psychedelic key signatures (musicians)

I like that there is a topic like this, that actually gets my brain cells working so I thought I'd throw some beans in the salad.

My beliefs go kind of like this.. playing music should be like singing, and as long as you are playing with the right cats you wont need to waste your time talking about phrygian and modes blah blah, because they have ears/experience and know how to fluently converse the language music. Just like a conversation you have to know when to listen and when to speak.

All of the stuff you guys put up on here is all interesting and good knowledge to solidify your understandings of the science of music, but it doesn't really apply to the "acid" mystical side of music. Its kind of like when somebody is talking about a mystical experience they had and somebody throws down with all of their textbook facts about neurochemistry and such.

You can be talking about the same subject, but complex things like music and drugs are very multi-faceted and there is the textbook shit and then there is the shit you learn from experience, and in my opinion i prefer learning from experience. the textbooks are good for briefing you on what you're getting into, but they never seems to do a very good job.

 

so then music never changes? its all the same tone?

go play a few songs in different key signatures. do they all have the same tone and feel? I really wish I could find the link to a web page that gives the different explanations of how differnt key signatures sound. But yes they do. Key signatures are like emotions. They are all different and each one feels different.

 

knowing music theory just gives you a better understanding of what your playing. Playing from experience is great, a lot of great musicians don't know a thing about theory. but I have to say, from experience. Theory has helped me a lot with writing music. I've learned many knew things that i can play around with when playing guitar, bass, or piano. Plus, with theory, your able to understand notes and chords and why they sound like they do.

Experience is great, but understanding what your playing, I think, brings your music to a whole new level. You can add more depth and complexity than you can from just experience.

 

these tonal qualities, however, are more relevant to contingent or pragmatic aspects of making music.

a guitar has one size and its strings are a certain thickness etc. thus when you play F# minor as a barre chord and then play A# minor as a bare chord it sounds different, because the size of the guitar is not changing. the relationship between the string lengths and resonating wood in the guitar is different.

in a similar way, C major played on open strings sounds different, tonally, to c major played as a barre across all the strings. you cant just substitute them for eachother in songs and expect the very same efect, although it will usually be too small for people to notice.

another thing to consider is that in the world we hear certain notes more or less. something in C major can quickly take our attention because it is so popular, but it can also loose our attention in ways that playing an unusual key signature wouldnt.

the key of a song usually has to do with the instruments used, the voice singing over teh top, etc.

but if you get a song and change its root but keep all its musical relationships, it will, in my oppinion, sound the same to you as the original, unless you hear teh original first and then the modified version. also if you change the root too much, then it will clearly sound different in the way that you are influencing totally new range of nerves in the ear.

music is the same, in and within itself, at any register. but we humans percieve music not in and of itself but beside the infinity that is the worlds we live in. we have a specific placing in the world - before hearing any song we have heard all other songs that we have heard, which all are of specific keys. before hearing any song we have just heard a certain set of sounds that day, some of which were music in certain keys, some of which was conversation in a certain key, some of which was random sounds with certain tonal qualities.


when we play music in different keys, the relationship between the music and the instruments, as well as the relationship between the music and the state of the listener's cochlea in that moment, is different.

but the music itself is the same

 

and i believe most good musicians know music theory fine - they just dont have words to classify things to other people.

 

teh aim of music should be like massage - masseusse does not have to know anything to do with WHY a type of touch is pleasurable compared to another, only that it is, and it is then a matter of knowing where to apply pleasure or pain and in what order.

in the same way a musician needs not know why something sounds good, instead he knows that there are certain good things and works out what order and timing to place them.

to understand the reason that music can be placed on any root but still be 'the same', we can look at birds, who are all different sizes but their bird calls are based on specific types of manipulation of their vocal resonators, which is basically the same for members of the same species.

birds must independently percieve the information of other bird's calls and also the size of the bird making it, to determine the status of that bird.

the content and emotion of the signal is detected from the relative changes in sound - the music.

but whether or not this music is relevant to a particular bird depends also on who is sending the information.

in a similar way, two people may recount a story with the same inflections completely, but some people may wish to hear a deep, commanding voice telling it, others might want a soft, gentle voice telling it.

the means by which the musical information 'gets into' an audience is in its actualisation in a certain key.

 

thanks Bill, you dont know how true you are... as much as Id like to sit here and type all night, theory has already been written, Ill spend my time playing and less time talking..