Ego Tripping

As the title suggests, what do you think 'music' is? Humans have developed a series of tones that simply 'sound good' to us, such as scales, chords, modes, etc.. I realize that other animals have their own music, like Dolphins and Whales for example, and really, I'm not sure if there's a difference between their music and ours. We use tried and tested patterns. For example, a certain chord movement will make almost everyone feel the same 'feeling.' Certain chords feel 'sad' while others 'bright.' The subliminal effect is even more interesting. Animals are known to react to certain music such as classical, and even crime rates dropped when classical music has been blasted into areas of high crime.

Another example that I know many people here have felt is...have you ever been tripping and either put on music or heard music, especially melodic music?

What is in music that causes such strong emotional, mental and physical reactions, in all species?

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HTAM

Music....is intensely personal.

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Grieves

Music is the culmination of moments and experiences, coming together in shared expression...

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Štulic

What I always used to ask myself when I was little and with no internet, is what's the reason almost everything surrounding music has something to do with the number 8 as for there being only eight different sound pitches in an octave, which is basically as I know now "the miracle of music".
Some would argue that there could be a different method of standardising tones from the one we humans know and use, but since we know that all sound is sinusoidal the wavelength of a note or any sound when measured shows exactly that there are only 7 possible different steps in a harmonic series of a string, with the eight being the same tone as the first step but in the next octave.

I know there is a whole science behind it and I have no idea about it but I think there's definitely something physically going on with the number 8 and the sound that is magical and mysterious. The octave, the octet, the octatonic scale... I don't know...

I also think human music as we know it today regardless of what genre, has developed upon a basic law and principle of rhythm and beat based on our cardiac cycle or pulse, the rhythm of everything we feel and the essence of our existance.

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verklingen

music is an imparter of emotional resonance

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“Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.”

HTAM

Wow...I think that is a great post. You have a bit of a 'Pythagorean' view of things. Pythagoras believed that numbers were the ruling principal in the universe and that basic mathematical law could be expressed in musical harmonies.

I may have to reply a few times because you covered a lot ground.
So, here is the first...
What I always used to ask myself when I was little and with no internet, is what's the reason almost everything surrounding music has something to do with the number 8 as for there being only eight different sound pitches in an octave, which is basically as I know now "the miracle of music".

The Dimished scale actually does have 8 notes per octave.

You are not alone. I pondered that as well, but instead thought of the number 7, representing each of the whole tones. Assuming that it is the Western Scale that we are talking about as you posted, if you count 8, you would be counting the same tone you start with. So using A, the beginning would be 1 or A, and the end would be 7 or G.

But if you were going to define Western Tuning, then you say that it divides an octave into 12 equally spaced pitches with each note one half step away from one another. An equal difference in frequency from one note to the next, theoretically. It's also called Equal Temperament, but the physics of sound would show you that the pitches are not always in tune with each other.

Check this out, though....
Several years ago I went to the concert called 'Microstock'. A guy named Neil Haverstick organized it, and that night I heard music played on instruments that had 19, 21, 31, 34, and 36 tones per octave. It was 'out there' for me then when I knew much less about theory if you will, and even now with a little bit clearer understanding it still makes my head hurt. I'm talking notes that are 'quarter sharped' here.

Here is a picture of some of the guitars that he used.

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BibleGuy

Like light, music is vibration... and harmony. Harmonies and "colors" produce feelings.

• Major7th chords: Gentile, peaceful, soft, love songs...
• Minor chords: Dark, dreary, sad songs...
• Suspended chords: elation, elevation, rising to the occasion...
• etc.

It's amazing how this actually works. And yes, I've heard what you've described "while tripping" - what a gift! It's no wonder that smoke, and perhaps other stuff, is a natural part of the music scene.

I think that light is music, only at a higher vibration.

Mafoo

im not sure what it is, but its amazing and i cant live without it.

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PLUR
For once you have tasted flight you will walk the earth with your eyes turned skywards, for there you have been and there you will long to return

HTAM

There is no thinkin' about it....here you go.

'There are many ancient and modern interpretations of the correspondences between color and musical notes. This one is completely accurate and non-arbitrary because it is generated by frequency doubling the notes 41 times until we find them in the hertzian band of visible light.'

This chart is an Exact Color / Musical Note Correspondence Chart

In this example C=256 Hz.

Modern ISO (International Standards Organization) C=261.63Hz

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Mydriasis

a metaphor.

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BibleGuy

Wow - that's really cool! Thanks, higherthanamile.

John F. Kerry

the one thing i really know about music is that when it hits you you feel no pain

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Nasa under Obama

John F. Kerry

i dont know about all that mang,

doesnt indian music have mutlitonalities like quater tones and half tones and shit?
like there are 4 notes for every one in western music? ie 4 notes between c and d?

i thought i read that at one point.

i guess in that case what your saying would just be that there are divisibles of 8 anyway, but im just saying.

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Nasa under Obama

Štulic

I was thinking more about the harmonic series of a string as seen below


These are the 7 different notes we know, determined by the wavelenght of a pitch, each consecutive having half the wavelenght of the previous one.
You can only go 8 steps up and you end up having the same-sounding note with double the wavelenght (and higher pitch) of it's predecessor from the lower octave.

higherthanamile however widened my understanding of the very complicated part of physic science that made me understand this is only the way we are trying to measure the amplitudes of a soundwave. We could've theoretically invented some other measuring systems that would give us a scale of ___insert any nr here___ notes to build our musical instruments after.

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