Graham English
Songwriter, Recording Artist, and Blogging Musician
Songwriter, Recording Artist, and Blogging Musician
“There’s a mysterious new composer on the classical music scene. Her name? Emily Howell. But no one’s ever seen her in person. The reason? She’s a computer program created by David Cope, a professor at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Host Guy Raz speaks with Cope about his creation and gets a sneak peek at Emily’s first record, which hits stores next spring.”
“Craft has to be dropped at a certain point. You’ve gotten somewhere and you have to decide what you want to do there.”
Oliver Sacks explores how the power of music can make the brain come alive. You need to watch this soon. It will only be available to watch for one week, from July 1-7, 2009, due to right restrictions.
I was taught to organize rhythms into increments of two measures at a time. Some beats/pulses get a natural emphasis in relation to their placement in the measure. I put together this illustration of the most natural points of relative emphasis in a 2-measure unit of rhythm.
Here’s an ear training game I’ve been playing using white noise.
A friend recently asked me for the list of feeds I read to keep up with the audio world because I’m always sending him the coolest stuff. Until now, I’ve kept it a closely guarded secret. But I figured we could collaborate and you could share some of your favorite audio sites in the comments.
Today we lost a jazz lion, Freddie Hubbard. I’ve spent countless hours digesting his music and transcribing his solos so his death deeply touches me. His art was a major influence on my jazz vocabulary. If you don’t own Speak No Evil, you’re missing out.
I’m not sure of the original source, but I just found these handwritten notes in the Delicious popular feed posted by thescotter. Awesome stuff!
If you make music with Logic Studio, you’ll be interested in a tutorial I just published showing you a cool time-saving trick for your Logic Studio Templates.
TextMate is my second favorite app right behind Logic Studio. I’ve written about my TextMate love affair a lot. In this tutorial, I wanted to share how I use TextMate to write and analyze lyrics, including tips for finding the perfect rhyme and spotlighting important ideas.
Just a couple of links for you to peruse over Labor Day.
If you hear some music and don’t know what it is, figure it out immediately. The next time you hear the same chord progression, melodic structure, or rhythm, you’ll probably know what it is. It’s usually as simple as that, and not unlike looking up a word you don’t know in the dictionary. Read on…
I’m running a little poll to help me better serve you. If you could take just a moment to answer the following question, I’d greatly appreciate it. Read on…
The concept is this: To be a good, competent songwriter, it will take 1,000 hours of practice. If you want to be a great songwriter, it will take 5,000 hours. Read on…
Mind Hacks pointed me to an interesting study by science journal PLoS One on the cognitive neuroscience of Jazz.
I’ve talked about the Shepard Tone before but NewScientist has just posted Five great auditory illusions.
It’s the 5th annual February Album Writing Month. The challenge? Write an entire album in just 29 days. Read on…
Here’s some recent podcasts from around the web that I’ve been inspired by musically. Read on…
Loading ...Make 2010 the year you master songwriting like a Samurai masters his sword! Download Samurai Songwriting issues 1 and 2 PLUS the John Lennon Hit Songwriting two-part telesminar for one super low price. Read on…
In preparation for my 2008 song-a-week project, I wanted some numbers to give me an idea of how much writing I would need to do. Using the 80/20 rule, here is what I came up with.
about grahamI'm a songwriter and recording artist who sings, plays keyboards, and explores the vast world of sound hoping to find some magical moments along the way. I'm also a Mac geek.
If Heroes needed a new superhero, it would be Montage Man. He can speed things up and add a catchy tune. 1 day ago
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