News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Harmony Explained: Progress Towards a Scientific Theory o... by mtdewcmu on Saturday June 17, 2017 @03:23PM (#14577318)
>>But I disagree that beat 1 is always the cause

I agree that that's a weak part of the theory and it could use more thought.

>>The pattern of dah-DUM is pretty common, and the dah would typically be a quarter or eight note before the DUM on the 1.

I thought about that case, and I considered whether to create the concept of a pre-echo.

Another edge case is when beat #3 is accentuated, like in almost any rock song:

BASS-tick-SNARE-tick

The echo pattern is what the listener expects to hear. When a beat is louder than it's "supposed" to be, it makes that beat sound louder and brings it out. I think the snare sounds more powerful as a consequence of being unexpectedly loud.

Wrt pre-echos, I think you could consider them a deliberate deviation from the echo pattern to achieve a particular sound. The difference between theory and actual rhythms is what we call music, right?

There are no comments on this comment yet.