what is music?

[CrazyHarij]

probably a question i find it harder and harder to find an answer to. the way music can affect you, it's amazing really. what is music? where does it come from? why does it affect us the way it does?

so, how did it start out.. some prehistoric guy found he could do a awesome metal breakbeat solo with some sticks and stones? singing/howling?

i think it started out as a hybrid with storytelling. like tribes sing the stories of their village and ancestors. i think it maybe has something to do with mothers and soothing songs for babies.. wonder if ppl from the stone age did that.

one thing that astounds me with music, as an amateur music creator myself, is how simple it really is.
up and down, that's basically it. the pitch of notes, vertical scale, together with tempo, the horisontal scale. nothing can ever be anything except up and down, more or less intense, slower or faster. effects, synthesis, playing melodies, it all seems to come down to this.

almost everything in the universe works like this though i guess, you could say everything's just vibrations and atoms etc. but the emotional impact of music is still very interesting, and i'm sure there's millions of books on the subject but it'd be cool to discuss the subject.

i feel music is alot about recognition though. you like certain genres because of your association with them. i like most genres, and appreciate music that is technically good and well performed, but it's very few tracks that _really_ get to me. i mean "sending shivers down your spine" good.

usually it seems to be the association with a movie, feeling or moment or imagination that triggers the mindstate and really makes the track special. i think alot of it has to do with nostalgia, or just the desire to be in a certain emotional state. the differences of various genres are just so huge.

music feels like singing in a way, just that it's the instruments that tell the story. i think it's so awesome how individual keys have such peculiar feel to them.. then again i think the western style of music, the 12 note octave etc is probably due to our brains and ears adjusting to this, in the eastern countries there are instruments with far more notes per octave.

creating music is really amazing.. i used to hate my own music but as i'm getting more secure with doing it i feel i enjoy my own music more than other peoples music. it's almost like a language. just love sitting down at the piano and letting my hands flow and play whatever i feel like playing.
i really feel free when i make music.
it's a bit harder making music digitally as there's obstacles in the way of the creative outlet, but the hard work really pays off when you have a track that you're satisfied with.. again, there's always room for improvement, which only increases the enjoyment.

Sometimes i feel like getting into music making has destroyed the joy abit as there's always tons of frustration and thinking too much into technical aspects etc (which you pretty much have to), and sometimes it feels like it destroys the experience of enjoying music.. but other times it's easier to let go and you feel you can truly enjoy a track more when you can discern different elements of it, "get an idea of it" so to speak, feel closer to the creators idea and emotion.

i hear tracks so much differently now compared to when i didn't make music, this is really really apparent when i listen to tracks i liked 2-3 years ago.

what are your thoughts? i find it equally interesting hearing opinions from people who only listen to music as with other musicians, particularly the ones more proficient than me.

 

[evil^milk]

i've always enjoyed not just listening to music, but playing it on an instrument. i started out with piano and learned guitar later, and it plays a huge role in my life because whenever i play it in the piano/guitar i associate it in a different and interesting way.

i make some music too and i've been doing it ever since my brother got me into fl studio. i just love how it "makes sense", and i agree with you harij... you just sit in front of the piano and play something that makes sense to you and it's just fun in a whole new different way.

btw that bit about learning new techniques isn't all that bad because it can only enrich your style, though i know how it can be when there's tons of stuff you don't really need for your own music.

i'm not a pro though, but you look back at your own work and see how far you've come along. and it's always satisfying to see how you created that combination of beats/notes/stuff and say, "heh "

i gotta check your music page

 

[Angry Lawyer]

Harij's songs are actually rather awesome, they all have a feel of 90's Amiga Game music sorta thing going on, which is great.

-Angry Lawyer

 

[CrazyHarij]

Quite cool that you point that out actually Angry Lawyer, because I think the source of my affection for electronic music is because I grew up with the AMIGA and my brothers making demos and music with it. All those poppy beats and tunes. Some of the soundtracks of those games are just amazing..
so yeah, there's definitely some nostalgia in it, and i notice myself often spending alot of time making the sound old, imperfect and rugged.

I might add that my brothers are even worse.. We have a bunch of old .mod tunes (on which the 'last edited' thing says 1992 ) and one of my brothers pretty much only listens to those when he's using his computer.

 

[Reaktor4]

Dunno what the amiga sounded like but there are some synths here designed to recreate old computer game sounds. You might find them useful.

 

[Tantalus]

Music is defined by Dream Theater. However close a song is to Dream Theater, that's how musical it is.

The real birth of music was during the Classical Greek age. Pythagorous, along with being a mathematician, was a musician. (Hence the names of the scales: Aeolian, Dorian, Ionian, etc). He determined that if you pluck two tightened strings, one of half the length of the other, there is an octave difference. He decided to make 12 notes per octave. The eastern countries for the most part decided to use a 5 note per octave system.

Music evolved up until the baroque period. Then it coasted a while until the end of the romantic period, and is now slowly decaying.

Previously, music was composed in this order: melody, counterpoint, bass line, chords, effects. Today its more like this: chords, bass, effects, melody. Counterpoint has been almost completely abandoned.

 

[mortiz]

Music is defined by Dream Theater. However close a song is to Dream Theater, that's how musical it is.

The real birth of music was during the Classical Greek age. Pythagorous, along with being a mathematician, was a musician. (Hence the names of the scales: Aeolian, Dorian, Ionian, etc). He determined that if you pluck two tightened strings, one of half the length of the other, there is an octave difference. He decided to make 12 notes per octave. The eastern countries for the most part decided to use a 5 note per octave system.

Music evolved up until the baroque period. Then it coasted a while until the end of the romantic period, and is now slowly decaying.

Previously, music was composed in this order: melody, counterpoint, bass line, chords, effects. Today its more like this: chords, bass, effects, melody. Counterpoint has been almost completely abandoned.

Woo, easy on. I wouldn't give Dream Theater that much credit. I've always found their lyrics rather derivative and LaBrie a horrible singer. Musically they are quite good, but for a prog band I'd take Rush any day.

 

[CrazyHarij]

He decided to make 12 notes per octave. The eastern countries for the most part decided to use a 5 note per octave system.

the birds sing in the chromatic scale, so i think the essense of the 12 note scale derives a bit from nature itself..

also, counterpoint is not dead at all. it's widely used in electronic music, though most people aren't aware of the term of melodies completing eachother being called counterpoint. there are some IDM and experimental artists who use techniques counterpoint and thus hide a technical excellence behind what at first seems like chaos and noise.
the band autechre use complex mathematical algorithms for their music and digital instruments, some ppl claim that those with reasonable mathematical understanding find a more obvious pattern in the music while others just hear the music as chaos.

personally I seriously LOVE counterpoint and fugue, i really want to study it more in depth.

edit: no ****ing "my artist is better than yours" in this thread. i'm serious.

 

[the_lone_wolf]

mu·sic
n.
1. The art of arranging sounds in time so as to produce a continuous, unified, and evocative composition, as through melody, harmony, rhythm, and timbre.
2. Vocal or instrumental sounds possessing a degree of melody, harmony, or rhythm.
3.
a. A musical composition.
b. The written or printed score for such a composition.
c. Such scores considered as a group: We keep our music in a stack near the piano.
4. A musical accompaniment.
5. A particular category or kind of music.
6. An aesthetically pleasing or harmonious sound or combination of sounds: the music of the wind in the pines.

dictionary ftw:dork:

 

[Steven]

They reckon music eveolved from people mimicking the sounds around them with there voices.

For me music is an expressing of the artists feelings at a certain time because of this it can effect how we feel. You know how if you see someone smiling it can make you smile aswell, for some reason there emotion rubs off onto you, I think this applies to music aswell. Good music sends you into a mad trance making you want to sing the song or move to the music. This shows that you can relate to the music.

 

[Tantalus]

the birds sing in the chromatic scale, so i think the essense of the 12 note scale derives a bit from nature itself..

also, counterpoint is not dead at all. it's widely used in electronic music, though most people aren't aware of the term of melodies completing eachother being called counterpoint. there are some IDM and experimental artists who use techniques counterpoint and thus hide a technical excellence behind what at first seems like chaos and noise.
the band autechre use complex mathematical algorithms for their music and digital instruments, some ppl claim that those with reasonable mathematical understanding find a more obvious pattern in the music while others just hear the music as chaos.

personally I seriously LOVE counterpoint and fugue, i really want to study it more in depth.

edit: no ****ing "my artist is better than yours" in this thread. i'm serious.

I'm not saying that counterpoint is dead in all modern music, but the majority of it is completely lacking.

 

[D€vIL²]

Its simple really. Music is a language. Period. I could elaborate but I'm going to leave it at that.

 

[CrazyHarij]

Its simple really. Music is a language. Period. I could elaborate but I'm going to leave it at that.

beethoven was highly asocial and could apparently only express himself with his music, it sort of became his language.