Nick Shea

@shdocea.bsky.social

340 Followers 251 Following

Music researcher. Style transmission, kinesthetic cognition, popular music. Asst. prof in the Sonoran desert. From STL. 🎵 📓 Website: www.sheatheory.com 🧠 🌵 Cog lab: https://www.cactusmusiclab.com/

A black and white tuxedo cat laying upside down looking at the camera with green eyes.
Two short-hair cats perched on a counter. The left cat, Bucky, is a black and white tuxedo cat with little white paws and the right cat, Sushi, is all black. Bucky stares intently while I make a latte.
A black cat with green eyes and a yellow collar perched on top of a refrigerator door.
A toddler crawling through a small hole in a door designed for cats.
A license agreement stating I would have to pay 4097.60 USD to publish my article as open access.
An email signature that says Nicholas J. Shea, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Music Theory, Chair, Society for Music Theory Informatics Interest Group
O. Overview [O. 1] The Practice of Popular Music: Understanding Harmony, Rhythm, Melody and Form in Commercial Songwriting (2025) by author Trevor de Clercq is an unprecedented departure from contemporary approaches to teaching music theory. Grounded on more than a decade's worth of experience teaching commercial music industry majors at Middle Tennessee State University, its 475 pages (roughly 8.5 x 11) interleave written theory and aural skills activities across a four-semester sequence that hits all the traditional theory mainstays - fundamentals, meter types, diatonic
A screenshot of a Terminal. The second line says: "Unfitted track tuned differently or non guitar icon) : J. Sebastian Bach - Vocals"
An arrangement of Sonata No. 11 in A major, K. 331 “Andante grazioso”, mm. 1–8 by W.A. Mozart for guitar. Chords are labeled using Nashville numbers, standard chord symbols, and function labels.
A Halloween costume titled “Conservative Guy Scared of Cities.” The image features a white man with a beard in jeans and a tee shirt stereotypical of those obsessed with military ethos.
Oz from Buffy saying, “Well, the E-flat, it's, it'sdoable, butthat diminished ninth, y'know, it's a man'schord. Now, you could lose a finger.”
A screenshot of a 3DS game. On the left is a TrainerID and on the right is a stamp that says "You registered all Pokémon in the Alola region!"
Woman smiling standing in front of a crowd of protesters.
A black cat with an organge collar on top of a refrigerator.
Two pairs of rectangles with latticed internal text arranged similarly to a coordinate grid. The top rectangles' text features an ordered pair of coordinates. The bottom rectangles' text features pitch names. Lines connect the top and bottom rectangles to show how the coordinates and pitches map onto one another.
Two black cats on a green blanket next to some legs.
Two bottles and a glass full of ice cubes.
A white man wearing a blue shirt and a canvas bag on his back standing in front of the Grand Canyon.
Two people playing skeeball in a red-tinted room.
A tuxedo cat with his pink tongue sticking out just a little bit
Two people playing skeeball in a dim room lit by red LED lights.
A screenshot of a Google search of “beating a dead horse” that features a historical photo and a scene from South Park followed by a link to the related Wikipedia article.