Ethan teaches you music Podcast

Music appearing in this episode:

Otis Redding - "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay" (1967)

Otis Redding - "Try a Little Tenderness" (1966)

Elizabeth Cotten - "Freight Train" (1958)

Mongo Santamaría - "Sitting on the Dock of the Bay" (1968)

Peggy Lee - "Dock Of The Bay" (1969)

DJ Shadow - "Mellow But Chunky" (2012)

World Saxophone Quartet - "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay" (1989)

De La Soul - "Eye Know" (1989)

Doug E. Fresh & The Get Fresh ...

Hear a DJ mix I made that includes most of the tracks referenced in this episode.

The tracks:

Herbie Hancock - "Rockit" (1983)

Miles Davis - "Freedom Jazz Dance" (1967)

Herbie Hancock - "Maiden Voyage" (1965)

Miles Davis - “Shhh/Peaceful” (1969)

Herbie Hancock - "Chameleon" (1973)

Herbie Hancock - "I Thought It Was You" (1978)

Material ft. Nona Hendryx - "Take A Chance" (1982)

Malcolm McLaren - "Buffalo Gals" (1983)

Run-DMC - “Sucker MCs” (...

Music referenced in this episode:

De La Soul - "Eye Know" (1989)

Mad Lads - "Make This Young Lady Mine" (1969)

Lee Dorsey - "Get Out Of My Life, Woman" (1967)

Sly and the Family Stone - "Sing a Simple Song" (1969)

Steely Dan - "Peg" (1977)

Otis Redding - "(Sittin' on) The Dock of the Bay" (1967)

Hear a DJ-style mix I made of these tracks:

Read more about Philip Tagg’s concept of “one-chord changes”.

Read more about digital audio bit depth.

R...

Music referenced in this episode:

Barbecue Bob - "Mississippi Heavy Water Blues" (1927)

Charlie Patton - "High Water Everywhere, Pt 1" (1929)

Memphis Minnie & Kansas Joe McCoy - "When the Levee Breaks" (1929)

Led Zeppelin - "If It Keeps On Raining (Rough Mix)" (1971)

Led Zeppelin - "When the Levee Breaks" (1971)

Robert Plant & Alison Krauss - "When The Levee Breaks" (2024)

Beastie Boys - "Rhymin' and Stealin'" (1986)

Depeche Mode - "Never ...

Music appearing in this episode:

The Beatles - "She Said She Said" (1966)

The Beatles - "Hey Jude" (1968)

Grateful Dead - "Morning Dew" (1972)

Lorde - "Royals" (2013)

The Beatles - "Here Comes The Sun" (1969)

The Rolling Stones - "Jumpin' Jack Flash" (1968)

Melanie Safka - "People in the Front Row" (1968)

Yoshihito Yano & Saki Kabata - "Lonely Rolling Star" (2004)

The Beatles - "A Day in the Life" (1967)

Jimi Hendrix - "Hey Joe" (1967)

Al Gre...

Sorry for the duplicate post, I made some editing mistakes. I am firing my editor. Oh, wait, that’s me.

Music appearing in this episode:

Gloria Gaynor - "I Will Survive" (1978)

The Beatles - "You Never Give Me Your Money" (1969)

JS Bach - Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 in F Major, BWV 1047 - I. Allegro (1721) performed by Henryk Szeryng, Sir Neville Marriner, Academy of St Martin in the Fields, Michala Petri, Heinz Holliger & André Bernard

...

This episode includes an excerpt of Miles Okazaki’s video on tuning a guitar using harmonics.

It also includes synthesized versions of three excerpts of pieces by JS Bach, which I tempo-mapped to the following recordings:

Glenn Gould - Goldberg Variations BWV 988 - Aria (1741)

Glenn Gould - Sinfonia No. 9 in F Minor, BWV 795 (1723)

Angela Hewitt - The Art of Fugue, BWV 1080: Contrapunctus I

Other music in this episode:

Kronos Quartet - B...

This episode features Glenn Gould's 1963 recording of Johann Sebastien Bach's Prelude No. 1 in C Major from The Well-Tempered Clavier Book I, BWV 846 (1722). I also tempo-mapped Gould's performances of other WTC preludes and used them for the tempos of the MIDI versions of the various movements.

A small correction: I say in the episode that five-limit just intonation is the basis for Western European tuning systems. This is only tru...

Songs referenced in this episode:

Herbie Hancock - "Watermelon Man" (Takin' Off, 1962)

Mongo Santamaría - "Watermelon Man" (1963)

Poncho Sanchez - "Watermelon Man" (1999)

Johnny Taylor - "Watermelon Man" (1967)

Herbie Hancock - "Watermelon Man" (Headhunters, 1973)

Simha Aron & Geneviève Taurelle - "Hindewhu (Whistle) Solo" (The Music of the Ba-Benzélé Pygmies, 1966)

Digable Planets - "Escapism (Gettin' Free)" (1993)

Madonna - "Sanctuary" (...

Songs referenced in this episode:

* James Brown - "The Funky Drummer Parts One and Two" (1969)

* James Brown - "Funky Drummer Bonus Beat Reprise" (1986)

* Eric B and Rakim - "Lyrics of Fury" (1988)

* Ultramagnetic MCs - "Give the Drummer Some" (1988)

* Public Enemy - "Fight the Power" (1989)

* Beastie Boys - "Shadrach" (1989)

* De La Soul - "The Magic Number" (1989)

* LL Cool J - "Mama Said Knock You Out" (1990)

* Sinéad O'Connor - "I Am St...

Music included in this episode:

Vassily Kalinnikov - Symphony No. 1 in G Minor - II. Andante comodamente (1895)

The Beatles - “In My Life” (1965)

Willie Nelson - "I'd Have To Be Crazy" (1976)

Lauryn Hill - "Can't Take My Eyes Off of You" (1998)

(Update: a commenter pointed out that my analysis here accurately describes the original Frankie Valli version, but Lauryn Hill uses the minor iv chord in her intro.)

Read more and see transcripti...

Songs discussed in order of appearance:

* Ella Fitzgerald - "It Don't Mean A Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)" (1957)

* Tchaikovsky - "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy" (1892)

* The Duke Ellington Orchestra - "Sugar Rum Cherry (Dance Of The Sugar-Plum Fairy)" (1960)

* JS Bach - Concerto for 2 Violins in D Minor, BWV 1043 I. Vivace (c. 1730)

* Django Reinhardt, Stéphane Grappelli & Eddie South - "Improvisation on the 1st Movement of D Min...

Songs referenced in this episode:

* Skip James - "Devil Got My Woman" (1931)

* Robert Johnson - "Kindhearted Woman Blues" (1936)

* Charlie Christian - "Waiting for Benny" (1941)

* Duke Ellington - "Far Away Blues" (1946)

* John Lee Hooker - "Boogie Chillen" (1948)

* Little Walter Jacobs - "Juke" (1952)

* Muddy Waters - "Standing Around Crying" (1952)

* The Osborne Brothers - "Ruby" (1957)

* Thelonious Monk - "Functional" (1957)

* Johnny Cash...

In this episode, I use “Don’t You Worry ‘Bout A Thing” by Stevie Wonder (1973) as a jumping off point to contemplate the headache of naming notes and chords in keys with a lot of flats and sharps in them. The confusion stems from the fact that Western European note naming conventions got established in a time before twelve-tone equal temperament, when E-flat and D-sharp were two very different notes. We pretend that they are the sa...

There’s a particular passage in one of McCoy Tyner’s piano solos with John Coltrane that I adore. In his right hand, McCoy is playing the blues. In his left hand, he is playing a mysterious chord. This episode is about that chord.

The music you hear at the beginning and end is an original track of mine called “Voice Leading.” Other pieces of music discussed, in order of appearance:

“Lonnie’s Lament” by John Coltrane (1964)

“Alleluia, ...

I have been thinking about doing a podcast for a long time, but I couldn’t think of the right format. I didn’t want to just freestyle into the mic, but I also couldn’t think of a more structured way to approach it. But I’ve been listening to the great 500 Songs podcast lately, and it inspired me. To get started, I decided to talk about a song that I have loved since I was eleven years old, and one that I have talked about any time ...