[MD] Music and the Moq

[MarshaV]

Hi Mary,

I stopped drinking many decades ago.  I've stopped smoking.  I never did dangerous drugs, but I have on occasion played with "non-dangerous" drugs (marijuana).  In the end came a realization that even the non-dangerous drugs might interfere with clear awareness, so I stopped that too.  I still have addictions:  books, laughter, marzipan, music, coffee,,,  This was not social pressure, but a hearts desire.   


Marsha  





On Jan 2, 2010, at 9:39 PM, Mary Clark wrote:

> 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.
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