Matt's Music Class Matthew W Dayton

In this episode we’re taking a break from our usual lessons to practice noticing some ingenious song structures used equally effectively by two brilliant composers a couple centuries apart. I wanted to share with you two great songs and just point out some great musical moments to listen for and why they’re so cool. First we look at the melodic theme and its retrograde inversion in Cole Porter’s “You’re the Top;” and then we find similar melodic inversions in J.S. Bach’s “Invention No. 1.”

Hopefully, after hearing the first part of each song and then hearing the clever musical elements out of context, you’ll be able to notice and appreciate more from listening to the whole song. Enjoy!

In this episode we learn about Chords: the abstract packages of pitches that create (consonant or dissonant) Harmony when played at the same time. We also learn why the Triad is the most common type of chord and how to build one; and we play a couple triads together on our keyboards to harmonize a song.

I recommend having your keyboard handy and being familiar with Consonance and Dissonance from Lesson 8 to get the most out of this lesson on chords.

In this lesson we look at the abstract mathematical form that defines the Major Scale (our familiar Do-Re-Mi sound), how it can be moved around to different starting (or Tonic) pitches on the keyboard, and how this knowledge of a scale can help us move “When the Saints Go Marching In” to a different starting pitch on the keyboard and keep it sounding like the same tune. We also dip our toes into the vast waters of Harmony (ie. two or more pitches sounding simultaneously) with a Harmonic Yoga exercise and some listening examples that highlight Consonance versus Dissonance.

In order to follow along effectively, you will need to be familiar with the keyboard (see Episode 4 for an introduction to the keyboard) as well as the basic concept of Tonality (see Episode 7).

Today’s bite-sized episode introduces the concept of Tonality. This is the first basic concept that undergirds the arcane world of Harmony. It may be a fancy sounding name, but the concept of tonality is already familiar to your brain’s automatic (subconscious) music processing system; so today’s lesson is just about learning to consciously recognize the pitch center of gravity for any melody you hear.

And, more good news, this lesson doesn’t require having listened to any previous episodes. It can work as a great introduction to Matt’s Music Class without a big time commitment! Yay!

For more information, and to support the podcast, visit my website: www.mwdaytonmusic.com.

Since we’ve completed our first big batch of concepts (Beat, Rhythm, Meter, and Melody), I figured it’s time to have an episode that brings them all together and demonstrates how much we can now listen for in a song to start figuring out how and why it’s put together the way it is. So here’s a special Summary and Review Lesson, with a practical listening checklist you can use when you want to really listen to a song. Enjoy!

For more information, and to support the podcast, visit my website: www.mwdaytonmusic.com.

In this episode, we’ll learn a new simple melody on the keyboard (this time in the ‘ta-ki-de’ or skipping meter, but still with the classic ABA structure), and discover how complex a melody’s evolutionary growth can get by analyzing a Chinese folk song and listening to a Bach keyboard invention.

Key terms and definitions from this episode:

Repetition with variation - the most common process for generating a melody with clear, logical architecture (start with a melodic molecule, repeat it with some degree of variation, rinse, repeat).

Legato and Staccato - ‘smooth’ and ‘choppy;’ standard music terms for describing how notes are articulated (all connected or with clear space between them).

Motivic development - when a melodic molecule recurs throughout the melody as a whole, accruing small variations each time so that it’s like an evolving creature or a developing fictional character in a novel.

For more information and to support the podcast, visit my website: www.mwdaytonmusic.com