Music education for the middle-aged
March 27, 2024 4:20 PM Subscribe
Please recommend books, videos, free courses, podcasts, and such that will help me learn two things:
1. How music works. From “what is a scale” on up.
2. “Our Musical Heritage”, as the course was titled, back in my undergrad days.
I don’t play an instrument and never have. I’ve been an avid, attentive, but uninformed listener to many genres, from jazz to classical to medieval sacred to bluegrass to country to R&B to folk to…whatever catches my ear, really.
The Art of the Western World and The Story of Art led me to a long, deep dive into the great sweep of art history. My life has been so much richer for it.
I’m looking for a similar experience with music. From the minute I wake until I sleep, my home, car, and office are filled with music. I want to understand it better, and so deepen its meaning for me.
As an aside, I should mention that I work for a small liberal arts college that’s absolutely steeped in music, and I’m able to take one course per semester at no cost. So, that might be an option. But I want your recommendations, too.
I don’t play an instrument and never have. I’ve been an avid, attentive, but uninformed listener to many genres, from jazz to classical to medieval sacred to bluegrass to country to R&B to folk to…whatever catches my ear, really.
The Art of the Western World and The Story of Art led me to a long, deep dive into the great sweep of art history. My life has been so much richer for it.
I’m looking for a similar experience with music. From the minute I wake until I sleep, my home, car, and office are filled with music. I want to understand it better, and so deepen its meaning for me.
As an aside, I should mention that I work for a small liberal arts college that’s absolutely steeped in music, and I’m able to take one course per semester at no cost. So, that might be an option. But I want your recommendations, too.
Please take a look at the monumental music history site by Piero Scaruffi *. It includes A History of Rock Music, History of Avantgarde Music, History of Jazz Music, History of Pop music, and Other music pages, which includes histories of classical, country, film music, blues, musicals, hip-hop, and more. Scaruffi's site has been mentioned before on Metafilter, including in Global Music History Books and YouTube Channels and The best way to say “hello” to modern classical music is to listen to it, both of which might have other helpful resources for you.
You may be able to find the Great Courses audio course How to Listen to and Understand Great Music in your college or local public library.
Coursera has several courses on music, including Fundamentals of Music Theory (The University of Edinburgh) and Getting Started With Music Theory (Michigan State University). (I'm nearly positive you can audit both of those for free.)
The delightful and wonderful composer Peter Schickele did an amazing radio show on NPR, Schickele Mix, in which he helped listeners understand all kinds of music. Thanks to Leonard Richardson, there is now an easy-to-access Schickele Mix Online Fan Archive of nearly all of those shows.
For excellent online theory lessons with practice, I recommend musictheory.net.
( * Credit where credit is due: it was my own brain that remembered the existence of Scaruffi's site, but I had to rely on ChatGPT to recall the site itself. I said, "Please help me remember a blog with an in-depth history of music, with a focus on rock and jazz, and a particular appreciation for somewhat obscure albums. The author's name sounded Italian. Any ideas?" and ChatGPT, bless its algorithmic heart, said: "The blog you're thinking of might be "The History of Rock Music" by Piero Scaruffi." I would NEVER have remembered that myself.)
posted by kristi at 5:54 PM on March 27 [10 favorites]
You may be able to find the Great Courses audio course How to Listen to and Understand Great Music in your college or local public library.
Coursera has several courses on music, including Fundamentals of Music Theory (The University of Edinburgh) and Getting Started With Music Theory (Michigan State University). (I'm nearly positive you can audit both of those for free.)
The delightful and wonderful composer Peter Schickele did an amazing radio show on NPR, Schickele Mix, in which he helped listeners understand all kinds of music. Thanks to Leonard Richardson, there is now an easy-to-access Schickele Mix Online Fan Archive of nearly all of those shows.
For excellent online theory lessons with practice, I recommend musictheory.net.
( * Credit where credit is due: it was my own brain that remembered the existence of Scaruffi's site, but I had to rely on ChatGPT to recall the site itself. I said, "Please help me remember a blog with an in-depth history of music, with a focus on rock and jazz, and a particular appreciation for somewhat obscure albums. The author's name sounded Italian. Any ideas?" and ChatGPT, bless its algorithmic heart, said: "The blog you're thinking of might be "The History of Rock Music" by Piero Scaruffi." I would NEVER have remembered that myself.)
posted by kristi at 5:54 PM on March 27 [10 favorites]
(And I have just now realized that both mentions of Scaruffi's site in those other threads were from ME. Oops. I had no recollection of having posted those. I feel sure I learned about Scaruffi here on Metafilter.)
posted by kristi at 5:57 PM on March 27 [2 favorites]
posted by kristi at 5:57 PM on March 27 [2 favorites]
Robert Greenberg is an entertaining lecturer. I listened to one of his Great Courses options (I think "The Fundamentals of Music") and was sharing his jokes with a friend who studied music; it turns out they'd taken classes from him and he was one of their favorites.
He has videos on YouTube so you can get a feel for what he's like, but the course I listened to was easily worth the $30 for an overview.
posted by mark k at 8:45 PM on March 27
He has videos on YouTube so you can get a feel for what he's like, but the course I listened to was easily worth the $30 for an overview.
posted by mark k at 8:45 PM on March 27
A lot of the Robert Greenberg courses, plus much other instructional content, are available free on Kanopy - a free streaming service; I access it through my local public library.
posted by lulu68 at 9:22 PM on March 27 [3 favorites]
posted by lulu68 at 9:22 PM on March 27 [3 favorites]
David Byrne (yes that one) has an amazing book called "How Music Works."
Also recommend -- as lighter fare -- watching YouTube (but also PHD) music theorist/historian Adam Neely for entertaining but smart and culturally and politically informed thinking about the relationship between music theory, musical genre, and cultural context. He's hilarious and knows his shit.
As a music professor let me just say the last things you want to bother with are standard college course textbooks. Still mired in Eurocentric elitism.
posted by spitbull at 3:22 AM on March 28 [7 favorites]
Also recommend -- as lighter fare -- watching YouTube (but also PHD) music theorist/historian Adam Neely for entertaining but smart and culturally and politically informed thinking about the relationship between music theory, musical genre, and cultural context. He's hilarious and knows his shit.
As a music professor let me just say the last things you want to bother with are standard college course textbooks. Still mired in Eurocentric elitism.
posted by spitbull at 3:22 AM on March 28 [7 favorites]
If you are interested in western classical music, then listening while "reading" the score is a good way to interact. Lots of youtube videos have the score uploaded as visuals. What I find interesting in the score is seeing where an instrumental line is about to begin or end, seeing as well as hearing the key changes and just seeing what the performer is seeing to create the sounds I am hearing.
It probably helps to have a very basic understanding of how to read music to get the most out of this, but I don't actually read it as I'm following it - in fact I barely skim. But, if you can't read music at all then the eg ABRSM theory grade workbooks (and material that is based on that syllabus) will give you a basic understanding and are approachable for both children to adults. I wouldn't recommend them for a really insightful and thoughtful approach to understanding music but for just learning to read it they are good.
Western classical music absolutely isn't the be all and end all, nor are its tools universal but the basics are helpful for those genres that have been influenced by it.
posted by plonkee at 4:34 AM on March 28
It probably helps to have a very basic understanding of how to read music to get the most out of this, but I don't actually read it as I'm following it - in fact I barely skim. But, if you can't read music at all then the eg ABRSM theory grade workbooks (and material that is based on that syllabus) will give you a basic understanding and are approachable for both children to adults. I wouldn't recommend them for a really insightful and thoughtful approach to understanding music but for just learning to read it they are good.
Western classical music absolutely isn't the be all and end all, nor are its tools universal but the basics are helpful for those genres that have been influenced by it.
posted by plonkee at 4:34 AM on March 28
The University of British Columbia has a free set of video lectures on the physics of music.
posted by Depressed Obese Nightmare Man at 6:22 AM on March 28
posted by Depressed Obese Nightmare Man at 6:22 AM on March 28
I highly recommend the late, great Schickele Mix and thank kristi for linking to my spouse's archive project! :D
Hrishikesh Hirway started the podcast Song Exploder several years ago and it's been an excellent for my music appreciation. "A podcast where musicians take apart their songs, and piece by piece, tell the story of how they were made." You can pick and choose, starting with past episodes focusing on musicians whose work you already enjoy.
Greg Milner's book Perfecting Sound Forever: An Aural History of Recorded Music. This gave me a new dimension on which to appreciate music: how recording and playback technology has influenced what I actually hear, and how musicians, technologists, businesspeople, and listeners have all affected the course of the last several decades of popular music. And it teaches the reader the bits of physics and music history they need to know, along the way, accessibly but without being condescending. It has enough diagrams and other graphics that I do recommend reading it in paper rather than as an ebook.
posted by brainwane at 10:19 AM on March 28 [2 favorites]
Hrishikesh Hirway started the podcast Song Exploder several years ago and it's been an excellent for my music appreciation. "A podcast where musicians take apart their songs, and piece by piece, tell the story of how they were made." You can pick and choose, starting with past episodes focusing on musicians whose work you already enjoy.
Greg Milner's book Perfecting Sound Forever: An Aural History of Recorded Music. This gave me a new dimension on which to appreciate music: how recording and playback technology has influenced what I actually hear, and how musicians, technologists, businesspeople, and listeners have all affected the course of the last several decades of popular music. And it teaches the reader the bits of physics and music history they need to know, along the way, accessibly but without being condescending. It has enough diagrams and other graphics that I do recommend reading it in paper rather than as an ebook.
posted by brainwane at 10:19 AM on March 28 [2 favorites]
This may be slightly advanced for where you are, but the delightful YouTuber 12tone has a bunch of videos where he takes apart popular songs and analyzes the theory behind them in a fun and compelling way. He is much more focused on Music Theory than like... How To Make And Play Music (he has a PhD in the theory side, i believe).
posted by softlord at 10:57 AM on March 28
posted by softlord at 10:57 AM on March 28
I recommend Howard Goodall's BBC documentary series "Story of Music". I see now he has produced many more documentaries and broadcasts. Erudite and captivating.
posted by bluedora at 1:09 PM on March 30
posted by bluedora at 1:09 PM on March 30
Response by poster: Friends, this is a terrific syllabus! Except it's not actually homework, it's fun, and I won't be graded. Thank you all so much.
posted by Caxton1476 at 10:37 AM on April 3
posted by Caxton1476 at 10:37 AM on April 3
Mod note: Hi, this thread has been included in a roundup of recent Ask Me recommendations, on both the sidebar and Best Of blog!
posted by Brandon Blatcher (staff) at 6:10 AM on April 5
posted by Brandon Blatcher (staff) at 6:10 AM on April 5
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posted by knile at 5:02 PM on March 27 [1 favorite]