7 ms·
What my musical instruments have taught me
- pinewurst 3y agohttps://archive.ph/AZxLm https://archive.ph/AZxLm
- donutpepperoni 3y agoYou're doing the lords work right here. Thank you.
- lacrimacida 3y agoThe performance by Lanier is not playable from the internet archive. It’s worth opening up the original link for that performance. I had no idea Jaron Lanier was such talented musician and performer.
- haswell 3y agoI took piano lessons as a kid through my late teens, and then didn't touch a piano until 20 years later...about a month ago. I've been on a work sabbatical, and realized that I really loved playing back then, and that part of bringing balance back to my life might involve bringing music back into the picture. When I got the piano, I started easing myself back into the basics. But occasionally, I'd try to play some of the very technical pieces I'd learned as a kid. It felt as if I'd forgotten everything about playing them. I stopped trying, and refocused on learning new things. About a week into this, I sat down, and just played the technical thing without thinking about it. It was always there, and I hadn't done anything to relearn it, it just was somewhere beyond the circuitry that typically fires. Shortly after this came flowing out of my fingers, a flood of memories surfaced that shed light on issues of my childhood. My memory of that time period is mostly non-existent (trauma/abuse that I've been working through for many years), so having any glimpse into it is pretty surprising. Also disturbing, as it turns out, but it gave me something to work with where before there had only been pain and a sense of feeling lost. There's something magical about closing your eyes, and feeling the keys, and the keys becoming an extension of your thoughts and feelings in that moment, and feeling like you can spill your emotions onto the keyboard, and these beautiful sounds come out. I don't doubt that music reconnected some pathways that haven't been active for awhile. I'm trying to be more careful about playing music I learned back then though...
- dubeye 3y agoYeah this is cool. I took up classical Guitr again and was expecting this to happen, and it was really cool feeling my memory inbox ping
- test1235 3y agoThat was a lovely comment to read - thanks for that. I've been trying to get into learning music lately, as a change from programming. I'd love to be as familiar with an instrument to be able to work as instinctively as you describe.
- haswell 3y agoThank you! For all of the complications of that time in my life, I’m grateful for the piano lessons. I definitely think it’s a worthwhile thing to spend time on, and part of what got me to dive back in was looking at the amount of time I was spending on things like Factorio and Rocket League. Honing my aerial goal shooting skills endlessly was starting to feel not very useful, and I realized it was mostly the challenge that I enjoyed, and that I could find that challenge elsewhere. Playing instinctively started to happen once I had some good muscle memory established for basic scales/chords/progressions. I hated practicing these as a kid, but they really do unlock possibilities. From there, a few basic techniques can start an improvisation, and the chords/scales/progressions take over. A little bit every day adds up over time.
- mandmandam 3y agoHighly recommend the book 'The Body Keeps The Score', which touches on a lot of what you're bringing up here. Thanks for sharing that. https://www.besselvanderkolk.com/resources/the-body-keeps-the-score https://www.besselvanderkolk.com/resources/the-body-keeps-th...
- haswell 3y agoI’ve had this book for years, but had some difficulty confronting the subject matter until more recently. I’m a few chapters in now, and it has been very illuminating. I don’t think it’s coincidental that I started a yoga practice earlier this year, and it’s helped me move emotions through my body that I previously didn’t know how to handle. Thanks for mentioning it here. This is a good reminder to finish reading it.
- skybrian 3y agoI don't play nearly as many instruments, but I find every instrument has something to teach. Examples: * A melodica is quite fun for a keyboard player because you learn about breath control and its relationship to phrasing. * The bass side buttons of many accordions are arranged based on the circle of fifths, so you'll be learning that well if you haven't yet. * Fingering isn't nearly as obvious or standardized on a chromatic button accordion as on a piano keyboard because so many choices are available. There are multiple useful ways of playing something as simple as a scale, and I have fun exploring them.
- xvedejas 3y agoHow would you compare the relationship between breathing and phrasing, with the relationship between bowing (eg on a violin) and phrasing? I have musical experience with the latter but not the former. The buttons on an accordion are usually chords, right? Is it the root then which is arranged in a circle of fifths? Or I guess if it's the same chord shape it's all of the notes in the cord too?
- voicedYoda 3y agoFor accordions, my experience is there are 5-7 rows (each manufacturer varies) per column. The first row is actually the minor 6th (a 3rd below) the second row, which is the note the column is based on. The following rows in the column are usually a minor, major, minute 7th, major 7th, then sometimes augmented or diminished or MM7. The root note on the 2nd row is arranged in a circle of 5ths, usually the middle corresponds to middle C (denoted by an indentation) This is my experience with the LHS of piano keyboards.
- colanderman 3y ago1st row is major 3rd above, not below, the root (2nd row). This setup makes it easy to play root-3rd-5th bass lines of major chords.
- voicedYoda 3y ago
- chaosprint 3y agoInteresting article. The study on this topic can be basically found in a community called NIME. https://www.nime.org/ https://www.nime.org/ One of the most popular concepts there is `embodied music cognition`. How can we define music and musical instruments? In many cases, we tend to pre-assume the music we discuss is just the combination of melody, rhythm and timbre, but how about sound-based music? The author tends to have a negative attitude towards digital instruments, but I can share that I feel amazing when I created this piece together with the instruments: https://github.com/chaosprint/Packing https://github.com/chaosprint/Packing My performance video can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYu55YZJH_s&t=102s&ab_channel=UiORealfagsbiblioteket https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYu55YZJH_s&t=102s&ab_channe... Now I am fully engaged on live coding: https://youtu.be/iKj7IibG0OU https://youtu.be/iKj7IibG0OU The main takeaway is that these digital music making tools offer a unique embodied experience while I feel tired of physical instruments.
- luxpir 3y agoVery interesting, thanks for sharing.
- chayesfss 3y ago[dead]
- uwagar 3y agoI'm sorry but who else feels this chap is overrated?
- coldtea 3y agoPeople focused on him enough to know who he is, track his career, and follow him?
- uwagar 3y agohow is he qualified to talk about music in the new yorker? he is just jamming with his buddies. he has no clue about software musical instruments and what they enable. he uses an early looper or wav editing program and compares that to playing a cello. wtf. smh.
- pohl 3y agoDude has a Wikipedia entry. It may shed some light on your questions, which I’m sure you’re asking in good faith. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaron_Lanier https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaron_Lanier
- uwagar 3y agowell put together indeed.
- coldtea 3y ago>how is he qualified to talk about music in the new yorker? he is just jamming with his buddies People "jamming with their buddies" are a huge category of people enjoying music. If you have writing skills and can put your musical experiences into words (which he has), you don't need a degree from Berklee to do it. In fact if you had one, or was a professional recording artist or such, you'd be the wrong person to cover the music enthusiast's perspective. >he has no clue about software musical instruments and what they enable Nor does he need to. Early loopers and wav editing are just fine - and more than capable tools. Burial wrote his entire genre defining masterpiece in a wav editing program, having no idea about "software musical instruments and what they enable".
- noizejoy 3y agoI find musical instruments one of the better human technological achievements - with way more inherent upside than downside. That ranges from log drums and bamboo flutes to the latest software based virtual instrument and includes natural spaces like a cave, canyon or cathedral, and audio effects from a guitar pedalboard to software plugins. A crazy blend of physics, math, emotion and culture, craft and engineering that can bring joy (or tears) for beginners and virtuosos. Players and listeners. Something that can be experienced with a large crowd, a small group or in total solitude. A musical instrument can have mythical qualities bestowed by incredible craftsmanship or be a mass produced piece of crap. Yet even the latter can speak to you on some level in the right context. The incredible upside of software instruments and audio effects is, that I can experience virtual sonic spaces that are close approximations of real instruments and acoustic spaces that are totally out of reach for me - or something that’s never been heard in the natural world. Musical instruments are amazing!
- catsarebetter 3y agoI was forced to play the trumpet and french horn, did jazz band over the summer, all that stuff. It added a rich appreciation for music that I've grown into. Programming and technical analysis drain me, music energizes me. Can't live without it.
- gtani 3y agoVery nice, I have a long history with piano, strings, woodwinds, percussion and digitals. I would like to try the oud especially with the long picks that are sometimes used by mandolinists in Europe. Intonation is different on different fretless instruments, violin, cello, bass guitar, my fretless Strat vs say pedal steel.
- emmanueloga_ 3y agoA lot of things that I know how to do now seemed impossible at some time: driving a unicycle or even a bicycle... playing piano with two hands!? Impossible! We all have memories of that moment when something "clicked" and we just "got it", but most of us forget about when we did not know! My point is: even though a particular musical piece (or any other creative activity really) may look impossible, who knows, after enough practice, it may "click" and become as easy as walking! The fact that someone was able to do the thing, means it must be doable :-).
- kawera 3y ago"Today, tech companies promise to create algorithms that can analyze old music to create new music. But music is ambiguous: is it mostly a product to be produced and enjoyed, or is the creation of it the most important thing? If it’s the former, then being able to automate the production of music is at least a coherent idea, whether or not it is a good one. But, if it’s the latter, then pulling music creation away from people undermines the whole point. I often work with students who want to build algorithms that make music. I ask them, Do you mean you want to design algorithms that are like instruments, and which people can use to make new music, or do you just want an A.I. to make music for you? For those students who want to have optimal music made for them, I have to ask, Would you want robots to have sex for you so you don’t have to? I mean, what is life for?"
- JasonFruit 3y agoAfter reading the article, I'm struck by a single thought: while that was imaginative and at points interesting, what did the writer actually say? It was a little like the sticky guy at the coffee shop who keeps talking, changing subject multiple times without finishing any, and won't let you get a word in edgewise: you like him well enough, but the conversation was for his own benefit, not yours.
- roughly 3y agoI have a hard time using Google Maps when driving these days, especially on vacation - I prefer to take the scenic route, but google’s got no eye for it.