Stuck in a 4-Chord Loop? Here's Why Your Begi...

I walk you through a short, epic orchestral adventure, taking you through some mixing decisions, and scoring decisions that can lead to exciting orchestral textures with natural orchestral forces. This audio was taken from a YouTube video - if you want to watch my screen as I tal ...  Show more

This episode talks about the one big question you should ask yourself if you're trying to develop and grow as a composer. From years of teaching, I've learned that beginners and more advanced composers can get so much out of studying the same piece of music - but they'll take com ...  Show more

This is a personal arrangement of Bach's Prelude in B-flat Minor BWV 867 - The Well-Tempered Clavier, Vol 1. As I played this piece, I mentally converted it from the minor key of B-flat to the parallel major key. I did this as a demonstration of how such simple alterations in mus ...  Show more

Apparently this is my first release of a Brahms piece on my website! I did not realize I was missing such an important composer in the classical reportory until now... This piece is a beautiful Intermezzo by Brahms - one that was introduced to me by a colleague at Washington Univ ...  Show more

Today is a bit of an unusual episode. Last month I was invited by the British Society of Aesthetics to address their annual conference. My task was to give a lecture on whatever topic I wanted, having to do with music. So, considering it was an Academic Philosophy conference, I c ...  Show more

This work is the sixth piece from Liszt's "Harmonies poetiques et religieuses" (Poetic and Religious Harmonies). This work has some very beautiful harmonies and chord progressions. The majority of this work is in the key of A-flat, which is a very loving and dreamlike key for Lis ...  Show more