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Ethan Hein

@ethanhein.bsky.social

1.6K followers 630 following 3.3K posts

I teach music and write about it http://www.ethanhein.com/

www.ethanhein.com

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Ethan Hein @ethanhein.bsky.social · 2d

My podcast has now had its first official guest: my daughter Bernadetta open.substack.com/pub/ethanhei...

My daughter Bernadetta reviews David Byrne at Radio City Music Hall

and explains why she loves his music generally

open.substack.com

Ethan Hein @ethanhein.bsky.social · 21m

PDBass wants you to get some Gary Bartz in your life www.youtube.com/watch?v=kHNH...

The ULTIMATE Protest Bass Line

YouTube video by pdbass

www.youtube.com

Reposted by Ethan Hein

Nicholas Grossman @handle.invalid · 2h

Police officers who publicly declare that they’ll quit if a mayoral candidate they dislike wins the election are (1) usually bluffing—sure buddy, toss away that paycheck and pension—and (2) exactly the sort of cops cities would be better off without, ones who don’t see themselves as public servants.

Reposted by Ethan Hein

Hobby Drifter in Tokyo @hobbydrifter.bsky.social · 7d

White people who have spent decades thinking “Born in the USA” is patriotic and “Every Breath You Take” is a great wedding song are suddenly very concerned about not being able to understand lyrics to some songs at the Super Bowl halftime show.

Ethan Hein @ethanhein.bsky.social · 14h

Beautiful

Ethan Hein @ethanhein.bsky.social · 14h

Thank you!

Ethan Hein @ethanhein.bsky.social · 16h

Something that occurs to me is that some artists are easier to emulate using AI slop than others, and that fact could become the basis for a method of criticism. If Suno can recreate your sound, that sound is probably not too interesting or personal.

Ethan Hein @ethanhein.bsky.social · 16h

I have a strong emotional predisposition to write that the music sucks and prompting is not creative but I want to be responsible and seriously engage the various arguments, I just don't yet know what those are.

Ethan Hein @ethanhein.bsky.social · 16h

I'm not overly concerned with how the AI works, more interested in the subjective experience of using the tools and people's reactions to the output. Is this music "good" and is the process of prompting "creative" are my big questions.

Ethan Hein @ethanhein.bsky.social · 16h

Naturally I want the critical takes but I wouldn't mind reading things that are more enthusiastic just so I'm covering all the bases. I don't need Silicon Valley marketing materials, I have plenty of that stuff.

Ethan Hein @ethanhein.bsky.social · 16h

I agreed to write a chapter of the New Oxford Handbook of Music Education on Generative AI. I haven't been following the scholarship on this too closely, so I have some reading to do. I have this paper by Adam Patrick Bell; who else should I be looking at? act.maydaygroup.org/articles/bel...

act.maydaygroup.org

Ethan Hein @ethanhein.bsky.social · 17h

I would love to hear a tune whose key signature includes two flats, two sharps, and a half-sharp

K2S0'Hara, but pumpkin spice flavored @oharawe.bsky.social · Aug 21

wake up babe, new key signatures just dropped.

[Adding an AI policy to my syllabus this semester, and wanted an illustration so I went to ChatGPT. Now I'm really considering just making the policy, "If you'd like me to give you grades based on stuff like this, knock yourself out"]

ChatGPT's diagram of the Circle of Fifths. Many wrong key names (including two Bs, and the enharmonic pair C-sharp, G-flat, and 100% incorrect key signatures, mostly mixing flats, sharps, and the occasional double sharp)

Reposted by Ethan Hein

ceej @ceej.online · 21h

someone with a billion dollars no longer experiences the world as 99% of humanity would recognize it, and so any “analysis” or critique of society they offer is fatally, irrevocably flawed. dracula complaining about the price of groceries

ceej @ceej.online · 23h

the disastrous refusal of the self-styled silicon valley technokings to keep anyone in their lives capable of questioning their increasingly incomprehensible politics has lead to a crisis of thinking so severe that a fifty-eight year old man believes something is important because he knows about it

Sharon @sharonk.bsky.social · 1d

thiel, man, what the fuck are you talking about

Ethan Hein @ethanhein.bsky.social · 19h

Its text output is mostly okay, if vague and superficial, but I wouldn't say the graphics are quite there yet

Ethan Hein @ethanhein.bsky.social · 19h

Some of my grad students report that they are using AI to generate teaching materials, and in case you were thinking of doing that, here's what ChatGPT thinks the circle of fifths looks like: chatgpt.com/s/m_68ebfc56...

Circle of Fifths Diagram

A conversational AI system that listens, learns, and challenges

Ethan Hein @ethanhein.bsky.social · 20h

Before the late 1800s, the European canon is extremely approachable! Little kids understand it effortlessly! It was meant to be enjoyed! Even the late Romantic stuff is mostly accessible and sounds good without a lot of insider knowledge! It only stops being fun in the 20th century.

r o o @jakepaulsartre.bsky.social · 23h

It really sucks that snob gatekeepers framed classical as high brow music so now any time you talk about it, people assume you're trying to signal intellect

But the music itself isn't pretentious, thats cultural baggage. I just like it when sounds are arranged in a cool way, like any other genre

Reposted by Ethan Hein

Kashana @kashana.blacksky.app · 1d

So thankful that dudes without game now have the option of driving all of our energy bills up to come up with devastating lines like it was nice to meet you

C. Buckthorn @cbuckthorn.bsky.social · 1d

This is amazing. I laughed out loud www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle...

As 32-year-old Rich points out, though, "it's not like using ChatGPT guarantees success".
When he met someone in a bar one Friday night and swapped social media handles, he asked AI what his next move should be.
ChatGPT discerned that sending an initial message on Monday midmorning would set the right pace. "Then it gave me some options for what the message could be," says Rich.
"Keep it light, warm, and low-stakes so it reads as genuine interest without urgency," the bot advised. "Something like: Hey Sarah, still laughing about [tiny shared moment/reference if you've got one] - good to meet you!" Rich went back and forth with ChatGPT until he felt they'd hit upon exactly the right message ("Hey Sarah, it was lovely to meet you") but sadly she never replied, he says. "It's been two weeks now."

Reposted by Ethan Hein

Andrea Pitzer @andreapitzer.bsky.social · 1d

One great aspect of iconic inflatable costumes (aside from how they instantly undermine propaganda about war zones) is that it's useless to arrest the person wearing one. Cuffing a frog would make law enforcement look pathetic. And carting one off just guarantees that more will show up the next day.

Reposted by Ethan Hein

derek guy @dieworkwear.bsky.social · 1d

seems like a non-insignificant percentage of rage against the machine's fanbase are young republican men driving SUVs bopping their head to anti-oil, pro-immigrant songs thinking the lyrics are about how they wish their suburban parents would get off their back

Tom Morello tweets: "Fascinating that all those “don’t tread on me” posers and their AR-15’s are nowhere to be seen and government tyranny is instead being opposed by a guy in an inflatable frog suit."

Someone named Manny replies: "@grok
why do some people say Tom Morello and band mates are RAGE FOR THE MACHINE and not against ?"

Reposted by Ethan Hein

Jody Rosen @jodyrosen.bsky.social · 1d

I know we're not supposed to talk about Woody Allen, but ANNIE HALL is one of the supreme American movies & Diane Keaton's wild charisma is 90% of the reason why. And btw her performance of "Seems Like Old Times" is pure magic—up there with the greatest musical scenes in cinema, zero doubt

Ethan Hein @ethanhein.bsky.social · 1d

This is the arrangement of "Houses in Motion" that they did at the show, this band is KILLING youtu.be/HxzyxS6pRac?...

David Byrne at Rough Trade: What Is The Reason For It?/Houses in Motion/Everybody Laughs

YouTube video by The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon

Ethan Hein @ethanhein.bsky.social · 1d

This is how you do it

Katelyn Boo-urns @katelynburns.com · 1d

I wrote a little about some of the little details you might have missed in this video and why it hit me so hard as a trans person this morning:

www.burnsnotice.com/you-have-to-...

Ethan Hein @ethanhein.bsky.social · 1d

*David Byrne concert

Ethan Hein @ethanhein.bsky.social · 1d

Re-upping for the morning crowd: my daughter Bernadetta makes her podcast debut with her take on the David Byrne we went to last week ethanhein.substack.com/p/my-daughte...

My daughter Bernadetta reviews David Byrne at Radio City Music Hall

and explains why she loves his music generally

ethanhein.substack.com

Reposted by Ethan Hein

C H I L I @chili.bsky.social · 2d

If you post Sora AI videos I am legally allowed to open hand slap you as hard as I physically can

Ethan Hein @ethanhein.bsky.social · 2d

My podcast has now had its first official guest: my daughter Bernadetta open.substack.com/pub/ethanhei...

My daughter Bernadetta reviews David Byrne at Radio City Music Hall

and explains why she loves his music generally

open.substack.com