Play The Music, Not The Melody, By Mattie O’Boyle Don’t play the melody, play the music In each case, to bring out the music, we have to go beyond the melody So many musicians focus on learning songs. And that’s fine, but let’s dig deeper. When you really look closely it’s not the song that … Read more
Playing music – it’s just like acting By Mattie O’Boyle Don’t play the notes, play the phrases In grade school, I was told to read in phrases, until I came to a punctuation mark. Here’s my definition of music: Music is the organization of sound and silence to produce certain emotional or physical effects in … Read more
The Harmonic Series By Mattie O’Boyle What is the Harmonic Series? The Harmonic Series provides the naturally occurring, physical basis for the sounds we hear. The harmonic series is a naturally occurring, acoustic phenomenon. When a body vibrates, like a string on a violin or a column of air in a flute, a complex, regular … Read more
Hearing The Chords By Mattie O’Boyle The Fast Track To Hearning And Playing Chords Most folks learning guitar, piano, harp, accordion, or, any other instrument that plays a lot of chords, need help perceiving the subtle differences between different chord forms; furthermore, they need to practice playing those chord forms back on their instruments. An … Read more
Call and Response Dictations Accelerate Your Ear Training By Mattie O’Boyle Why do Call and Response dictations help you learn music faster? Well, what is music? That’s a tricky question, with many different answers, but I believe that any answer must include the word sound. Music has something to do with sound. So what is … Read more
The Key To Awesome Rhythm By Mattie O’Boyle South Indian Classical Music – Your Key To Awesome Rhythm Ear training has several different component skills that need to be internalized. One of the critical skills involves the rhythmic complexities underlying even what seems simple songs and tunes. So how do you internalize rhythm and learn … Read more
Sounds Like A Train By Mattie O’Boyle Listen to the whistle, stick your head out of the window and hear the drivers roll People have always been inspired to make music from the sounds that surround them in their daily lives. In today’s blog article I want to focus on what was once the fastest … Read more
Drones – Ostinatos By Mattie O’Boyle What’s the difference between hearing a melody played on a flute and hearing it on a bagpipe? The drones, of course! And you can hear drones in so many different styles of music from around the globe. I would venture to say, from their geographic ubiquity, that drones form … Read more
From Motown to Appalchia By Mattie O’Boyle What do Motown, Appalachian fiddle kicks offs and Blues Bass lines have in common? In this video blog we’ll dive deep into a short rhythmic phrase and follow it through a surprising journey across musical genres. At the same time, you´ll discover a technique that can help stimulate … Read more
Open Strings versus Closed Strings By Mattie O’Boyle This blog entry is key for string players If you play violin/fiddle, viola, cello, bass, guitar, banjo, mandolin or any other string instrument, you will need to make the choice of playing a the same note on an open string or a closed string. Is there a … Read more
