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Dr Marshall Heiser

Making Popular Music: Power and Play

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Author: Dr Marshall Heiser

Marshall Heiser Ph.D. is a multidisciplinary arts scholar specialising in creative practice in popular music and record production creative practice. He has a background in classical music and was also active in the Brisbane and Melbourne independent popular music scenes as a performer, songwriter and record label operator, receiving kudos from Rolling Stone Magazine and JJJ’s Richard Kingsmill. Marshall has taught music production at the Qld Conservatorium of Music, Griffith University and in the private HE sector. His scholarly publications are widely cited, and he has presented papers both nationally and internationally regarding such diverse topics as music and sound in cinema, the interrelatedness of humour, play and creativity theory, self-directed learning, and the phenomenology of record production. Most recently, Marshall has expanded his skillset to include music-technology development and manufacture, ranging from the old (tube amplification) to the new (open-source music software applications and hardware user interfaces). Marshall’s current research project is aimed at empowering young artists by exploring the topics of power and play.
creativity studies, play theory, playframes

Freedom, Inspiration and Limitation: Hermes Trismegistus

July 10, 2018September 10, 2019 Dr Marshall Heiser

In my PhD dissertation (2015), I assert that a playful sealing off of the ‘real world’ to create a confined psychological space is conducive to creativity. Interestingly, this claim, based upon a review of 20th & 21st century psychological creativity … Continue reading Freedom, Inspiration and Limitation: Hermes Trismegistus

downloads, phd research

The Beach Boys’ SMiLE: a complete chronological sessionography

July 4, 2018August 3, 2018 Dr Marshall Heiser

In 2012, I published an article (Heiser, 2012) in the peer-reviewed online Journal on the Art of Record Production regarding Brian Wilson and The Beach Boys’ SMiLE project. It consisted of one half of a chapter (chapter 4) within my … Continue reading The Beach Boys’ SMiLE: a complete chronological sessionography

apps, downloads, pure data

Conditionals for Pure Data: Interactive tutorial

July 2, 2018March 5, 2019 Dr Marshall Heiser

Computer programs need to determine how to proceed at certain points in their program flow, depending on whether certain predetermined (or variable) conditions have been met or not. Such operations are a mainstay of computing and are known as a … Continue reading Conditionals for Pure Data: Interactive tutorial

creativity studies, play theory

Where did all the benevolent gatekeepers go?

June 27, 2018October 24, 2019 Dr Marshall Heiser

I first became involved in the Australian independent music scene at the dawn of the 1990s. I was young, idealistic and full of passion to make music that challenged the status quo of the “normals” and bean-counters of the world. … Continue reading Where did all the benevolent gatekeepers go?

creativity studies, play theory, recommended

Godley and Creme: Playfulness, pastiche and the grotesque.

June 19, 2018January 6, 2020 Dr Marshall Heiser

“We tend to treat the studio rather like a sort of sophisticated sandpit. So it’s just a place to play around in. Which is how we usually work. We get an idea, which might be a word or a lyric … Continue reading Godley and Creme: Playfulness, pastiche and the grotesque.

apps, downloads, pure data

Pure Data: Major Scale/Circle of 5ths App

June 15, 2018March 4, 2019 Dr Marshall Heiser

Click here to download this app for free. This is an app I designed and coded a few years ago using Pure Data (Pd). I did it as an exercise in coding the Graphic User Interface (GUI) features of the … Continue reading Pure Data: Major Scale/Circle of 5ths App

apps, downloads, pure data

Pure Data: Reference Card

June 14, 2018June 15, 2018 Dr Marshall Heiser

If you use the Pure Data (Pd) visual data-flow programming platform, or plan to, then this downloadable pdf will be essential. It outlines the correct names and functions of the Pd “objects.” Without this chart you’ll find yourself forever stalling, … Continue reading Pure Data: Reference Card

featured, music, recommended

Inspirations 2: Ornette Coleman’s “Change Of The Century” (1960)

June 9, 2018October 24, 2019 Dr Marshall Heiser

I can’t think about this music and remain detached. It takes me back to a period from the late 70s through to the early 90s when I was discovering amazing new music on an almost daily basis. Music from each … Continue reading Inspirations 2: Ornette Coleman’s “Change Of The Century” (1960)

music, play theory, recommended

Inspirations 1: Alvin Lucier’s “Music On A Long Thin Wire” (1977)

June 8, 2018June 16, 2019 Dr Marshall Heiser

One of things I find most frustrating about life on this planet is how humans tend towards setting up scenes and communities, with all of their inherent rules, shared values, mythologies and hierarchies, only to eventually become enslaved by the … Continue reading Inspirations 1: Alvin Lucier’s “Music On A Long Thin Wire” (1977)

amps, recommended, videos

Tube Amp Theory: Uncle Doug and his dog Rusty

June 7, 2018June 7, 2018 Dr Marshall Heiser

How many times have you searched youtube for concise, accurate and clearly-explained information about a topic that’s important to you, only to be greeted by some frenzied bozo desperately trying to squeeze their fifteen minutes of fame out of the … Continue reading Tube Amp Theory: Uncle Doug and his dog Rusty

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