Artist Spotlight #2: Nahre Sol

I am excited to share this second installment of the Artist Spotlight series, featuring the fantastic pianist/composer/Youtuber, Nahre Sol!

From the first time I heard her music, I was hooked. On top of her technical prowess on the piano, she has a unique talent for presenting complex musical ideas in a profoundly engaging way. From Bach analysis to practice exercises to original compositions, her Youtube channel covers a great range of content. If you haven't had the pleasure of hearing her music, I encourage you to remedy that!

Without further ado, enjoy this Artist Spotlight #2!...

[Background / Influences]

1. Is there some moment you can pinpoint growing up where the 'lightbulb switched on' and you set your sights on becoming a musician?

I remember being very inspired by two professional musicians I played a trio with at the age of 9.  It was such a new and exciting experience to play with others, that I remember feeling very drawn to music as a whole. 

2. Favorite pianist?

Martha Argerich and Glenn Gould

3A. Favorite classical composer?

J.S. Bach

3B. Favorite contemporary composer?

Arvo Pärt currently, but it changes every...month or so.

[Your Work]

1. You do a lot of different things: perform in solo and chamber recitals worldwide, record and edit videos for your YouTube channel, improvise and compose your own music, teach lessons, etc. Out of all of these, is one aspect your favorite?

I enjoy the process of writing my own music or my own arrangement of something.  It gives me a chance to be very original and the possibilities are endless.

2. Your channel not only features beautiful, innovative music, but also superb videography and slick editing. Can you identify any personally influential films/videos which feature music & video so thoughtfully intertwined, as in your work?

I can’t really think of an example similar to the type of editing I do, because it wasn’t modeled off of anything specific.  I am, however, very much influenced by the raw and imaginative characteristics of great street photographers such as Henri Cartier-Bresson -- but I’m not sure how my videography reflects that at all.

3. What does a typical day look like for you? Do you follow a routine or workflow that allows you to do so many things and lead a creative life?

I am either practicing, teaching, or running errands during the day, and I do my video editing and other work or studies very very late into the night (I am the most active around 12-3am).  I don’t have a formal schedule because every day changes quite a bit.

[Using technology/internet as a musician]

1. Software: Sibelius or Finale or something else?

Sibelius and sometimes Notion on the iPad.

2. I’ve been happy to see your YouTube channel continue to steadily grow and gain attention from more folks (including the likes of Rick Beato, for example).

A. What hopes do you have for your ever-growing channel?

I’d like to get to know the music community more and I would like to collaborate with other musicians online to further explore concepts in both composition and performance practice, etc.

B. Who are your favorite YouTubers these days?

Rick Beato, Jeff Schneider, Andrew Huang, Adam Neely, Veritasium.

3. Preferred compositional workflow: Paper & pencil? iPad and stylus? Straight into notation software?

Paper and pencil.

[Now & Near-Future]

1A. What current projects are you working on?

I co-direct a concert series in Toronto called Happenstance, with Brad Cherwin and Adanya Dunn.  I am also working on a few different compositions, writing a book of exercises based on Chopin’s Etudes Op. 10, and of course, continuing to make videos.

B. I’ve seen you mention that you will be making some of your compositions available soon. What platform will you use, or where can we keep an eye out for those? 

They will be available on my website, www.nahresol.com.

2. What inspires you today?

Other musicians! And other creators online that produce memorable content.

3. For someone just discovering your work, what composition or video of yours would you suggest they check out first? (OR: Which creation are you most proud of?)

Perhaps my Etude for Right Hand Alone.  I wrote it while dealing with an injury affecting my left arm, so I am proud that I made use of that frustrating period by creating a piece of music.

[Music-theory-nerdy stuff / other]

1A. Do you have a favorite [key / particular chord / voicing / anything like that]? (I think you answered ‘no’ to this in Rick Beato’s live stream… but I’m going to re-ask in case an answer happens to pop up!)

Still no :)

1B. Least favorite of any of the above?

A fast line that is doubled with an octave -- maybe.

2. Non-musical hobbies?

Photography.

3. Are you familiar with Dan Tepfer’s “Goldberg Variations / Variations”? With your classical background and inclination towards improvisation, I think you would enjoy it! 

Yes, I have heard some of his performances online, and I was very impressed!

4. Any other final thoughts you’d like to share (about anything)?

Thanks for being in touch with me!  It’s always really cool to interact with musicians from all over.  I think the tighter our community is both locally and online, the better chance we have to stand up for the art we believe in.

--
My thanks to Nahre Sol for the thoughtful answers, and for being the second participant in this 'Artist Spotlight' interview series! Be sure to check out Nahre's work, and subscribe to her channel. I strongly agree with that final sentiment; it is so important to engage with others in our creative community! To that end, I hope this Q&A served to bring our community just a bit closer together. :)

P.S. All links were added by me, Luke, with the aim of leading the reader to all relevant listening materials & works referenced in Nahre's responses. I hope you can find the time to click some of them! Thanks for reading. 

Latin Jazz 'Cheat Sheet'

In the jazz world, the term "Latin jazz" gets thrown around a lot, as a sort of catch-all umbrella term, effectively lumping a slew of different styles into one category. As someone who started learning about Latin styles later in my musical development, the vague and messy categorization of these styles has always been a point of confusion.

So, one day I decided to hit the books and try to sort through the terminology. In so doing, I came up with this sort of 'cheat sheet,' mostly for my own personal study purposes. (Link at the bottom.)

Of course, as you've probably heard from your music teachers your whole life, the best way to learn about new styles is to listen, listen, listen. And that's true.

However, for me, reading about these styles (as a supplement to listening) is what has helped sort out much of the confusion with terminology and the subtle differences between styles.

Though I'm a huge proponent of just 'playing what you hear,' that's not always the most authentic/appropriate manner of playing, depending on the musical style at hand. In any genre of music there are certain conventions (rhythms, standard comping patterns, and voicings) that ought to be studied and absorbed in order to play authentically.

This is true for the Afro-Cuban and Brazilian styles I tried to cover in this 2-page sheet. It is absolutely not a comprehensive study on these styles (it is, after all, only 2 pages), but it is a starting place.

The sheet has been helpful for me in trying to wrap my head around these different styles of music, and perhaps it will be helpful for you, too. It contains mostly rhythm-focused information, but also includes some in-context examples which are geared towards piano players.

>Free access to the document: HERE

Artist Spotlight #1: Max Keenlyside

Since stumbling on his work (via YouTube), I have been a huge fan of Max Keenlyside. It was refreshing to see/hear such dedicated, focused work from someone, and I was struck by his wide range of musical skills. For more about Max, head over to his site and read his bio & certainly listen to his compositions.

For those reasons and more, I knew Mr. Keenlyside would be a fantastic way to start my new series of interviews. Without further ado, enjoy this first Artist Spotlight...

"Benedict" Break-Down: A Closer Look at My Egg-Inspired Invention

"Benedict" is the third movement of my Egg Suite for solo piano.

Here's the piece's description from the Egg Suite music book's preface:

'III. We’re skipping past sunny-side-up and plunging into poached territory. A difficult dish [Eggs Benedict], requiring patience and precision, brought to my mind the poise, regality, and even snobbishness of royalty. Let’s call him King Benedict. A quasi-invention, built off of a subject which begins with “E, G#, G#,” seems to capture the stately nature of the king.'

As mentioned (well, alluded to) in that blurb, "Benedict" is a Bach-like, baroque style invention of sorts. Basically, that means it features a main musical idea (subject), a complementary idea (countersubject), and imitative counterpoint to develop those subject and countersubject motives.

And that's what you can find in this piece! Furthermore, in terms of form, I structured it basically as an A-B-A' form: It contains an Exposition (Section A), Development (Section B), and a Recapitulation (A'). More on that later.

So, let's take a look at the piece, in excruciating detail. (Brace yourselves... ) Here we go!

Note: For all images, click them to enlarge.

The Exposition (Section A)

To kick off the thing, I (for obvious reasons) had to begin with the E-G-G motif (technically E-G#-G#). This first chunk of the subject (a) has a straightforward rhythm: three pairs of slur-staccato eighth notes. To break up that pattern, I injected some syncopation into the melody, as seen in (b).

Figure 1: The Subject (a + b)

This second chunk adds rhythmic interest in a couple ways: it includes smaller (i.e. quicker) note values—sixteenth notes, and each of its smaller rhythmic cells (1/16th, 1/16th, 1/8th, 1/8th) adds up to 1 and 1/2 beats. Since this is the case, a succession of these rhythmic cells effectively alternates which part of the beat gets the sixteenth notes. Yay, syncopation!

Side-by-side, I really liked how these two chunks (a) and (b) played off of each other. So, that meant I had a Subject (Figure 1) which I was happy with! Happy enough to write a whole invention... which brings us to the Countersubject:

The Countersubject, shown below with blue labels, enters while the subject is repeated in the lower voice.

Figure 2: The Countersubject (c + d)

As I did with the subject, I will break the countersubject into two chunks, for analysis' sake: (c) and (d).

(c) spans a wide interval (a nice contrast to the small thirds and seconds happening in the subject), and contains a longer note value—the dotted quarter note (a nice rhythmic contrast to the shorter eighth-note rhythms in the subject)

(d) includes some sixteenth notes, which I liked because that allowed for the subject and countersubject to connect on some sixteenth-note rhythms from time to time. For example, on the fourth beat of Figure 2's first measure.

As you can see, coming up with an effective countersubject often has to do with contrast, playing off of what is happening in the subject. In general, when there are quicker, shorter rhythms happening in the subject, I tried to use slower, longer rhythms in the countersubject. That way, when the two happen simultaneously, the two voices are distinct from each other, and each can be clearly picked out, aurally-speaking, by the listener.

Now that the subject and countersubject have been stated, we continue by expanding on the motives to build on the exposition. Again, I'm keeping in mind the contrasts we established earlier—so I'm sure to pair subject material with countersubject material. In this exposition section, you can see that the motivic material isn't always perfectly imitated. For example, the leap of (c') is sometimes a 5th, other times a 6th. What is usually maintained is the overall shape and rhythm of the motives.

Figure 3: Exposition continues with imitation.

From there, let's skip ahead a little bit, to measure 13.

By this point in the piece, I have modulated to B major (hence the A#'s). This is a 5th higher than the original E major. Also happening here, labeled in green in Figure 4, is the addition of a third voice. Since there's already so much going on with the subject and countersubject, I made sure to keep (e) comparatively simple (i.e. less busy): quarter notes and half notes.

Figure 4: Subject and Countersubject transposed up a fifth (Key of B Major), with new, third voice (e)

You'll notice in these examples that the subject doesn't always occur in the higher voice (right hand), and the countersubject doesn't always occur in the lower voice (bass clef)—and vice versa. That's characteristic of this compositional style: each voice imitates the other, so the melodic ideas are frequently passed between voices (and voices may even cross, occasionally, like in measure 14).

Are you still with me? Good! Let's develop these ideas...

The Development (Section B)

In the Exposition, I stated the main musical ideas: the Subject and the Countersubject. In terms of key centers, we had the 'home' key of E major, and then modulated up a fifth to the key of B major—a closely-related key. In this next section, the development, we...well, develop those ideas and take them to more distantly-related keys.

Figure 5.

In Figure 5, notice the upper voice's rhythm—borrowed from (b), but with a different, more chromatic melody. The lower voice plays with (a) and uses a couple counterpoint techniques to change it: inversion and augmentation.

The inversion isn't perfect, though: Instead of going up a 3rd then going down a 2nd, I went down a 6th then up a 2nd. That is to say, I flipped (inverted) the direction of the intervals, but the intervals themselves were not maintained.

Also at work is augmentation, lengthening the original rhythm. Where the subject's original rhythm contained eighth notes, this augmented (i.e. elongated) left hand line instead uses quarter notes, providing a solid foundation on top of which the more active right hand can take place.

Figure 6.

 Figure 6 shows how one simple idea can be sequenced to create a longer, more exciting passage. Here, the fragment used is the G# - F# - G# sixteenth note idea, which appears first in (b). A fourth sixteenth note is tacked on to those three, then this four-note idea is repeated three more times, each time a step lower than before. This constitutes a sequence.

Figure 7: One bar from the dominant prolongation section.

Skipping ahead a bit more, we arrive at measure 30 (Figure 7). Typically at the tail end of a development section, a device known as dominant prolongation is often employed, in which the dominant (the V chord) is prolonged for several measures, preparing for a return to the tonic (I).


And that's precisely what I did! Since I would be returning to the key of E major, the chord I prolonged was a B7sus. The lower voice adds rhythmic interest by playing the syncopated (b) material, which also foreshadows the imminent return of that motif...

The Recapitulation (Section A')

After all that harmonic turmoil, fragmentation/manipulation of the motives, and overall tomfoolery, we're ready to return to the original subject and countersubject, and in the original key, to boot.

Figure 8: Re-united and it feels so good.

That means we get to hear the E-G#-G# motif as it was originally stated in the subject at the very beginning of the piece, as well as the countersubject. Additionally, I included the newer, third voice. Doing this helped create a real sense of development for the piece: it didn't have this third voice at the beginning, but along the way it went through a transformation, and now it contains this third voice.

(By the way, Bach might have called this a sinfonia now that it has three voices instead of the typical invention's two voices.)

Conclusion (Codetta)

In terms of this piece, the conclusion is comprised of a tiny codetta, which jams as many E-G#-G# statements as I could fit in a small space. I'll refrain from sharing a Figure 9 to show that, because I think we have had enough images for this post.

In terms of this blog post, the conclusion is perhaps best accomplished by showing the sum of all these parts. Enjoy watching and listening to "Benedict," the third movement of the Egg Suite:

The scores of all five movements of "The Egg Suite" are available here (PDF).

Mindfulness in Music

[I posted this 'Monday Musing' (below) on my Facebook page, and was encouraged to share it here as well. So here it is...!]

Something I've noticed over the years playing jazz is that conviction & mindfulness go a long way:

You can have all the hip vocabulary or technical facility in the world, but if you don't deliver that music from a place of calm confidence and apparent ease, it's going to sound stale or shaky or forced.


If you internally second-guess your note choices during a solo, or judge what you just played, or commit to a phrase with only 99% conviction, even just that missing 1% is really felt.

On the other hand, if you choose one simple idea--even just one note--and play it with 100% conviction (own it), that's going to resonate with the listener.

I like this idea, because it's all about staying in the moment, and keeping the mind from wandering. As soon as you start judging the music you're making, or doubting yourself - you're no longer in the moment, and the music won't be either.

Staying present is TOUGH, to say the least. It's something I'm always trying to work on, musically and otherwise. I love that music pushes me to develop these mental habits.

Mindfulness is tough, but I don't mind. 

Sus7 Chromatic Climb

Here's a little chromatic thing I stumbled upon one day at the piano. I like it because you get the smoothness of chromaticism (obviously), but also variety via slightly different chords.

The chords here alternate between a sus-7-with-9th and a sus-7-without-9th.

That 9th or 7th in the top voice in itself creates a satisfying shape and is a nice contrast to the straightforward half-step climb in the lower voices.

Here it is with the voices separated, which makes it easier to notice some of the intervallic relationships between each voice. In this image, I described each voice's movement and made note of each voice's relationship to the bass.

How to Write a 12-Tone Piece Using Eggs

One day, when I was cooking some eggs, I was feeling particularly creative...

Beautiful eggs! What else can I do for breakfast this morning? Cereal? Nah...

Serial? Perhaps...

My eyes fell upon the egg carton to my side, and I quickly zeroed in on its serial code. Eureka! How about a 12-tone, serialist piece using the digits off of the egg carton as inspiration? I mean, why not?

Here's what my process looked like:

Well, I got through all of the steps–including step five–and the result was "Carton." This is the first movement from my piano work "The Egg Suite."

Check out the rest of the suite here.

Dominant inner-voice shift

Voices in blue are the ones that move. Notice that the outsides
of the chord stay put, while the inner voices make small changes.

Here's a way to add some extra crunch to a dominant chord, with the 13th on the top.











A few reasons I like this harmonic shift:

1. It all happens in the middle of the voicing. The outter voices stay put.
2. The shifts are small (half steps), but the harmonic effect is big.
3. The top two shifting voices in the right hand move in contrary motion, which is great.

Handwritten break-down of this shift.

May your dominant chords be prolonged and extra-crunchy. Enjoy.

A Bluesy Oscar Peterson Lick ("Blues For Stephanie" ending)

LISTEN: Original Recording:

LISTEN: Original Recording, Slowed Down:

Transcription (click to enlarge):

Try it out for yourself!

Rhythmic Interplay Between Hands

Being a former drummer, I sometimes approach the piano with a bias toward rhythm. Instead of going crazy with harmony, my preference oftentimes is to explore the musical statements that can be made by breaking up a voicing into chunks and altering rhythm.

Let's look at this chromatically-descending set of chords to help illustrate how this might work. (Click images to enlarge. Click orange and white 'play' button below each example to listen.)

Boring quarter notes = Potential for some rhythmic fun

Since each chord-type is the same (and thus, the shapes of each chord are similar to one another), more attention can be given to the rhythms. I can break the chord into 3 'nodes' and play around with triplet rhythms:

OR, I can break the chord into 4 'nodes' to come up with busier 16th-note ideas:

To play these, my brain—I suspect—is thinking more as a drummer, in terms of "stickings" or drum rudiments, like diddles.

(E.g. Low bass clef notes followed by higher treble clef notes? Think L - R (left hand, right hand)
Two repeated notes? Think: diddle )

Listen to each variation and notice how each gives a slightly different musical effect. Play around with different interpolations of the chord/rhythms and see what you can come up with by thinking like a drummer!

For the full PDF of ideas contained in this post: Click here

DIY Music Flashcards

While rummaging through old junk drawers the other day, I came across a stack of unused, blank photo-paper. Since I don't have a photo printer, I was somewhat confused about how I came to acquire the paper in the first place. In fact, I was just about ready to toss it into the 'recycle' pile.

But then I started doodling on them with a dry-erase marker, curious to see if the paper would act like a white board and allow me to wipe off the marker and re-write something else. It did not. Instead, the ink dried fast, and was quite permanent.

Getting further carried away, I decided to re-purpose the blank paper into slick, glossy music flashcards. Why the heck not?!

Here's what I came up with (click to enlarge):

Noticing that I had a big stack of blank cards still left over, I brought them, and some markers, along to my piano students' lessons later that day.

Click to enlarge

As part of their theory assignment, I tasked them with making their own cards. They had fun using different colors to make their own unique set of flashcards.

Here's what one of my students came up with:

Click to enlarge

I'm glad I didn't toss the paper in the first place!

The Comedy and Music of Hans Groiner

Niche genre: Jazz piano comedy

The ability to look inwardly and poke fun at yourself or your craft, I think, is vital in order to stay sane and to keep from becoming deathly serious with your work. ("All work, no play makes Jack a dull boy...") After watching the antics of his character, Hans Groiner, it is clear to me that pianist Larry Goldings possesses this aptitude for humor.

Austrian pianist, Hans Groiner

Hans, in my mind, is the Victor Borge of jazz piano. He misinterprets and oversimplifies musical concepts with such conviction and seriousness that you might almost believe he isn't joking, until you are reminded by his ridiculous wig that this all must be a charade. Which it is, of course—a hilarious charade. For your entrance into the world of Hans Groiner, his jazz piano lesson is the best place to start:

Monk Expertise

Hans is a self-proclaimed expert on the music of Thelonious Monk (although he thinks Monk could have made some better note-choices in his music.) He flattens out all chromaticism from Monk's compositions, and in so doing, in his mind, improves the music a great deal. "[Monk's] note were very--some of them--very, uh, wrong-sounding and dissonant." Although Hans freely admits to disliking Monk's music, he could see "potential" in the music. Check it out:

Hans Groiner at Work - Live at Smalls

Seeing Hans talk to a camera in a YouTube music lesson or documentary is hilarious, but seeing him in action, performing his own concert at a legitimate jazz club constitutes another level of humor. This hilarious performance features Groiner on the accordion/piano, Jeff Ballard on drums,  and Joe Martin on bass. (Pretty good band mates for little old Hans!) The performance is split into three parts; here's the first part:

What's your favorite Hans Groiner quote/song?

Walking Bass Lines on the Piano - Rhythmic Concepts

A huge benefit a piano player enjoys is the ability to play several musical lines simultaneously. Therefore, in the jazz idiom, it's possible for one piano player to fulfill the roles of not only the melodic/harmonic instruments (typically with the right hand), but also the bassist (in the left hand).

In the following video, I focus in on these left hand bass lines. These lines serve as a strong harmonic and rhythmic foundation. In and of itself, too, a bass line constitutes its own independent melody. (The harmonic progression used in the video is a simple C blues—primary chords: C7, F7, and G7.)



Being an overall foundational component, bass lines are most often constructed with not much more than four well-placed notes per measure. That is to say, quarter notes are the rhythmic bread-and-butter of a sturdy bass line.

Once a strong quarter-note groove has been achieved, though, certain variations can be thrown into the mix in order to spice up the music and add a heightened sense of excitement/momentum to the groove. Here are some of the main rhythmic ideas that I demonstrate in the video:

1. Instead of 4 quarter notes per bar, try using 6 quarter-note triplets to fill up a 4/4 measure.
2. Experiment with different groupings of these 6 notes. (e.g. Two groups of 3 or Three groups of 2)
3. Eighth note or eighth-note triplets can be played to propel the line toward a target note that you'd like to emphasize. (e.g. Eighth-note triplets preceding beat 4: "1, 2, 3-na-ne, 4")
4. Once the RH joins in with your LH's bass line, experiment with placing faster right hand rhythms (triplets and sixteenth notes) atop the LH's quarter notes.

These are only a few ideas to get the ball rolling. Check out the Application Examples and "Putting it All Together" clips within the video for some ideas on how these concepts look and sound on the piano. Of course, the joy of music improvisation is that the sky is the limit—see what other ideas you can come up with, and have fun making your own walking bass lines!

"West Side Score-y" Pt. 3: Tri-tones...They're Everywhere!!

Part 3

It seemed appropriate that Part 3 of this series was about the tri-tone. Even if it weren't for this numerical match-up, a post about the tri-tone seems inevitable when writing about West Side Story. Bernstein throws them into the score like I throw chocolate chips into cookie dough (excessively, perhaps, but to great effect).

Part 1 addressed something I called the "Smush Chord," and
Part 2 explored Bernstein's rhythmic stuff.
Part 3 continues, below... (read on!)

The Tri-Tone

Literally meaning "three-tones," the tri-tone is the musical interval spanning the range of three whole steps (6 half steps). Since our octave is most typically divided into 12 half steps, the tri-tone represents the octave divided exactly in half. The sonic result is a jarring, highly dissonant sound—so dissonant that history has given it the sinister nickname "diabolus in musica" (the Devil in music).

(More about the tri-tone and other intervals here.)

Melodic Appearances

1. "Do" up to "fi." Of course, the best-known example of the tri-tone (at least, within the realm of West Side Story), is in "Maria." The interval, here appearing as an augmented 4th, is heard in the first two syllables: "Ma-ri..." 
2. "Cha-Cha"
3. "Cool" (pictured below)
4. Basically everywhere.

from "Cool" (C up to F#, an augumented 4th)

Harmonic Appearances

from "Prologue" [C major over F#] and [Eb major over A]

1. Polytonal-type chords (a la Petrushka), in which a major triad is coupled with a tone 6 half steps away from the root, appear in selections such as "Prologue" (pictured above), "The Rumble," "I Have a Love," and several scene changes. In fact, the very last musical sound heard in the show is one of these puppies, with C major up high, F# down below.
2. Major chords, with #4 (a.k.a. #11). These bright chords, which suggest the Lydian mode, can be found, among others, in "Prologue," "Jet Song," and "Gee, Officer Krupke" ("Dear...")
3. #ii°7 diminished chords (in 3rd inversion). Closely related to the previous chord, this one is just slightly crunchier in sound. It's featured most prominently in "Something's Coming."
4. Whole-tone spots: "Tonight" m. 37 (pictured below)
5. Again, basically everywhere.

Pitch inventory (F, G, A, B, C#) comprised of whole tones.
(Tri-tone appears on beat 2, between F and B.)

Conclusion

To sum up (clumsily, quickly), that there are tri-tones just about everywhere in West Side Story is perhaps "needless to say," but there, I said it.

Being such a grating interval, it certainly catches the ear, and the sound sticks with you. It's what helps make the lyrical "Maria" so beautiful ("Say it loud and there's music playing / Say it soft and it's almost like praying..."), and it's what makes the show's final chord so hauntingly dissonant.

"West Side Score-y" Pt. 2: Lenny's Got Rhythm

Part 2

This post is part of a multi-part blog series I'm calling "West Side Score-y" (A Score Study of West Side Story). Part 1 addressed something I called the "Smush Chord." This second post will delve (excessively?) into the nitty-gritty of what makes Bernstein's music so rhythmically engaging.

The West Side Story score is rife with rhythmic riches, so to avoid being overly ambitious, I will focus here on 3 big ideas:

1. Syncopation
2. Polymeter
3. Hemiola

To do so, I'll share some song excerpts and discuss their relation to one (or more) of the above concepts. (All right, here we go!)

1. Syncopation: It's where you'd least expect it.

Syncopation can basically be described as a rhythmic device in which notes are placed in unusual, unexpected spots within the bar. For example, instead of quarter notes on beats 1 and 3 (so-called "strong" parts of the measure), moving these quarter notes instead to 2 and 4 (the weaker "off-beats" of the bar) would result in a syncopated feel. This version of syncopation, in which 2 and 4 are emphasized instead of 1 and 3, is the foundation of jazz and rock grooves.

Another way to achieve syncopation is to shift a note slightly within a measure, from its usual spot to a less-expected spot. Take a look at this excerpt from "Jet Song":

When you're a Jet, you syncopate.

The time signature here is 6/8, which is a compound duple type of meter. This means that there are 2 main beats (duple) and each of these beats can be further divided into 3 (compound). This being the case, the notes which fall on the main beats are considered strong, and those which do not are weak in comparison.

In this example, the right hand is playing on weak off-beats, just an eighth note earlier than the left hand's strong-beat notes. This gives the song a slightly off-kilter, swinging feel. Cool!

*Note 1: Good examples of syncopation are in just about every measure of Lenny's score. That is to say, most bars of Bernstein's music are syncopated.

*Note 2: Do not confuse "Bernstein bars" with the ursine children's book series by a similar name. I apologize for this joke.

*Note 3: All three of these italicized Notes were added SOLELY for the delivery of that awesome joke and are  of ZERO educational value.

2. Polymeter: 2+ meters for the price of 1.

A polymeter (not to be confused with polyrhythm) is exactly what you think it means: literally, "many meters." In a polymetric piece of music, the beat is constant between the two meters (but each meter's measure size differ, resulting in periods of de-synchronization).

It's what's happening when your band is playing in 4/4, but at the same time, your goofball drummer is for some reason playing in 7/8. (We'll give him the benefit of the doubt here in that he's not just leaving notes out willy-nilly, but rather is showing off his polymetric powers...)

Although it might happen accidentally in your garage band, Bernstein uses it intentionally—and to great effect—all over West Side. That is to say, there are many polymeters (poly-polymeters?)

Example 2A: "Scherzo"

This scherzo is written primarily in 3/4, though it actually reeks of 5/8 (or 5/4, depending on your math) for much of its duration. Since we've got 5/8 and 3/4 going on simultaneously, we can say that we're dealing with polymeter here.

It's not a bad idea to do some arithmetic in such polymetric cases, to see how many repetitions of the odd time signature it takes to line back up with the primary meter. In this case we consider 5 eighth notes (from 5/8) and 6 eighth notes (from 3/4). Least common multiple = 30 eighth notes, meaning it will take 15 quarter notes (five bars of 3/4) before the first note of the pattern falls on the original downbeat again. (And this is precisely how Bernstein divides his beats in the scherzo. It all adds up, phew!)

Example 2B: "Prologue" bass line

This one's groovy. Here we have a bass line in 7/8 placed over a 2/4 meter. Essentially, it's just one eighth note away from being the bass line you would expect. So close. 

LH fingerings shown above. Note: The eighth rest
is not part of the repeating pattern.

The effect of this is two-fold: 1) The position of the accented first note of the pattern gets constantly shifted to the left (earlier) on each successive measure. That's pretty neat. 2) It's kind of gnarly to get your left hand to play it when your right hand is simultaneously playing syncopated stuff in the original 2/4 meter. Gnarly, but not impossible.

In order to solidify the pattern, both intellectually and physically, I broke the 7 notes into smaller groups (based on their chromatic proximity with nearby notes). That made it much easier to manage. From there I could go ahead and add in the right hand and begin thinking of the longer lines.

To see this longer line, I'm once again referring to the pattern being repeated x number of times, 'til the pattern's first note once again falls on the 2/4 bar's downbeat. In this case, it takes 7 repetitions. Here's half of that (click to enlarge):

Notice how the accent's position within each 2/4 bar changes as time goes on.

3. Hemiola: Not a scary blood disease.

The word hemiola represents the ratio of 3:2. With respect to rhythm, this ratio occurs by way of grouping 6 notes either in three groups of 2 or two groups of 3. An oft-cited example of this rhythmic hemiola is from none other than "America."

"I want to live in A-mer-i-ca" / "I want to subdivide quar-ter notes!"

The song alternates between compound duple (6/8) and simple triple (3/4) meters. I'll spare you any more needless math. The sheet music, I think, shows the alternating groupings rather clearly.

Conclusion

The big takeaway? Heck, I dunno.

• You can always "count" (HAH) on Bernstein to jam-pack his music with rhythmically rich stuff. Lenny's got rhythm, indeed. And now you do, too.
• Don't let the math of it put you off. Once you understand the basic numbers/groupings of a meter, you will easily be able to switch on a sort of "rhythmic auto-pilot." This is when you can freely and enjoyably just let the music happen.
• Remember that "Bernstein Bars" joke? That was pretty funny.

"West Side Score-y" Pt. 1: The "Smush Chord"

West Side Score-y

One of my current jobs is as a rehearsal accompanist for a production of Leonard Bernstein's West Side Story. This means I attend rehearsals with the singers/actors/dancers and play whichever piece of music they are working on. And that means that one night I may be teaching pitches for a new song, but on another night, I might be playing an entire dance number so that the dancers can work on their choreography along with live music.

All of this meaning: I have a lot of music to learn, and it's to the benefit of everyone involved that I learn this music very thoroughly. I'm up for the challenge! Part of this thorough learning, on my part, means that I'm analyzing some of the music theory behind Bernstein's music.

Knowing the motifs (recurring musical ideas) and harmonic structures of the music helps a great deal with learning it more efficiently and more thoroughly—at least for me, anyways!

The "Smush Chord"

I'm calling this blog series "West Side Score-y" (A Score Study of West Side Story). Hilarious, I know. This first part addresses what I am calling the "Smush Chord."

Here's what it looks like on the printed page:

Excerpted from "Jet Song"

As you can see, the chord took a fair amount of black ink to print on the page. It's not a pretty looking thing, nor does it sound pretty.

The visual and aural harshness of the chord is part of what made me want to analyze it a bit deeper and try to wrap my head around it.

(To be honest, sometimes my instinct when seeing a chord like this, is to just smash my hand down onto the keyboard and hope for the best. This more measured, analytical approach is an effort to avoid that tactic.)







Pitch Inventory

Here's the chord's pitches re-ordered according to ascending (G major) scale order. Above each note, I've attached a scale-degree label, based on the G major scale. I have used some enharmonic spellings in the analysis.

*Notice the tritone (diminished 5th) interval between A# and E. West Side Story is riddled with tritones (Think: "Ma-ri-a").


Major + Minor = Smush

I noticed that the chord's pitches can be divided into two separate groups, one of which forms a Major 6 chord, and the other of which forms a Minor chord (with a flattened 6). Keep in mind, I'm adding the bass note "G" in order to create these chords (indeed, G is the root note).

G6 + Gm(b6) = G smush

When these two chords are combined, the result is a clashing of major tonality against minor. And that, ladies and gentlemen, just sounds pretty unattractive to the ear. When I realized that this chord can be thought of as two chords superimposed, my mind leapt to the word "smush," meaning that the minor tones (minor 3rd, minor 6th) are "smushing" against the major tones (major 3rd, perfect 5th, major 6th).




Why?

Why discuss this? Frankly, because it helps. Personally, knowing where the chord tones come from, and how they relate to a familiar tonality helps me wrap my head (and my fingers) around the chord. Furthermore, I knew it was a chord worth exploring because I noticed it shows up at other places throughout the score.

More generally, the half steps (and tritones!) found within this chord are extremely characteristic of Bernstein's intensely chromatic writing throughout the musical. (More on that later.)

Stay tuned for additional installments of "West Side Score-y," which will be created the next time I run into a similarly intriguing musical morsel!

"Drop 2" Chord Voicing Technique

The "Drop 2" chord voicing technique is a common arranging/composing/piano trick. It's a great way to voice a chord for a horn section, or if you're a piano player, it's a slick way of creating strong 4- or 5-note voicings.

It's simple:

1) Start with a 4-note chord that exists all within an octave. (This may be a chord in root position, but may also be a different inversion of a chord, or some other type of cluster.)
2) Identify the second highest note (the "2" of "Drop 2").
3) Move this note down an octave.

That's it!

Here's a step-by-step video showing the process:

A Handful of Major Chord Voicings (with colorful illustrations) [Part 2 of 2]

In Part 1 of this series, the handful of major chord voicings was introduced along with an accompanying A/V example.

Now, in Part 2, each voicing will be colorfully broken down.

Color-Coding Chord Tones

I will show each voicing notated on a grand staff, using a color-coded system. In the system, each scale degree (in these case of C major) is assigned a color, following the order of ROYGBIV. Since there are 7 notes in a scale, and 7 distinct colors in the visible light spectrum, this works out nicely. (This colorful choice of mine was inspired by this very interesting article about the link between Music and Color.)

C major scale, in colors.

*Please note that the people I attribute the following voicings to (and therefore the labels I assign each one), are by no means the originators of a particular voicing. Rather, they are the musicians/educators from whom I personally learned each voicing. (I will link to the relevant sources as we go along.)

Five Colorful Voicings

1) Symmetrical "Martin" Cmaj13 (via Peter Martin)

• Symmetry in intervals: 3rd, 4th, 4th, 4th, 3rd
• Very similar to the next voicing (Tristano), but more colorful because it contains the 7th
• LH contains a minor chord in first inversion, RH contains a major chord in second inversion

2) "Tristano" Cmaj6/9 (a la Lennie Tristano)

• Top four notes are spaced out by a 4th
• Root is doubled, appearing on the very bottom and top of the voicing
• Tristano often used this by "planing" this shape, moving it up or down chromatically

3) Rootless "A Position" Quartal Voicing, Cmaj6/9 (via Earl MacDonald)

• 3rd on bottom (root on top)
• Basically the same as Tristano's voicing, but without the root doubled in the LH

4) "B Position" Quartal Voicing, Cmaj13 (via Earl Macdonald)

• 7th on bottom (5th on top)
• Rootless

5) "Drop 2" Cmaj9

• Notes are not as evenly-spaced in this one (not as quartal as the others)
• The B (the 7th) was lowered by an octave
• To learn how to construct any voicing using the Drop 2 technique, click here.

Final Remarks

What to do with all of this information? If you happen to latch on to the sound/feel of one or two of these, take a second to figure it out on the piano. Divide the notes between hands however is most comfortable to you (in some 5-note cases, it may be preferable to put three notes in the LH, two in the RH, but you might prefer it the other way around). From there, continue around the Cycle of Fourths (or Fifths), constructing the voicing slowly and carefully.

Happy voicing!