Soundpost 1

Energy vector

Here is the first of what I predict to be many Soundposts! In this one, follow the series of short sound samples, ponder the questions posed, and you’ll get a sense of what I mean to illuminate by discussing music in terms of the energy it bears and the energy it produces in us. This Soundpost comes from the blog post, “the way we feel”.

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Listen to the sound sample above. Most people would agree that the energy goes up in the middle and down to the end, producing what I call an energy contour or energy vector. This is the foundation concept, that change in a parameter affects energy. I’ll bet that you can identify the cause of the energy contour, it takes no special training!

Follow on with the series of examples below, set up to allow you to describe the energy changes produced by changes of parameters. As I move through the months ahead, I’ll refine this process, and use these responses to help design better surveys for more scientifically administered studies.

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Now listen to the next sample:

Can you hear any change of energy? Listen again if you want, see if you can describe the energy change that results.

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And another:

What happens here? How would you account for, or describe, the energy change in this example?

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Now, listen to the next example:

This one is more complicated, right? It combines the content of the second and third examples. How do you feel the energy contour here? What’s the impact?

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And now, one more:

What do you perceive? It’s the same as the last one, but the dynamic increases all the way to the end. What’s the effect on you as a listener? It’s kind of difficult to hear the increase at first, but it becomes pretty obvious at the end. What effect does that have on the energy of the whole?

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Of course, these examples are contrived so you can hear the changes, get the idea. As time goes on, I’ll bring in many types of music for consideration, and a lot of concepts and ideas that shed light on music and how it makes us feel the way we do.

Return to blog post source for this Soundpost.

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