The instinct of music
Arte featured a very interesting documentary on its amazing magazine THEMA, about “The instinct of Music” (2009). It tries to make sense of music as a big mass, what makes it beautiful, moving, universal and such a fundamental need for many of us. Are music theories just the fruit of a random force or is it a series of structures that we can arrange, re-arrange, break and combine in infinite ways?
Music learning starts from very early stages of our existence, right in the womb. Babies perceive muffled sounds and melodies as they grow and respond positively to it with an increase in their heart rate. This is probably the first stages of communication between the inside and outside world. By the time we are born, even a baby’s cry is structured in a tonal system; a fundamental and its third or fifth, whichever is the most appealing maybe. Does that mean that music came before language? or is music a language by itself?
Music and math are tightly connected. Music is structured and ours ears are trained to like certain structures, and probably certain genres. You’d say it’s probably true for the Occidental tonal system because we made it this way, it was invented and written to be mathematically “perfect”. Well the Oriental and Far East tonal systems share the same Occidental basics, with some additions that would have never existed in our tonal system. But it’s also structured. Scales are fundamentally not be the same between two European countries. What’s consonant for one can be dissonant for the other und so weiter. However, the process of learning and accepting these differences is a process that takes time and that evolves with us thankfully. It’s certainly a question of culture, exposure, readiness and acceptance and a lot of curiosity too.
We like music and we rely on it in everything that we do, even as we speak. You might not be the best singer or yet even sing at all, but when you talk, you are actually using a tonal system. Take for example the word, Momma. The first syllable is a fundamental and the last one is a third. There you go, you just made music.
On the question, is music a universal language? If you still have a doubt about that, researches demonstrated that even a tribe who had no idea of our occidental tonal system, could recognize feelings from a piece of music played to them. What some musicians find interesting when jamming with people they don’t know, from different cultures, is the fusion of so many genres into one united structured piece. What I mean by structure is a tempo and a place in time on which everyone can write and perform. Tempo is essential as it dictates the feeling and mood, the space and time is where you fit in the jamming. Drums give the tempo, they can syncopate and create whatever pattern they want, still it’s a tempo. Others rely on it and build upon it within a structured order to avoid dissonance and make the jam appealing. People detach from the technical perception of what they are playing letting feelings do the job. Have you ever judged a crappy guitarist from a good one? Have you ever seen the hands of a pianist playing a soothing versus a raging passage? Without feelings, music is reduced to a complex mathematical equation with no meaning.
Nuance is everything and you can find it everywhere, even in the so called “cold” electronic music. It’s all there, hidden and structured differently. It’s in the subtle chords of the track, the simple melody, the repetitive patterns, additions and retractions, the roaring and raging end of a break. All the elements are there. Electronic music lifts you up and moves you in more extraordinary ways than any other genre would do, because it’s easier to do it, because time is not a constraint. Every instrument however electronic in a track makes sense to you, it’s easy for your mind to process and it gives room to do something else, be it dreaming, projecting yourself in other dimensions and living the moment. It’s a time of total disconnection from the “real world”.
Music is an endless learning subject. Some think that too much rationalization of it can inhibit free expression. It’s maybe true, and is probably what blocks me in composing. It’s the red record button syndrome I have, whenever I need to “write” stuff down, things get jammed. I used to keep the record button on throughout my jamming sessions, in case I could re-use something I played. It would usually work as I’d forget that I was recording, but then I stopped doing that. We’ll see how 2012 will look like music wise for me, I do hope I’d be able to write some stuff down since I have been wanting to immortalize some tunes. This is maybe what you could wish for me for this new year 
Until then, keep listening and living music. There’s nothing like it in the whole world.
Peace and an early Happy New Year!
PS : For those who watch Arte, the documentary will be aired on the following dates:
L’instinct de la musique
(France, 2009, 101mn)
31.12.2011 à 11:50
03.01.2012 à 03:05
09.01.2012 à 10:55
Next sets forecast
Here is the forecast calendar for the next sets I will posting :
Chill bill : End of may 2011
Annual summertime mix : Beginning of July 2011
Annual summer is over mix : Beginning of October 2011
Sets will be submitted at a 2/3 months interval, if nothing else occurs meanwhile
Keep smiling
Back to theories
An old post I wrote back in May 2011 that I thought I’d republish.
So it’s been a while I haven’t written any piece of information on my blog, there’s no particular reason other than it’s been a crazy month over at work and time is a rare commodity. The electronic music activity is on a little “halt” since the last set. But don’t worry, halt doesn’t mean total stop, it’s just a partial break.
Anyways, back to this post. I have been listening back to some of my old time favorite metal bands, studying back techniques and production structures. I consider metal constructions as one of the most interesting and complex structures along classical music. It’s true there’s a huge amount of improvisation over guitar/lead synths riffs, you’d bet that Petrucci or Rudess didn’t think of every single note that was going to be in the tunes, yet, everything has a purpose and fits in its right place. At least for us spectators it’s just magical.
Music is a very delicate balance between improvisation and normalization.
Music theory on the other hand, wanted to normalize and write everything down. I don’t know if any metal band has ever transcribed their songs on a music sheet (aside from a guitar pro sheet), but Oh My, if they did. (You’d probably tell me there’s more complex too). Yet the theory opened up my eyes on something I have been missing with the deductions I usually make while learning chord constructions and the relationships of a bass to its chords. The outcome of it all, after a long day of figuring things out, on a piano (linear is totally needed), is that music is also a big deal of mathematical equations and a game of perspectives. Chords aren’t named the same depending on the bass, inversions and accidentals. I used to think names were unimportant until I read the music theory books. Anyhow, it was very interesting to see how everything on this music scale is related and connected. I was never a fan of reading music back when I was in the conservatory, I used to note the names of the notes on the side, my teacher would erase them each time. Yet now, I find it captivating to see how music is built and I was wondering on why music teachers don’t teach these stuff to kids. I admit it’s complex and kids would have huge headaches, but advanced classes should include these lectures, I think.
I must admit, guitar is a weird instrument if you want to start learning music. It’s a non linear instrument and notes are dispersed on the neck which confuses a lot of people. Try counting your 4th and 6th on a guitar neck while thinking “But I won’t be using that in any rock song” “I just want to learn Smells like teen spirit” “So boring”! Yeah we’ve all been in this phase. So guitarists as an ensemble will stick to the minor/major chords and that’s as far as they are going to go. The rest they will just imitate a youtube video and decrypt an online-not-so-accurate tab. Beginners will learn chord positions without even asking themselves “How is my chord related to the melody I am playing ?”. When someone breaks this down and explains it for them, no wonder their eyes will shine, as if they have unlocked a level in a game. More advanced musicians will want to dig further beyond the minor/major/7th induced frustration. It’s crazy to play something and not know why this combination makes it so good ? It does work for the curious ones out there, who embrace music knowledge. Yet, there are some who don’t give a damn care as long as their guitar is crying out a good sounding 2 notes riff out of a numeric-there-is-a-lamp-on-my-amp (That’s another debate on the equipment).
Music is a rabbit hole, the more you dig for answers, the more you harvest other questions and it’s absolutely amazing.
On a side note, I think I needed to be reminded of that, every musician need to reminded once in a while, and that is thanks to my colleagues who started learning guitar few months ago (props to them) and thanks to the people (one in particular) who believe in my work.
Now off I go.
The Speaker Orchestra
An amazing advertisement by DTS for their showcase at CES Las Vegas.
The Speaker Orchestra from Ross Ching on Vimeo.
