Music Student 101

Continuing from episode 134, Middle Ages Music Pt.2, we will now get into the early to mid Renaissance period. In this episode, we will cover the composition techniques and musical stylings of composers, such as Guillaume Dufay and Josquin Des Prez (within the church and outside the chuch), begining in the 15th century.

Melodic dictation, the act of transcribing and notating a melody by ear, is a crucial skill for a musician to cultivate. In this episode, we will focus on the ever elusive Locrian mode. Let's listen!

In episodes 64 and 89, we discussed the roots of blues and country and delta blues. Now we spread out from these genres to cover Texas blues and Piedmont blues. We will discuss how the sounds from these regions stand apart and a few of the main artists that influeced these styles.

Melodic sequences occur frequently in music. They are often accompanied by harmonic sequences. Certain harmonic sequence patterns are constructed to preserve good voice leading without breaking the pattern. In this episode, we will focus on the descending circle of fifths sequence.

Grief, and the emotions that come with it, can often effect how we listen to music and how we write music. However, music can be a good companion during the healing process. In this episode we will share our experiences and those of some fellow musicians. We will discuss composers that have been stricken with grief and we will look at ways to use music to help with the healing process.

In episode 132, we merely scratched the surface of Schenkerian analysis. We will now continue our discussion of prolongation and listen to a few more examples of horizontalization. We will then discuss how Schenker looks at dominant and predominant functions. Ready your theory brains! 

Percussion instruments are known to take a beating. Still, it's important to keep them safe, clean and properly maintained. In this episode, we will review the instruments of the percussion family and share some tips we found to keep them sounding and looking their best!

Passing tones, appoggiaturas, pedal tones and suspensions are just a few of the non chord tones we discussed in Ep. 28. Now we will take a little more time training our ears to recognize them. After all that, we will play examples and test our ability to identify them in a chord progression. Let's listen!

Continuing from episode 75, Middle Ages Music Pt.1, we will now get into the later part of this era. Polyphony is now becoming commonplace. We will discuss composition tools such as oraganum, chant, the motet and the hocket. We will also discuss how other cultures beyond the world of Western music use chant in their own music. Let's go back a bit, shall we?

We, at Music Student 101, believe that music is truly a common language! We wonder how it effects our animal friends. We wonder if some form of music exists among our animal friends. Join us as we discuss elephants, rodents, bats, crocodiles and mosquitoes!

Schenkerian analysis is a deeper dive into the sea of theory discussions we've had so far. In this episode, we will merely dip our toes into this counterpoint based system. Get ready for another perspective of how classical music works!

Melodic dictation, the act of transcribing and notating a melody by ear, is a crucial skill for a musician to cultivate. In this episode, we will focus on the ever exotic Phrygian mode. Let's listen!

Continuing our discussion from Ep.114, we will now focus on some of the more widely known forms of the Baroque period (1600-1750 CE). We will discuss the church and chamber sonatas, the French overture, the dance suites and the fugue, just to name a few.

The Neapolitan chord is a great tool for modulation and for adding intrigue to any chord progression. In this episode, we will talk about it. We will listen to it. 
We will test our ears and their ability to identify it!

Today there are hundreds of Native American communities on the continents of North and South America. With each, their own cultures, cuisines, languages and rituals. But at the heart of all of these communities are dance and music. Let's learn about the sounds and origins of their music! This episode will focus on North America 
(Canada, The United States and Mexico).