Rhythm + Harmony = Music

Strong Songs

Kirk breaks down the two most fundamental aspects of music: rhythm and harmony.

There's the Y-axis, harmony, which tells us which frequencies we're hearing in which combinations. And there's the X-axis, rhythm, which tells us how those frequencies are playing out over time. Much like most music, it's a mix of math and magic that takes many moons to master.

REFERENCED ON THIS EPISODE:

• "I Will Always Love You" by Dolly Parton, performed by Whitney Houston
• "Stairway to Heaven" by Led Zeppelin from Led Zeppelin IV, 1971
• The Pentatonix cover of "Havana" from Top Pop, Vol. 1
• "Stayin' Alive" by the Bee Gees from the Saturday Night Fever soundtrack, 1977
• "Countdown" by John Coltrane from Giant Steps, 1960
• "The Waltz of the Flowers" by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky from The Nutcracker, 1892
• "You Really Got Me" by The Kinks from The Kinks, 1964
• "Use It" by the New Pornographers from Twin Cinema, 2005
• "Take Five" by Paul Desmond and "Blue Rondo a la Turk" by Dave Brubeck from Time Out, 1959
• "Cory Wong teaches audience to count 25/8" posted by Arlington Hayne to YouTube
• "Weni" by Timnit Welday via YouTube
• "Janie Runaway" by Steely Day from Two Against Nature, 2000

'GRAM BY 'GRAM

If you're interested in occasional music and Portland-related photos and videos, follow Kirk on Instagram @kirk_hamilton. https://www.instagram.com/kirk_hamilton/

NEWSLETTER/MAILING LIST

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STRONG MERCH!

Visit the Strong Songs merch store for some very cool t-shirts, mugs, totes, and more: store.strongsongspodcast.com

STRONG PLAYLISTS

You can find playlists containing every Strong Song as well as all of Kirk's weekly music picks from his other podcast, Kotaku Splitscreen, on both Spotify and Apple Music.

SUPPORT STRONG SONGS ON PATREON!

This episode was made possible by Patreon, so, the biggest of thank-yous to all of Strong Songs's Patreon backers! The next one of these bonus episodes will focus on individual instruments, so if you want to help reach the goal to make that episode happen, head over here: https://Patreon.com/StrongSongs

JANUARY 2020 WHOLE-NOTE PATRONS

AccessViolation andrew walters CALEB ROTACH Chad Barnard Dan Apczynski Dave Florey Glenn Jared Norris Mark Schechter Merlin Mann Ryan Torvik

JANUARY 2020 HALF-NOTE PATRONS

Adam Georgandis Alex Singer Alexander Polson Amanda Furlotti Andre Bremer Andrew Baker Andrew Lee Arjun Sharma Bill Thornton Brett Douville Brian Amoebas Brooke Wilford Chas Lednicky Chris Brown Cyrus N. White David Stroud Earl Lozada Eero Wahlstedt Elliot Jay O'Neill Emily Williams FlSHBONES Forrest Chang Gavin Doig Jacob Dye Jaehoon Jeong James Johnson Jasmine Fellows Jeffrey Olson Jennifer Bush Jeremy Dawson John and Sharon Stenglein Jon O’Keefe joujou Juan Carlos Montemayor Elosua Jules Bailey Justin Liew Justin McElroy Kate Albury Kevin Morrell Kevin Pennyfeather Mark Steen Matt Gaskell Max Schechter Melanie Stivers Michael Blackwell Miriam Juskowicz Mueller Nate from Kalamazoo Nicholas Schechter Richard Toller Robbie Ferrero samuel gardner Shane DeLeon Shaun Wiese SP Tanner Morton Tom Clewer Tom Lauer