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Wednesday, September 14, 2016

"Surprisingly Awesome" Music Theory


As an improvisor, you really have to know at least a little bit about everything -- because you never know what's going to come at you onstage. It's a great excuse for natural Renaissance men (and women) to shine.

Despite having taken a music theory class in college, plus years of piano lessons and lots of improv singing practice, it wasn't until I moved to Maine and started teaching myself the ukulele that I realized how much I *don't* know about music. I was spoiled in San Francisco, working with incredibly talented musical improvisors who made singing easy -- and now, if I wanted to sing, I was going to have to figure out how to accompany myself.

If only the "Surprisingly Awesome" podcast had been around then!

Surprisingly Awesome's tenth episode is about the Circle of Fifths, and the podcast is a perfect 35-minute plunge into the music theory I wish I'd absorbed in college. Don't know anything at all about how music works? Listen to the podcast. Know some stuff about music and want to know more? Podcast guest Nick Britell explains it all in a charming and totally relate-able way. Don't care about music theory but love unexpected mashups? Yeah, the podcast has that too.

So now you have no excuse -- go learn some music theory!