fun with music theory
Aug. 25th, 2020 09:13 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kayreI had one of the weirdest musical experiences I can remember today.
A very musical friend sent me a recording he and a friend had made. The title was ambiguous so I didn't know exactly what song it was. When it started playing, I recognized the words, but it sounded *awful*, like the singer was extremely pitchy or just plain singing some notes wrong. It was hard to listen to; I almost felt seasick. Then at the end of the first section it started to sound better, and then completely fine.
On second listen I realized that there had been only one chord for introduction, and very light on the bass; I suggested strengthening that chord, especially the bass. And it didn't sound nearly as bad, somehow.
Thinking it through, I realized that the melody starts on the third note of the scale, and the singer never sings the tonic (home note, DO in do-re-mi) until the last note of the verse. Since I didn't hear enough of that one introductory chord to provide an anchor, my ear/brain assumed that the first note was the tonic-- which made me hear the entire verse as if it was in Locrian mode, which our Western brains really are not trained to process. In do-re-mi terms, the 're' note sounded really incredibly flat.
I'll never be able to hear it that way again, now that I know what to expect; though I can play it on piano in a way that approximates what I experienced. And the recording will be entirely fixed by strengthening that introductory chord, or better yet adding a full measure of introduction for anchor.
(For curious musicians, the song is Make Me a Channel of Your Peace.)
A very musical friend sent me a recording he and a friend had made. The title was ambiguous so I didn't know exactly what song it was. When it started playing, I recognized the words, but it sounded *awful*, like the singer was extremely pitchy or just plain singing some notes wrong. It was hard to listen to; I almost felt seasick. Then at the end of the first section it started to sound better, and then completely fine.
On second listen I realized that there had been only one chord for introduction, and very light on the bass; I suggested strengthening that chord, especially the bass. And it didn't sound nearly as bad, somehow.
Thinking it through, I realized that the melody starts on the third note of the scale, and the singer never sings the tonic (home note, DO in do-re-mi) until the last note of the verse. Since I didn't hear enough of that one introductory chord to provide an anchor, my ear/brain assumed that the first note was the tonic-- which made me hear the entire verse as if it was in Locrian mode, which our Western brains really are not trained to process. In do-re-mi terms, the 're' note sounded really incredibly flat.
I'll never be able to hear it that way again, now that I know what to expect; though I can play it on piano in a way that approximates what I experienced. And the recording will be entirely fixed by strengthening that introductory chord, or better yet adding a full measure of introduction for anchor.
(For curious musicians, the song is Make Me a Channel of Your Peace.)
