Stevie Wonder's You Are The Sunshine Of My Life somehow manages to combine a really catchy tune with a rich harmonic structure. This is clever songwriting from one of the masters.
True Colors is one of those classic songs that nearly everyone likes. Musically it seems on the surface to be quite simple, so what is it that makes this tune so catchy?
Frank Sinatra's version of It Was A Very Good Year is about as different from modern pop music as you can get. It was released just as rock music started to take hold and change everything. Yet it can teach us so much about what makes music enjoyable.
False Lankum, the latest album from Irish folk band Lankum, has been rightly lauded in the UK press. The songs are mainly traditional but the treatment is very contemporary. We look at the song Go Dig My Grave to see what makes it special.
Chasing Cars has been played more than any other track on UK radio in the 21st Century. Snow Patrol's powerful rock ballad, released in 2006, is musically very simple but has a magic ingredient which has charmed millions. What is it?
With You I'm Born Again was a surprise hit from a sountrack of a film which didn't do well. But it's remembered as one of the classic duets of all time. What makes it such a classic? I investigate.
Music with five beats in the bar was almost unheard of in the baroque period of classical music. All the more reason to see whether it would have worked. So I wrote this short piece for harpsichord in 5/4 time to test out the idea. Would Bach have approved?
You've Got A Friend was a huge hit for James Taylor and for the writer of the song, Carole KIng. So what ingredients were used to come up with such an enduring favourite? We take a look.
Do-Re-Me is a classic children's song from The Sound of Music, which demonstrates the Tonic Sulfa, a simple way of describing the notes in a major scale. But it is also contains a nice harmonic sequence, a common feature of classical music for hundreds of years.
Rubato is not something you eat for pudding, it’s an important musical concept that makes a big difference to how music is performed and, consequently, how we respond to that…