[krissovo]

Hi All

I am kind of wondering if you could apply a scientific approach to kicking out a great solo by say using a formula and transposing it to vary them? Something like:

1 bar sustained note with vibrato - Scale triplet in bar finishing on bend - bend into silde down add vibrato and etc etc

I know, especially with say blues it is feeling and tone but at the end of day I am not very creative. This has been proven by a psychometric assessment I recently took and they proved that I function mostly on the left hand side of brain and that part feals with the factual side of life so I am good at problem solving, maths and logic for instance. If you compaire that to a artist their brain functions mostly on the right hand side so they are creative.

I have been doing minor study into this and I kind of think I am onto something but I am sure someone else must have tried something similar. Just wondering if anyone has treid this or seen a article somewhere on the subject.

[Rockerbob]

It's all based on Fibonacci numbers.

[Justapicker]

If your type of intellect is at home with logic, math and problem solving you'll probably be very good at learning, understanding and applying music theory in composition.

You'd probably also like the book Godel, Escher and Bach, The Eternal Braid.

[Lcjones]

Ha. I have a hard enough time getting the pages number correct in my music books!

Fibonacci? Is that like macaroni made with bran?

nyuk,nyuk

[zappa]

i find scientific assessments tend to lean towards having to be right to justify themselves.
its your imagination that needs firing that no-one can just give to you or swap for cash.

if you havent been playing guitar for very long ..,., like 6 yrs or less , then no amount of tests can prove whether you will suddenly click it all into place and build up the confidence to believe in yourself.
it is possible to make your own scientific analysis of music .
first you have to learn the theory and the techniques thoroughly before applying them to your playing.
the reality is that you need encouragement in your playing of music , so hanging out with the right sort of people , will bring another side of you out.


i guess i should add that music is in itself a science anyway - of the mathematical kind.
in a song you have a basic beat which could be divided into 4/4 , which is a fraction .
each beat can then be divided into however the musician want the music to feel .

to say that you could start with a bend and then add a triplet at the end is ok to start with , but i think that in the end , its about using all the theoretical knowledge and appying it in an offhand sort of way - ie feeling that you want to chuck a slide , sustain a note etc !
but its all in the practise and i would need pages upon pages to describe fully what im saying !

[allthumbs]

There are really no rules covering note choices. They reflect the musical framework they are part of, if that could be considered a rule. The rest is evoking a feel by choosing the notes that do that.

[Chris C]

Hi Krissovo,

I think you be fine using your more mathematical approach.

Originally Posted by zappa

i guess i should add that music is in itself a science anyway - of the mathematical kind.
in a song you have a basic beat which could be divided into 4/4 , which is a fraction .
each beat can then be divided into however the musician want the music to feel .

I'd completely agree with Zappa there. There is great deal of mathematics and science underlying music if you want to explore it. It's not absolutely necessary to do so, and some people hate theory. But nevertheless it's there.

There are scientific relationships between the frequencies of the notes and tunings that we use. Much experimentation and discussion has been done over the centuries before we settled on the system that most of us use now (I say "most" because it's not universal - just common to most of Western Music). There are also agreed relationships and formulae governing keys, harmonies, chords and so on.

Some people prefer to feel their way through music and learn what goes with what, and what effect it has, mainly by listening and doing, until they have a bag of skills that they can assemble in various ways. However, it's perfectly possible to approach it from the theory end instead. Or indeed to do both.

Some of the old Classical composers were highly technical in their approach, but that didn't mean that their music was soulless or unemotional - far from it. But they knew technically which intervals or patterns could be used to create which moods or emotions. There are very well known ways to use, for example, minor keys or certain rises or falls between single notes, to make certain emotional impacts. This might be the way that suits you.

When we talk about the ability to be 'creative' we often think of being innovative or new. But in fact true innovators aren't all that common. Most people learn to create things by using a known set of materials and patterns and just varying the mix a bit.

A bricklayer or carpenter can create a beautiful house without having designed the layout, or devised the techniques that they use. Same with musicians. Some are truly innovative but most just learn how to rejig previous discoveries. You can do your re-assembly in a mathematical type of way, or a more experimental way - but it's all good.

Cheers,

Chris

[737blues]

Then you could just buy Band in a Box or something and click on the 'solo over this' button .......

[zappa]

lol - but it isnt the same !