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Connection

Happiness is a Warm Gun (1968)John Lennon/The Beatles

'Til I Get Over You (2003)Michelle Branch

What is this?

An encyclopedia of

• the musicological devices that contribute to the distinctive sounds of various artists, genres, and time periods
  Style marker

  

  3̂-7̂-1̂ cadenceTaylor Swift

  Taylor Swift often ends vocal phrases by singing 3̂, dropping to 7̂, then rising to 1̂.

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  • More on Taylor Swift
• the elements that songwriters draw from preexisting songs
  Connection

  

  Sonantina in F Major (1807)Ludwig von Beethoven

  

  

  Anthony's Song (Movin' Out) (1977)Billy Joel

  

Why?

• to enrich your listening
• to empower your writing
• to promote awareness of the nature, prevalence, and legitimacy of musical borrowing

[...] the production and perception of music—like language—relies on knowledge that is not easily articulated and, to some extent, unconscious. Anyone who can speak and understand English has some kind of knowledge of the rules of English grammar, but few such people are able to state exactly what those rules are. Similarly, [...] creators and listeners of rock music have knowledge about the norms and regularities of rock, but largely at an unconscious level. In large part, my goal [...] is to articulate this tacit knowledge, to uncover the mental processes and representations involved in musical creation and perception.

— David Temperley, The Musical Language of Rock

What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.

— Ecclesiastes 1:9