Remote Lessons with a Professional Music Theory Expert (PhD) - All Genres Welcome, Beginner to Advanced

Find out more about Dr Ethan Lustig

• When did you first develop a passion for music and your favorite instrument?

  I have always loved music. As a little kid, I was banging on pots and pans in the kitchen making rhythms. At age 7, I started composing songs on the piano, improvising, and analyzing melodies and chords. In my early teens I started making beats and writing, recording, and mixing rap songs. Then in middle and high school I played drums and keyboards in indie, metal, progressive, and jazz bands. In my Bachelor's and Master's/PhD, I got more deeply into jazz theory as well as becoming a DJ specializing in electronic music (house, techno) and urban styles like R&B, hip-hop, and funk. I also played piano for church services and corporate events. When I moved to LA I got into the recording industry, focused on pop music and creating songs for film & TV. At this point, although I am proficient in piano/keyboard and drums, I feel my main instrument is my ears and my computer (Ableton Live), where I do all my songwriting, production, and mixing/mastering.

• Is there a particular type of music or artist that you listen to on a loop without it driving you crazy?

  Almost any song can reward endless listening, there are so many details and I discover new things every single time. I like a lot of songs and styles, ranging from hip-hop, R&B, neo-gospel, and jazz, to drum-and-bass, radio pop, salsa, Classical, death metal....For me the specific song and its construction is more important than the artist. Some songs have a really beautiful quality to them, and I did my PhD dissertation on Music Taste to try to understand why. But the short answer is, I like music that is tightly constructed, melodic/catchy, usually with a beat/groove, and every arrangement element working together in harmony effectively.

• Explain to us the most difficult or riveting course you could personally give to a student of music.

  I'll give a few examples, all of which are real case studies from past clients:
  -Creating a song, from the very beginning to the very end of the process - topline, lyrics, structure, producing, beat-making, arranging, mixing/mastering, even discussing how to market the song with blog and radio promotion. I have had students without any music training, who do not play any instrument, go on to create amazingly catchy songs. We all have ears, and many of us are great musicians who just don't know how to express our ideas yet.
  -In-depth study of how to spice up your chord progressions, melodies, and solos, including ideas like re-harmonization, jazz theory, modal mixture, secondary dominants, local chromaticism, modulation, tonicization, and more. All based on music my student is currently writing/producing, and songs they are passionate and curious about.
  -Taking a student's ears from zero to hero: at the beginning he struggled to hear the difference between up and down, high and low…now he can hear basslines, melodic scale degrees, he can notate and sing back a rhythm or melody with perfect accuracy, he can write and improvise songs of his own…
  -The art and science of mixing and mastering - perhaps you already understand beat-making and arrangement, and are comfortable in your DAW…but how do you make your snares crack, your vocals crisp and clear, and your bass boom? Without any element over-powering any other? And sounding great even on a tiny phone speaker? I can teach you pro-level mixing, and my mixes have been featured by companies including Adobe and played on national radio stations.
  -Mastery of traditional classical conservatory music theory from undergraduate through DMA: score analysis; ear training; SATB partwriting; harmonic analysis; compose sonatas, minuets, and fugues; placement exam prep; form analysis; post-tonal/12 tone music; and more…

• What do you think is the most complicated instrument to master and why?

  I think piano is definitely NOT the most difficult instrument, because you don't have to worry as much about tone. You can control dynamics (how hard you hit the key, making it softer or louder), articulation (the art of slurring, staccato, phrasing, etc), etc. but if you hit the key, it will always give you that exact pitch. Whereas with string and wind instruments, students have to spend so much time just learning how to sound decent...also the piano is the ideal instrument for learning music theory because all the notes are laid out from left to right, low to high. Whereas guitar can be a lot more confusing with its layout. On the other hand, guitar can be more ideal for playing chords and easily transposing to different keys. I love how as a string instrument, guitar lets you play "in the cracks" between notes, pitch bending, and you can get really expressive in that way.

• What are your keys to success?

  Regular, daily practice - even just 15 minutes per day - is better than cramming many hours into one day per week. This is true for learning repertoire and for music theory and ear training. Follow your passion - don't learn from some dry textbook, investigate music you love, and try to figure out how it works on your instrument. If you don't play an instrument, try to notate the melody, the bass, etc into MIDI "piano roll" in a DAW. Try to recreate existing beats from scratch. Write down a list of all the elements in the arrangement and give as much detail as possible. Try to make a chart of the form of the song, counting how many bars per section. Listen critically. Ask questions when confused. Ask yourself, why does Song A work, and Song B doesn't work as well? What is it missing? If you're a songwriter, compare yourself to the competition. Same for engineers. Same for jazz players. Learn from your favorite records, study them, deconstruct them. If you don't have the tools or the ears to deconstruct them, learn how to (I can teach you).

• Name three musicians you dream of meeting in your favourite bar in the early hours of the morning. Explain why.

  Mozart, a true musical genius. His melodies are so deceptively simple, yet so effective, and they have hidden layers of complexity. He is a great example of how great music can be complex, without needing to be complicated - there is a difference. Complexity comes from having many layers of organization in the melody, at multiple levels. He is never complicated for the sake of it. I think it would probably be hilarious to talk with an eccentric genius like him as well.
  Mike Dean - for his mixes (specifically for Travis Scott), I would love to know more about his approach and how he thinks about it. Most effective mix engineers have highly organized mixes: each sound has a clear function and place in the mix. And Mike Dean is no exception. Yet somehow, on the Astroworld album and elsewhere, he manages to be insanely creative and bring a messiness and organicism to the mix, while also keeping it tight and organized. His percussion and vocals are so in-your-face and amazing-sounding on every platform (speakers, phone, club, headphones, car).
  Bob Dorough - this tragically underrated jazz musician has some of the most melodic, singable solos of any player I've ever heard. His album Devil May Care is a masterclass in singable, catchy, and functional, tonal jazz solos. It would be amazing to sit at the piano with him and discuss how he elaborates melodies and approaches a given chord progression.

• Provide a valuable anecdote related to music or your days at music school.

  One great quote about music is, "always the same but never in the same way" (Heinrich Schenker). The scale system that you hear in today's music, is fundamentally the same system that has been used in Western music since at least J.S. Bach in the 1700s, for over three centuries. Basically all melodies across all genres have a limited set of basic structures, and are embellished with universal tools such as passing tones, neighbor tones, and suspensions. Almost all music is fundamentally based in a 7-note collection (the major or minor scale). What changes between songs, styles, and eras, are the details, and the beauty of music lies in the WAY that each melody, chord progression, beat, lyric, etc. is expressed. The underlying ideas are the same, but the expression of those ideas are forever different. The "magic" of music comes from how great composers, songwriters, and producers can take a simple underlying idea, and make it into something uniquely detailed.

• What are the little touches that make you a Superprof in music?

  Unlike so many other music theory teachers, I am not focused on using MY musical examples and concepts; I focus on my student's favorite music, and what YOU are curious and passionate about. There is no predefined curriculum, because every single student is unique and has their own musical goals, skills, and challenges. Our sessions are focused on YOUR repertoire, such as music you are currently listening to, songs you are writing or producing, or music that you're curious about. Most music theory education is too focused on Classical music, long lists of definitions, terms, and score analysis...Of course I can teach you all of those things, prepare you for placement exams at Classical music conservatories, etc...but many of my students don't even read music notation. I don't take a notation-based approach unless it's useful and helpful. Real music theory is about your ears and mind. You can see more about my method at these two links:
  EthanLustig.com/Lessons
  EthanLustig.com/MusicTheoryForProducers