Music Theory

At Aalborg University, future music therapists begin group therapy from their first semester, totaling over one hundred hours. In an innovative training program, they explore improvisation as a meeting place for spontaneous communication and self-discovery. This process builds insight and prepares therapists to use their own personality as a therapeutic tool.

Rubén Blades didn't just make salsa; he turned it into a platform. A law student turned musician, Blades fled Panama's military turmoil, made history with albums like Siembra alongside Willie Colón, and won multiple Grammys – all while singing about everyday struggles, unrest, and justice. Discover his journey from an occupied Canal Zone to global stages.

Was the grunge movement a real cultural shift or a story shaped by magazines like NME and Rolling Stone—paired with vivid memories of flannel shirts, lo-fi gritty riff and Kurt Cobain? Catherine Strong’s book contrasts media coverage of grunge from its rise to Cobain’s death—and subsequent decade anniversaries—with fan accounts. While participants echo certain media cues, sharp divergences arise around authenticity, gender inequality in representation (especially forgotten female artists), and t

Why do so many music students never learn to read notation fluently despite years of lessons? This research survey uncovers the cognitive complexities behind music reading — how the brain decodes pitch and timing as separate streams, why structural pattern training trumps symbol-by-symbol instruction, and how a child’s developmental stage changes which methods actually work. From expert eye movements to tonal harmony chunking, the evidence points away from intuition and toward deliberate researc

G.I. Gurdjieff and his collaborator Thomas de Hartmann produced a remarkable body of piano music in the 1920s. Yet most scholarship remains confined to an insular "Gurdjieff bubble." This volume breaks out—analyzing the exoticist and nationalist currents in their music, the fast-paced oral method of composition, and the controversial claims linking it to Gurdjieff’s cosmology. Prepare for the first thoroughly critical, contextually-layered study of this intriguing corner of 20th-century music.

Guy Morrow's "Designing the Music Business" offers a critical lens on the music industry by placing design at its core, analyzing album covers, tour posters, music videos, and virtual reality. Rather than treating design as surface-level branding, Morrow argues it shapes organizational culture, deal-making, and the very dynamics of artist exploitation. Aimed at both researchers and practitioners, this review reveals how the book redefines musical activities, value production, and creative collab

From Dhrupad to Thumri, every major form in Hindustani music relies on specific embellishments to shape its identity. These subtle microtonal inflections — known as alankaran — do more than decorate; they breathe emotional life into each raga. Discover how ornaments vary across genres, how they connect to the concept of raga, and why mastering them is essential for any serious student of Indian classical vocal or instrumental performance.

Since the dawn of Earth, sound, vibration, and art have held the power to heal. Peggy Leyva Conley weaves a global journey — through Navajo flute, Greek medicine, Egyptian pyramids, and the colors we paint — revealing how creative expression re-aligns the energy fields of body and nature. Discover music’s role in trauma recovery, spirituality, and the conscious art that mends.

Seventy years after the Holocaust, the greatest challenge of remembrance is not preserving facts but transmitting living emotion. Artistic music created in the Nazi death camps offers an unexpected bridge to that vast historical trauma. From controversial Wagner-era antisemitism to the secret performances in Theresienstadt, composers used music not only as propaganda or resistance but as a gesture of identity and survival. Drawing on the work of scholars like Aleida Assmann and Frank Stern, this

Forget auditions and sheet music stands. At the HONK! Festival of Activist Street Bands, anyone can join — even if they can only play one note. This article explores HONK! pedagogy, a teaching-and-learning philosophy built on inclusion, improvisation, and making music for joy. From rote learning to balancing notation with play, see how these practices challenge traditional music education and prove that community can be as important as art.