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As a person who holds a degree in Music Theory, I find this interesting and frustrating at the same time. Interesting in that the pitch relationships of individ
by icarus_drowning 15y ago
As a person who holds a degree in Music Theory, I find this interesting and frustrating at the same time. Interesting in that the pitch relationships of individual notes seems a lot clearer, but frustrating because the visualization is so limited. I don't think that the frustrating aspects of it are indicative of a failure on the part of the author, but because even our somewhat confusing and complex system of notation ultimately conveys so much more information about the relationships of the fundamental harmonic building blocks that form the basis of pieces like this. In this visualization, that information is almost nonexistent.
My first thought is to ask a question of those who aren't fluent in the language of written music: does this help you "understand" the music better? As a performer (I teach piano as one of my many occupations), I'm constantly trying to simplify my ability to quickly read and understand the music I'm playing, and that inevitably involves seeing chords, not notes.
So: do you think this helps you? Why?
- hardy263 15y agoI play violin, so although I'm not illiterate in reading music, I find that when I look at a piece, I cannot immediately understand what the melody sounds like until I actually play it. I have trouble switching from different keys between pieces, so I cannot "visualize" the right sounds in my head. But having relative string lengths shows me patterns and gives me more insight into how the piece may sound like. It may even be more informative on where I can place my finger on the string.
- corin_ 15y agoI used to be a non-professional orchestral cellist (could sightread anything pretty well), and a professional singer (again could sightread very well), and this visualisation didn't do anything for me. Not only did I not find this an easier way to follow the music, I found it basically impossible, watching it didn't help me see the music at all - and I know the suites pretty well, so really it should just have been reminding me of notes I already know pretty well.
- gtani 15y agoThis has potential, but staring at red screens hurts my eyes. If you enlarged the grid to be able to clearly see and input intervals (probably not that hard on iPad), you might have a actuated instrument interface a la Wang, Overholt, or Berdahl. http://actuatedinstruments.com/ http://actuatedinstruments.com/ I read music well on piano, clarinet and flute, but very poorly on guitar, FWIW).
- delinka 15y agoIt's a nice piece of animated art based on music. I don't see this as useful beyond getting the uninitiated interested in music.