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Ethan Hein

@ethanhein.bsky.social

1.6K followers 630 following 3.3K posts

I teach music and write about it http://www.ethanhein.com/

www.ethanhein.com

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Ethan Hein @ethanhein.bsky.social · 19d

New on the pod, my first episode on classical music open.substack.com/pub/ethanhei...

Remixing the Bach Chaconne

and why it is really more of a passacaglia than a chaconne

open.substack.com

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Reposted by Ethan Hein

Gretchen McCulloch @gretchenmcc.bsky.social · 1h

Higgledy piggledy
Timothée Chalamet
Has a name meriting
Endless design

Much like his forerunner
Benedict Cumberbatch:
Hexasyllabically,
Easy to rhyme

tweet from childish branzino @absflora:
timothée chalamet is the new benedict cumberbatch in the sense that you can say ANYTHING and we know who you mean. tiffany chevrolet. timpanogos charlemagne. symphony cabernet. jiminy castaway.

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Ethan Hein @ethanhein.bsky.social · 2h

Finished the rough cut of my next podcast episode in which my daughter gives her review of David Byrne at Radio City Music Hall and explains why she likes American Utopia better than Stop Making Sense

Ethan Hein @ethanhein.bsky.social · 21h

I'm enjoying watching Industry, or as I like to call it, Business Euphoria

Ethan Hein @ethanhein.bsky.social · 23h

Also in this house we only use Andrew's pronunciation of "boogie-woogie"

Ethan Hein @ethanhein.bsky.social · 23h

While we are sending well wishes to Dolly Parton for a speedy recovery, I want to point out that she has referred to herself in interviews as a "sawed-off honky"

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Reposted by Ethan Hein

Will Stancil @whstancil.bsky.social · 23h

Unironically, you can see how these guys’ Twitter brainrot has progressed to this stage where they have trouble remembering that you’re supposed to talk about the Nazis as the bad guys. It’s not a winking nod to neo-Nazis so much as them genuinely forgetting which way is supposed to be up

Matt Novak @paleofuture.bsky.social · 1d

"Antifa has been around in various iterations for almost 100 years in some instances, going back to the Weimar Republic in Germany."

- Jack Posobiec at Trump's roundtable on antifa

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Reposted by Ethan Hein

Chris Kluwe @chriswarcraft.bsky.social · 23h

Pretty sure Eleanor Roosevelt is dead

Bobby Silverman @robertsilverman.bsky.social · 1d

Bondi claiming they arrested [checks notes] "the girlfriend of one of the founders of antifa" has me in stitches

Aaron Rupar @atrupar.com · 1d

Bondi: "Bondi: "Just like we did with cartels, we are going to take the same approach, President Trump, with antifa -- destroy the entire organization from top to bottom. We are going to take them apart."

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Ethan Hein @ethanhein.bsky.social · 23h

A good @andrewhickey.500songs.com line from the 500 Songs episode about Screamin' Jay Hawkins, referring to Hawkins saying he loved the army because you were allowed to kill people without being punished for it: "History does not record exactly how many people his saxophone playing killed."

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Ethan Hein @ethanhein.bsky.social · 23h

They're into it! Okay then!

Ethan Hein @ethanhein.bsky.social · 1d

I got to talk to WNYC about Friend.com and how much I hate it www.instagram.com/reel/DPjcbzV...

Friend

Your new roommate is waiting.

Friend.com

Ethan Hein @ethanhein.bsky.social · 1d

The day after I posted this, I got asked to write a chapter of an edited volume on tech in music ed. They wanted me to do the chapter on generative AI. I told them I would be happy to, but that my take was not going to be positive. Wonder if they still want it? www.ethanhein.com/wp/2025/ai-s...

AI slop and musical creativity

Next week, my NYU graduate seminar on technology in music education is supposed to start talking about AI: large language models, prompt-based generators, stem separation and so on. I am not feelin…

www.ethanhein.com

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Ethan Hein @ethanhein.bsky.social · 1d

Maybe I shouldn't have shown this to my kids, but while they find it bizarre they kind of love it www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kIY...

David Byrne-Psycho Killer

YouTube video by Kehlog Albran

www.youtube.com

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Ethan Hein @ethanhein.bsky.social · 1d

If you want to listen to every mathematically possible 4/4 backbeat rhythm, Alex has got you covered

Alex Reed @salexanderreed.bsky.social · 1d

I made a little toy for exploring and mixing mathematically possible backbeat rhythms!

In a 2-beat 16th-note grid with kick/snare/hat, there are 1,458 combinations. And in combination, there are 2,125,764 ways to fill in a 4/4. Enjoy playing ALL of them here:

salexanderreed.com/backbeats

Backbeats — 1458 Possible Rhythms — ⠀

salexanderreed.com

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Reposted by Ethan Hein

Keith W. Dickinson @keithwdickinson.bsky.social · 1d

Today is a day when arts degrees are worthless, but the product of those degrees is so valuable it would kill an entire industry if they were made to pay for it.

The Verge @theverge.com · May 26

Nick Clegg says asking artists for use permission would ‘kill’ the AI industry

Paul McCartne, Elton John and others signed an open letter.

buff.ly

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Ethan Hein @ethanhein.bsky.social · 1d

This one is new to me, it's so rad!

Ethan Hein @ethanhein.bsky.social · 1d

If you need some effortless, laid-back groove, may I recommend Mississippi John Hurt youtu.be/85BvT5X6WSo?...

Mississippi John Hurt - You Got To Walk That Lonesome Valley (Live)

YouTube video by JOHNHURTVEVO

youtu.be

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Reposted by Ethan Hein

Pavel @spavel.bsky.social · 2d

Flying cars are the perfect example of a point solution: trying to solve a systemic problem (traffic) with an individual product (fly over the traffic).

But traffic is not a technology problem; it's a social problem. Remote work, congestion fees, and dense transit-connected housing solve it better.

ae @aelkus.bsky.social · 2d

which then begs the question of why you want flying cars instead of whatever mass transportation equivalent you imagine

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Reposted by Ethan Hein

Sky Marchini @sky.skymarchini.net · 2d

Supreme Court: of course states can regulate, and restrict access to, medical procedures if there’s a compelling public interest

Colorado: (bans conversion therapy for minors)

Supreme Court: no not like that, we only meant abortion

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Ethan Hein @ethanhein.bsky.social · 2d

This is why music theory is important! It can change what you pay attention to, what you consider to be a possibility, what mental categories you have to put your aural experiences into.

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Ethan Hein @ethanhein.bsky.social · 2d

If you had sat me down with "Terraplane Blues" and forced me to really scrutinize that spot in each verse where the V chord is "supposed" to be, I would have been forced to admit, huh, yeah, there is no V chord there. But I wouldn't have thought to pay attention that closely in the first place.

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Ethan Hein @ethanhein.bsky.social · 2d

Once I read a couple of people pointing out that blues musicians often avoid the V chord, then all of a sudden I started hearing it in tons of songs, including songs I had already listened to many times.

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Ethan Hein @ethanhein.bsky.social · 2d

I think the answer is that he has "twelve bar blues" as a conceptual category, with strong expectations about where the I, IV and V chords go. He probably "heard" the V chord fall in the expected place. I probably would have too before I started reading blues musicology.

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Ethan Hein @ethanhein.bsky.social · 2d

Dude clearly has listened to the Robert Johnson recording many times. He picked up a lot of nuances of the guitar part, vocal phrasing etc, even if he doesn't deliver them faithfully. So how could he get a recurring chord wrong in a song with so few of them?

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Ethan Hein @ethanhein.bsky.social · 2d

There is so much to unpack in this cover. The guy plays the chords wrong! Robert Johnson never plays the V chord, the whole time. This guys does, confidently and wrongly. Great illustration of how preconceptions can color your listening.

Ethan Hein @ethanhein.bsky.social · 2d

Today in class we're talking about Robert Johnson. We're starting with the question of why white dudes are so cringe covering his songs. I'm going to argue that it's less about identity and more about the fact that people don't play them well. www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBLV...

Terraplane Blues - Dan Bubien & the Delta Struts (Robert Johnson Cover)

YouTube video by Dan Bubien & the Delta Struts

www.youtube.com

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Ethan Hein @ethanhein.bsky.social · 2d

I don't think you need to replicate RJ exactly, but you should be on a similar level of rhythmic sophistication.