The “no music theory” introduction to exotic chords and how to use them
Wil Forbis Music
by wilforbis
3y ago
At a certain point, you want to expand beyond the standard guitar chords such as C, D, E minor and the like. You may get out on the web and read about chords that have letter names with numbers after them, like G 13, C 9, or A augmented. I’m referring to these chords as “exotic” and penned this blog post to give a brief introduction to them, one that is not bogged down with music theory. For each chord I will provide some chord daigrams and explore a few situations where it can be used. You can then quickly apply that knowledge to your own songwriting and playing. A couple points of note: If y ..read more
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5 Steps to learn a song perfectly. (Or at least almost perfectly.)
Wil Forbis Music
by wilforbis
3y ago
We’ve all been there. You get excited to learn a new song and dive right in. As time goes by – maybe a lot of time – you get frustrated and give up before the tune is really presentable. Getting a song “just right” takes work. A lot of work. Learning songs perfectly requires time and patience. I’ve realized that when I get to the point where I’m really sick of the song and never want to hear it again, I’m about halfway there. (Well, it’s not always that bad. ) There are, however, steps inherent to the song learning process and I believe that being aware of these steps let’s you know where you ..read more
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Moments, not music
Wil Forbis Music
by wilforbis
3y ago
I found a paragraph in this article about the modern music industry interesting. “We’re not in the music space,” Spotify founder Daniel Ek told the New Yorker in 2014. “We’re in the moment space.” While Ek’s statement seems counterintuitive, it’s important to remember that Spotify makes monthly payments to rights holders in exchange for the right to stream their catalogs, from which its data-driven algorithms draw when recommending songs to users. It also uses this raw material to populate its hyper-specific curated playlists, which center on microgenres (“Christian Dance Party,” “Coffee Tabl ..read more
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Are music aesthetics learned or innate?
Wil Forbis Music
by wilforbis
3y ago
In the world of music psychology, you often hear discussion about our sense of aesthetics, our perception of musical beauty. People offer various theories as to why we find certain aspects of music attractive or not. Often, for instance, it’s postulated that appealing melodies duplicate the human manner of speaking. These melodies don’t just offer a long stream of 8th notes but rather they break apart in the same way we break apart our spoken conversations. There’s a prosody to music, according to this point of view. One question that arises is whether the “rules” that define our human sense o ..read more
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The strange music of Conlon Nancarrow
Wil Forbis Music
by wilforbis
3y ago
I’ve been reading a book entitled “Decomposition—A Music Manifesto” and it mentions the work of an obscure composer, Conlon Nancarrow. Nancorrow toiled away in Mexico City during the 20th century, writing eccentric music for the player piano. He did not actually play the piano, rather, he composed by cutting holes in the piano rolls by hand. That’s dedication! I looked up some of Nancarrow’s music on Youtube and found it mostly annoying. However, I discovered this piece and liked it. It’s the output of a musical group that took one’s of Nancarrow’s compositions and shared the various parts acr ..read more
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What should you think of when playing music?
Wil Forbis Music
by wilforbis
3y ago
I wonder whether this is the most important question for a musician to ask. Finding the answer could be the difference between a lifetime of middling, stilted playing and one of real, consistent virtuosity. What do I even mean here? Let me attempt to add context by first quoting a recent blog post of mine in which I discussed the thoughts that went through my head when I first tried to play jazz. “Here comes a D minor chord. Okay, gotta find that D Dorian pattern. Or I could use the fourth mode of the harmonic minor scale for a more exotic sound. Wait… crap, now we’re on a G7 b5 chord! What do ..read more
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Music Related Links on Reddit
Wil Forbis Music
by wilforbis
3y ago
Reddit, if you don;t know, is a useful site where people discuss all sorts of topics. I just stumbled across this great collection of links to all the reddits related to creating music. How to get the most out of reddit as a musician ..read more
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Combining the Pentatonic scale with wall shapes to play the blues
Wil Forbis Music
by wilforbis
3y ago
Let’s face it—the blues are weird. Your standard 12 bar blues contains three major chords and yet the main scale we use to play over the blues is the minor pentatonic. A minor scale over major chords… a bit strange, no? But that’s part of what gives the blues its unique sound. Ideally, listeners of a 12 bar blues should be able to hear the chords of the song simply by listening to the solo. For example, even if the backing music drops out, listeners should be able to perceive the chord changes. It can be challenging to use the minor pentatonic scale to convey the sound of the chords. Today I w ..read more
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Emotional meaning in music
Wil Forbis Music
by wilforbis
3y ago
Warning: this is a rather philosophical post with limited practical value. In the world of music psychology and such you often see music compared and contrasted to language. This makes sense as both music and language use sound. Some would argue that they both use sound to communicate. In language, we know if a statement follows the rules of the language by whether or not it makes sense. If I say, “My dog ate his dinner,” that makes sense; we can derive meaning from the statement. If I say, “Dinner his ate dog my,” the meaning is non-existent. We would say that sentence is “wrong.” (Note ..read more
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Hypercreators
Wil Forbis Music
by wilforbis
3y ago
While bumbling around on Twitter I came across this article. Hypercreators Own The Music Industry & You Need To Become One The article seeks to answer the question: how does one succeed in the music creation business? The short answer is: work harder (e.g create more.) The article is about all kinds of music but its advice could certainly apply to the kind of production music that I create—backing music for video, games etc. <blockquote> Modern technology has removed nearly all of the barriers preventing artists from creating music constantly and sharing that music with a worldw ..read more
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