if you never come to office hours, you will never complete the office hours side quest, that's just standard game design

what the euck

well you gotta have sol

I wanna go to a party where the DJ spins nothing but nu metal ballads

ran out of laundry sauce and my spouse and I both bought some, so now we have too much and it's weighing down the shelf, isn't that romantic

I would like to go to a renaissance fair but the time and place we recreate would be the 2019 conference of the Society for Music Theory in Columbus, OH, that was lit

Me: chatGPT is awful, I prefer Real Human writing with MISTAKES in it to this boring steely grey robot text Also Me: cannot leave a post up with a typo, must text a *correction for any misspelling, still sad about a grammatical error in something I published 2 years ago

I’m looking forward to delivering the keynote at the 29th Annual Graduate Students in Music (GSIM) Conference at The Graduate Center, City University of New York (CUNY) on March 6-7, 2026. What an honor to be invited to speak at this esteemed venue with the next generation of music scholars.

next year's halloween costume / every day of the year 👻

perhaps a music supposition

so true

as a music theorist, I am always down for some "ta-ta-ti-ti-ta"

seeing a lot of ads for CapitalOne, not enough for Capital Vol. 1

the ballroom thing is so obnoxious and somehow it's one of the least obnoxious things at the moment

What could be greater than playing a game of golf with a gator? ~Tennis with a tiger ~Hockey with a hippo ~Soccer with a salamander ~Football with a flamingo ~Croquet with a cricket

an H chord would be cool though

yes! a big jerky tool!!

Reading existentialist texts with a sleeping baby in my arms just hits different.

a kid told me I have "long legs and old hair" lol

It you can't beat em, postpartum

Ben and I have a new EP coming out July 20 (our anniversary) called "Refresh the Page" three tracks exploring themes of anticipation, incubation, and celebration

gimme da lute

my parents made this

yah, i agree. and people who claim theory is "ONLY descriptive" are often over-correcting for perceived prescriptomania. that used to be my tendency anyway

pop quiz: how many measures of rest have i counted so far, uh oh

How do you know if someone has studied music theory? Don't worry. They'll tell you.

Allen Forte implies the existence of Allen Piano

respect for the bashing method

content warning: affront to beethoven

A group of my students told me I'm "serving cunty nun" and I shed a tear of joy.

I'm tired of melodic leaps, so I'm gonna start taking steps to avoid them

for personal reasons i will not be raising any more leading tones

music theory is 🚀

this music is too repetitive. not only that but it's also repetitive

current snack tempo is 3 BPM (bites per minute)

my spouse just informed me that tomorrow is "common time day" (4/4)

I was on the phone with my dentist's office and they asked, "What is that beautiful music playing in the background, a recording or someone practicing?" and I said, "Oh you're going to die laughing: We're watching Anchorman and it's the jazz flute scene." We did indeed die laughing.

My article "How Music Theory Went Online" is out with Music Theory Spectrum. Check it out. Free on my Academia page: umass.academia.edu/MiriamPiilonen

isn’t it funny when you go to type something familiar on a keyboard like your name but you’re off by a letter

listen to my song "omg gop wtf" -- out today

my song "omg gop wtf" is coming out March 7

“No one is going to give you the education you need to overthrow them. Nobody is going to teach you your true history, teach you your true heroes, if they know that that knowledge will help set you free.” ― Assata Shakur

As I continue my research on music theory as it appears on the internet, I want to connect with more early-internet adopters (pre-2000). Especially folks beyond the U.S. and Canada, though I am open to speaking with anyone who has a story to share. Please be in touch and tell your friends.

A scholar whose work I discussed in my book Theorizing Music Evolution, Michael Spitzer, reviewed my book. So exciting! I’m grateful for his thorough reading. It’s enough to be understood, not necessarily agreed with.

still wondering

hindsight is 50/50

So they're telling us the government has $100B for AI but basically nothing for the public services we actually need. Make it make sense.

Happy 1 year of my book TME! I’m so proud of this project and the life it has taken on. Here’s to many more years of researching, writing about, and discussing these topics. I’ll next be speaking about the book at Eastman School of Music on February 28. Come out if you’re in the Rochester area.

When we read a text (or analyze a piece of music) we braise the object, we bruise it. We do damage to the object in our attempt to understand it or at least get closer to it. I think this way because I had a powerful conversation with Lauren Berlant some years ago.

A group of crows is called a murder. A group of jaguars is called a leap. A group of music theorists is called an argument.