I dreamed that Ludwig and I are playing a grand piano at the shoreline of a turbulent ocean. He is dressed in a tuxedo and is whaling 3 chords over and over on the bass keys, except it doesn’t sound like a piano. It sounds like a chorus of Sirens and Merwomen singing into conch […]
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♪ Little Notes ♪
The ictus is the Moment of Music, the vertical dimension, the instant of the beat, the flick of a conductor’s hand. The flam is an ictus split into two. Drag over the noteheads to hear a flam of snare drum rimshots. In Percussionese, the flam is pronounced “Plah!”. Now try it at home: Exectue a […]
Percussionese
Little Richard speaks percussionese—the proto-language of drums. Check out his impression of a drum fill in Tutti Frutti for your MP3 player. Drag over the black stemmed noteheads… Drag over that final “boom” a few more times. Listen to how Little releases that note. He is very great. The people of Percussionesia speak a peculiar […]
The Robin & the Towhee
There are new Boird Band songs posted here! Drag over the black stemmed noteheads to hear the bird and how he might sound on an electric guitar. The American Robin sings “Cheerily, Cheeriup, Cheerio”. The above riff consists of perfect fourths going up and down. C is 4 degrees higher than an F, and G […]
Happy Birthday Song
There is no greater gift than group-singing a song to a loved one on the day of their birth. It’s too bad the only known Happy Birthday song is a slow waltz written 100 years ago that no one likes to sing. Perhaps this is because it’s too long. Might we simply cut this 8-bar […]
Sporting Event Melodies
The biggest sing-alongs on Earth are found at sporting events. Accompanied by a sparse hammond organ, thousands of people sing simple intervals and clap various 4/4 rhythms, albeit in a thousand different keys and at a thousand different tempos. This one’s my favorite. Drag over the black stemmed noteheads. “Asshole” is a minor third […]
Audience Licks
Music is born of Noise and applauded with Noise. The more musical a performance, the nosier the reaction. Some audience members might whistle or woo, but not usually in key. So too with blind hand clapping that says nothing of the tempo and rhythm of the applauded music just heard. Drag over these noteheads: The […]
