Friday 28 September 2012

Why purchase music? Because it counts...

Top 40 music certainly goes through phases, doesn't it? I'll bet if I listed a few songs from the Top 10 in a particular year, you could probably make a reasonable guess as to what year it was to within a decade for sure. At the very least, try for "early" "mid" or "late" and a decade.

Let's try it shall we? How about Addicted to Love by Robert Palmer, Kyrie by Mister Mister, How Will I Know by Whitney Houston, Say You Say Me by Lionel Richie, and That's What Friends Are For by Dionne Warwick and Friends. Think you got it to within a few years? Here's the answer.

Let's try again. Take Me Home Country Roads by John Denver, Go Away Little Girl by Donnie Osmond, It's Too Late/I Feel The Earth Move by Carol King, Maggie May by Rod Stewart, and Joy To The World by Three Dog Night. Got it? Check to find out.

One more time. Livin La Vida Loca by Rickie Martin, Every Morning by Sugar Ray, Genie In A Bottle by Christina Aguilera, ...Baby One More Time by Brittany Spears, and Believe by Cher. How did you do?

The point is not to test your trivia. The point is to try and look at patterns of how pop music changes. There's a certain sound to 60s rock and top 40 that defines it, and the same goes for the examples I used above. Compare the five artists in each example. Their music is not the same, but there are certainly similarities. This is as much a business phenomenon as a musical one.

When an artist releases some music that is a bit different than the mainstream, and has a huge hit all of a sudden, it can signal a change in direction. Every record company is going to look for artists already on their roster to see who has a sound similar to this "new big thing" and if they have no one they'll recruit new artists. Within a few months of some groundbreaking hit with a new groove, there'll be a dozen similar acts on your radio. Money talks.

That's why buying music in this age of easily available free music is an important choice. Consider it a vote. With each purchase of a CD or iTunes single, you're telling record companies your opinion. You're telling them what music you like, and you are backing it up with money. Will someone else download different music for free? Sure. Does it count as much to the creators and publishers of music. How can it? While they may be able to track freely downloaded songs and use it to get a picture of the musical landscape, there's no money there, and the massive success of iTunes means that there's a money trail to follow instead. If you owned a record company, which trail would you follow? Consumers who tell you what music they like with their dollar, or those who don't?

Tuesday 14 August 2012

What do you put on your fries?

I've made a point of comparing basic pop music to french fries, but not everyone enjoys their fries the same way. You may add salt, dip them in gravy, or with a bit of ketchup. I like mine with plenty of malt vinegar and a bit of salt. The point is that even french fries can be dressed up in various ways.

Pop songs can be dressed up too. I have a daughter who likes the group One Direction, so I've heard a few of their songs in the car and around the house. In their biggest hit "That's What Makes You Beautiful" there's an interesting drum fill just before the chorus that uses triplets. It's not a big thing, but it's the dash of salt that makes the song a little tastier.

An even better example (gravy anyone?) is the song "Take It Easy" by The Eagles. On the surface it's a pretty basic rock/pop song with a little country flavour, but there are two things which add a lot to the song. First and most obvious is their great layered harmonies. The other thing happens during the introduction. Go ahead a give it a quick listen. Did you feel like the drums were out of sync when they came in? That's because when you hear that very first guitar chord, most people assume it's on the downbeat, or beat 1 of the song. In fact, that first guitar chord happens half a beat earlier on the "and" of beat four. The easiest way to re-program your ears to hear this is to cue the song up and pause it, then count the beat to yourself and hit play around beat four. The first guitar strum plays on the and of four, and the next one is on beat two. Once you start the song by counting this way, the drum fill fits in perfectly. It's a little thing, but combined with the harmonies, it's enough to transform this plate of pop song french fries into poutine.

Bon appetit!

Sunday 29 July 2012

How do you react to music?

I always find it interesting to observe how people react to music. I don't make a conscious decision to actually observe in the scientific sense, it just happens. I was at a friend's wedding a few weeks ago, and the DJ had the same issue faced by all DJs at weddings. How do you please everyone? You've got people there from teenagers to the grandparents, and everyone has their own tastes in music. This guy was a pro who had done similar events before, and although he couldn't possibly please all the people all the time, he managed to please most of them at least some of the time. The most fun thing to observe through all this was when a song would end, and the couples on the dance floor would wait for a few seconds to hear what was coming on next. Then there would be the dejected walk back to their seats or the look of excitement in their eyes as they liked the next song and could stay up dancing. By the way, Billy Idol and Rick Springfield can still block a dance floor 30 years after their time on the Top 40.

Our reactions to music are pretty instantaneous, especially when you recognize the song. If you hear the beginning of a song you like, you might start to move and dance right away. If you are at home or in the car, you might reach for the volume control to turn it up. You might start singing along with the words or doing your best air guitar moves. If you go see a cover band in your local club and they play a bunch of songs you like, then you will like that band and want to hear them play again. Music is emotional and it gets tied up in our memories because of that.

If you are in your 30s or older, you are still listening to songs you liked 20 years ago (or more). When we are teenagers we really start to develop our own musical tastes as we move from music that our parents chose to play around the house or in the car and into songs recommended by friends and peers. The songs you like most as a teenager will often stick with you for the rest of your life. And sometimes it's not about the song itself, but about the time in your life, and the memories evoked by the song. A song sometimes acts like a snapshot of time, bringing you back to a special day or person in your past. This is an amazing, awesome thing, and should be enjoyed. However, it occurs to me that it can also be part of the reason why so many people in their 40s and 50s don't like the music that's popular with teenagers or people in their 20s. Since you are hearing the song at a different point in your life, it doesn't exist in the same context for you as it does for the younger people. Your reaction to it is not emotionally based, like when you hear your favourite song by Queen, U2, Metallica, Garth Brooks, or whoever you liked "back in the day".


When I hear people the same age as me call songs on this week's Top 40 "crap", I know it's because they're listening emotionally. They hear electronic sound effects and auto-tune and decide the song is lousy. If it had distorted guitars and real drums it would be "real music". I don't buy it. Today's music IS different in many ways than what was on the radio 20-30 years ago, but it's also the same in many ways. The part that is the MOST different is how you react to it.
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By the way, I'd love to get some feedback on this blog. You can leave a comment here. If you'd like to comment or contact me less publicly my email is FlipprNL@gmail.com and I am @FlipprNL on Twitter too.

Monday 16 July 2012

Simple vs Complex

As I said in my last post, Toto's "Falling In Between" is a great example of a song that is complex and remains fun, and I like it because it succeeds on so many levels. The point is that I would like it even if it wasn't complex, but it moves up a notch because it also appeals to the professional musician in me.

Let's look at two songs today that I really like, one simple and one complex. There are dozens I could choose from (make that hundreds) for either category, and if you haven't heard either of today's songs, I'll provide links so you can check them out. Remember my basic philosophy regarding music as stated in my first few posts. You may like, love or hate the following songs, but you aren't allowed to pass judgement on them, or on me for liking them. Musical "snobbery" is not welcome here.

For my simple song today I'd like you to listen to Sticky Situation by Danko Jones from the album Sleep Is The Enemy. (The song link is on YouTube, and the album cover used is wrong.) I first heard of this 3-piece Canadian band 10 years ago when I heard a clip from a song called Lovercall on a TV show called "New Music" (I think that was the name of the show). It was just a fluke, but I'm glad it happened. They've been a favourite of mine ever since then. Their music is mostly fast, and usually riff-based, meaning the guitar & bass often play a melodic line rather than just chords or repeated notes. Their lyrics are usually nothing to write home about, though there are a few exceptions. Sticky Situation is a typical Danko Jones song, simple to the point where I could probably have played along with most of it on the second listen, but it's a lot of fun. It's great for playing in the car, and has energy to spare.

For a more complex song, let's go to another 3-piece Canadian band. Many of you have already figured out I'm talking about Rush. There are many Rush songs that fit into the complex category, and many that are great fun as well, with plenty of songs that combine the two. For today, I'll just look at the introduction for the song YYZ from the album Moving Pictures. If you've never heard it before, go listen to it before continuing reading this post. The introduction consists of converting the letters YYZ (the code for Toronto's Pearson Airport) to Morse Code, and playing the dashes as 8th notes with the dots as 16th notes. The Morse code for the letters is dash-dot-dash-dash for Y and dash-dash-dot-dot for Z leading to a 5-beat pattern that would look something like this: -.--/-.--/--.. so the song begins in the time signature of 5/4. On top of that they choose the notes C and F#, called an augmented fourth or a tritone in music theory. After this intro the instrumental piece is a little more straightforward progressive rock, but it's the creativity of the introduction that  hooks me right away.

Two songs, one simple, one complex, and both are great songs to listen to. If you are a fan of one but not the other, that's okay. In fact, that's great. Our own musical tastes are unique, and I'm just getting started here. I've only mentioned 3 songs by name in six posts of this blog, and they've all been rock songs. I'm a huge fan of big band jazz and lots of other styles as well, so stay tuned for plenty of variety. If you stick with me I hope to help you find some music that you haven't heard before, and to gain an appreciation for the way particular pieces of music can appeal to one person and not the next and still remain valid pieces of music. Keep an open mind, and feel free to leave a comment.

Tuesday 10 July 2012

Toto makes awesome music, not french fries

If that explanation of my star rating system in iTunes seemed a bit out of character for this blog, it was done to give context about how I like certain songs more than others. I`m a little concerned that anyone who skims my posts may get the impression that I think all music is equal, but I think I covered that pretty well when I said they are equally important because each song has at least one fan, which gives it a seat at the table, if you will.

Today I want to talk about one of my favourite songs, and explain why I love it so much. It`s one of those songs that appeals to me on many levels, making it one of my all-time favourites and one that I could listen to any time, any day. It gets a 4-star rating. The song is Falling In Between by Toto, from the album of the same name released in 2006. First of all, it just plain rocks. It`s one of those songs that makes you dance even if you are sitting down. Staying still while this song plays is not an option.

Warning: Technical musical stuff ahead. If that bores you skip ahead.
After a brief intro, the verse starts at about 21 seconds in. We`re in the key of D, with no third present in the chord, just open fifths. The first note sung by Bobby Kimball is a C one octave above middle C. Not only is this an impressively high note for a male singer to hit full voice, but it is the 7th of the D chord underneath it. And he really hits it too. Underneath this fairly long note, the bass and guitar of Mike Porcaro and Steve Lukather respectively hammer out a rhythm consisting of alternating 3 quick notes with 2 slightly separated ones adding up to a pattern that is two and a half beats long in four-four time. This happens six times, bringing us to the 3rd beat of the fourth bar. That fourth bar is in five-four time, with the last two beats consisting of twelve 32nd notes and an 8th note played by Steve Lukather (and maybe Greg Phillinganes on keys). This song not only rocks, it showcases amazing technical chops as well as some very creative writing. It really fires on all cylinders.

The chorus includes vocals harmonized in fourths, there`s a great solo from Steve Lukather (but all his solos are great anyway), some full band chords that I still haven`t tried to figure out on the 3-2 rhythmic pattern, and a heavy riff that takes over at the 2:14 mark. The last 30 seconds or so is reminiscent of classic Toto hits like Rosanna and 99.
Okay, technical stuff is over.


What makes this a great song is that combination of pure raw rock with the more complex stuff. It appeals to me on a bunch of levels. It is definitely a complex menu item, not just french fries.

You`ll find a sample on Toto`s official page here, and a live version here.

Wednesday 4 July 2012

When is a 4-star rating better than a 5-star?

Before I got my first iPod, I had a small generic mp3 player, back when 1GB was considered pretty good. Prior to that I had a CD player in my car, and I remember on more than one occasion I was almost late for work because I was in my basement browsing through my CD collection to decide which discs to take in the car that day. When I got my first iPod (a 30GB click-wheel model) it was in June, and I spent most of that summer ripping my hundreds of CDs and putting them on my computer and my iPod. I was able to carry my complete CD collection with me at all times. This made me very happy. I currently have a 64 GB iPod Touch which I use primarily as a music player. Most of the apps I want to use are on my iPhone (with its Retina display). When people ask why I have both I tell them my 32GB iPhone won't hold all the apps I want plus all my music, so I still need the iPod for music.

As you probably figured out by now if you've read my first 3 posts, I like a pretty wide variety of music. There are times when I'm in the mood for something light, and times when I feel like something heavier. Having access to my complete collection lets me choose whatever I want at any given moment. iTunes has become very good at helping out when I'm not quite sure what I'm in the mood for, not just with the shuffle feature, but the more impressive genius feature. Play a song you are in the mood for, hit the genius button on your iPod, and it will select more songs that are similar to that one and put them all in a playlist which continues immediately after your initial song finishes. How do they do that? While I'm not 100% sure of the details behind it, I know it has something to do with genre, year of publication, and the number of times songs appear together in other user-generated playlists. I like this feature, and have used it many times. My iPod has 5476 songs on it as of today so the genius feature always manages to find some good stuff. Your mileage may vary.


With over 5000 songs on my iPod, it's easy for my simple human brain to lose track of stuff that I like but haven't listened to in a while. That's where the star rating system and playlists come into play. Let's talk stars first. Whenever I buy a new album and play it for the first time, I always rate each song. iTunes and your iPod let you do this any time, and I've gotten in the routine of doing it the first time I play it. If I'm not enjoying a song at all (not every track on an album is gold, right?) I will assign it a 1-star rating. These songs get removed from my iPod next chance I get, though I keep everything in iTunes on my computer. If I'm not enjoying the song much, but it's not awful, 2-star. Songs I like, the "average" song gets the 3-star (currently 3001 songs out of the 5476). Songs I really like a lot and want to hear more often get 4-star ratings (currently 462 songs). This is my preferred setting, and when I'm not sure what I'm in the mood for I will open up a playlist I made which includes all my songs rated with 4 stars and hit shuffle. I am guaranteed to like whatever comes up.


The rating of 5 stars is reserved for songs I really like that meet one of two criteria. 1.) They need a bit more attention and I don't like playing them as background music or 2.) I don't want to overplay them. I listen to my 5-star songs less than I do my 4-star songs. There are currently 44 songs in my 5-star playlist, and honestly I need to update and move a few of them to 4-stars. I'll do that today.


Playlists are easy to make in iTunes, and my favourite are the smart playlists which follow a set of rules instead of just dumping a bunch of songs in there yourself. I created a playlist where the rule is that the number of times the song has been played equals zero. When I really don't know what else to listen to, I'll open that list, since it contains songs on my iPod I've never played. There's not much in there now, just a few Beethoven symphonies I haven't gotten around to (I have a CD set with all nine symphonies), an album I received from a friend recently which I'll probably play this week, and an album we bought on iTunes for my daughter. Total is 37 songs unplayed out of my 5476 total. Not bad.


That's it for me today. I don't want these blog posts to get too long and I've covered my iPod setup. I'll probably do another blog very soon, since I want to talk about some of the songs I like the most, and explain why certain songs get that enigmatic 5-star rating.

Wednesday 27 June 2012

Not equal, just equally important

If you read my first post (and who would start on the third one?) then you might recall I said I felt I had a reason to start a blog. Obviously it's so I can explain my position on the importance of treating all music equally. As I've said, all music has value to someone and I think that should be respected.

Does that mean all music is equal? Not necessarily. It's possible for things to be equally important without being equal. Any parent with more than one child will tell you they love their children equally (okay, any decent parent will), but that doesn't mean the kids are all the same. One might excel at sports while one more musical in nature. But if the coach of the athletic child tells the parent their other child is worthless because they're not into sports, what do you think will happen? The parent will be pretty annoyed with the coach (well, a decent parent will anyway).

Let's talk about movies for a minute. Are you a fan of comedies or dramas? Science fiction or love stories? If you are sitting around with a group of friends and someone says their favourite (Canadian spelling, remember?) movie is <insert name of movie you hate here>, you will probably tell them you hate that movie. You may tell them about a movie you like more, and explain what's so great about it. It may turn out that they liked your favourite movie as well, or you two might find some other flick you both like. I'm pretty sure your opinion of that person is not tied to the fact that they liked a movie you hated.

If we translate those two scenarios above into music, the outcome can be quite different. You say you like a certain song, and suddenly another person in the room passes a value judgement on both the song, and also on you. "That song sucks! How can you like that? Ugh!". The words may not come out exactly like that, but someone will likely be thinking along those lines. Maybe you're the one who has done that to someone else. Obviously nothing is so black-and-white as these situations, but I'm trying to say that it seems okay to almost everybody to criticize a piece of music without thinking about how that might bother the fans of the song.

That's not to say that I like all music equally myself. I'm no different from anyone with regards to having an opinion about certain songs or artists. The big difference is that I don't believe it's okay for us to judge a song, and I see it happen all the time. That's the reason I've avoided naming any particular songs (or movies in today's examples). I'm trying to avoid your immediate reaction to a title because you might love the thing while somebody else reading this blog might hate it.

In the coming weeks, this blog will be less and less about making my main point (I think I've established it pretty well with these first three), and will move into talking about music in many ways. I will get more specific and mention particular song titles, and particular artists. I'll encourage you to listen to some of my favourite songs, and explain why I think it's worth your time to do so. You might even suggest a song to me in the comments. Hopefully the other readers will resist criticizing, give it a listen, and maybe find more great music to put on their iPods. (Well, the decent ones will anyway).

Monday 25 June 2012

A university-trained, bass-playing saxophone player...

I guess before we really get into this blogger/audience relationship I should tell you a bit about myself. Well, about my musical self at least.

I clearly remember the first time I could play a melody and recognize it. The feeling that it was ME that created the music I heard was addictive. It's that love of creating that led me to pursue a music career professionally. I received my Bachelor of Music / Bachelor of Music Education degree in 1987, with a major in saxophone. That first melody I played was on a clarinet way back when I was in Grade 5. When I switched to saxophone in Grade 7, I initially played the baritone sax. As I got more serious about entering university, I moved to tenor and then alto. That switch made me miss playing all the low parts of the band, so I bought a bass guitar and have been playing that for almost 30 years as well.

What musical roads does a university-trained bass-playing saxophone player follow? Plenty of them. I've played both sax and bass in small jazz combos, full sized jazz bands, rock bands and concert bands. I've even sat in with an orchestra playing some Gershwin. I've sung in a few choirs, and routinely sing harmony vocals in any rock band I've been in. I've written for jazz bands, concert bands, and choirs, and I've programmed some mixes on the computer. I teach music to Junior High and High School students and direct several bands now. I like to think my range is wide.

Please understand that I'm not saying this list of things in a bragging way. In fact, you might be asking if it means I'm good at lots of things but not great at any of them! That may be so, but I think there's a lot of perspective that can be gained from my approach. I know too many classically trained musicians who frown on rock music because of its simplicity from a harmonic or melodic standpoint. I know jazz musicians who think everything except jazz is unworthy of their attention. I know rock musicians who won't even try to listen to anything else. I think they're all wrong. Every style has its own strengths. Being closed-minded about a style of music is just plain wrong.

Let me quickly go back to the word "perspective". Think quickly about your favourite song or composition. Got it in your head? There's somebody else somewhere in the world who loves that song as much as you, and I don't mean just the writer. Every piece of music has fans. Think about a piece of music you don't like. Maybe it's one of those songs people make fun of, or it's something your parents liked and made you listen to when you were younger. Maybe it's something your kids like today. There's somebody else somewhere in the world who loves that song. As much as you think it's stupid, they love it (even if it is just the writer). Who's right about the song? Both of you. Our opinion is our own. Love it, hate it, feel indifferent about it, whatever. Just don't start trying to figure out if it's a good song or a bad song. There's no such thing, as long as somebody out there thinks the song is worthy. Musical beauty really is in the ear of the beholder.

Don't worry, I'll get around to telling you what compositions and bands I like soon enough. But for now, stop reading and go listen to something you like. I'll be back.

Tuesday 19 June 2012

Music and French Fries? Let me explain...

I've been around the Web ever since it was just the Internet, and I've read a few blogs here and there. I never figured I'd write one because I just didn't feel like I had anything all that unique to say. That's changed recently, and I've decided to use this space to discuss that most temporary of art forms... music. I'll get to the french fries later.

I'll introduce myself a little more fully in a future blog posting. For now, I'm an active musician and music teacher, with a University degree in music and music education, and a masters of education. I play saxophone and bass, and my name is Ron. I'd rather use the bulk of today's post to explain why I've started this thing and tell you what you can expect. (Don't worry, I'm not forgetting the fries.)

Recently I've noticed how often people take an elitist approach to telling others what music they like, as if your choice of what gets played on your iPod somehow makes them better than someone else because of their music choice. Even worse, some people will claim to be die-hard fans of a band or singer, not because that singer is popular, but because they're not popular. You like Top 40? You have no taste. You like (insert obscure band name here)? You are so totally cool.

I think people should just listen to music they like, and not worry about whether someone else likes that music too. In fact, most people probably have a song or two in their collection that they don't talk about, the "guilty pleasure" track. You listen to it in your car by yourself, right? Maybe I'll tell you mine someday, but we need to get to know each other a little first. See, I don't really worry about what's "good" music or not, because I'm not really sure I'm qualified to judge that. Scratch that. I know I'm not qualified. I'm certainly qualified to tell you what I like and don't like, but not what is objectively "good" or "bad". Music is too personal for that. It has the ability to bypass your brain and go straight to your heart, or your feet, or your hips. Who cares if anyone else likes it? Do you? Yes? Then celebrate! Stop listening with your head.

I think I'll need many posts to explain that idea right, but it's a start. Let's move on to the french fries, shall we?

I teach music to junior high students. Sometimes I'll play a piece of music that's outside their normal musical diet. I actually think that's an important part of my job, to expose them to more than just the music they are force fed on Top 40 radio (not that there's anything wrong with those songs, of course). Whenever I play something really different, like East Indian music, or something classical, or something really experimental, they all resist. That's when I ask them the big question. My hook. "Do you like french fries?"

They stare at me blankly, the sudden shift in topic throwing them off. "If you like french fries, put up your hand." It's over 90% of every single class (but you already knew that). Then I ask who likes another food, maybe lasagna or lettuce, bacon or broccoli. The number of hands in the air changes with each item. And nobody judges anyone else for their food tastes. If a student asks another "You really like broccoli?", the answer is usually a shrug, like it's no big deal. I remind them that most of them like french fries, and ask if they would like to eat only french fries for the rest of their lives. They answer no, they want other foods too. So I say "Think of Top 40 music as french fries. I'm just introducing you to some other flavours*, and who knows, you might like a few of them. Later you can choose what you want to listen to all on your own. (*Canadian spelling, get used to it).

TL;DR Yeah, right. Go read it. I'd love to hear your feedback, as long as it's not just about some song you think is stupid.