Dissonance and The Sunshine State
Okay – so my piano teacher for this semester looks like Philip Seymour Hoffman. He’s pretty much the antithesis of my teacher from last semester, which sort of worried me at first, because I enjoyed that first class so much. Now, I’m actually looking forward to being taught from a different perspective.
This guy’s main concern seems not to be the “how” of playing music (like my first teacher), but the “why” the music is like that in the first place. His reasoning is that if we know the why, learning new pieces will be that much easier. I’m a scientist, and curious by nature and so learning the “why” appeals to me.
Another difference – my first teacher had very detailed lesson plans and course criteria. This guy?? Second class and still no syllabus. And his lectures (and they’ve been lectures, only some playing…) are HUGE streams of consciousness that are actually quite funny.
At one point last night, he was going over chord construction and the concepts of consonance and dissonance. And how different frequencies combine together. He was giving some examples and a woman asked if that’s why playing C and B together sounded bad? His answer...
“Bad….bad….I don’t want you to think about good and bad….for example…I’m from Florida. I hate Florida. No, I love Florida. But, really, I hate Florida. You see, I’m from the Space Coast and its all… and I hate it, but I really like it, too. Consonance and dissonance are like Florida… Ponce de Leon and the Space Shuttle, both right there… that’s cool. Get it?”
And the weird part is, I think I did.
Nerd Note: I learned that the A above middle-C resonates at 440 Hz. For comparison, a proton (a hydrogen atom’s nucleus) in the NMR magnet down the hall from my office resonates around 500,000,000 Hz. I’m thinking I should mention that to him next class, he seems like the type that might like that...
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And if you wanna get really nerdy (and learn some very interesting facts about music), you should read up on the overtone series (also known as the "harmonic series"). To be honest, I only understand the bare minimum about it, but it sort of explains why certain intervals sound pleasing or consonant or stable , and why others sound gross or dissonant or unstable. It also explains the production of harmonics on stringed instruments, which always intrigued me. I think it would really interest you!
I always loved teachers that could use the most bizarre metaphors to help me understand things. =)
Jen: Maybe there's a piano class in your future, too! Oh, and my friend in my class and I are obsessing over "Cristofori's Dream", btw. She's better than me (not that its a competition or anything...) and we're both like "holy crap" watching that guy play it from memory...
Joie: Now there's the power of vox for you, right!?!? I think that means I get a free spectroscopy answer from you! Interestingly, my teacher did start going into the harmonic series for a little bit. That IS really cool (though I will admit that's where I started falling off the learning curve!). I'm starting to get why a lot of people have told me that music is a lot about math. Oh, and NMR spectroscopy has something similar when a signal comes in at some multiple of a parent frequency -- we call them "spinning side bands" -- go ahead, drop that one in class ... =P
I had a similar thing with composition teachers one year in College. The first semester this guy was all about mechanics, punctuation, and grammar. The very next semester with a different professor we didn't even talk about that stuff and the entire focus was on "Why I Write" which was also the title of an essay that we read as an example of a great title because of the repeating I sound. I I I.
My favorite thing that happened that second semester was when a student wrote an essay about an experience he had, and after reading it to the class the professor said "did you think of this happening." The student said "But that's not what happened". To which the professor responded "I don't care what actually happened, I care about what should have happened!"
Needless to say the second class was way more fun...:)
as a songwriter, i tend to write whatever comes to mind. if it sounds pretty, it's good. but i really wish i knew some more music theory and could find more chords that work well together in strange new ways.
speaking of strange chords: you should check out some of the compositions by eric whitacre (also on myspace) . . . especially "sleep." we're singing it in my choral group, and it's AMAZING.
e*c -- thanks for the eric whitacre links, those are very cool. I like it that people are trying to write "symphonic" music still, and aren't constrained in what they can make.
One of the most memorable concert experiences I've been to was to see the Chicago Symphony play Revueltas' "Night of the Maya" -- many "atypical" instruments, with lotsa different harmonies and contrasts. I don't know if it was "beautiful music" to my ears, but I really enjoyed the performance and remember it more than some of the more "classical" pieces that I've seen.