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Topic: Sliding Through Dischords |
Alan Brookes
From:
Brummy living in Southern California
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Posted 25 Jul 2013 12:45 pm |
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So your steel guitar is tuned to a chord, and, logic says, that, as you slide your bar up the fretboard, at every stage within that slide you are playing a chord.
But what about the rest of the band? There is an infinite number of chords that you play when you slide the bar, and at most of the time this constitutes a dischord with the rest of the band.
Now consider the vocalist. He/she is sliding from one note to another. The only time that he/she and you are in conchord is on the beats.
So it amounts to this; while we are playing, the entire band is throwing out all sorts of dischords, and we are only in conchordance on the beats. Our minds are used to this.
Trumpets, trombones, fiddles, basses, guitarists pushing strings; they all produce an infinite number of dischords. For some reason, our minds accept this as long as they form a conchordance at accepted intervals within the music. |
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Bud Angelotti
From:
Larryville, NJ, USA
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Posted 25 Jul 2013 7:21 pm
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Alan, It's all just a mirage anyway.
Don't "fret" it. 
_________________
Just 'cause I look stupid, don't mean I'm not. |
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Doug Beaumier
From:
Northampton, MA
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Edward Meisse
From:
Santa Rosa, California, USA
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Posted 25 Jul 2013 11:21 pm
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There is a television show called, "Brain Games," that goes on and on about stuff like this. I think you'd like it.
_________________
Amor vincit omnia |
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John Billings
From:
Ohio, USA
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Posted 26 Jul 2013 3:54 pm
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Trumpets not so much, as they have valves. But you certainly can "slur" between notes by fooling with your embouchure or just changing the volume and shape of the inside of your mouth. I haven't played in many years, but a good friend's 11 year old son is starting to play the jazz clubs in NJ and NYC.
http://vfsjazz.com/ |
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Donny Hinson
From:
Glen Burnie, Md. U.S.A.
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Posted 27 Jul 2013 8:57 am Re: Sliding Through Dischords
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| Alan Brookes wrote: |
| There is an infinite number of chords that you play when you slide the bar, and at most of the time this constitutes a dischord with the rest of the band. |
Uhh...no.
| Quote: |
| Now consider the vocalist. He/she is sliding from one note to another. The only time that he/she and you are in conchord is on the beats...So it amounts to this; while we are playing, the entire band is throwing out all sorts of dischords, and we are only in conchordance on the beats. |
Uhh...again, no. "Beats" have nothing to do with it. (Haven't you ever held a note?)
Glissandos and slurs are not "out", nor do they sound "out", as long as they are moving sufficiently, and resolved in some way. In the same manner, our eyes "see" a smoothly moving image with no breaks when we watch a film which is composed of individual pictures projected at 24 frames per second, or faster. When you look at a still frame, it's not a movie; and if you hear a tone or chord for only a tiny fraction of a second, that's not music.
Movement is what makes it music, or a movie.  |
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Stuart Legg
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Posted 27 Jul 2013 10:09 am
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It's just molecules bumping together until your ear senses it and sends it to the brain which then manufacturers what is called sound to define each little subtle difference in the way the little molecules bumped together.
The ear sensed it and the brain invented scooping and discerns it as whatever is disturbing the molecules is moving.
Don’t argue with the inventor (the brain), get over it! |
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Alan Brookes
From:
Brummy living in Southern California
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Posted 27 Jul 2013 10:21 am
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I'm thinking about the very nature of music. We know what makes chords sound pleasant to human ears; the notes of the chord have a mathematical relationship with each other which create beats at intervals. (I'm talking about vibration beats, not the beat of the music.)
Music itself is something of a mystery. Are humans the only species that hears music, or can other species? |
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Michael Johnstone
From:
Sylmar,Ca. USA
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Posted 27 Jul 2013 10:57 am
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| Quote: |
| Are humans the only species that hears music, or can other species? |
Cats like jazz,dogs like rock & roll and plants like classical.Birds can sing and react to other birds singing.The great 20th century composer Oliver Messiaen said "Listen to the birds - they are the great masters". He quoted bird songs in "Quatuor pour la fin du temps","Turangalila" and many other compositions. Those I know about first hand. I've heard of experiments where primates,bottle-nosed dolphins and whales hear,understand and by certain definitions - can sing and/or play music. So yeah of course.
As far as worrying about a gliss being out of tune etc,just begin it and end it with some musical relevance and in some kind of time. In other words,stay on the grid and everyone will find it quite musical.We steel players look after these things on a subconscious level after a few years on the bandstand. |
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Richard Sinkler
From:
aka: Rusty Strings -- Missoula, Montana
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Posted 27 Jul 2013 12:04 pm
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| Quote: |
| Music itself is something of a mystery. Are humans the only species that hears music, or can other species? |
I don't think it's just humans. You remember the old saying, "music calms the savage beast". I'm sure they weren't just talking about me. 
_________________
Carter D10 8p/8k, Dekley S10 3p/4k C6 setup,Regal RD40 Dobro, Recording King Professional Dobro, NV400, NV112,Ibanez Gio guitar, Epiphone SG Special (open D slide guitar) . Playing for 54 years and still counting. |
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Stuart Legg
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Posted 27 Jul 2013 2:13 pm
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| No humans are not the only species that can hear music. Humans are the only ones that defined it and made it an art form. |
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Alan Brookes
From:
Brummy living in Southern California
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Posted 27 Jul 2013 4:40 pm
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Well we're the only species with vocal chords, so we're the ones who can sing. I've watched cagebirds move their heads in time to music. Dogs and cats can hear much higher frequencies than we can, and sometimes our instruments put out screeches that only they can hear. When a dog howls at your music it might not be just that he likes the music, it may be that the high pitches are hurting his ears.
As Michael said, whales and dolphins definitely put out repeated patterns of notes.
I wonder if Neanderthals sang. They had vocal chords like us and probably had language skills.
Michael's comments about just starting and ending the gliss in tune are exactly the point I was making. It seems that the brain accepts the temporary dischords as long as it knows that we're heading for the right notes. My theory is that music requires that we all come together into conchordance at particular intervals in the music.
Yes, it may be a phenomenon much like persistence of vision, which has been mentioned, where we look at a film of 24 frames per minute and see it as motion, whereas in fact none of the individual frames are moving.
I've been taking stereoscopic (3D) photographs and movies for about 45 years. There's still a lot we don't know about how the brain perceives distance. Somehow the brain puts together the stereo pairs and from them can analyze the space viewed. The same thing happens with stereophonic sound.
The brain is a wonderful organ.  |
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Don Drummer
From:
West Virginia, USA
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Posted 28 Jul 2013 6:36 pm
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| Alan, get the book This is Your Brain on Music by Daniel J. Levitin. It answers a lot of your questions. |
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Bud Angelotti
From:
Larryville, NJ, USA
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Posted 29 Jul 2013 7:06 am
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Alan, yes neanderthals sing! I witnessed it just last friday night - they where singing "Wasted away in Margaritaville"
_________________
Just 'cause I look stupid, don't mean I'm not. |
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