PBS Member Stations rely on viewers like you. To support your local station, go to: http://to.pbs.org/DonateSoundField ↓ More info below ↓ What techniques do horror movie composers use to terrify us? A lot of techniques are thanks to Krzysztof Penderecki, a Polish composer whose music was used by director William […]
Is learning music theory important? Music theory the way that musicians communicated with one another. However, it is often the one element of music that musicians are least excited to learn. In this video, I consider the idea of music as language as mentioned in Victor Wooten’s book ‘The Music […]
PBS Member Stations rely on viewers like you. To support your local station, go to: http://to.pbs.org/DonateSoundField ↓ More info below ↓ Try Audible for 30 days visit https://www.audible.com/soundfield or text soundfield to 500 500! Streaming services like Spotify are changing more than the way we listen to music – they […]
Does it matter which direction note stems are pointing? There are reasons why notes might point either up or down, and in this music theory lesson, we’ll explore the idea behind note stem direction. We will look at both single-line melodies and also polyphonic music with multiple voices or parts. […]
For beginners studying music theory, one of the first questions they ask is, what is a time signature? How do time signatures work and why are they important? What are simple and compound time signatures? What do the top and bottom numbers mean? If you’re new to music theory and […]
In this video, we explore the ways that composers can change key, how it happens and why they might do it. An unprepared key change occurs when the music just jumps into a new key without any warning or preparation. A prepared key change is when the music modulates and […]
In my first explanation of musical phrasing, we explored what phrasing is and why it’s important. In this video, I suggest a way to understand phrasing, and how we can find it within the music. Phrasing in music is all about trying to communicate ideas rather than just play notes. […]
PBS Member Stations rely on viewers like you. To support your local station, go to: http://to.pbs.org/DonateSoundField ↓ More info below ↓ We explore where the blues came from and how it went on to influence many modern genres of music. From Delta Blues pioneers like Robert Johnson and Son House […]
Why do musicians worry so much about playing wrong notes? Many musicians, especially those who begin improvising with jazz, worry about playing wrong notes. However, there’s no need to worry about playing wrong notes in music. In this video, I use the example of playing the guitar to show how […]
PBS Member Stations rely on viewers like you. To support your local station, go to: http://to.pbs.org/DonateSoundField ↓ More info below ↓ Jazz and Blues music are known for improvisation but the practice goes back further than that. Bach, Mozart, Clara Schumann and Chopin all improvised as part of their performances. […]
