Music about Music

Musicians keep writing songs about music and musicianship. Billy Joel wrote about a piano player. Stevie Wonder wrote about Duke Ellington. John Miles wrote a song literally called "Music." The Who wrote about tuning up. The Doobie Brothers wrote about listening. It's a pattern. And it's not accident.

These aren't just songs about their job. They're songs about why it matters. Identity. Connection. Legacy. Escape. The things that actually move people. When musicians write about music, they're writing about the human stakes beneath the technique.

That's important. Because when you're teaching music theory - showing students a perfect cadence, a modulation, a shift in texture - theory is the foundation. Load-bearing. Essential. But theory alone is a skeleton. The ornament - the context, the story, the reason this particular song uses this particular device at this particular moment - that's what makes it actually matter. That's what makes it impressive.

A grand building needs both. The foundation holds it up. The carved detail, the brickwork, the aesthetic weight of it - that's what makes someone stop and really look.

I talk about context with every piece we listen to in class. Not instead of theory. Alongside it. Here's the sequence - the melody climbing higher each time, the tension building with it. And here's why this artist chose it, what it does to the song, what it meant in that moment. Both things, always.

And that gives us some context to explore this week's...

Track of the Week

Music by John Miles — featuring Ballad, Irregular, Stab chords, Rallentando

Listen on YouTube

New in the database this week

• B21: "Darshan" by Jassi Sidhu — featuring Chaal, Tenor, Microtone
• Key To The Highway by Big Bill Broonzy — featuring Acoustic Guitar, Simple Quadruple (4/4), Glissando/slide
• Adore You by Harry Styles — featuring Four to the floor, Glissando/slide, Reverb
• Kashmir by Led Zeppelin — featuring Backbeat, Tenor, Pedal, Cross Rhythm
• St. Thomas by Sonny Rollins — featuring Syncopation, Bend, Drum kit, Piano
• Chaal Rhythms by Manvir Hothi — featuring Chaal

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