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Megan L. Lavengood

music theorist

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Author: Megan

The Yamaha DX7 in Synthesizer History

close-up photo of Yamaha DX7 settings
Leo-setä, © CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

To say that the DX7’s arrival was earth-shaking would be no exaggeration: the affordable price, sound palette, and physical feel of the instrument combined to make the DX7 the new must-have instrument in every studio, garage, and university music department in the U.S. and the U.K.

Published May 12, 2022
Categorized as 80s, featured, timbre Tagged 80s music, DX7, electric piano

How to Use Microsoft Bookings for Office Hours Scheduling

Like many Microsoft products, Bookings is complicated, but I’ve worked out a step-by-step guide for other professors to follow.

Published December 2, 2021
Categorized as pedagogy, professional development, tech help Tagged microsoft, office hours, software, student meetings, technology, time management

What actually are all these songs on the Baby Einstein Take Along Tunes toy?

It’s not just the Greatest Hits of the Classical Era—there are some seriously deep cuts.

Published July 21, 2021
Categorized as featured, just for fun Tagged baby, bach, baroque music, beethoven, chopin, classical music, mozart, rossini, telemann, twitter, vivaldi

The complete guide to typing music theory stuff into your paper without it looking ugly

Scale degrees, accidentals, figures—let’s do it all. After obsessing over typographical details in my theory papers for over 10 years, I am distilling my tricks for anyone else who might like a hand making their papers look pretty.

Published March 11, 2021
Categorized as featured, writing Tagged chord symbols, fonts, latex, ms word, music theory, pages, scale degrees, typesetting, unicode

Journal of Schenkerian Studies: Proving the Point

The respondents claiming that we can easily detach racism from theory seem to be willfully deluding themselves and ignoring what Ewell said in the first place.

Published July 27, 2020
Categorized as featured, taking action, theory Tagged ewell, race, schenker, Society for Music Theory

How to get the best-quality audio to combine with your voice when creating video or video chatting

DON’T play a recording over external speakers, which the microphone will then pick up and put back into your video—this will distort the audio significantly.

Published March 12, 2020
Categorized as pedagogy, tech help Tagged audio, covid-19, ladiocast, online teaching, soundflower, technology

Gender and hiring in music theory

There’s a connection between the growing acceptance of non-mainstream methodologies/repertoires and the growing number of marginalized people that have found success within our discipline.

Published July 9, 2019
Categorized as professional development, theory Tagged composition, diversity, feminism, gender, jobs, music theory jobs, race, Society for Music Theory

My SMT 2018 Activities

A study in timbre narratives and instrumentation in 1980s pop / The Dynamics of the Job Interview / Pop Music Interest Group meeting: small-group breakout sessions / Webmasterly duties

Published October 25, 2018
Categorized as 80s, conferences, professional development, timbre Tagged 80s music, amsmt18, Christmas, jobs, music theory jobs, popular music, SMT, tub bells

Using scheduling software for better boundaries in office hours

I started using scheduling software to avoid a lot of the back-and-forth of scheduling.

Published September 10, 2018
Categorized as pedagogy, professional development Tagged Calendly, office hours, scheduling, student meetings, students, technology

I just uploaded two transcriptions I did of music from Sonic the Hedgehog 3. These transcriptions will support my essay in a forthcoming book, in which I analyze the timbre of “Ice Cap Zone” and “Marble Garden Zone.” Head over to the new page to check it out. Enjoy!

Continue reading Sonic the Hedgehog analysis: article preview

Published July 31, 2018
Categorized as analysis, video game music Tagged ice cap zone, marble garden zone, sonic, sonic 3, transcription

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Megan L. Lavengood
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