How Music Works

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How Music Works

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Ron.M

Posts: 7051
Joined: Jul. 7 2003
From: Scotland

How Music Works 1 votes

I just caught a great program tonight on Channel 4 called "How Music Works", by the classical player/teacher/compser Howard Goodall.
It's his new six-part series.
I'd previously seen his program on the works of the Beatles put under rigorous Classical analysis.
He's a cool guy, very well versed, a great explainer and not a snob.

This week's episode looked at the importance of rhythm in music, from Bach to Rap.
As a complete uneducated dork in this, I was fascinated to learn that the "three over two" rhythm is something totally ancient and something readily accepted in all human cultures.
As a simple example he played "The Blue Danube" Waltz and showed how it could be felt in either two timing or three timing.

(Kinda like Bulerias...)

He went through the ideas of Pulse, Tempo, Subdivision and Accent and along with a trained singer, amazingly showed how some popular songs like "Killing me softly with his song" sounded when interpreted with both performers exactly ON the beat, or with the voice retarding the beat by a half-count.
There was no comparison!

He didn't cover Flamenco, but he did look at Cuban music in detail and it was fascinating to see the "background" mechanics of how it works.
First of all there is the base pulse.
The melody then "anticipates" the pulse by leading slightly..to a half-beat..very Salsa kinda sound...
(He did all this on the piano)
But the bit that made it all gel, is when he made the bass part syncopate as well.
Then it was truly Cuban!
All these parts sliding around the main pulse!

He then tackled Cross-Rhythms and demonstrated stuff from some Stevie Wonder material with great effect.

He's a great teacher and really made clear to me what staying ahead or behind the rhythm really means.
(I've known it sort of "instinctively" but never been able to quantify it before.)

I've always liked the guy from his no-nonsense approach to the harmony and counterpoint of the Beatles stuff.

He ended by saying that in his opinion, that JS Bach would have delighted in a lot of rhythm and syncopation ideas from the Ragtime to Rap eras.

This series looks great!

He certainly cleared up a lot of fog from my brain on this subject!

Channel 4, Saturday at 6.20pm.

cheers

Ron

_____________________________

A good guitar might be a good guitar
But it takes a woman to break your heart

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Nov. 25 2006 21:14:18

Exitao

Posts: 907
Joined: Mar. 13 2006
From: Vancouver, Canada

RE: How Music Works (in reply to Ron.M)

Is this one of the BBC channels/programmes?

I hope it is 'cos then it will end up on a torrent tracker. CBC doesn't pick up the BBC specials quickly enough for me to keep an eye out for it.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Nov. 25 2006 21:42:57

Ron.M

Posts: 7051
Joined: Jul. 7 2003
From: Scotland

RE: How Music Works (in reply to Exitao)

Exitao,
Sorry...I checked quickly and it was Channel 4 , so I edited my post.
Channel 4 here in the UK is quickly becoming the new BBC2, with it's emphasis on very high quality, non-popular culture broadcasting.

Hope you can catch it!

cheers

Ron

_____________________________

A good guitar might be a good guitar
But it takes a woman to break your heart

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Nov. 25 2006 21:50:28

Exitao

Posts: 907
Joined: Mar. 13 2006
From: Vancouver, Canada

RE: How Music Works (in reply to Ron.M)

I'm already downloading it.

It sounded like BBC programming.

quote:

Channel 4 Saturday 18th November 20:25-21:25

Part 1 of 4 - Melody

Why does melody affect us so deeply, from the moment we are born? Tunes
touch our deepest emotions, and are capable of inspiring love, sorrow,
faith, and hope. But how does a melody actually work?

In this film composer Howard Goodall looks at melody's basic elements.
Why are some melodic shapes common to all cultures across the world? Can
successful melodies be written at random? If not, what are the familiar
melodic patterns composers of all types of music have fallen back on
again and again, and why do they work?

Setting out on a journey that moves through the centuries, Howard looks
at the curious link between Tudor England and the Mississippi Delta, and
uncovers melodic shapes common to all cultures across the world.
Following a trail of diverse musical sources from Gustav Mahler to Paul
Simon, Shaker hymns to Bulgarian folk songs, medieval choral music to
the Broadway showstoppers; he reveals the tried and tested tricks of
the composer's trade.

While their programming might not be popular with your denizens, they are popular on the internet. BBC miniseries and documentaries are the most frequently torrented TV programmes after serial television shows.

Thanx for the head's up on this! I hope to watching it later today.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Nov. 25 2006 22:09:15

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REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Nov. 25 2006 23:27:35

Ron.M

Posts: 7051
Joined: Jul. 7 2003
From: Scotland

RE: How Music Works (in reply to Exitao)

Exitao,
How do you download this "Torrent" stuff?
Have you got to subscribe or something?
I missed part one last week.

cheers

Ron

_____________________________

A good guitar might be a good guitar
But it takes a woman to break your heart

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Nov. 26 2006 11:53:27

Exitao

Posts: 907
Joined: Mar. 13 2006
From: Vancouver, Canada

RE: How Music Works (in reply to Ron.M) 1 votes

That question could be a lot to answer, especially as it is broad. When I started with this bittorrent 'stuff' I found Brian's BitTorrent FAQ and Guide to be extremely helpful.

The most commonly accepted/supported torrent client(i.e. program) is Azureus.

When searching for torrents, the best search engine is isohunt.com and the best television torrent site is eztvefnet.org

As going further into this topic could lead to conversations about piracy (aarrrrgh!) you would have to PM me for finer details.
Lastly, the site I found the show on was invite only, so if you can't find it anywhere else, I could invite you.

As for this programme, I think there's only the one episode out yet, are you talking about a different show?

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Nov. 26 2006 17:45:37

Ron.M

Posts: 7051
Joined: Jul. 7 2003
From: Scotland

RE: How Music Works (in reply to Exitao)

Exitao,
Thanks for the detailled answer.
Sounds a bit too hi-tech for me...I'll just wait until it comes around again on one of the many digital channels here that exist on re-runs and adverts.

I saw the second part yesterday, (the one on rhythm).
I missed part1..the one you posted (on Melody).

cheers

Ron

_____________________________

A good guitar might be a good guitar
But it takes a woman to break your heart

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Nov. 26 2006 19:37:06

Exitao

Posts: 907
Joined: Mar. 13 2006
From: Vancouver, Canada

RE: How Music Works (in reply to Ron.M) 1 votes

It's not difficult at all. You downlaod Azureus and install it. You go to a torrent site and click the download link. You're given a choice to download or open a file <file_you_want>.torrent, you select open, it is handled by Azureus and it downloads.

Easy peasey, nice and easy.

You just try leave the torrent running for a while after the download is completed so that you contribute as much as you take. It's good karma.

Trust me. It's easy. My neighbour's chimp taught me, it's that easy. (I just wish the little bastard didn't play guitar better than me.)

Oh, second episode just went up.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Nov. 26 2006 20:09:08

DoctorX2k2

Posts: 211
Joined: Jun. 14 2006
From: Quebec City, Canada

RE: How Music Works (in reply to Ron.M)

What's the torrent file name so I can watch this stuff too?

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Nov. 29 2006 3:12:44

Exitao

Posts: 907
Joined: Mar. 13 2006
From: Vancouver, Canada

RE: How Music Works (in reply to Ron.M) 1 votes

How.Music.Works.Howard.Goodall
How Music Works - part 2 of 4 - Rhythm

#1 & 2 are at Demonoid.

#2 is also at pionsosheets.org

I was having a devil of a time getting #2 from the demonoid tracker and then I found it at pianosheets, much better speed, I may even get to watch it tonight (#1 took 3 hours, this is crazy).

Demonoid is invite only right now. And I gave all my invites to people here.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Nov. 29 2006 4:01:04

Exitao

Posts: 907
Joined: Mar. 13 2006
From: Vancouver, Canada

RE: How Music Works (in reply to Ron.M) 1 votes

I just finished watching episode #2, Rhythm. Most excellent and thank you, Ron, for bringing this to our attention.

This guy is great. The explanations and the visuals and the audio examples are spot-on. Everything he talks about, you understand. Even if I wasn't crazy about theory right now, I would find this much more interesting than watching CSI.

Of course, knowing more means having bigger questions...

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Nov. 29 2006 8:04:12

Ron.M

Posts: 7051
Joined: Jul. 7 2003
From: Scotland

RE: How Music Works (in reply to Exitao)

I've just finished watching the third part on Harmony.
Man... Howard Goodall is such a good teacher.
He really wants you to "get it".

Great series!

cheers

Ron

_____________________________

A good guitar might be a good guitar
But it takes a woman to break your heart

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Dec. 2 2006 20:40:42

Exitao

Posts: 907
Joined: Mar. 13 2006
From: Vancouver, Canada

RE: How Music Works (in reply to Ron.M) 1 votes

I've been looking for it. It's not up yet. Once I get the whole series down I'm goign to make it into a proper DVD, maybe rip a copy to my iPod.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Dec. 2 2006 21:34:32

Ron.M

Posts: 7051
Joined: Jul. 7 2003
From: Scotland

RE: How Music Works (in reply to Exitao)

Where are you from Exitao?
The States, Canada, Australia?

(You see why I really wish it was a requirement of the forum that folk say where they're from.)..
It's easy to do. Just go into your Inbox, click "My Profile" and fill in anything you want to....but at least put in your location.
Don't worry if you fill in "Hans from Germany" .
Even if you are are a very privacy aware person.
Nobody is gonna track you down and come hammering at your door.
This IS important.
When I hear the news I think of Rombsix out there, as a Medical student there in Lebanon...I think about him.

You know what I mean?

cheers

Ron

_____________________________

A good guitar might be a good guitar
But it takes a woman to break your heart

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Dec. 2 2006 21:51:46

Exitao

Posts: 907
Joined: Mar. 13 2006
From: Vancouver, Canada

RE: How Music Works (in reply to Ron.M) 1 votes

Know what?

I didn't put my location because it make me do it. Many forum scripts force users to provide age and location info. Frankly, I expected to lurk a lot more...

In answer to your quetion:
Vancouver, Canada.

But I'm originall from Southern Ontario, Canada. A very different place than this one.

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Callidus et iracundus.

REPORT THIS POST AS INAPPROPRIATE | Date Dec. 3 2006 2:47:08