• Feet and inches
• Meters
• Paces
• Cubits
• Smoots (Anyone from MIT?)

Well, the same can go for the aural distance between two notes-

• A number of pitches
• Several notches
• Steps and skips

These musical units of measurement are called intervals. An interval as a unit of aural distance between two notes, basically. A crucial skill in ear training is to recognize interval distances, which is the aim of this section. Yes, you’ll have to practice. I’ve set up goals for you. Don’t worry, I care.

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Leo Mey, the Music Guy.

Earlier this summer, I finished reading Meyer’s Music the Arts and Ideas.  Now Leonard Meyer is no slouch in the field of music theory—his classic text Emotion and Meaning in Music (1956) has been endlessly cited for convincing music theorists that there might actually be something to *gasp* empirical descriptions of musical works!  Of course, I jest; it’s only half-true.  The postmodern wave in the humanities was still a decade off when Meyer published his opus (the same year as George Miller’s The Magical Number Seven), and Claude Shannon’s introduction of information theory was still tickling the minds of humanities scholars, who thought we might have struck on an Urtheorie of culture.  Well, the short story is: no such luck.  Humanities types retreated into hermeneutics and hyperrelativism, and that seemed to be that for the time being.  Meantime, Leonard Meyer shifted his focus to studies of musical style, since meaning was too fraught with postmodern peril.  Oh, silly academes.

Which brings us to Music, the Arts, and Ideas, published in 1967.  The book is something of a ragtag collection of essays, but there are some common threads.  Most importantly, Meyer sets out to describe how he forsees culture in the postmodern age progressing.  This happens to be exactly the age in which I was born, so I figure I have a reasonably good standpoint from which to evaluate his statements.  But oh, what statements he makes.  Get a load of this one, chosen by flipping through and pointing with my eyes closed:

Though analytic formalism and transcendental particularism are clearly in conflict regarding the efficacy of causal explanation, it should be emphasized that they do not necessarily disagree about either the existence or the nature of causation.  (p.163)

Woo-ee! now that’s a humdinger there.  Meyer is an incredibly well-loved and much-missed personality, and deservedly so.  But boy does it take some effort to wade through his prose.  Here’s some reader’s digestif:

Easy-drinking format.

Meyer has learned from cross-cultural studies of the 20th century that sayings like “Change is the only constant” don’t really apply world-wide.  Sure, in Western history from the Romans on up, we’ve seen a huge parade of history, a flowing river of chaotically repeating eddies and flows.  But looking around, it seems like stasis in culture is far more “normal” than the constant bustling change that we’re used to in the Western world.

But what has changed, says Meyer, is that technology has grown to the point that we are able to look back and enjoy recordings of music produced forty years ago just as well as we can enjoy recordings of music produced yesterday.  All time periods and fads, all historical styles are equally accessible.

So in the end, he describes rather effectively what it looks like for culture to move to a steady-state system with local fluctuation.  He even predicts that, due to a “psychological accessibility of the past” (p191), all sorts of recycling of old culture will take place.

Is this an artist, an oeuvre, or a work?

Furthermore, we shouldn’t be surprised to find that “A multiplicity of styles, techniques, and movements, ranging from the cautiously conservative to the rampantly experimental, will exist side by side… past and present will, modifying one another, come together not only within culture, but within the oeuvre of a single artist and even within a single work of art.” (p209)

Sounds like remix culture to me.  More distressingly, he seems to have a certain Williamsburg, NY demographic pegged, but didn’t correctly predict the ultimately uncontrolled spiral of meta-snark and strangeloops of ironic kickballing.  We can compliment ourselves for those!

~Ostinatos, or repeated bits of music, make teaching and retaining a lot easier…so you should do it! Do a single measure motif, then repeat it for a section. Every part can have a different ostinato (which makes it sound flashy), but it drastically cuts down on the amount of material you need to devise.

~What may seem less important than notes- the dynamics, shaping, and syllables- are just as important as the notes. Don’t forget them.

~Be enthusiastic about yoru arrangement, even if it’s your first. Attitude changes a lot, even if it’s a crummy arrangement. If you come in tentative, your singers will be tentative, and your performance will be tentative. Tentative performances suck.

~Try to avoid putting the highest notes of the arrangement near the beginning or middle. Let them be a literal high-point near the end of the arrangement.

~Arrangements take time. It’s ok if you’re spending hours and hours on it. That’s normal! Just keep working until you believe that it is ready- don’t try to finish it in an hour.

What I think is fascinating is how the lyrical vocal line is accentuated by the latin rhythms and the light backups. Oh yeah, the faux-trumpet break is pretty sweet and serves as the homerun gimmick, but the reason why Nota won was not because of nailing gimmick after gimmick (which they did, btw), but the musical choices that set up those homeruns. Each one of their performances features some ethnic flavor that makes each one stand out, but the underlying musicality is why they walked off as champs.

To use a cake metaphor…they had really good cake. Yeah, the frosting and decorations made Nota distinctive and gave them that necessary push to top the Bubs and Voices of Lee, but they developed something good and did it right, then added the buttercream to eke out the top slot.

Listen closely to the arrangement and see how the ensemble works: you can easily hear the soloist, the backup hits are light, there is smart use of silence and noise, and the percussion sets up a groove and establishes a mood without overshadowing the solo. The interplay between the singers links the musical phrases (watch how one hits the splash cymbals on the VP) and the choreography has direction: “We are here. We are now moving here. We are spreading out…to do something wicked cool. We come back together.” The choreography underlines the music, rather than the other way around.

A take-away from their arrangement is the use of sustained bass notes. When the bass activates and starts jumping around, there’s a rise in the energy level, but when it’s sustained it sets up a smooth groove. Also, the root of the chord provides a strong tension with the vocal line, which sits on the dissonant 4th and 2nd scale degree a lot. Milking that tension makes it delicious when it resolves…down (b’dum, crash).

And yeah, the trumpet break is pretty ballers too.

RIP Porkins.

Not only does pitch exist, it’s part of the trifecta of all music (the other brothers Timbre and Rhythm will have their day).

Sound is a giant pitch. Not just one, but lots of pitches. Big pitches, small pitches, pitches you can pick out in a crowd, and pitches that don’t sound like a pitch but actually are pitchy, if you look closely enough.
Double entendre’s aside, every sound you hear is a note: music just organizes all those sounds into something kind of pretty, sometimes. Identifying these discrete things we call pitch and manipulating them allows us to make what most people call music.

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Blowing out candles helps build strong lungs.

In this article, we’ll be going through the motions of arranging a song. Instead of looking at a completed arrangement, we’ll walk through every step of the process to show how an a cappella arrangement evolves and is finally completed. Today, the tune is Happy Birthday, that old standby of yore.

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Back in the day we wrote our music for 5 miles, in the snow, uphill, both ways!

If you went back in time with only your computer, it’s saved internet cache, and a love for a cappella, how would you teach an arrangement if music notation hadn’t been invented? Well, if you’re Guido of Arezzo, you’ll just invent notation and that will be that…or you could utilize some non-traditional notation techniques. Fortunately, this article (hence the saved cache…get it?) will help timetravelers or acamembers who don’t read sheet music.

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Range appreciation.

Boys and girls, high and low, with every voice specialized like a well-run machine…ahh. Hopefully the group you’re arranging for is already balanced in terms of boys and girls, but make sure you know when you’re making a custom arrangement. It would blow if you wrote a SSAATTB part for a group that has no true sopranos. Well, it wouldn’t quite blow, but there goes your Friday night plans so you can re-arrange it before the deadline.

Let’s assume things are fine, and you have a quasi-balanced group. Let’s also assume you’re making a generic arrangement, rather than a custom one (a lot of the same principles will apply, though). How do you balance voice parts, how do you use voice registers to the best of their ability, and how do you keep things fun for the altos?

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Jimi Hendrix had a hard time understanding metaphors...

There’s no escaping it, really… the guitar occupies a singular place in the popular consciousness of the twentieth century. Nearly everyone you’ve ever met either plays a little bit of guitar or knows someone who did, or does, or wants to. When compared to a piano, even an excellent instrument is ridiculously affordable. The guitar is light, portable, and offers access to a width of tones unavailable to any other instrument save the synthesizer- and even that is a gap which can be closed. It fits into a seemingly limitless number of popular musicks, makes wonderful accompaniment to the voice in all kinds of styles, and (thanks to the modern world: “Thanks, modern world!”) can be quiet enough to be inaudible or loud enough to hear a mile away. It’s great!

But it is one of the truest things I’ve ever heard that the guitar is the easiest instrument to start playing but the hardest to master. Anyone who has a little patience can pick up the most basic chords in a few weeks, but it can take years of careful study and practice to gain fluency in any particular genre. I’ll tell you this right now: that duality is a wonderful thing.

First things first: There is nothing wrong with learning the basics and never going any further. You can spend a few days and learn a half dozen chords, buy a capo, and practice a few strumming patterns and pretty much be able to play almost every pop song of the last half century. You can even write your own, there’s nothing to stop you! Countless happy amateurs while away their evenings singing songs with acoustic guitars or trying to copy a famous solo by ear, and even many professional artists are content with this level. Pop quiz… What’s wrong with that? Nothing, that’s what. Don’t assume that there is no value to somebody’s art because they don’t know much about what they are doing or have more interest in blues licks than Bach. Just don’t do it.

Second things second: There is nothing wrong with earnest study of the technical and theoretical aspects of the instrument or music in general. Contrary to a widely circulated mythology, music theory is NOT anathema to creativity. Self expression does not have to be compromised in the pursuit of greater understanding, and technical proficiency does not preclude individuality. Don’t assume that there is no value to somebody’s art because they know everything about what they are doing or have more interest in theory than catchy melodies. Just don’t do it!

The ideas that more knowledge breeds elitism or that amateurism is of no value are both just wrong, wrong, wrong. This is a false dichotomy born of insecurities on both sides, and any bright eyed student should take extra care to ignore it post haste. You can enjoy the Ramones and then listen to Berlioz, or write a three chord pop song and then follow that up with a twelve tone composition, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. Things are what they are, and that’s it. Music is a river, wide and deep; cast your net wherever you want.

A note on theory…

Theory is not a set of rules, theory is not law. Theory is not just one thing. Theories seek to explain logically what we walking hairless apes do intuitively. Theories are guesses, some of them pretty good, and some of them way off base. Don’t be afraid of theory, it doesn’t want to take away your muse.

Ultimately, better understanding can only help, because you can always choose to ignore it. Theory doesn’t have to be complicated, and in fact it really isn’t. When somebody starts spouting off about “upper structure color tones” this or “quartal motion in the superlocrian mode” that, it can seem pretty overwhelming, but don’t be intimidated- they’re just words that describe musical sounds, that’s all they are. If you start from the beginning, these things build on themselves and make perfect sense. Besides, if you’re reading this then you’ve already mastered a subject far more complicated: Communicative English!

Also: AMAZE YOUR FRIENDS, MAKE YOUR SIGNIFICANT OTHER SWOON AND LOVE YOU MORE!! ALL IN THREE EASY STEPS, 29.99! EASY! NO MORE HARD! EASY!

Yeah, we wish. I’m not going to lie to you, sometimes music can be really difficult or frustrating or infuriating, but it can also be beautiful and transcendent and meaningful. In the long run, it’s worth your time, trust me! And remember, you get what you give- and the more time you spend learning and growing as a musician or guitarist the more rewarding the whole experience will become. So what if your fingertips hurt for a month or two? At least you don’t play the upright bass! My God, you should see the blisters on those people…!

This guide makes no assumptions except that the reader has an interest in learning about the guitar and music and possesses a certain amount of natural curiosity. It helps (a LOT) if you like music and listen to it often (OFTEN)! I want more than anything to be instructive, clear, and concise. It can be difficult to effectively teach something that you’ve long ago internalized, but it is also an excellent exercise. It is my hope that this collection of essays will prove helpful and interesting to many different people, from stone cold beginners to seasoned musicians. Even if you already know how to play, I definitely recommend starting at the beginning. These lessons will build on one another, and hopefully they’ll be fun to read, too.

Eventually, we’ll get into the things that make styles different. We’ll get into complex harmonic devices. We’ll get into all kinds of mess… but to start with, we will cover only the basics and concentrate primarily on two things: getting you playing (soon!), and getting you to understand what you’re playing (soon!).

SO. Give it a try and see what happens. Best of luck and welcome to the club!