Video essays, lessons and vlogs on new horizons in music and music theory. NYC-based bass player and composer Adam Neely brings you a new video every Monday.
From Adam Neely. Also, can you play an 8/5 time signature, and how do you use the whole tone scale? :18 Is the lick a dead meme? :31 How can I apply Whole Tone scales to my playing? 1:42 What’s the next big thing in music? 2:03 What do (note) over (note) chords mean? 4:43…
From Adam Neely. Let’s demystify songwriting! Guitarist/YouTuber/Animator Ben Levin and I wrote a song, and we documented the whole process through the initial sketch to the demo to the final live recording. CHECK OUT THE FULL PERFORMANCE https://youtu.be/OgSESWL8H2I (spotify link) https://open.spotify.com/track/6Cy5WRJqNfwlRT7SDMQBlq?si=m_zWeATbTzS7CiLeAj_79w BEN LEVIN’S CHANNEL https://www.youtube.com/user/nimajqeb The beautiful band… Jessica Kion – Vocals, Bass Ben Levin…
From Adam Neely. Katy Perry just lost a $2.8 million dollar court case against Christian rapper Flame. The case hinged on the testimony of the plaintiff’s expert musicologist Todd Decker. Todd, we have beef, you and I. Legal opinions on the case, and a link to the initial brief https://blogs.law.gwu.edu/mcir/case/marcus-gray-et-al-v-katy-perry-et-al/ Things that sound like Dark…
From Adam Neely. I asked my friend Ben Levin to guess what intervals matched with which emotional reaction based on the research of music cognition scientist David Huron. Can you guess along with him? BEN LEVIN’s sweet YouTube channel. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLuHOqDilyLQT4NPXQuVN4Q Sweet Anticipation: Music and the Psychology of Expectation by David Huron https://amzn.to/2JXpAEa (⌐■_■) ⦿WHAT’S THE…
From Adam Neely. My band Sungazer plays to backing tracks – are we cheating? Or are we simply continuing the tradition of Pierre Schaefer and the electroacoustic avant-garde of the 1950’s? Or…is that just a pretentious way of justifying lazy practice? I was recently on an episode of PBS Sound Field where I jammed with…
From Adam Neely. 432 Hz might be how we should be tuning our instruments, but…. …most justifications for 432 require it to be in really wacky tuning systems for the numbers to make any sort of numerological sense. I actually tested some of these tuning systems to hear how they sound. THE THREE TUNINGS I…
From Adam Neely. Exploring Polytonality, musical memes, and picardy thirds! Answering all of your questions about bass and music in general. BASS Many thanks to Brendan Hayes, Jeff T, Ike Zhang, Craig Smith, Jack Mahlmann, Emma and James Weidner for their insightful questions. 0:11 What is Polytonality? 6:40 Stop treating music like a meme! 9:05…
From Adam Neely. Paul Davids and I worked out how to juggle egg shakers polyrhythmically at Thomann’s Gearhead University #tgu19. It turns out that #polyrhythms, when juggled, reveal a lot about coordination and rhythm. Plus, it’s a fun meme game. Go play it! If you do, film you and a friend juggling polyrhythms, upload it…
From Adam Neely. I toured Central Asia with the 5-piece jazz rock band Aberdeen on behalf of the American State Department for three weeks in May. In other words, I was a j a z z diplomat, and it was seriously one of the most amazing and surreal experiences of my life! The band I…
From Adam Neely. Go check out the full amazing collab over on David Bruce’s channel now! https://youtu.be/nWDITMZW1XE Tantacrul’s Channel: https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCl_dlV_7ofr4qeP1drJQ-qg Ben Levin’s Channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/nimajqeb Nahre Sol’s Channel: https://m.youtube.com/channel/UC8R8FRt1KcPiR-rtAflXmeg The Chroma Ensemble https://www.chromaensemble.co.uk/ (⌐■_■) ⦿WHAT’S THE BACKGROUND MUSIC?! (my band!)⦿ https://spoti.fi/2AKAAQ6 ⦿ Adam Neely T-shirts! ⦿ https://teespring.com/stores/adam-neely-merchandise ⦿ SUPPORT ME ON PATREON ⦿ http://www.patreon.com/adamneely ⦿ FOLLOW…
From Adam Neely. Also, how to get quasi-perfect pitch, learning about emotions and musical intervals, and my personal approach to bass fills! Many thanks to Ben Hudson, james frank, Thomas Carmichael, Trey O’Brien and Freetival Music for their questions! 0:13 Who owns the copyright for AI Music? 4:11 How do the bandleaders on your gig…
From Adam Neely. I played with the J-Music Ensemble and talked with their frontman Patrick Bartley about what drew him to J-Pop and anime music as an American jazz musician, and what the differences and similarities are between the two genres as performing musicians. Check out the J-Music Ensemble on all social media platforms, but…
From Adam Neely. Getting down and dirty with the NY/Nashville Connection at Rockwood Music Hall. Check em out here! https://bit.ly/2VrI2et ARTISTS FEATURED (in order) Jae Soto Melany Watson Chaz Langley Emily Prime Raycee Jones NY/NASHVILLE HOUSE BAND: Ryan Connors – Keys/music direction Josh Bailey – Drums/music direction Kate Steinberg (Emily Prime) – Background Vocals Holly…
From Adam Neely. Superfast Instagram Q+A time! Thank you all who submitted questions, for consideration in the next Q+A, follow me on instagram at @its_adamneely. (⌐■_■) ⦿ Adam Neely T-shirts! ⦿ https://teespring.com/stores/adam-neely-merchandise ⦿ SUPPORT ME ON PATREON ⦿ http://www.patreon.com/adamneely ⦿ FOLLOW ME ON THE INTERNETS ⦿ http://www.facebook.com/adamneely http://www.instagram.com/its_adamneely ⦿ Check out some of my music…
From Adam Neely. Taking Ariana Grande and adding some delicious jazzchords™️ to her hit song “thank u, next.” Exploring why jazzchords™️ sound great as a story-telling device. Than you to…. YAEVIN – Vocals Meitar Forkosh – Violin Rotem Sivan – Guitar Josh Bailey – Drums/Drum Pad (⌐■_■) ⦿WHAT’S THE BACKGROUND MUSIC?! (my band!)⦿ https://spoti.fi/2AKAAQ6 ⦿…
From Adam Neely. Train wrecks happen on the bandstand. This is the story of a particularly nasty one at a wedding where we totally butcher a perfectly decent Elton John ballad. Mark Guiliana + other people at the Blue Whale: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEduiAbXEmA Zach Lapidus harmonizes tone deaf singer through modulations https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXTfKs6u4OY NOTE: Certain details from this…
From Adam Neely. Western music is read from left to right, but other cultures do it differently. Notational systems reflect the music they express, and sometimes Western notation isn’t the ideal means of expressing musical ideas. Zac Zinger – Sanma Samba (I played on this, check it out!!) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=434xCyCSXBg (⌐■_■) ⦿WHAT’S THE BACKGROUND MUSIC?! (my…
From Adam Neely. The Google AI Bach harmonizer doodle is a fun thing to play with, but it…gets it wrong, a lot. I’m going to play with it, explain why it’s wrong, and why you probably won’t be able to cheat with it on your music theory assignments any time soon. LINK TO DOODLE: https://www.google.com/doodles/celebrating-johann-sebastian-bach…
From Adam Neely. Also, can guitar hero make you a better player, and why do you pronounce the word “leg” so strangely? Many thanks to Language Pepe, rogue cherokee, Carl Enquist, Denny Crane, Ryan Martin, marscrasher, oli dzoli, Bo Diddly and Robert Roberts 0:29 Single Ladies is simple pop trash! 6:17 Can playing guitar hero…
From Adam Neely. The Scotch Snap is everywhere in modern hip hop – a metrically accented sixteenth note followed by a dotted eighth note. Why is it everywhere? And where did it come from? The answer lies in how American speak english. A Study of Rhythm in London: Is Syllable-timing a Feature of Multicultural London…
From Adam Neely. Basically, the more balanced you are in your body, the better you rhythm good. Single leg balance can help with that. My Mom (Cate Frazier-Neely) https://www.catefnstudios.com/ Embodied Meter: Hierarchical Eigenmodes in Music-Induced Movement http://mp.ucpress.edu/content/28/1/59 Embodied Cognition and Kinesthetic Motion Literature Review https://rhythmcoglab.coursepress.yale.edu/2014/10/27/embodied-cognition-and-kinesthetic-motion-literature-review/ Vestibular influence on auditory metrical interpretation. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0278262607001832?via%3Dihub (⌐■_■) ⦿WHAT’S THE…