Imperfections Are Perfect

This post is largely made possible by my dad. Today, while in traffic, I asked what caused the jam. His response was essentially that one person waiting or letting someone else into their lane caused a break in the flow: an imperfection. This is also, essentially, what music is. Sound is always flowing all around us. We, by playing an instrument, just grab some from the flow and create an imperfection. However, in an imperfection we have a beautiful creation.

Now it's time to get your daily dose of science in. Perhaps my favorite cosmological theory in the science community talks about a continual universe. I learned this theory in Astronomy Magazine, which is a great magazine that any science lover should read. It essentially says that there are two parallel layers to the universe. They are completely smooth where everything is flowing until a ripple starts. These ripples are essentially big bangs which create all matter and start the expansion of the universes. Eventually, dark energy (the theoretical force that acts as a "reverse gravity" and expands the universe) will expand the universe so much that the universes becomes smooth and flowing again. Ripples are the imperfections, and without them we would not exist.

Back to music, about half of all my compositions came from mistakes I made in my performing songs and scales. You can look at the scale as flow; all notes going in a perfect order. Then, look at a mistake as an imperfection. From it, I form something completely new and great. Overall, mistakes and imperfections are not only good learning tools, as everyone always says, but also may be beautiful creations of their own. Just look at another facet of things. You'll be suprised at what you'll find.

Control Distorts The Truth

After reading an article on the Montrose Adoption Center's blog about aggression I thought about its musical and worldly similarities. Aggression, as animal behaviorist Corey Cohen states, is just a method for animals to control their environment. Well, isn't that a lot of what music is? We try to channel sound, control sound to our liking. Our music is beautiful, yes, but man-made all the same. It is a product of manipulation. We try to control our surroundings and manipulate them to our own personal needs. Now, I'm not saying I'm above this problem, and I'm not saying it's inherently a bad thing. Like in the case of rules, it can even be benficial at times. However, overdoing it like many do is detrimental. It's just something we should become aware of.

This idea comes into play in science. You can have three types of observers: a passive observer who just makes observations from what they can see without making any effort to explore more, an active observer who takes the time to make observations and gets in depth with their discoveries, and a disturbing observer who looks so deeply that they actually manipulate and distort what they are observing. Today we have all become disturbing observers. Science, which is supposed to be the truth about the world, is being distorted to the point where we cannot even be sure if our discoveries actually exist or are the creations of our own minds.

One more place this thought exists is in philosophy. Immanuel Kant addressed this issue when looking at justice. He said the only way to get to a just decision is through a catagorial imperative. A catagorial imperative is when the judge of a situation goes behind a "veil of ignorance" where they have no idea what their status or experiences in life are. That way their mind cannot distort their decision.

All of these examples show that when we try and manipulate or control our surroundings, we don't get the truth. We get a product of our own efforts: what our mind wants us to think. Try and listen to natural music next time you go outside. The wind through trees, a bird's song, flowing water. All of these things are the truth, and by seeing and hearing the truth we come closer to real happiness.

Music Is A Material

I had an interesting thought recentley. As I've already said, music comes in many forms, such as art. This idea led to my next idea. What is music but a material? An artist uses a brush to put paint onto a canvas. A musician uses an instrument to put specifically ordered notes onto paper. The medium in music is sound. Sound is always there, waiting for us to grab it and play it. It's an unlimited and free material, so there are only benefits to giving it a try. You may just shape something remarkable.

Rules Have Benefits

I'm studying counterpoint, which is the way that notes interact with each other, and how to write countermelodies now. The majority of it is a bunch of rules which have to be implemented. A lot people, however, say that you should just listen to what sounds good. They say that rules, overall, just keep people back. I, however, disagree. Rules are needed to keep chaos from overtaking society and for defining our world.

John Locke and John Jacque Rousseau's social contracts both say that all people started out in a state of absolute freedom, or a "state of nature". In this state of nature, one has only one right: the right to do anything one wishes. Now, if all humans were good in intention, this would be no problem. Sadly, greed and jealousy get the best of humans, so a state of nature is one in which the strongest prosper and rule over the weak. This is, of course, not giving everyone rights. Therefore, as the social contract reads, humans banded together and formed government and rules. To do this, they gave up their absolute freedom in exchange for the protection of rights that government and its laws, or rules, provide.

The social contract is just one example of how rules are beneficial to us all. Another example of rules being beneficial is in science. There are certain laws in science, as everyone knows. These laws don't impede us, just give us our world. They etch out what our reality is. In our world, we cannot fly or walk through walls because the rules don't allow us to. Without these fundamental rules, our world wouln't be the same. The same goes for music. If we didn't have rules for making songs, then what sounds good would be completely different, and our musical world wouldn't be the same. Rules establish the workings of our world, whether it be our universe, or our society.

This is just another view on one part of our world. You are free to believe what you want. Also, I don't mean that you should blindly follow all existing rules. New rules should be introduced as well. I just hope that next time you go complaining about rules, you give my words a thought.

Infinite Possilbilities

I was thinking about, once again, quantum mechanics today. In particular, the part that says that reality splits into branches every time we make a choice. Then, there would be infinite levels of reality. That shows that there are infinite possibilities in life. Now, how does this relate to music, you ask? Well, take composing into mind. On a piano, there are 88 notes. You have 10 fingers with which to play any of the 88 notes. There are also many different note rythyms and added schmaltz, like grace notes. And that's just on the piano. Never in the universe will every possible song ever be played. So don't never go and say "Everything's been done" or "Someone else will do it" because it hasn't and they won't. You need to explore because you, as a human being, have an obligation to the rest of your race. That obligation is to discover and create as much as you can so by the time humans are extinct, we can say we got a little closer to the infinite.

Time Influences Music

Everyone thinks about the influence music has on people, but what about people's influence on music? In the Baroque and Classical eras, most songs were written within limits. You could have a certain amount of measures and themes and repeats. This is consistent with the society. Most European countries were controlled by a monarch who had the nation under strict rules. Then, in 1850, as democracy had become prevalant, the rules of music dropped and the Romantic Era rolled in. This era was all about freedom and cultural identity. Eventually, as society become even more free and more expressive, so did the music. Now, in the 20th century era, we have music unlike we would ever think. The amount of leniency in the music today is astounding, and you have an enormous variety of sounds to select from. This reflects our individualistic society. What's the next step, you ask? I can't say, but when the next step does come, look to music to see what it truly is.

Similar Images

I recently wrote a song on the piano that is slow, full of arpegiated chords, and shows emotions well. When I hear it, I personally think of a person riding in a car during a storm. My grandmother thought of rain in general. My mom and dad both thought about a gandola paddling slowly in Venice. The odd thing is, we all pictured some form of water. Why is it that one song can paint 4 similar pictures in 4 very different people's minds? Is it that everything just has a natural music to it? Or is it just the movies that played certain types of music with certain events sticking in our minds? These are some deep questions to think about. Next time you hear a song, don't just listen to the music, but envision, feel, taste, even smell the music. You'll be suprised at all you can get from just one song.

In Depth Influences

I've asked many people how music influences their lives. Usually I get "music makes me happy because I enjoy it....." That's fine, but only scratching the surface. One person said that it inspired creative thinking. Now that got me thinking. I looked back onto how I think while listening to music. I thought that I just got lost in the music and ignored reality, but a second glance showed the truth. I think deeper, come to better conclusion, and get my best ideas from music.

So have an open mind. Don't go to music only as a refuge from reality, but as a place to collect your thoughts and put them in an organized manner. This is the most productive way to solve a problem.

Music Similarities Cont.

I know this should have been part of the last post, but I was thinking last night and saw another large connection between music and another part of life.

About a month ago, I was in metal shop class. Now, I'm not normally very tactile, so I'm dreading another 40 minutes of welding and cutting metal. However, metal work and music have a lot in common. One thing that particularly stuck out to me was the difference between adhesion and cohesion. Adhesion is where you melt one metal over 2 other to hold them together. However, it is a very weak bond. Cohesion is where you melt 2 metals together to make one solid object that has a very strong bond. This is similar to an overture from a play. It gives pieces of all the music in the play or in the act in one song. It uses cohesion, not adhesion. It doesn't give on song, then a crummy filler, then the next. It uses a stronger bond, by melding everyone of the songs together.

This is just another example that shows that you shouldn't label yourself as good at one thing, not at another. Everything is the same, only in a different form. Therefore, you can do and achieve anything you wish.