The Artsulli Blog

Theory Thursday #1: Introducing Theory Thursday + Adam Neely and the Theory of Musical Relativity

Nov 21, 2019

One of the things I want to do with this blog is to create a space for members of the JC Instrumental community with varying levels of musical knowledge and expertise (including none) to talk about musical ideas and to think about music in ways that they might not have been exposed to before. I’m calling this feature “Theory Thursday.” I can’t promise that it will be every Thursday, but I hope to post as often as possible. Sometimes the posts will be original content from me, sometimes they will be guest posts, and sometimes (as in this case) they will be links to content I think is cool, interesting, or useful. Each post will begin with a tag describing the level of theory knowledge it is most appropriate for, and the specific concepts it assumes familiarity with. So… Theory level: advanced beginner (specific intervals & polyrhythms, but you should watch it even if you don’t get these concepts yet, you’ll understand enough for it to be interesting) I’m starting with this because of a conversation I had with a student last night, where I referenced this idea. My student Adam is a longtime friend and has recently started lessons with me on piano and theory. Last night after a lesson on measuring specific intervals, we started talking about frequency ratios. This video essay by Adam Neely came to mind. It’s something I’ve thought about a lot in the years since I first saw it, and has been influential to the way I conceptualize musical relationships. So I thought I’d share. I’m sure I’ve inadvertently plagiarized this in casual conversation at least a dozen times because it’s just such a good frame for thinking about what music IS. It is also a good opportunity to introduce you to one of the best music theory youtubers out there (and his production quality has gotten much better over the three years since this video). Adam Neely is a Berklee trained professional bass player, composer, and theorist, and one of my all time favorites on youtube. I’ll be using this platform occasionally to introduce you to bloggers, vloggers, and other thinkers whose work has been useful to me, and who I think have important things to say. And I can think of no better place to start than with Adam Neely. All his content is great and you should check it out. So enjoy, feel free to discuss in the comments, and I’ll see you next week. Support me on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/adamneely Background music: http://sungazermusic.bandcamp.com The Louden Sterns Video that inspired me to make this video: https://vimeo.com/32408748 A great resource for learning about just intonation and wolf fifths and a buncha stuff I didn't mention: http://www.kylegann.com/tuning.html Sweet article expanding on some of these ideas http://jackashley.co.uk/2016/12/12/using-harmonic-polyrhythms/ Thanks for watching!