Dave “Hell, I’ll *start* drinking if you let me run the defense department!”

Paul Schaefer: “Haha, yes…”

Dave “Huh?”

Paul Schaefer: “Yes… You’ll *start* drinking. Haha…”

Camera cuts to the horn section, they shrug.

OK, if you teach music theory, here’s a nice little question to pose to your students: for any given pentatonic set, in how many diatonic sets does it appear? For example, and put another way, how many major keys contain e minor pentatonic? I’m curious how people would solve that.

Here's a new article on how to leverage scalar tetrachords to develop a wicked fast 3-octave fingering of the bebop scale. PDF of practice materials included. #JazzGuitar #Jazz #MusicTheory

https://resourcesforjazzguitar.com/three-octave-bebop/

OK, jazz guitar music theory nerds--there must be, what, a few dozen of us on the planet--here's my new site. Not a ton of articles yet, but I have big plans. Built with #11ty 3.0, which is quite nice!

https://resourcesforjazzguitar.com/

The Fall 2024 edition of -ette review is now live! And so is the companion podcast, pod-ette, which includes incidental music by... me!

https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/mhoopes-us/episodes/Episode-3---Cavettes-Wrong-e2p13hn/a-abi8jvd

Oh wow, this is kind of big news: Finale music notation is sunsetting!

https://www.finalemusic.com/blog/end-of-finale-new-journey-dorico-letter-from-president/

Dear music lovers of Mastodon: our fantastic friend John Turner has been doing a weekly show on Mixcloud since all the you-know-what began. Every week at 4:30 eastern time, live from Harlem, he spins great tunes and plays some amazing trumpet.

Today at 4:30, he's celebrating his 200th show with all original tunes! Please do join in if you'd care for great music 'n vibes!

Please boost & give JT a big audience today! Thank you!

https://www.mixcloud.com/live/johntrumpetnyc/

Just thought of a great way of visualizing the IC vector of the diatonic collection. Stack 7 perfect 4ths. Now list the ICs from the first note, preceded by (7,6,5,…,1).

7 unisons, 6 perfect 4ths, 5 major 2nds, 4 minor 3rds, 3 major 3rds, 2 minor 2nds, 1 tritone.

#MusicTheory

OK, this is fantastic. I just learned (from @toddbashore) that Brandeis University has a collection of Victor Young's film scores, and they're available on the Internet Archive! Enjoy!

https://archive.org/search?query=%28victor+young%29+AND+contributor%3A%28brandeis%29&sort=title

Hint for composers: reverse steganography feels teleological.

I also think (this is where I'm probably jumping the shark) that we should teach early students basic pc set theory, at the very least by using interval classes instead of labels like W-H-W. In that case, (2-1-2) is way more informative.

Teaching tetrachords is a really good way to get this across; it's very easy to see the mirror symmetry when you're only dealing with four notes. For example:

minor tetrachord: self-symmetrical

lydian tetrachord: self-symmetrical

major and phrygian tetrachords: symmetrical with each other

One of the interesting aspects of the diatonic scale is that it is symmetrical. I find it a bit odd that this feature tends to be slighted in music pedagogy. But music pedagogy, especially for early stage students, tends to emphasize rote memorization over understanding how things work.

Have not worked on 3+ octave scales for guitar in quite some time, but they really open up the entire fingerboard in a great way! I’m doing 4 notes per string, with an extra shift on the top string. A great way to run scales from the very lowest note to the very highest.

Had been re-reading Charles Rosen lately, but was also looking for something more recent, and so picked up these two volumes. Dipping into the Caplin first, and so far, so good! #ClassicalMusic #MusicTheory

A little renaissance lute music—played on classical guitar—to end the night. This is Francis Cutting’s Almain from Frederick Noad’s anthology. Markings are mine, I think, from the late ‘80s. Bonne nuit! Dobranoc! #ClassicalGuitar #RenaissanceMusic

The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was getting us all to refer to creative work as “content”

The first session was terrific! Phil Bingham did a great job leading both the piano and singers sections. Chris Byars was terrific leading the improvisation section—‘the horns’ as Barry used to call it.

Really warms my heart re-connecting with this lovely community. ❤️🎶❤️

Happy launch day for -ette review, a new literary magazine. Also launch day for pod-ette, the companion podcast for which I wrote the theme music!

http://ettereview.com/podette/

This is so exiting! Launch day is finally here for -ette review, a new literary magazine publishing flash fiction, micro, and prose poetry, from founding editors Beth Hahn and Nora Maynard.

Please check it out. In addition to the great writing, there’s lovely art work by Beth Hahn and a companion podcast produced by Melanie Hoopes with music by Chester Jankowski.

http://ettereview.com/