Top all-time · #2436
Ethan Hein
Personal blog · ethanhein.comculturehistory
Ethan Hein's personal blog at ethanhein.com covers culture and history. Since 2011, 31 different Hacker News readers have linked it 41 times, most often “Jay-Z and Alan Lomax”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-10-28, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (17) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
Ethan Hein's music blog, linked for music theory, tuning, blues, jazz and groove analysis such as the Amen Break. Readers cite posts on tuning, blues tonality and Kind of Blue.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 17 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Music and related topics
Most-linked posts?
- Jay-Z and Alan Lomax2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2011-09-01
- What does the Well-Tempered Clavier sound like in actual well temperament?2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2020-06-27
- Jacob Collier’s four magical chords2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2019-11-30
- Swing primer2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2021-02-14
What Hacker News says?
I recall that he said something like: "I don't play a lot of notes. I just try to play the right ones". I think that if a guitarist plays a lot of notes real fast, it often sounds like he or she is rapidly searching for the right one. Instead, BB played the right note at the right time -- with the right lead-in (slide up or bend). http://www.ethanhein.com/wp/2015/bb-king-gives-us-a-guitar-l...
Comment linking /wp/2015/bb-king-gives-us-a-guitar-lesson/
on “B. B. King, Defining Bluesman for Generations, Dies at 89”Submitted Why are D-sharp and E-flat considered to be two different notes? as a story · 368 points
HN discussionI wrote a blog post summarizing this research. The idea is that the swirls specify turns of the tuning pegs to modify meantone temperament. It's more or less pure speculation, but it does produce a very nice-sounding tuning, almost equal temperament but not uniform across the keys. https://www.ethanhein.com/wp/2020/what-does-the-well-tempere...
Comment linking /wp/2020/what-does-the-well-tempered-clavier-sound-like-in-actual-well-temperament/
on “Why are D-sharp and E-flat considered to be two different notes?”Submitted Once in a Lifetime as a story · 153 points
HN discussionThanks for posting the link to Hein's blog which I was previously unaware of. http://www.ethanhein.com/wp/2014/blues-tonality/ Especially of interest.
Comment linking /wp/2014/blues-tonality/
on “Music Theory for Musicians and Normal People”Submitted The Art of Fugue – Contrapunctus I (2021) as a story · 133 points
HN discussionI appreciate the style of presentation, but why do we still pretend this is "music" theory? Most of this is completely useless for anyone who is interested in understanding music that wasn't written by people in powdered wigs. For some actually useful music theory, I can recommend the goldmine that is Ethan Hein's blog: http://www.ethanhein.com/wp/category/music/music-theory/
Comment linking /wp/category/music/music-theory/
on “Music Theory for Musicians and Normal People”Submitted Elizabeth Cotton’s Fingerstyle Ragtime as a story · 118 points
HN discussionThere used to be a lot of tempers floating around. For example a lot bach's music is not really supposed to be played in modern equal temper https://www.ethanhein.com/wp/2020/what-does-the-well-tempere... .
Comment linking /wp/2020/what-does-the-well-tempered-clavier-sound-like-in-actual-well-temperament/
on “Why 12 notes in Western music?”Submitted Jacob Collier’s four magical chords as a story · 116 points
HN discussionEthan Hein, who teaches music and blogs about it, comes from a jazz background and wrote out chord symbols when he was trying to learn Bach’s Chaconne on the guitar: https://www.ethanhein.com/wp/2019/chord-progressions-in-the-...
Comment linking /wp/2019/chord-progressions-in-the-bach-chaconne/
on “Tritone Substitutions”Submitted Toward a Better Music Theory (2013) as a story · 110 points
HN discussionJacob Collier has tricks like using how many cents out of tune certain chords are in equal temperament from just intonation to find a sequence of chords that modulate to a half-sharp key without it ever sounding out of tune: https://www.ethanhein.com/wp/2019/jacob-colliers-four-magica... That's just the beginning. He posts long breakdowns of his tracks on YouTube explaining everything he does in detail. He's not onl…
Comment linking /wp/2019/jacob-colliers-four-magical-chords/
on “Guitar Decomposed: 5. Mutating the Third”Submitted Swing primer as a story · 70 points
HN discussionIt's worth noting that GP's example was about non-quantized rhythmic patterns, which are poorly understand by music theory. 'There are two reasons why my fellow academics should be engaging closely with J Dilla’s music. The first is just cultural literacy; Dilla was influential and is more widely imitated with every passing year. The second is maybe more important: there are not widely used analytical tools for stud…
Comment linking /wp/2022/dilla-time/
on “Analysis of Bach's information-dense music”Submitted Visualizing Hip-Hop Melodies (2016) as a story · 42 points
HN discussionSeems reminiscent of the work of Elizabeth Hellmuth Margulis, sympathetically reviewed here ( http://www.ethanhein.com/wp/2014/repetition-defines-music/ ) — I believe her work has been on HN before, but a quick search does not turn it up.
Comment linking /wp/2014/repetition-defines-music/
on “Repetition Makes Music Beautiful [video]”Submitted Jay-Z and Alan Lomax as a story · 4 points
HN discussionThere are interesting (aka crazy) copyright issues surrounding these recordings. Lomax had copyrights on songs he only recorded? And modern artists need to license them if they are sampled? http://www.ethanhein.com/wp/2011/jay-z-and-alan-lomax/
Comment linking /wp/2011/jay-z-and-alan-lomax/
on “Alan Lomax's Massive Archive Goes Online (2012)”Submitted The harmonica explains all of Western music as a story · 3 points
HN discussionIt's a small quote from this [0] article. [0] http://www.ethanhein.com/wp/2018/white-people-with-acoustic-...
Comment linking /wp/2018/white-people-with-acoustic-instruments-covering-rap-songs/
on “It’s a Great Age for Jazz, but Don’t Call It Golden”Submitted History of tuning in Western European music as a story · 2 points
HN discussionHere’s a better answer, in my opinion: https://www.ethanhein.com/wp/2020/so-what/ > If you have never listened to jazz before, Miles Davis’ Kind Of Blue is a great place to start. The heart of the album is its first track, “So What.” > “So What” is famous for being one of the first modal jazz tunes. This just means that it doesn’t have a lot of chord changes compared to the fast harmonic rhythms of bebop. The A sect…
Comment linking /wp/2020/so-what/
on “Why was the 1959 album "Kind of Blue" by Miles Davis such a big deal?”Submitted Can science make a better music theory? (2013) as a story · 2 points
HN discussionAmazing, hearing it played sends chills down my spine. It's not as old, but in Wernor Herzog's documentary "Cave of Forgotten Dreams", an archeologist plays a 30,000 year old vulture bone flute. It even uses the pentatonic scale! Some links about it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yUCBBDV2Tzk https://www.ethanhein.com/wp/2011/flute-of-forgotten-dreams/ https://www.npr.org/2009/06/24/105823127/a-little-flute-musi...
Comment linking /wp/2011/flute-of-forgotten-dreams/
on “Neanderthal flute: The oldest musical instrument in the world”Submitted What is going on in this Ariana Grande song? as a story · 2 points
HN discussionEthan Hein has several good blog posts about the Amen Break: https://www.ethanhein.com/wp/2025/amen-break-listening-guide... https://www.ethanhein.com/wp/2023/building-the-amen-break/ https://www.ethanhein.com/wp/2011/the-amen-break/
Comment linking /wp/2011/the-amen-break/
on “Amen Break”Submitted Why can't you tune your guitar? as a story · 1 points
HN discussionAny solid UI/UX talks about "affordances". Don Norman's book explains it well: http://www.ethanhein.com/wp/2017/affordances-and-constraints... 3D Touch offered zero affordances to the user.
Comment linking /wp/2017/affordances-and-constraints/
on “Why Apple’s 3D Touch failed miserably?”Submitted Swing Primer (2021) as a story · 1 points
HN discussion
