Comments for

Comment on Occupy Melodies by Los Doggies

Los Doggies — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 22:39:29 +0000

Yes, yes; yes. You are so right! I am an enharmonic idiot, and unfortunately, that widget will have to stay like that forever.

Also, I don’t believe in Augmented Seconds.

Comment on Occupy Melodies by Mike

Mike — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 07:10:40 +0000

Technically, the way it’s notated that’s an augmented second.

Comment on Occupy Melodies by oh

oh — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 22:52:30 +0000

Genius

Comment on Mmmm Mmmm Mm Mm Mmmm by Los Doggies

Los Doggies — Sun, 11 Sep 2011 15:09:40 +0000

Please refer to Robert Van Winkle’s discussion on the little differences in life.

Comment on Mmmm Mmmm Mm Mm Mmmm by Daniel GB Gibson

Daniel GB Gibson — Sat, 10 Sep 2011 19:34:57 +0000

I was hoping this post would be about the Crash Test Dummies.

Comment on Devils in Love―The Major Seventh Augmented Fourth Chord by Los Doggies

Los Doggies — Sat, 25 Jun 2011 13:45:35 +0000

Yes, that's the right idea. Thank you for bringing it up. "Calling to the Night" begins on Amajor 7th, progresses to a Bmajor (add 9), and then to a C#minor (add 9). The Devil lurks in the intro to this song, though her Chord is not explicitly sounded. The C#minor (add 9) is arpeggiated on piano, sounded a lot like the Major Seventh Augmented Fourth Chord, only without the A root, but because the song begins on the A major 7th, it has a strong devilish sway on the tonality of the piece (which is C# minor, and not the equivalent A Lydian). Thank you TheHydra-san.

Comment on Devils in Love―The Major Seventh Augmented Fourth Chord by TheHydra

TheHydra — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 12:32:44 +0000

Sorry, correction: composed by Akihiro Honda, performed by Natasha Farrow.

Comment on Devils in Love―The Major Seventh Augmented Fourth Chord by TheHydra

TheHydra — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 12:31:49 +0000

I’m pretty sure this exact chord is used in the intro to “Calling to the Night” by Natasha Farrow. Beautiful little thing.

Comment on How to make a Musical Funny by Los Doggies

Los Doggies — Sat, 18 Jun 2011 22:40:13 +0000

Dear Mal,

The Chords in question occur around measure 90 in “The Augurs of Spring: Dances of the Young Girls” section. The article contains a clip of this section. The A/Eb polychord is heard on the accented beats (mostly up-beats), while the E/Eb polychord fills out the rest of the beats.

And yes, you’re correct, the Petrushka Chord is essentially the same thing, except in Rite of Spring, the A/Eb polychord has the Eb dominant 7th (Db).

Thank you for your feedback.

Comment on How to make a Musical Funny by Mal

Mal — Fri, 17 Jun 2011 17:49:34 +0000

Great article. :)

Though I’ve got to ask – in which bars/rehearsal numbers do we hear this A/Eb polychord? I know the Petrushka polychord chord is basically the same transposed – two major chords separated by a tritone – the old ‘diabolus’ of music.

Comment on How to make a Musical Funny by Jørgen

Jørgen — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 09:49:00 +0000

Aha, thanks for the insight! I haven’t heard it in a long time, and I didn’t know where he got his ideas from, or the background for this work. I’ll have a listen tonight. Thanks for your awesome blog!

Comment on How to make a Musical Funny by Los Doggies

Los Doggies — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 22:15:23 +0000

That’s ok Jørgen. I’ll keep trying to make you laugh.

Rite of Spring is like Stravinsky’s blues. He takes a lot of simple folk and pop music ideas and basically ‘farts on’ them, as in the example above. The One to Four Chord Progression (E to A) is probably the most popular chord progression of all time, and here Stravinsky farts on it, by harmonizing it polytonally (Ebdom7), except he was dead serious at the time. He wasn’t trying to make a funny, but when people first heard this song in 1913, they laughed at it, and rightly so, because it is hilarious.

Comment on How to make a Musical Funny by Jørgen

Jørgen — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 03:38:11 +0000

This is just one of those where I completely understand the workings, but can’t for my life see the humor. I feel so left out right now :o

Comment on How to make a Musical Funny by Los Doggies

Los Doggies — Thu, 19 May 2011 14:29:26 +0000

Dear Jørgen, The progression is very subtle, but you can hear it better if you listen to the actual clip from Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring . The first chord is an Ebdom7 with an E major on the bottom. The second chord is an Ebdom7 with an A major on the bottom. Try playing around with the 2 widgets in this post and you'll hear the subtle difference between the 2 chords. I suppose it's not "ha ha" funny, but I believe Stravinsky was attempting to parody a simple I → IV chord progression, in a quasi-humorous fashion.

Comment on How to make a Musical Funny by Jørgen

Jørgen — Thu, 19 May 2011 07:52:07 +0000

I don’t get the funny. And where’s the progression? I can only see/hear one chord.

Comment on How to make a Musical Funny by Jerman Jermit

Jerman Jermit — Tue, 17 May 2011 00:37:40 +0000

that wrong is so right!

Comment on A lone a last a loved a long the Lydian by Scott

Scott — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 22:13:55 +0000

Jazz improvisers almost universally using the lydian scale over tonic major 7 chords. This list of songs could get extremely long if we started digging into jazz fake books

Comment on A lone a last a loved a long the Lydian by Los Doggies

Los Doggies — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 19:25:54 +0000

Oh yeah, that’s a good one!

Comment on A lone a last a loved a long the Lydian by Old Herty

Old Herty — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 05:30:32 +0000

“All I Need” by Radiohead (In Rainbows) is a nice lydian tune – kind of like someone snatched the end of “Man in the Mirror” and stole it away to a cave for sustenance through a nuclear winter.

Comment on A lone a last a loved a long the Lydian by Erica

Erica — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 00:11:55 +0000

Thanks, this is inspiring. I’ve always loved the lydian sound:)

Comment on Los Crazies by Los Doggies

Los Doggies — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 23:59:48 +0000

Thanks Jimbo. I now see the connection Ted was making. •_•

I was mistakenly thinking of the melody where they sing “The Simpsons” and not the instrumental melody.

Comment on Los Crazies by Los Doggies

Los Doggies — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 23:57:01 +0000

I think that Danny Elfman (the composer of “The Simpsons” and Tim Burton movies) often goes for a silly circusy sound, so certain scales appeal to him, like Lydian, because they are naturally silly sounding.

So in this case, I think the composer wakes up every morning, rolls up the shades, and says “I’m going to write another Lydian song!”

Comment on Los Crazies by Ted

Ted — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 21:33:24 +0000

Very cool. Do you think the composer thinks to himself, “I’m going to write a song in the Lydian scale,” or is it not that planned and it just works out that way?

Comment on Los Crazies by Jimbo

Jimbo — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 20:12:22 +0000

And the first tones of the Simpsons theme melody go: Do Mi #Fa La So

Comment on Los Crazies by Los Doggies

Los Doggies — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 15:39:06 +0000

Yeah Ted, you are correct. “The Simpsons Theme” is very similar to my 3 Tones of Madness. They are both in a Lydian Scale.

While the 3 tones go: Do, Mi, #Fa
The Simpsons goes: Do, #Fa, So

Thank you for drawing that to my attention!

Comment on Los Crazies by Ted

Ted — Fri, 01 Apr 2011 00:07:04 +0000

This sounds a bit like the opening of the Simpsons theme song?

Comment on Picardy Party by Jimbo

Jimbo — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 15:50:09 +0000

I can think of a few: Hall & Oates, the venerable Captain Beefheart, and the first one I thought of: In Flames(do watch your speaker levels on this one). Is Toccata & Fugue really cheesy? And is there a third e in cheesy?

Comment on ♪ Little Notes ♪ by Los Doggies

Los Doggies — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 11:18:39 +0000

Hey that is good! A Karnov fugue seems inevitable.

Comment on ♪ Little Notes ♪ by Nick

Nick — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 23:14:04 +0000

I know this is an old post and it’s weird to reply to, but try playing the two Karnov samples one measure apart!

Comment on Elevator Music by Los Doggies

Los Doggies — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 04:20:08 +0000

Thank you for further elaborating good sir. You wouldn’t happen to be an elevator operator would you?

Comment on Elevator Music by harryplatz

harryplatz — Sat, 19 Mar 2011 18:54:44 +0000

Elevators ding once if they’re going up, twice if they’re going down (or the other way around maybe) so you should hear at least three dings for each round trip

Comment on The Song of Speech by donate japan disaster

donate japan disaster — Tue, 15 Mar 2011 02:49:13 +0000

Who wants to support donate to Japan?
It’s’ extremely unfortunate as to what is happening in Japan, so assist donate!
Japan demands your own help!

Comment on All Hail the Holy Half Whole by Los Doggies

Los Doggies — Thu, 10 Mar 2011 00:32:41 +0000

Literary humour, good sir. Have you seen the semicolons?

Comment on All Hail the Holy Half Whole by jesse

jesse — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 22:29:55 +0000

awesome article. lovin the “ans” before “h” words!

Comment on Oh! Oh! Canada! Canada! by jesse

jesse — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 02:19:12 +0000

so good. i love this boird!

Comment on King of Off-Beat Samba Limbs by Lucas

Lucas — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 21:54:16 +0000

Yeah this song has been infuriating me since I downloaded this album. On my first listen thru I didn’t quite get the beat sorted, now it’s carved into my brain with the hi-hats on the down beats, and the snares an up-beat short. I have yet to have the song fall properly into beat in my head. So by all right, I don’t really know what it sounds like :P

I had the same problem with Analyze from Thom Yorke’s Eraser album. The version floating around on P2P networks (I know, shame on me) had the first half second or so chopped off, so I ‘learned’ the song in my head incorrectly. To this day I really have to focus to hear it properly right when it starts. Listening to the live version helped a LOT as it was not quite so busy.

But yeah, just wanted to say thanks. Didn’t figure there was anyone as dorky as me who would actually put together info on how this beat is actually supposed to fall. I was pleasantly surprised!!

Comment on King of Off-Beat Samba Limbs by mythin

mythin — Sat, 26 Feb 2011 18:30:03 +0000

if you like syncopated beats, check out this label night slugs. http://rougesfoam.blogspot.com/2011/01/artl-night-slugs.html

Comment on Intervals by Los Doggies

Los Doggies — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 18:27:39 +0000

Thanks Simon for your sharp elfish eye. The mistake has been corrected.

Comment on Intervals by Simon M

Simon M — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 15:53:48 +0000

Oh – and forgot to day: Very interesting article! Thankyou

Comment on Intervals by Simon M

Simon M — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 15:53:13 +0000

Are Maj 3rd and Min 3rd the wrong way around in the diagram above?

Comment on Devils in Love―The Major Seventh Augmented Fourth Chord by Hwarg

Hwarg — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 06:18:53 +0000

One of my favorite chords! Though I will confess, I often leave out the fifth for extra ambivalence between BEAUTY and ANXIETY.

Comment on Musical cryptograms by Cryptograms by Louise B. Moll « Sketching Draw

Cryptograms by Louise B. Moll « Sketching Draw — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 16:01:43 +0000

[...] Musical cryptograms « [...]

Comment on A Nice Place to Live by Nulleytrealay

Nulleytrealay — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 16:24:13 +0000

Pleased Fresh Year one! :)

Comment on Quiet as a Quetzal at the Conquest by tenfingerstommy

tenfingerstommy — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 17:51:46 +0000

Love the broad range of coverage in this post and how you tied it all together. There is now a soft spot in my heart for the quiet quetzal!

Comment on The Song of Speech by yo

yo — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 16:54:53 +0000

I merrily accept your non-literal interpretation.
you should do a post on words where a syllable or 2 are usually dropped in common speech like “prolly”.

Comment on The Song of Speech by Los Doggies

Los Doggies — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 21:31:21 +0000

People say it: LI-ter-lly
like “BA da bo”, especially within a sentence.
The vowel clip is on the A not the E.
I hear the 4 syllables more often when it is used at the end of the sentence, or for emphasis.
Not trying to be snooty. I like where this discussion is going.

Comment on The Song of Speech by yo

yo — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 19:41:06 +0000

ok…then you should change the example to show “Lit Ral Ly” as the triplet or something like that. literally might just be a bad example as i usually here it pronounced precisely with the 4 syllables – ba ba da bo – like that. and i find that i might merrily sleep all day rather than literally.

Comment on The Song of Speech by Los Doggies

Los Doggies — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 14:40:28 +0000

Maybe you missed this little sentence:

Though it is actually a four-syllable word, the natural vowel clipping of linguistic evolution, renders “literally” a swinging triplet, perfect for jazzing up our soliloquies.

Vowel clipping is a linguistic phenomenon, where excess vowels get clipped by speakers. So “literally” is most often pronounced as three syllables.

A better example might be “merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily…”.

Comment on The Song of Speech by yo

yo — Thu, 13 Jan 2011 14:14:20 +0000

I get where you are going with the triplet but it just doesn’t seem to quite work out with your example: “literally” has 4 syllables so it doesn’t really work as a triplet – what do you think?
nice devil doll!

Comment on Key Change Songs by IPE: My Voice | Recording

IPE: My Voice | Recording — Sat, 08 Jan 2011 19:52:51 +0000

[...] Key Change Songs « [...]