pet Sounds. The pedal tone is bigger and more prominent, the first note after the guitar intro is massive. Maybe I’m just projecting my interpretation onto the song.

Contrast to “Good Vibrations”. There’s always more going on than I remember. Vocal parts, instruments. Sooooo good.

Outside of Brian Wilson, I’ve noticed Jeff Lynne is amongst “the overproducers”. Especially, apparently, how he thins out drum sounds. Love it. Have I ever told you how much I dislike the sound of an raw snare drum?

The lesser known vapors and waves

There’s a thing going on in music with all the vapors and chills and waves. I’m not entirely sure what it is, yet. Even after reading this excellent survey of the various vaporwave subgenres, I’m still not sure what it is. But it’s very synth-y, a little sample-y, and very much what you’d expect to hear in a hip, contemporary hotel lobby.

Van Halen ranked, atypically

Best songs that David Lee Roth talks over:

  • "Hot for Teacher"
  • "Panama"
  • "Everybody Wants Some"

Coincidentally, best use of Van Halen songs in film:

  • "Hot for Teacher" in the strip club scene of Varsity Blues
  • "Panama" in the joyriding/donuts scene of Superbad
  • "Everybody Wants Some" in the Hummer scene of Zombieland

Bon Iver discovers the Option key on his Mac

[caption id=“attachment_3815” align=“alignnone” width=“213”]Someone just discovered all the weird glyphs you can make if you hold the option key and type random stuff! Someone just discovered all the weird glyphs you can make if you hold the option key and type random stuff![/caption]

22, A Million, quick thoughts:

  • first track has a very Tune-Yards drums thing going
  • second track has a very 808s & Heartbreak thing
  • a few tracks in: each track is like Bon Iver doing someone else’s track from the past ten years, but with emo autotune
  • I like the background piano/horn tracks on “29 #Strafford APTS”
  • feels like the track sequencing demonstrates thinking through emotional/tempo pacing 👍
  • I really like the use of pseudo-sax harmony e.g. “____45_____”; slightly Ornette Coleman-esque
  • I like how a lot of the individual parts don’t fit together exactly right, but it still works

So what genre is this album? Neo-electro-ambient-folk-jam? Either way, it works!

On the albums of The Clash

Passing thoughts on the discography of The Clash that is not London Calling:

  • Brian and I had a conversation that randomly veered onto the Clash which prompted to me to listen to all of their studio albums
  • I have listened to London Calling a few times before, and recall some story about its producer encouraging them to go broader with the album so as to reach a wider audience; basically that it’s not much like their other albums
  • I enjoy London Calling, but I’m not sure what to expect from a categorical English punk band
  • I like the punk ethos of don’t wait for permission and build it yourself
  • I strongly dislike when punk music is simplistic shouting
  • Enough about me, let’s talk about the music
  • I was pleasantly surprised!
  • Their early albums don’t sound like the learned to play their instruments an hour before they started recording
  • They probably listened to music outside of their genre even before London Calling 👍
  • The albums after London Calling sound like they were trying to walk a line between keeping to their punk/ish origins and exploring integrating other genres into their sound
  • I should mention that their “Guns On the Roof” is exactly the same riff as The Who’s “Can’t Explain”
  • Would listen again!

This has been 🔥 takes.

I love when snares don't keep time

In the majority of music you’ll hear after 1960, the drummer does most of the time keeping with their snare. On 100% of Bruce Springsteen songs, time is kept entirely with the snare. I listen to a lot of The Boss; it’s a little surprising when I don’t here a consistent 1/3 or 2/4 snare keeping time.

That makes the drumming on most jazz albums pretty delightful. For example, Cannonball Adderley, “Games” (Roy McCurdy on drums):

www.youtube.com/watch

"Everybody Wants to Rule the World", too much of its time

I really dislike “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” by Tears for Fears because it’s a perfectly written song that sounds exactly like the year it was recorded, 1985. Five years earlier, it would have sounded mildly seventies-ish and been great. Five years later and it would have had a little more grit and sound very late eighties.

What I’m saying is, if I could un-invent certain musical sounds, the bass on that track would appear on the list.

Let me help you, computer DJ

I look forward to the day when machine learning can differentiate between “don’t play this song because it is awful” from “ don’t play this song because I’ve heard this it a thousand times” (e.g. “Superfreak”, “Rapper’s Delight”, “Come as you are”). Related, I’d love a way to tell the machine learning “if you are ever stumped about what to play next, it’s always OK to slip this song in” (e.g. “Wouldn’t it be nice”, “Summertime Blues”, “Izzo (H.O.V.A)”, “Overture to Samson and Delilah”).

Happy Birthday, Mr. The Boss!

How to celebrate the 64th birthday of Bruce Springsteen, “The Boss”, if you’re new to this curious American phenomenon:

You want to listen to at least one of these albums because there is no one who better combines the story of America with its music than Bruce Springsteen. If all you know of his work is “Born in the USA”, you got some educatin’ to do!

My Rite of Spring overfloweth

Today’s the hundredth anniversary of premier of hometown favorite Igor Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring. The National Public Radios are all over this. NPR Music and WQXR are collecting a bunch of articles they’ve done in the run-up to the anniversary. My favorites: a visualization of the score and a list of essential recordings. The latter features this amazing image of Stravinsky, which I’ve already posted twice today and will continue posting it until it just doesn’t feel right anymore.

[caption id="" align=“aligncenter” width=“312”]Igor Stravinsky in a giant coat, a hat, and sunglasses Indeed, Igor Stravinsky will be on that suit and tie.[/caption]

If you're playing along today, WQXR is streaming twenty-four hours of nothing but the Rite. Highly recommended, if you have the means.

What makes longevity?

A joke for a late-night variety show monologue may only be funny for one day (e.g. a joke about a celebrity). A newspaper article may lose relevance in days or weeks. A TV show might feel dated a couple years after its run ends (e.g. most problems on Seinfeld could be solved with a smartphone). Computer programs don't fare well over time either (though there are exceptions).

The best songs demonstrate better longevity. Beethoven and Bob Dylan still work today. There will always be something amazing about "Good Vibrations", at least to the trained ear.

Even the rap trope of yelling the year the song was recorded has a timeless quality to it; it serves as a marker for the state of affairs. "Nineteen eighty nine!" is the first thing shouted in Public Enemy's "Fight the Power", marking the historical context for what Chuck D is about to tell us.

Why is this? I suspect it underlies the act of making music. Besides hit factory music, i.e. ear worms you hear on the radio, a musician's goal is to make something expressive. Expressiveness often leads to qualities that give a piece endurance; timelessness, nostalgia, high quality. Expressiveness is less often an objective for jokes, headline journalism, or television.

That enduring quality, it's tricky. It happens in film, television, and books too. But, for me, there's something about music that has a more direct emotional connection. They vibrate my ear drum and work their way directly to a part of my brain containing "the feels". I hear a good song and I'm immediately thinking about why I enjoy it so much, what makes it so good, or when I heard that song and connected it to an experience.

Maybe that's why music is such a big deal in our culture. Really, really good music connects in a way beyond "haha that's funny" jokes or "huh, that's interesting" writing.

Is it possible to write expressive non-fiction or an enduring computer program? It seems like the answer is yes, but the answers are outliers. Hofstader's Godel, Escher, Bach and Knuth's TeX come to mind. For every GEB or TeX, there are thousands of less interesting works.

Further, the qualities of an enduring, expressive, and yet functional work seem somewhat at odds with the pragmatics of the daily act of writing or programming. A lot more perfectionism, experimentation, and principle goes into these works than the typical news article or application.

And yet, for every "Good Vibrations", there's probably a thousand commercial jingles composed, elevator tunes licensed, ringtones purchased, and bar bands playing "Brickhouse" yet again. Perhaps music is just as prone to longevity as writing, film, or programming but has a far longer timeline on which its easier to see what really worked. In fifty years perhaps, if we're lucky, we'll start to learn what is really amazing in film and software.

The downsides of live music

I am a giant music nerd. I listen to a ton of music, I think about music a lot, and I often seek out new music via Twitter and Rdio (🪦RIP). Besides a dislike for showtunes and reggae, I’m a pretty broad listener.

Yet, it is exceedingly rare that I seek out live music. When I do, I’m that concert goer who is only buying tickets for long-established acts. In the past several years, I’ve seen Paul McCartney, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Lucinda Williams, Steely Dan, Ben Folds, and Ryan Adams. The youngest of these started their career twenty years ago.

What’s up with that? Well, I (mostly) don’t like live music. I’ve got reasons.

Performances don't start on time

Having performed in jazz bands, orchestras, stand-up showcases, and improv shows, I've come to accept as axiom that performances won't start on time. There are good reasons for this. Everyone wants to get as many people into the seats as possible to make the show better, to improve the audience experience, or simply to make an extra buck.

The reasons that performances at live music venues don’t start on time come down to selfishness. The performers didn’t arrive on time, the stage wasn’t set up in time. Worse, these have a knock-on effect. Once a performance is behind, it only gets more behind. There’s no shortening the break between bands or reducing the time between doors opening and the first band playing.

Which brings us to the most inane reason live music is not on time: selling beer. “Doors open at 8 PM” almost universally means that you can walk in at 8 PM, but you can count on not seeing any live music until 9 PM. The opening act for the opening act is the selling of booze. I’ve got better ways to spend my time than standing around for an hour staking out a spot just so the venue can sell beer.

Standing for a couple hours sucks

Whether it's standing in line for a roller coaster or waiting through beer-time, an opening act, and the changing of the stage, standing around is the worst. Fatigue and boredom set in; you're taken out of the experience of enjoying music played in front of a lot of people. Sore feet and knees do not an enjoyable listening experience make.

Thank you, venues with seats, and thank you, crowds that don’t feel the need to show their enthusiasm by standing upright. You make live music a much more civil, enjoyable experience.

Crowds of people are the worst

Suppose you get a good room, with good sound, and a great performer. You've still got to tend to the other people in the room. The drunk heckler, the people calling out songs, the tall person blocking your view. That's all after you stood in line to get in, waited to go to the bathroom, or put out of mind the guy who lit up next to you.

Opening acts

Opening acts. They're a necessary but inconsistent evil. Sometimes you'll see a really good one. One of the best bands I saw at a Dallas radio station "festival" was on the third stage. One of the worst bands I ever saw was an opener that was sufficiently uncertain of their own skills that the majority of the between-song banter was insults at the audience and counter-heckling gone bad.

I salute events that eschew the opening act and cut straight to the main performer. Give the people what they want.

It’s too loud

I don’t know why, but live music is universally an assault on my ear drums. I've been at concerts where I could feel the music moving inside my pants. That seems a bit excessive.

Beyond the personal discomfort, there’s nothing about loudness that makes music better. If everything is loud, nothing is loud. Sustained loudness is boring.

Short bouts of loudness; that’s interesting. The juxtaposition of the opening arpeggios of “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” with the wall-of-sound that follows is really nice. The way “Thunder Road” or Bolero grow into something loud and great is what makes them interesting. The amazing loudness of the opening of Also Sprach Zarahustra contrasted with the nearly non-existent quietness of the second movement is genius.

Don’t turn it up because you can. Turn it up because you mean it.

Drums are a lie

Let's talk about the actual music again. In particular, drums. Drums, my friend, are a lie. They do not sound like you think they do. What you hear on the radio and on albums are the results of trained sound engineers using microphone and equalizer tricks to make drums sound decent.

This is problematic for two reasons. First off, drums are really loud in the hands of an enthusiastic player. Often quite a bit louder than your typical amplifier. Thus, it’s guaranteed you’re going to hear a lot more drums than guitars, horns, strings, or vocals at a live music event. I take that back; I guarantee you that you will not be able to hear strings at any music club you ever go to, but I’ll come back to that.

The more problematic aspect of a drum kit is you’re going to hear raw drums when you go to a live music event. Very little microphone tricks or equalizer cleverness; the drums may not even be isolated. That means the snare is going to sound like a can of beans getting hit with a stick. The toms will sound like someone banging on an empty box. The cymbals are going to sound like a mad person beating on pots and pans.

If you’re anything like me, you’re not going to enjoy them drums.

It sounds terrible

Drums are not the only problematic instrument. In my experience, most clubs have very poor sound. Even if it's not too loud, the mix is wrong, you can't hear the melody, you can't hear the singing, or the overall sound is distorted.

Assuming that clubs don’t exist merely to move booze (not a big leap in reasoning, I know), I don’t understand how this is the situation. If you want to be a part of a music scene, a good sound system and someone who can operate it seems like par for the course.

I am happy to note that, if you’re lame like me and only go to see performers who have been around the block dozens of times, you’re going to have a much better listening experience. Less prominent musicians are starting to tour with just one accompanying performer and that person is not playing a drum kit. The A-list performers have really good drummers (Paul McCartney’s drummer is a blast to watch) and the sound engineers on the tour are excellent. This makes for a far more enjoyable, balanced sound.

There's little mystery

This one is rather personal, though I've spoken with musicians who feel the same way. If you know how to make music, watching the performance of music can be boring. A song that you can listen to and quickly pick up the structure and details of isn't all that exciting. Even if it is, you can see the musicians enjoying the performance of the song and just wish you were up there playing and not down here watching.

I do enjoy watching very talented performers do their thing. Someone who mixes music with a good stage show or interesting banter between songs is fun to watch. The Rolling Stones are interesting to watch because Mick Jagger is such a good showman, Charlie Watts seems so apathetic, and Keith Richards is, well, Keef. I’ve really enjoyed seeing Hayes Carll and Lyle Lovett because the stories they tell are great and their banter between songs is amusing.

Genres I don’t know how to make are also fascinating. Hip-hop is not a thing I really know how to make, so that’s fun. Jazz and classical can be fun because I know how they work but didn’t reach the level where I could really make it. My new rule is, whenever Rite of Spring is performed, I need to be there; it’s relatively short (about forty minutes), really awesome, and I’m certain I would not be able to perform it with an orchestra without ruining it for everyone else.

Maybe I’m doing it wrong. Perhaps my heuristics for trying to time a concert so I arrive as the opening act is finishing require tweaking. I should definitely remember to bring earplugs more often. It’s entirely possible I’m just a grumpy guy.

But: I’m not the guy who tells you about the hippest new musical thing. I’m probably not the guy who’s going to catch your favorite band. I’m the guy who goes to see Paul McCartney out of reverence and because my wife and I both like him. I’m the guy who listens to an album as a long-form idea. I’m the guy who wants to understand the history and creation of a thing. That’s just the nerd I am: I understand music over time, not over the course of an evening.

Ed. this originally ran in The Internet Todo List for Enthusiastic Readers. You should check that out. It was pointed out that I’m a bit of an old man. In spirit, this is absolutely true. Also worth noting: I’m going to see Paul McCartney again this week, so I must not entirely hate live music. Human inconsistencies, eh?

Smiling rappers

The rap game doesn't have to be all posturing and diss tracks. We need more smiling rappers.

Get in my ears, you dissonant chord

Petrushka chord. Two major chords played a half-tone apart. So, it sounds good, except it sounds grating. It's a motif throughout Stravinsky's ballet Petrouchka. Ergo, like everything Stravinsky, get in my ears! Listen to it and learn more about the chord from the awesome "Feynman of classical music" (I just made that up) Leonard Bernstein.

AC/DC writes robust songs

AC/DC writes songs that are fundamentally very strong. They aren’t the most touching, artistically composed songs. But they’re very solid songs. They hold together well, you can sing along, they don’t ramble on longer than they should.

How robust is AC/DC’s songwriting?

[youtube=www.youtube.com/watch

You can throw bagpipes into one of their songs and it still holds up just fine. That’s solid songwriting.

Hip-hop for nerds: "Otis"

(Ed. Herein, I attempt to break down a current favorite of mine, “Otis” by Jay-Z and Kanye West, in terms familiar and interesting to nerds, specifically of the nerd and/or comedy persuasion.)

“Otis” is a song arranged and performed by two best pals, Jay-Z and Kanye West. It opens with a sample of Otis Redding (hence the title) singing “Try a little tenderness”. Opening with a sample like this tells us two things:

  • Misters Z and West enjoy the music of Mr. Redding enough that they were compelled to include it in their own music.
  • The gentlemen are also well connected and affluent, as not just everyone can afford to sample a legend like Redding in their music

A digression: sampling in hip-hop is one of its key characteristics and is of particular interest to nerds. It is a way that we can connect, through “nerding out” with the artist and find what it is that they respect and listen to. It is also a bit of a recursive structure; “Otis” samples Otis, Otis borrowed from gospel and blues, blues and gospel borrowed from traditional songs, etc. Finally, sampling is a recombinant form; in “Otis”, there is a verbatim sample in the opening bars, but the sample devolves to a looped-beat in the middle of the song and a mere sound-effect at the end of the song.

As Misters Z and West enter the song proper, the rappers trade verses about their affluence (“New watch alert, Hublot’s / Or the big face Rollie I got two of those”), the recursive (again, nerdy) deception they use to evade the papperazzi (“They ain’t see me ‘cuz I pulled up in my other Benz / Last week I was in my other other Benz”), a conflicting verse about how they would seek the paparazzi out (“Photo shoot fresh, looking like wealth / I’m ‘bout to call the paparazzi on myself”), more boasting of their affluence and skill (“Couture level flow, it’s never going on sale / Luxury rap, the Hermes of verses”), and such.

This song features a video, so we wouldn’t be properly doing a nerd dissection of it if we were to neglect that. It opens with our heroes approaching a Maybach sedan with a saw and a blow torch. Following a “car modification montage”, it appears the doors have been removed from the car and the front end of the car has been placed on the back, and vice versa. Another display of affluence, with perhaps a touch of hipster irony thrown in.

The video follows with various shots of our heroes rapping and driving the Maybach through an abandoned dock or airfield. Our heroes are in the front seat of the car and there are four models in the back seat, one seated precariously atop the one in the middle as our heroes make dangerous-looking manuvers in the car. At one point it appears they will lose a model through the door-less side of the car. At multiple points, it appears the boobs of the models might fight free of their loose fitting shirt. It should be noted that the appearance of a possible free boob could be considered quite progressive for a hip-hop music video.

The Maybach is, in my opinion, the most difficult to interpret signal the song and video send. Are we to understand that Misters Z and West are so affluent they can afford to put down six figures on the purchase and massively impractical modification of a high-end luxury car? Perhaps they had a spare one laying around and felt it would be a better use to destroy it than to leave it around. Or, perhaps this was a vehicle for a clever tax deduction?

Mr. West's CPA: You're going to owe a lot of tax on this purchase of your other-other Benz, 'Ye.

Mr. West: What if I were to use it in a music video for the purposes of promoting my upcoming album?

Mr. West's CPA: Well then you could depreciate it at 50% this year and 25% for the next two years, but you're still going to owe a lot.

Mr. West: If I were to take it to a chop shop and have them put the ass-end of the car on the front and turn the doors into wings, could I depreciate it faster?

Mr. West's CPA: throw some models in the back seat, and it *just might work*!

(Ed. as it turns out, the vehicle was to be auctioned and the proceeds donated to charity)

The other enigma of the video is the presence of comedian Aziz Ansari. Mr. Ansari has documented (Ed. hilariously) his friendship with Mr. West. Thus it is not shocking to see him appear in the video. He appears for only an instant, and his appearance marks the absence of the models in the rest of the video. Perhaps, we are to believe, Mr. Ansari is the pumpkin that the models turn into after some deadline has passed for Misters Z and West.

Despite, or perhaps because, of its mysteries, I find “Otis” is a fantastic piece of hip-hop production. The samples is well chosen and deconstructed, the verses are interesting (if mentally unchallenging), and the video is engaging to watch. I would easily rank it amongst the top songs of recent memory, were I one to make lists of top songs.

Making a little musical thing

After software development, music is probably the thing I know the most about. My brain is full of history, trivia, and a modest bit of practical knowledge on how to read notation and make music come out. That said, I haven’t really practiced music in several years. I’ve been busy nerding out on other things, and I’ve grown a bit lazy. Too lazy to find people to play with, too lazy for scales, too lazy to even tune a stringed instrument. Very, very lazy.

Long story short, I’ve been wanting to get back into music lately, but I want to learn something new. Something entirely mysterious to me. Given my recent fascination with hip-hop, I’m eager to try my hand at making the beats that form the musical basis of the form.

There are a lot of priors to cover (tinkering with various sequencers, drum machines, and synthesizers; steeping myself in sample culture; listening to the actual music and understanding its history), but I just made a short, mediocre little beat and put it on the internet. Herein, I reflect on making that little musical thing:

  • I’m sure that, if I get serious about this, I’ll need real software like Ableton or Logic. But for my tinkering, it turns out GarageBand is sufficient. The included software instruments aren’t amazing or even idiomatic samples (no TR808, no “Apache” break included), but with a little bit of tinkering, they produce results.
  • Laying a drum track down that is little more than a fancy click track helps to get started. GarageBand has a handy feature where you can define the a number of bars as a loop and then record multiple takes, review them, and discard the takes you don’t want.
  • What an app lacks in samples you can make up in effects. Throwing a heavy dose of echo and a ridiculous helping of reverb made an otherwise pedestrian drum track way more interesting.
  • I didn’t go into this with anything in my head that I wanted to make real. For the drum track, I ended up with a pretty typical beat. A little quantization made it end up sound better and more interesting than it really is. This process, manual input with some computer-assisted tweaking, produced way better results than the iOS drum machines I’ve used in the past.
  • Tapping out the bass-line took a little more time than the drums. I didn’t have anything “standard” in my head, so I doodled a bit. This is where the “takes” gizmo in GarageBand came in really handy. Record a bunch of things, decide which one is most interesting, clean it up a little, throw an effect or two on it to make it more interesting, on to the next track.
  • In retrospect, lots of effects is maybe a crutch. I don’t have enough taste yet to tell.
  • With the drums and bass down, it’s time to adorn the track with a melody or interesting hit for effect. I added one subtle thing, but couldn’t think of anything I liked that was worth making prominent. If I were actually trying to use this beat for something, I’d keep digging. But for my first or second beat, it’s not a big deal.

I wanted to jot down my thoughts because I’d like to write more about making and understanding music, but also because I keep meaning to write down what I find challenging and interesting as I start from a “beginner’s mind” in some craft or skill. And so I did.

You’re six hundred words into this thing now, so I’ll reward you, if we could call it a reward, with “An Beat”.

How to listen to Stravinsky's Rite of Spring

Igor Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring is an amazing piece of classical music. It’s one of the rare pieces that was really revolutionary in its time. But in our time, almost one hundred years on, it doesn’t sound that different.

Music has moved on. We are used to the odd times of “Take Five” and the dissonant horns of a John Williams soundtrack. Music offending the status quo is nothing unheard of.

To enjoy Rite of Spring in its proper context, you have to forget all that. Put yourself in the shoes of a Parisian in 1913, probably well off. You probably just enjoyed a Monet and a coffee. But your world is changing. Something about workers revolting. A transition from manual labor to mechanical labor.

Now imagine yourself at the premier for this new ballet from Russia. You being a Parisian, you’re probably expecting something along the lines of Debussy or perhaps Debussy or Berlioz.

Instead, you get mild dissonance and then total chaos. The changing time signatures, the dissonance, the subject of virgin sacrifice. You’d probably riot too!