Posts Tagged ‘music’

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Music generator idea

June 25, 2013

OMG, the peeping bird. The Peeper. Sometimes called the FP. It starts at dawn in early April: PEEP PEEP PEEP. It only knows that one sound. And what it lacks in variety, it makes up for with volume. The PEEPs echo off the surrounding houses, giving them resonance. It is unbearably loud, particularly as I’m supposed to be sleeping.

Eventually, in late May, it is joined by another bird, affectionately known as the car alarm bird. Probably a mockingbird, its song is a car alarm: whoop whoop whoop, eee-urr-eee-urr, raaan-raaan-raaan. The first time, it sounded a lot like a car alarm. This year it sounds like a bird’s musical rendition of a car alarm, as though the birds have been playing telephone. It almost pretty, definitely funny. Still, not the way I want to wake up, especially with the FP playing rhythm peeps in the bird band.

Take that as part one of “necessity as a mom” and let’s move on to part two.

When I’m working, I like music but only boring music, music that doesn’t impinge on my consciousness. And I don’t like noise, whether it is the fan of my officemate’s computer or the dishwasher running or the peeping bird (less obnoxious in the office but still quite audible). I know I can buy white noise generator to block the sounds or get noise cancelling headphones. And sometimes I just turn up my music. Those solutions each have some definite drawbacks.

As I was reading about Bug Music and the author’s attempts to play an instrument in line with the symphony of cicadas or even harmonize with the beat box rhythm of a cricket, I started to wonder. Could I make a music generator that would listen to ambient noise and generate some cover for ongoing sounds?

Say the peeper is PEEPing. It is pretty rhythmic as well as tonal. So could my gadget make horn sounds to cover the peeper? And a soft swingy, jazzy riff underneath to maintain musicality? And when the whine of a fan is going, could it take that 8kHz whine and add some arpeggio to relieve the monotony?

There was an iphone app called Ambiance that would play a huge range of sounds- oceans or bird calls or whatnot. It was to help people relax. This would incorporate exterior sounds into that, layering them into the intended soundscape.

And the music generator would let you hear some sounds: a siren going by won’t mix in right away, the music generation processing would need time to acclimate to new environmental sounds.

Of course, I’m just blithely assuming music generation is easy, that improvising is trivial for a computer. But that is an exercise left to the implementer. Anyway, when you are done, please let me know so I can buy your gadget.

 

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Approachable?

May 5, 2012

My sister-in-law’s concert was last night. My goals was simple: make sure none of the normal every day stress touches her. You want cookies? Done! Cheese? Yup! Two dozen mini cupcakes picked up? Oh, you mean for a little reception after… ok, then you’ll want drinks and something to make the table look nice (so much for the flowers we’d thought to get her to hold but as a table ornament they were great). And, to the extent is it within my power, none of the rest of the family will be late, no one will get lost, everyone will be fed… These are all things I’m fairly competent at handling. Other than being bossy and inquisitive, it doesn’t take a whole lot of skill.

Unlike my sister-in-law’s performance. That took a lot of skill. And years and years of practice. Something like thirty years, including the two she’s spent getting her Master of Music degree at Longy School of Music.

When C got his Master’s degree in physics, he had a final oral exam. It wasn’t open to the public. And if it was, he didn’t invite me to watch nor did he have all of his family and most of his friends sitting in the audience, excited and nervous for him.

Minta did. We all watched, the most forgiving audience in the world, but, still, there is nothing like the stress having friends and extended family watching you, many of them musicians themselves. I don’t blame her at all for her nervousness. It was unnecessary because she was so well prepared but I do understand the nerves.

She played beautifully, of course.

The “of course” is a little glib- too easy, it fails to recognize the years and years of preparation at music schools and her own unending practice. Personally, I loved the lyrical beauty of Josh Hummel’s Wu-Wo, flute and piano music representing a traditional Chinese tea ceremony, especially the Peony and Lotus movement. If you were to have expectations for how flute performance should sound, that would be it. (Well, that and the Chinese folks songs that were hauntingly beautiful.) My second favorite was Zoom Tube, a piece written by a flute playing mathematician. In it were all the sounds that an expert can coax out of a flute that are different than what you might expect. It was surprising and humorous, a fun piece.

The jazz ensemble was awesome too but I suspect I would have enjoyed that more if I wasn’t so ignorant. Jazz is often more fun if I understand the original piece and can appreciate the choices the musicians made. (There is a really good Young Indiana Jones episode where Indy learns to play Jazz Sax. It explores the concept vs. reality of jazz music. Sadly, that episode forms the basis of my jazz musical education.)

It was with the final piece that I was once again reminded of C’s physics oral exam. The jazz ensemble did some free improvisation. This isn’t a “start with a jazz standard and wander where you will” sort of improv. C wispered to me that they start with a key and a tempo and truly make it all up as they go along. It was nonsensical to me, both to make music that way and the result.

But if I’d gone to C’s physics oral, would I really have expected to been able to follow what he did? I have more exposure to physics than flute music. I don’t know the language of jazz improv any more than I know how to use a Lagrangian to do anything. And that is ok.

Except, somehow, I think I should be able to “get it” for music even when I don’t feel that way for physics. Oh, sure, it was a public performance and I know my sister-in-law had to choose pieces that showed her artistry and technical expertise while still appealing to a broader audience. I wonder if C could have found physics problems to solve in public that were master’s level and would appeal to his whole family (and satisfy his professors).

Why do we expect all music to be approachable? Sure, it is ok not to like some music but to say “I just don’t get it” feels like a failing I must go out and remedy.

I don’t play an instrument. I didn’t have access to music of my choosing until mid-way through college. (That is a separate story, suffice to say I deeply understand all forms of 80s and 90s country music and just as deeply loathe 90% of it.) Now I have a fairly eclectic music tastes (Ella Fitzgerald, Shawn Colvin, They Might Be Giants, Ramones, Beethoven, etc.) but, like art, I am not good at buying music I will like in a month. I listen to the surface and then get sick of it quickly. Happily, C is better and I listen to his musical acquisition as well (when it isn’t Rush (not that I don’t like Rush, just not as much as C does)).

Anyway, my musical education is sadly lacking, really bottom of the barrel. My enthusiam makes up for some of it. However, enthusiasm couldn’t help someone learn algebra without in-depth instruction of arithmetic. So I’m not going to make that same assumption for music even though I feel that idea around me, that all I need to appreciate complex, historically interesting, technically challenging music is to listen to it. Bunk. Utter bunk.

So, a point, I’m sure I had one. Let’s see. My sister-in-law’s performance was excellent. I’m pleased that I enjoyed almost all of it and disappointed in myself that I didn’t understand the last bit. And a little disappointed in my disppointment but I’m blaming that on society.