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	<title>The Science of Songwriting</title>
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	<link>http://www.midside.com</link>
	<description>popular music theory and analysis</description>
	<pubDate>Thu, 17 Jan 2008 11:32:19 +0000</pubDate>
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			<item>
		<title>Combinatoriality in &#8220;Loser&#8221; by Beck</title>
		<link>http://www.midside.com/2007/12/27/combinatoriality-in-loser-by-beck/</link>
		<comments>http://www.midside.com/2007/12/27/combinatoriality-in-loser-by-beck/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 27 Dec 2007 22:25:20 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>trevordeclercq</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Arrangement]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Form]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[beck]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[combinatoriality]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[instrumentation]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[loser]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.midside.com/2007/12/27/combinatoriality-in-loser-by-beck/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[When sitting down to write a song, I think harmony and melody are often at the forefront of one&#8217;s mind.  Musicians love to talk about harmony (the vertical component) and melody (the horizontal component) as two sides of the same coin.  That &#8220;coin,&#8221; of course, is the domain of pitch. 
But yet in [...]]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.midside.com/2007/12/27/combinatoriality-in-loser-by-beck/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Solos as Bridges</title>
		<link>http://www.midside.com/2007/08/28/solo_bridges/</link>
		<comments>http://www.midside.com/2007/08/28/solo_bridges/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 28 Aug 2007 22:24:21 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>trevordeclercq</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Arrangement]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Form]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Harmony]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.midside.com/2007/08/28/solo_bridges/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Warning: this post will be discussing face-melting guitar solos, so please don&#8217;t read any further unless you are OK with the melting of your face.  Heed your potential future forecasted in the album cover below:

I have to admit that I was recently jamming along with Deep Purple&#8217;s &#8220;Smoke on the Water&#8221; (from their album [...]]]></description>
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		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Organicism in &#8220;Long Time Gone&#8221;</title>
		<link>http://www.midside.com/2007/07/10/long-time-gone/</link>
		<comments>http://www.midside.com/2007/07/10/long-time-gone/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 10 Jul 2007 23:54:19 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>trevordeclercq</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Form]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Harmony]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.midside.com/2007/07/10/long-time-gone/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I talked about organicism in a recent post about the Beatles, but I thought I&#8217;d return to the subject again.  In the Beatles tune (&#8221;With a Little Help From My Friends&#8221;), the chorus could be seen as constructed from the chords of the verse simply transposed down a whole step.  Of course, there [...]]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.midside.com/2007/07/10/long-time-gone/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>The Improvised Counterpoint of Freddie Green</title>
		<link>http://www.midside.com/2007/06/25/freddie_green_counterpoint/</link>
		<comments>http://www.midside.com/2007/06/25/freddie_green_counterpoint/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 25 Jun 2007 17:41:24 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>trevordeclercq</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Arrangement]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Counterpoint]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Harmony]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Melody]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.midside.com/2007/06/25/freddie_green_counterpoint/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Rhythm guitar is an instrumental role that can found in almost every popular style of music.  As well, the approach to rhythm guitar playing is fairly similar across a variety of genres.  For example, in bluegrass, the rhythm guitarist mostly strums big open chords on an acoustic guitar; in rock, the rhythm guitar [...]]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.midside.com/2007/06/25/freddie_green_counterpoint/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Flawed Form in &#8220;Rehab&#8221; by Amy Winehouse</title>
		<link>http://www.midside.com/2007/06/07/winehouse_rehab/</link>
		<comments>http://www.midside.com/2007/06/07/winehouse_rehab/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 07 Jun 2007 17:07:19 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>trevordeclercq</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Arrangement]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Form]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.midside.com/2007/06/07/winehouse_rehab/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Amy Winehouse seems to be everywhere these days with her hit &#8220;Rehab&#8221; off her Back to Black album. I saw her play on the MTV movie awards and now she&#8217;s on the cover of Rolling Stone.  I admit I like the song; it&#8217;s catchy.  But does anyone agree with me that it&#8217;s a [...]]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.midside.com/2007/06/07/winehouse_rehab/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>&#8220;Jane Says&#8221; by Jane&#8217;s Addiction: A Song without a Tonic?</title>
		<link>http://www.midside.com/2007/06/05/jane_says/</link>
		<comments>http://www.midside.com/2007/06/05/jane_says/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 06 Jun 2007 00:24:51 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>trevordeclercq</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Harmony]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.midside.com/2007/06/05/jane_says/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[One of the underlying premises of tonality, arguably, is that there is a well-defined key.  Moreover, this well-defined key is centered on a particulary chord, which we call the tonic.  In F major, the tonic is an F-major triad; in C minor, the tonic is a C-minor triad, and so on.  Some [...]]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.midside.com/2007/06/05/jane_says/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Artifacts in &#8220;When The War Came&#8221; by The Decemberists</title>
		<link>http://www.midside.com/2007/05/29/decemberists_war/</link>
		<comments>http://www.midside.com/2007/05/29/decemberists_war/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 29 May 2007 23:00:24 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>trevordeclercq</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Harmony]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Melody]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.midside.com/2007/05/29/decemberists_war/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Are you familiar with the album The Crane Wife by the Decemberists?  The local radio station was playing the last track (&#8221;Sons and Daughters&#8221;) a lot last year, and I really liked it, so I picked up the album.  The song sounded as if it were something by Neutral Milk Hotel, who haven&#8217;t [...]]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.midside.com/2007/05/29/decemberists_war/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Common Tones in the Beatles&#8217;s &#8220;Help&#8221;</title>
		<link>http://www.midside.com/2007/05/27/beatles_help/</link>
		<comments>http://www.midside.com/2007/05/27/beatles_help/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 27 May 2007 16:35:27 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>trevordeclercq</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Form]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Harmony]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Melody]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.midside.com/2007/05/27/beatles_help/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[In my previous post, I talked a bit about the Beatles tune &#8220;With A Little Help From My Friends,&#8221; and I would like to follow up on that post with a look at yet another song by the Fab Four, their early hit from 1965 entitled &#8220;Help.&#8221;  The constructions of these two songs actually [...]]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.midside.com/2007/05/27/beatles_help/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
		</item>
		<item>
		<title>Organicism in &#8220;With A Little Help From My Friends&#8221;</title>
		<link>http://www.midside.com/2007/05/24/beatles_friends/</link>
		<comments>http://www.midside.com/2007/05/24/beatles_friends/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 24 May 2007 18:43:08 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>trevordeclercq</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Form]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Harmony]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.midside.com/2007/05/24/organicism-in-with-a-little-help-from-my-friends/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Did anybody see the finale to American Idol last night?  I&#8217;ll admit I saw part of it.  It&#8217;s not a show I watch, but my Netflix had run out, and I stumbled upon the finale and figured it was maybe worth watching.  Anyway, there was this cheesy medley of Beatles songs near [...]]]></description>
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		<item>
		<title>Chromaticism in Beck&#8217;s &#8220;Girl Dreams&#8221;</title>
		<link>http://www.midside.com/2007/05/13/beck_girl_dreams/</link>
		<comments>http://www.midside.com/2007/05/13/beck_girl_dreams/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 14 May 2007 00:20:21 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>trevordeclercq</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Harmony]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.midside.com/blog/?p=13</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[One of my most favorite albums of all time is Beck&#8217;s One Foot in the Grave from 1994.  I like Beck&#8217;s later albums well enough and am happy that he has received a lot of commercial success, but to me, none of them compares in terms of soul, truth, musicianship, and creativity to this [...]]]></description>
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		<title>Improvisatory Formulas of Charlie Christian</title>
		<link>http://www.midside.com/2007/03/02/christian_formulas/</link>
		<comments>http://www.midside.com/2007/03/02/christian_formulas/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 03 Mar 2007 00:50:22 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>trevordeclercq</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Melody]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.midside.com/blog/?p=11</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Sixty-five years ago today, Charlie Christian died of pulmonary tuberculosis at the age of 25.  Despite his short lived career, he left behind some ground-breaking single-string solos for electric guitar.  


Many people cite Charlie Christian as the father of jazz guitar.  Although his solos perhaps sound fairly complicated on first listen, only [...]]]></description>
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		<item>
		<title>The Supertonic in Nirvana&#8217;s Nevermind</title>
		<link>http://www.midside.com/2007/02/18/nirvana_supertonic/</link>
		<comments>http://www.midside.com/2007/02/18/nirvana_supertonic/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 18 Feb 2007 16:09:16 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>trevordeclercq</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Harmony]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.midside.com/blog/?p=12</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Some many years ago, I sat down to figure out the chord progressions to the songs on Nirvana&#8217;s Nevermind album.  I think there are a lot of curiously interesting ways that melody and harmony are treated in those tunes.
After figuring out a few songs, I started to notice a pattern in some of the [...]]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.midside.com/2007/02/18/nirvana_supertonic/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
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		<item>
		<title>Diminished Chords in Lionel Hampton&#8217;s Solos</title>
		<link>http://www.midside.com/2007/02/04/diminished_hampton/</link>
		<comments>http://www.midside.com/2007/02/04/diminished_hampton/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 04 Feb 2007 15:56:47 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>trevordeclercq</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Melody]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.midside.com/blog/?p=10</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I&#8217;ve been listening to a lot of swing-era Benny Goodman lately, i.e. stuff from the mid- to late-30&#8217;s and early 40&#8217;s, particularly the small groups recordings (trios, quartets, etc.&#8211;not the big band music).  It&#8217;s surprising to me how similar a lot of the licks and riffs in the solos are to early 50&#8217;s rock [...]]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.midside.com/2007/02/04/diminished_hampton/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
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		<item>
		<title>Groupings of Three in the Pixies</title>
		<link>http://www.midside.com/2007/01/18/pixies_triples/</link>
		<comments>http://www.midside.com/2007/01/18/pixies_triples/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 19 Jan 2007 03:15:33 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>trevordeclercq</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Form]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Harmony]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Rhythm and Meter]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.midside.com/blog/?p=8</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I mentioned in a previous post how most music tends towards phrase structures in groupings of two, four, eight, etc.  Verses and choruses that are built on some sort of pattern in groups of three, on the other hand, are fairly rare.  That is, unless you are listening to music by the Pixies.
The [...]]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.midside.com/2007/01/18/pixies_triples/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
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		<item>
		<title>Syncopation in &#8220;Stairway to Heaven&#8221;</title>
		<link>http://www.midside.com/2006/12/12/stairway_syncopation/</link>
		<comments>http://www.midside.com/2006/12/12/stairway_syncopation/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 13 Dec 2006 01:11:30 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>trevordeclercq</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Rhythm and Meter]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.midside.com/blog/?p=4</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Have you ever tried tapping your foot along with &#8220;Stairway to Heaven&#8221; and gotten confused somewhere near the end of the bridge?  If you don&#8217;t know what I&#8217;m talking about or just haven&#8217;t tried it in awhile, give it a shot.  At some point right before the solo, do you get a little [...]]]></description>
		<wfw:commentRss>http://www.midside.com/2006/12/12/stairway_syncopation/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
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		<title>Hypermeter in &#8220;The Christian Life&#8221;</title>
		<link>http://www.midside.com/2006/12/06/christian_life/</link>
		<comments>http://www.midside.com/2006/12/06/christian_life/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Wed, 06 Dec 2006 14:52:54 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>trevordeclercq</dc:creator>
		
		<category><![CDATA[Form]]></category>

		<category><![CDATA[Rhythm and Meter]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.midside.com/blog/?p=3</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[My first post to the blogosphere!  Since this blog was inspired by my good friend Christian Patterson, who runs his own fancy blog about photography, I thought it would be appropriate to discuss a special song called &#8220;The Christian Life.&#8221;
&#8220;The Christian Life&#8221; was writted by Ira and Charlie Louvin and first appeared on their [...]]]></description>
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