Hits And Hooks Vignettes

We've taken a look at many hooks in the past 9 months. In this series I will be revisiting 13 of the most important ones in this series. And we've listened to music from 90 different artists so far, all of whom are reaching the bar of radio-ready original songs and records. We'll hear work from these artists, and some new arrivals. So, to the hooks! In this series I will look at these biggies... -...

We've see a lot of hooks so far. For this the last episode of series 3, I'm call out what I hear, as a preview to the upcoming series 4 format. My featured artist is Breezeless, out of Germany, delivering a mix of styles; pop, rock, classical, dance, R&B, jazz and hip-hop. We'll listen to a few.   In Hits and Hooks Vignettes, we play some great tunes and lift the hood to see what makes th...

I was doing some song study and found these three hooks featuring regularly... melodic leaps, stepwise harmonic motion, and vocalizations. I'll be looking out for them in our indie songs this week. My featured artist is Jeff Jacobs out of New York City.   In Hits and Hooks Vignettes, we play some great tunes and lift the hood to see what makes them tick. HHV is a music podcast about how songs...

This week I delve into unexpected chords found in songs, and secondarily, the melodic relationships to chords. My featured artist is Ava Della Petra.   In Hits and Hooks Vignettes, we play some great tunes and lift the hood to see what makes them tick. HHV is a music podcast about how songs keep listeners engaged through hooks, structure, and subtle musical decisions.   Follow Hits and H...

Some things change, some things stay the same. This week we'll see some of how that plays out in songs. My featured artist is jazz band, Dazie Mae.   In Hits and Hooks Vignettes, we play some great tunes and lift the hood to see what makes them tick. HHV is a music podcast about how songs keep listeners engaged through hooks, structure, and subtle musical decisions.   Follow Hits and Hoo...

This week I have a varied mix of music genres and we check out some hooky devices used in the melodies of the songs. My featured artist is Country artist, Bill Steely.   In Hits and Hooks Vignettes, we play some great tunes and lift the hood to see what makes them tick. HHV is a music podcast about how songs keep listeners engaged through hooks, structure, and subtle musical decisions.  ...

This week we'll take a look at slower paced songs and the hooks we find there. My featured artist is Saint Anyway, a four piece band out of the US.   In Hits and Hooks Vignettes, we play some great tunes and lift the hood to see what makes them tick. HHV is a music podcast about how songs keep listeners engaged through hooks, structure, and subtle musical decisions.   Follow Hits and Hoo...

This week we'll take a look at fast subdivision and how it shows up in different genres. My featured artist is The Freak Fandango Orchestra... Um-pa um-pa um-pa um-pa.   In Hits and Hooks Vignettes, we play some great tunes and lift the hood to see what makes them tick. HHV is a music podcast about how songs keep listeners engaged through hooks, structure, and subtle musical decisions.  ...

This week I dig into what is a Blues song, and touch on what is high production level. How about rewiring a common experience into a song lyric source? And let's look at a song fabric that is just vocals and bass. My featured artist is the sister duo Wild Fire.   In Hits and Hooks Vignettes, we play some great tunes and lift the hood to see what makes them tick. HHV is a music podcast about h...

I maintain that it's the hooks in songs that keep us engaged. Most of the hooks I talk about are transient events in the song. a hook every seven seconds producers say. There are some larger hooks to that I carve out into their own domains, fabric, function and form. This week I talk about these larger hooks. And my featured artist is John Dada and the Weathermen.   In Hits and Hooks Vignette...

This week I talk about song intros, heartfelt honesty, and vocal anticipations. Our featured artist is Anthony Lazaro.   In Hits and Hooks Vignettes, we play some great tunes and lift the hood to see what makes them tick. HHV is a music podcast about how songs keep listeners engaged through hooks, structure, and subtle musical decisions.   Follow Hits and Hooks Vignettes, and join me, Tu...

This week let's listen close to tempo, the felt pace of a song. Featured this week are three songs from Jon Worthy. And several more cuts from new, and familiar artists.   In Hits and Hooks Vignettes, we play some great tunes and lift the hood to see what makes them tick. HHV is a music podcast about how songs keep listeners engaged through hooks, structure, and subtle musical decisions. &nbs...

This week let's listen for the variety of sounds worked into the song production. I'll be featuring 3 songs from The Devil Music Co. And several more cuts from new, and familiar artists.   In Hits and Hooks Vignettes, we play some great tunes and lift the hood to see what makes them tick. HHV is a music podcast about how songs keep listeners engaged through hooks, structure, and subtle musica...

  ////////////   Happy summer solstice! This is the beginning of a new, our third, series. In this series I'm going to dig further into the music of artists we've discovered in the last six months. This week I'll explore the music of Radio Nowhere. Add to that a new artist, Tom Reardon,  and new cuts from some regulars, Dazie Mae, and The Devil Music Co..   In Hits and Hooks Vi...

This week I explore the world of the accented offbeat. Why bother having a strong offbeat.? Why isn't the accented offbeat perceived as beat 1? We'll check this out with the help of some great Indie songs.   In Hits and Hooks Vignettes, we play some great tunes and lift the hood to see what makes them tick. HHV is a music podcast about how songs keep listeners engaged through hooks, structure...

This week I spin great tunes from Confushian. And, also from the Edinburgh scene, Norman Lamont. Radio Nowhere. Jon Worthy. And Luke Metzler. And a surprise song too. I'll dig into finger-picking guitar, extended chords, variety from vocal harmony, and song chord structure.   In Hits and Hooks Vignettes, we play some great tunes and lift the hood to see what makes them tick. HHV is a music po...

This week I'm going to dig into the Jazz genre and the music of Dazie Mae, from Paris. Hooks keep our attention as changes within a song. Genre attracts us because it's familiar. We've heard the style before. There are many elements that collectively define a genre. Let's look at a few, in Jazz.   In Hits and Hooks Vignettes, we play some great tunes and lift the hood to see what makes them t...

Unusual Sounds and Subdivision ||: HHV Ep 2-10 With songs by Lucid Lip, Saint Anyway, Jon Worthy, and Wild Fire   ////////////   This week I spin great tunes from Lucid Lip, Saint Anyway, Jon Worthy, and Wild Fire. And we'll dig into unusual sounds, and subdivision pacing. And a hook count to take us out.   In Hits and Hooks Vignettes, we play some great tunes and lift the hood to s...

This week I spin great tunes from Ed Napoli, Lea James, Kevin Johnston and Bill Steely. And we'll dig into beat, and some of the functions, that the guitar fulfils, in songs. For fun I'll do a hooks count too.   In Hits and Hooks Vignettes, we play some great tunes and lift the hood to see what makes them tick. HHV is a music podcast about how songs keep listeners engaged through hooks, struc...

This week I spin great tunes from Art Yenta, Beldon Burch, Chrissy Blazier, Deivid Rivera, ilyab, and Living Camboya. I have an interview excerpt with Jason Hogan outlining his songwriting process. We'll dig into riffs, vocal shaping in the studio, using vocal texture variety, and chord voicings.   In Hits and Hooks Vignettes, we play some great tunes and lift the hood to see what makes them...

This week we'll hear couple of songs from the Edinburgh indie scene, yes, Scotland. I'll spin two very different songs out of California. And Anthony Lazaro is back with another smooth vocal song from Italy. I dig into some instrumental basics: four on the floor kick drum, and walking bass. We'll dig in on frequency range separation and check out a downwards moving melodic leap.   In Hits and...

This week I chat with three of the members of Forget The Whale, a seven piece Indie band from Jersey City. Joining me are Dan Pieraccini (bass), AJ Zienowicz (drummer) and Pete Durning (guitarist). With the band as creative outlet, everyone's a songwriter! We talk about each of their approaches to that, and how they develop their arrangements.   Look out for their upcoming EP, "Stick With Me...

This week I'm spinning a Latin groove song using lots of different vocal textures, and I've got some acoustic Blues. There's a Queen sounds-similar song. Some slow Jazz from Paris. And an intriguing song sung in Arabic and French. We'll look at stepwise harmonic motion and vocal gymnastics. I'll spin songs from Nick Falcon, Dazie Mae, Alfonso Lugo, Danzberg Music, and Elyes Landoulsi. In Hits and...

This week I chat with Nashville Indie artist Jon Worthy about three of his original songs, his recent South America tour, and the Nashville scene. He's a busy guy managing every aspect of his career. He tells us about his successes in music syncing business with over 400 songs picked up. Listen in for all the details.   You can hear Jon's music at... https://jonworthy.bandcamp.com/ (Bandcamp)...

This week I look at vocal texture variation using in-sync harmony, motifs, emotional vocal delivery, and rhythmic layering. And we hear full songs from The Devil Music Co., Wood Hitch, Grant Smith, and The Freak Fandango Orchestra.   In Hits and Hooks Vignettes, we play some great tunes and lift the hood to see what makes them tick. HHV is a music podcast about how songs keep listeners engage...