[MD] Music and the Moq

[Mary Clark]

Hello Joesph Maurer!

<snip>
When I fly by the seat of my pants, I like to have a model or
direction-finder for where I am going. As a singer, I prefer the model of
the musical octave Do, Re, Mi_Fa, Sol, La, Ti_Do for evolution.  The thing
about the octave is that there are two naturally occurring intervals Mi_Fa,
Ti_Do, at which any mechanical schema breaks down.  If a pitch is going to
double in vibrations the last note of seven is shocked, and looks to the
mi_fa interval for support.

Hi Joe,

May I call you that?

I am fascinated by this.  Daddy bought a cheap Yamaha guitar from Sears &
Roebuck sometime in the late 1960's and started teaching himself to play.
He drove us crazy (Mother and me) playing "Wildwood Flower" over and over
again for years.  I think he worked on it so hard because it required you to
learn pulling off and hammering on.  Anyway, when I was about 10 he showed
me 3 chords (you know you can play any country-western song ever written in
3 chords), and I was off and running.  Later on he showed me the circle of
fifths.  I don't understand why it works, but I do know you can use it to
transpose a song from one chord to another.

My problem with music is that I was a smart-ass.  I absolutely do not have
perfect pitch.  I can't tell you a true C from a true G to this day.
Perhaps a lot of that has to do with the fact that I never had anything to
tune my guitar to.  But I can sure tune it to itself.  All I strive for is
to get the strings to not be too tight or too loose, then go from there.  E
A D G B E, or so they tell me.

When I was 6 my mother started me in piano lessons.  Ha.  I never did learn
to read music, but if I heard something once or twice I could pick it out.
No problem.  This is also known I believe as cheating.  Same with Clarinet.
I was in the band at school and spent a lot of time vieing with this other
girl, whose name I can't remember, for first chair.  Thing is, I couldn't
read music then either.  I'd just pretend to play through the first cold
run-through of anything new, then pick it up for real on the next go-around.

I guess my point is (and I hope it's not on the top of my head :) ) that I
have had a life-long love of singing and playing guitar, but have no
understanding at all of what I am doing.  I just hear music and it is right
or it is wrong.  Is this evidence of Mary having a Dynamic Quality
experience?  Same with rhythm.  The drums are so easy as to be ridiculous.
I once remember being in a drumming circle with some other heathen women
friends of mine.  I brought the whole thing to a halt.  Each woman would
take turns drumming whatever she felt.  When it got to me I took off on some
kind of jazz-like thing with extreme syncopation (which to me is emphasizing
the counter-beat, but I could be totally wrong about what syncopation
actually means).  Anyway, I was off into some frenzied drumming that was so
- I don't know - complicated??? it brought the whole thing to a halt.  So
what's with that?  Where on Earth does this come from?  To this day I can't
stand to listen to a certain Aerosmith live album because they are off beat
on certain songs.  I think they are either too drunk or too high to stay
with it.  IMHO.

After this long tirade (can you tell you've struck a "chord" so to speak?),
the question I wanted to ask you is I've heard that the 8 note octave we
westerners use is not the only one.  I haven't Googled this yet, but I seem
to recall that some Asian or Indian music uses a 12 (?) note scale.  Is this
true?  What on Earth?  I can't even imagine what that would sound like.  Do
they have notes that don't exist in Western music?  This profoundly bothers
me because I can't imagine any music with any other notes between the ones I
know of.  I mean, when I'm having a bad day and singing off key, those are
other notes, but that just means I'm not in control of my voice, and they
are BAD.  Can you explain this?

I have no idea how any of this relates to the MoQ, but you brought it up,
after all, and I'm beginning to think that is DOES.  Why do we see Quality
in music constructed using the Western octave?  Is this a learned response
or a fundamental TRUTH of the Universe?  What's up with music anyway?  Why
do we respond so profoundly to it?  Where did it come from?  Is it something
of the Biological Level?  I think it must be because it is so universal;
but, if so, what's the deal with these different scales?  Why are there
scales at all?  Why does a certain chord progression evoke such an emotional
response in us, but not other chord progressions?  They say music is
mathematics.  Yes, even my gut level understanding of music agrees with
that.  Is music the language of the Universe?  If so, what scale does it
use?  8 notes or 12?  Is a Sitar player more in tune with the Universe than
me?  And do you notice how we use the phrase "in tune"?  There is much
wisdom in language that goes unnoticed.  I have a book somewhere about word
origins.  It is fascinating.  Those that came before us were not dumb.

In a previous post I alluded to the fact that I used serious drugs for a
number of years.  Tomorrow (January 3rd) is the 3rd anniversary of my
disuse.  I have had the time since to ponder the nature of this.  I am of
the opinion that drug use is maligned in our culture because it is akin to
cheating.  I agree.  Using mind-altering drugs to attain a different state
is CHEATING.  This, I believe, is why most straight people's unexamined gut
reaction is negative.  We should use the equipment we've got, and not
attempt to enhance it.  I would love to know what the MoQ has to say about
that.


Mary

The most important thing you will ever make is a realization.