Categorial Perception Experiment Phase 1

As of late, I have noticed more and more how my black and white thinking when it comes to music is very bad for my creativity. Being that I've now become so ingrained in years of thinking about chords and scales in a certain way, I want to free myself of this line of thinking. I'm not sure how well this will work but I'm going to preform an experiment on myself to see if I can change the way I perceive categories in music. So how will I do this exactly? By constructing a new synthetic system of theory and notes in which music can be written in. The idea here is to be as strict as possible in order to enforce new ways of thinking in the musical system. The result hopefully will be that in the end, this new system will become ingrained to some extent and allow me to learn how to shift categorial perception away from the same old thinking rut.

The new system will contain nothing of the old what so ever. The only constant will be that 12 Equal Temperament will still be used. This is merely to allow myself to be able to use this anywhere, not just at home where I have a keyboard which I can change the tuning of. This way, touch is involved at a consistent rate rather than setting up some odd scale on the keyboard. The new system will have new names for pitches which will be named after six fruits rather than letter names. The fruits will take the place of the notes: F# G# A# C D E as:

"Raspberry", "Lemon", "Pear", "Blueberry", "Orange", "Banana".

This system is so weird now that my brain couldn't possibly relate it to any sort of thinking of traditional western theory. In addition, you'll notice these are fruits, they are words not letters. These have meaning on their own which perhaps may influence my categorial perception even more.  I also purposely paired names to pitches that are contrary to what I felt paired together. I felt C would be Lemon but I made it blueberry, something that for whatever reason felt very wrong in my mind and that's exactly what we want, to go against our learned perception.  What's more these names have no inherent order. They are random fruits, they all are fruit but unlike letters, they do not fall in any specific order in my mind. Internalizing them will be tricky but it will add to the fun of brain crushing chaos haha.

The scale corresponds to the "Whole tone scale" which has little in common with the major scale making it even more taboo.  I could have went with other scales such as the diminished or augmented but I wanted to keep it simple as well as pick a scale which does not contain major and minor triads. I also fairly enjoy this scale but have found it confusing to work with, may'be now I can see it in a whole new light.

The other six pitches are known as "Scratch Tones", they have no actual basis as pitches but rather are considered in this new system as "spaces" between the notes. Essentially they are ambiguous and might be considered out of tune compared to the six fruits we used. They are for embellishments or something.  I'm not sure yet because this is a system we're building as we go along.

The piano layout:

PHASE 1

The first stage of this experiment is to memorize these notes by heart. I need to know what note corresponds to which fruit without any second guessing or doubt. I imagine this will take like a 4 days to a week to finish this step. I don't want to start defining any rules of play until I internalize this system as is.   

I encourage others to join in the experiment with me, it'll be a fun way to see how we can screw up our categorial perception. Dunno how long I will do this but I imagine around one month to get a good result point. 

Phase 2 which I will write next will consist of defining some initial properties and functions for this system. 

７平均律と14平均律

YoutubeでKnowsurというユーザを見つけた。７平均律をダイアトニックスケールで使ってつつ、14平均律をクロマチックスケールで使っていた。僕はこそ爽やかを感じたよ。７平均律の音が素晴らしく聞こえたので、僕はその調律を試さなきゃ。思ったので、僕はその調律を試しなきゃ。マイクロトーンの調律を使うことはなかったなぁ。「どのようにスケールで音楽を作るのか」とか「モードが１つしかないんだよ」とか、面白くて難しい性格を待ってるんだ。なんて７平均律を全音階を使うことがなかったよなぁ。それ、「どのようにこのスケールで音楽を作る？」とか、　「もちろん、モードが一つだけあるんじゃないか…」それで、面白く難しい様相だよ。よい響きを感じるけど、やり方が分からなかったなぁ。　　　

このブログでは、７平均律や14平均律について少し書こうと思った。日本語でウエブサイトには、マイクルトーンやゼンハモニック情報がないので残念だよ。将来のために14平均律に関してボログを書こうと思う。　はじめましょう

７平均律の構造は…？　

７平均律は、オクターブを７つに均等に分割する音律です。　完全に平均のスケールなので、全音階とはやり方が少し違っているんでしょうなぁ。その構造は、長音階の構造と比べ音 格はすべて違ってるんだが、その音は長音階にまだ似てるんだと思います。こいうことは、文章で説明するより、自分の耳で聞いた方が明らかになるんでしょう。

はい、念のため補足すると、14平均律と７平均律は両方とも均等分割です。つまり、一つ一つの音は、隣の音の間に同じ幅の空きがあるので、モードがひとつだけ作られます。長音階と主な違いはこれです。

CDEFGABCの音階はEFGABCDEの音階とは違っているんだが、７平均律はすべて位置が同じだ。一つ一つの音の間には148セントがあります。

音の名前は…？

14平均律は２つの完全五度で一連でつながらない７平均律の組み合せと考えられる。
７平均律は大きく音が異なっているので、まったく新しいアルファベットを作るのほうがいいと思う。日本語はカッコイイと思うだけで、そのアルファベットを作ることには平仮名とカタカナを使っていたと決めた。普通な音楽で使われる（ABCDEFGA）のアルファベットは、ロジカルなシステムです。14平均律も同様に、ロジカルなシステムがいいんでしょう。だから、僕は日本の数え方の略語を使うといいと思う。

「い　に　さ　し　ご　ろ　な　い」（いち、に、さん、し、ご、ろく、なな）を７平均律の記号とします。
聞くときは、以下をクリックしてください：　
Upload Music - Audio Hosting - 7 Equal Temperament Naturals
それは１つのダイアトニックスケールを作ります。

そして、他の1７平均律スケールの記号は：
イ　ニ　サ　シ　ゴ　ロ　ナ　イ　　になります。
嬰の７平均律を聞いてください：　 Music File Hosting - Embed Audio Files - 7 et sharps 　

それは先ほどとは別のダイアトニックスケールになります。

しかし、発音するときは仮名の前に「えい」を発音する「嬰」をつける。たとえば、「し」は「し」のままだが、「シ」は「嬰シ」になります。

14平均律すべての記号は次のようになります。　
い　イ　に　ニ　さ　サ　し　シ　ご　ゴ　ろ　ロ　な　ナ
１　２　３　４　５　６　７　８　９　10　11　12　13　14　
そしてまで、「い」に戻る。

もちろん、14平均律で調号が二つだけあります。　

どのように楽譜を書くことは？

14平均律の楽譜を書くことは簡単です。14平均律は２つの完全五度の一連でつながらない７平均律の組み合わせと考えられます。７平均律の音は12平均律のピアノで白い音、すなわち変化記号をつけないことで表されます。もう１つの７平均律には矢印記号をつけることで表されます。

下の７平均律記号を見せてください：　

下の全部14平均律半音階を見せてください：　

例えば？　

Knowsurは14平均律のアルバムを作っている。これに聞けます：　

http://www.split-notes.com/004/ 

もちろん、タイ音楽は７平均律を使っているけど、14平均律は使っていない。

僕も14平均律を作り始めた。特にタイ音楽とラグタイムを交えるに興味がありまあす：　 
このようなちょっと悲しい歌も作っています：　

次のブログは７平均律の音楽の作り方について書きます。　

Absolute Pitch - My Experience and Myths

Today's post is about the wonderful world of Absolute pitch, or Perfect pitch, or whatever you wanna call it. There is alot of debate online and in musical classrooms about it and well, while I'm not a scientist, I am a person who has absolute pitch.  I can't offer scientific experimentation but I can offer my personal experiences from a real person who is writing THIS article and not someone quoted from a book.  So take it from me, a real living-breathing absolute pitch guy.

What is Absolute Pitch?

Let me define what absolute pitch is.  Normally it's something like "The ability to name pitches on the piano without a fixed reference point." that is only have the story AND it's not even that accurate.
My best definition of absolute pitch is the internal sense of the color produced by musical tones and scales.

 It's not necessarily being able to identify any note without a second though, we do second guess ourselves, we can get confused. You still have to work at it, no one and I firmly will declare that it is a FACT that NO ONE was born with absolute pitch that allowed them to instantly name every pitch. It's all about developing a relationship with the notes and while I agree you can be gifted, it has far more to do with a mindset and experience than your freakin stupid genetics.

There is Psychological phenomenon called Anomic Aphasia which is the inability to always name colors or other things. You know what it is but you can't play the name with it. This phenomenon can occur with AP I think, I may have it and others don't, I really don't know. It's like seeing a cup and saying bowel, no plate, oh a cup.  

"bbut mozart had absolute pitch... " BLAH BLAH BLAH I'm tired of hearing about genetics being involved with it. It might play a small role but generally, it comes down to what you're paying attention to. I imagine talent might matter in your development of it but everyone, I mean everyone with musical training can name pitches without a reference tone, if you think hard enough.  That's not to say that I believe everyone can differentiate keys or tones but that's not important.

Tonal Color

With me, my experience with AP is that each musical tone and scale has a color to it, not a visual color, it's not freakin synethesia, I don't see colors when I hear sound. It's more like, if our ears heard colors, well that's what AP is like. It's like when you see blue and you feel that blue color right? Not a physical sensation, but it's BLUE, you don't doubt it.  So when I hear G, I will just know it's G. That's not to say I can't get it wrong time to time. But it's that feeling of G, sometimes I'll hear it and can't immediately think of what note or key but I just feel the texture of it.  I guess it's kind of like how someone with good AP can tell a major from a minor chord but it's a little more tricky than that.

I cannot fathom what it's like to hear sound in black and white, to hear a piece of music then the same one again in a different key and then not being able to tell that they have entirely different colors!   For me, hearing someone say G and F# sound the same is like saying Red and Blue look the same - it's nonsense and just ridiculous.

Literally every single major/minor key has a unique flavor. Trying to tell you what they sound like is like trying to describe to a blind man what colors look like. I can tell you that F# sounds a bit tinnier than say a robust D but alot of that is timbre specific such as F# is very metallic sounding on a piano and D is not. On other instruments it's not quite as noticeable but there still is that lingering flavor that is F# major.  I just can't imagine what it's like to not hear like this.

Generally keys that are a perfect fifth away are more like discolorations. C G and F share a few qualities but they also are quite different. The stranger part is that some keys are easier to name than others. I imagine this all comes from associating childhood experience of favorite songs or something. Like I could near always name a song in D major or F# major but B major or E major can throw me. It's not like I don't hear these keys extremely differently but they share similarities.

This is all really subjective though. All people with AP probably hear things differently. One thing is how complex it really it. Root note, timbre, and visual context all have an impact. It's like a super complex network of associations. This is why we can get confused, it's not set in stone. G major sounds different in different context but there is still that lingering familiarity with it.

Ah... Relative Pitch..... 

There's that thing I'm tired of hearing. Everytime someone tries to learn absolute pitch and makes mistakes, they're told they have relative pitch. This makes no sense. Relative pitch IS all about being able to feel musical space of intervals, chords, scales etc... this is a no brainer, you must have good relative pitch to survive in the music world.  

Relative pitch is about Space, Absolute pitch is about color. Relative pitch must be paired with absolute pitch to get any practical use out of absolute pitch. Absolute pitch is extremely useful but at the same time, optional in the music world. Absolute pitch without relative pitch is like Tamarind without the rest of the Pad Thai. It doesn't work well, it's not very functional, and it's really slow. I can feel notes all day long but I can't just name note after note in a piece of music in real time, that's stupid. Typically I will figure the root of the scale key first and use relative pitch for the rest.  

What I don't like it people dismissing absolute pitch as useless when they don't possess it themselves. Absolute pitch to me is like having an enriched musical experience. I don't get what it's like to not have it, to not hear tonal color. I'm not trying to brag, I just can't wrap my head around people having Relative pitch but not able to hear tonal qualities of pitches. It's weird to me.  

Point is, you determine if you have AP not some teacher. If you have AP you will have no doubt that C and G# sound totally different, if you cannot hear an audible difference in color, you don't have it. 

The Joys and Annoyances of Absolute Pitch 

 TRANSPOSING 

One of the most annoying aspects of having AP is that you care about transposition while the majority of the population doesn't give a crap. If a song I know is in D major, for the love of cats, play the song in D! I know singers have to transpose but it's very annoying when your the only one who seems to care. Sometimes changing the key can have an interesting effect but most of the time, it's just cheesy, because the song's color changes.  Cheesy is how I would describe it, it seems fake, like not genuine when it's in the wrong key. 

TUNING 

A common belief is that people with AP are seriously annoyed by retuning music. As if retuning a guitar 1/4 step down will annoy us. If anything, it sounds cool to people like me. I do have an interest in alternate tunings so that may be why but quite literally, I don't see how someone with AP would see playing in a different reference pitch such as A 432 as anything but a good thing.  If all the regular keys sound unique, the 1/4 step down keys sound EXTREMELY different. They are quite literally hard to identify, they sound fresh yet foreign to me. They also don't retain qualities much of the key that is 1/4 step higher or lower.  C major tunes 1/4 step higher sounds nothing like C major at 440 hz to me.  

IDENTIFYING PITCH 

A thing that happens with AP is we hear things as musical, period.  More than the average musician person I imagine. Like I'll hear a lawn mower and my brain has a habit of wanting to know what the key sounds like. Heck, if someone farts, I'll normally be able to identify the pitch, I don't try, it just happens. 

LISTENING TO MUSIC

One annoying aspect of AP is that I need variety. I cannot stand to hear too many songs in the same key! I will not listen to 4 songs in a row in G# major, it's boring to me.  This causes issues because my brain tends to pay attention to the tonal color rather than other elements making two songs sound more similar than other people hear them as. 

Another thing is key preference, I like songs in B major, F#, and D major best. I think E major is my least favorite major key, like it's pretty definite, I don't like E major, sounds cheesy to me, I don't know why. 

Can you learn it as an adult? 

While I cannot prove this considering I've had an ability to hear musical color since I was 13, I imagine you can. If you want to develop AP, you have to make your brain think it needs to know the difference.  I developed it mainly from arranging pieces, I quickly noticed there were very different tonal qualities to the different songs I was arranging.  It became useful to me to know what key it was in, I tried to guess it not to hunt and peck till i found it. Well, honestly at first I did hunt and peck but I started needing to do it less. 

To be honest, the ability to name pitches out of thin air is extremely learnable, it's no different from learning to identify symbols. But being able to feel the musical color that people with AP experience, that may not be learnable but I honestly have no idea.  

Thing is, if I stop practicing it, I lose it. I cannot name pitches as fast, I can figure it out without any reference pitch but it takes a bit of time and confusion.  What never goes away is how I hear music, and I'm not sure if that's something you can teach yourself or not.