Brandon Lee Alsup
How to Create Tension Without Adding More Notes
Musical tension is not the same thing as density. Explore how expectation, time, contradiction, timbre, constraint, and register can make the same notes feel dramatically more tense.
Emergence in Music: From a Single Note to Shared Feeling
Music may be an emergent phenomenon at nearly every level, from intervals and chords to emotion, synchronization, and the strange feeling of belonging that can appear when people listen together.
The Oldest Music I Can Call Mine
I’ve been wondering how far back I have to go before music stops belonging to somebody else. This started, like a lot of things seem to for me lately, with…
Why Bother Writing More Music?
This is a personal essay about my relationship with creating music or rather my lack of creation! When I was a younger creator, I believed I could move people, communicate…
The Sound of Belonging: What Ancient Music Teaches Us About Modern Well‑Being
I’ll admit it: I tried to write this article with ChatGPT. It felt hypocritical, and frankly, the result wasn’t very good. The AI writing read smoothly on the surface, but…
Ears Tuned for Birds, Living in a World of Engines
In 2011, an estimated one million healthy life years were lost from traffic-related noise in the western part of Europe only. https://cdn.who.int/media/docs/default-source/who-compendium-on-health-and-environment/who_compendium_noise_01042022.pdf?sfvrsn=bc371498_3 As evidenced by the statement above, the sonic…
From Noise to Nature: A Guide to Rewilding Our Sonic Lives
The term rewild classically refers to restoring ecosystems or letting nature take care of itself—reducing human management to restore biodiversity and ecosystem processes. In recent years, I’ve noticed the concept…
Why Music Means More Than Words
One night during college, I was in the mood to create. I lit some candles and incense and turned off the lights. I sat at my old Kimball piano and…
Listening Is the Work: Why attention, not control, is the heart of real creativity.
Rick Rubin, the illustrious music producer, said something in an interview that’s been echoing in my head. He was talking with Rick Beato about drum sounds—what records have the best…
No Solo, No Self: Music as an Expression of Buddhist Values
Buddhism has always had a complicated relationship with music. In early Buddhist texts, the Buddha warned that music could pull people away from mindfulness and clarity. It could stir emotions…