Increasing the Amplitude of the Sound-11/26

We were originally going to leave the drum as it was, but then we decided it could be louder. On opposite sides of the bucket, two holes were carved out using a dremel drill. The holes are about 6 inches in diameter and allows the sound to escape from the inside of the bucket after it resonates. It proved successful and since the drum produces a low frequency tone, it is essential to have the sound escape so it can be audible when played with other instruments.

Drum Assembly- 11/25

To assemble the drum, we used a 5 gallon bucket from Home Depot. as the body. We layered the tarp over the drum, tapped holes for screws to mount the tarp, then attached the tarp to the screws using zip-ties to create tension. To add even more tension across the top of the drum, we placed several layers of rubber bands around the top of the bucket. Here are some pictures during assembly.

Music in Television

For my hour I decided to watch Comedy central and see what type of music is played during their regular programing. The two shows that came up while I was watching were South Park and Tosh 2.0. To begin with South Park is full of music. It begins with a catchy little theme song and as the show progresses, pieces of this song are played when returning from commercials and such. One of the characters in the show, Cartman, sang a song that pertained to what was going on in that particular episode. Next Tosh 2.0 is a show were a host takes videos off the Internet and comments about them. There is next to no music in this show. I heard a drum role for a video, and that was about it. Its surprising how little music there was actually in the show. This made the show seem like it was lacking something during quite parts.

FIght Club

I chose to watch the movie fight club and I chose to look at the final scene in the movie where Tyler explodes the buildings of all the major corporations in the city. As soon as the buildings start to collapse, the song "Where is My Mind" by The Pixies. Time and place - is a city some where in America and it is taking place currently. Theatrical build up is very obvious because the viewers know the buildings are about to explode but no one knows which ones. The music gives the moment an ironic feeling of piece. This brings the whole movie together in the end because Tyler is finally at piece in his mind and he has many of the monopolies that were starting to wreck the country.

Jaws

I chose to watch the movie jaws. I chose this movie because I know the music in this movie make every scene and with out the music, this movie wouldn't be any where near as powerful or suspenseful. The movie starts with very relaxed and nice music because every one is happy at the beach in the summer, but as every one knows as soon as the shard attacks start occurring, so does the music. Right before every attack, there is a piece that is played that is only two notes but you get this ominous feeling that something bad is going to happen. This piece increases the tempo as the attack comes nearer, until the inevitable occurs. A good way to show just how powerful this sound track is, try watching it on mute. The violent attacks turn into nothing more than a reenactment like something on the discovery channel. The music selection for this movie was extremely well done and I don't think the film would have the popularity it does today with out it.

Lanski Threads

I chose to listen to Paul Lansky's Threads: Movement I. This piece was very soothing and had a nice overall tone. At first I couldn't tell any computers had been involved in modifying the sound, but after listening for a few minutes I picked up constant tones that couldn't be coming from any instruments. These were almost like generated sounds that acted like a sine wave going through different notes. There were also a few spots were the instruments themselves had changed. Some of the bells actually sounded like waves instead of a constant tone. You could tell these sounds had been manipulated in some way, it is just difficult to pinpoint because they were only changed ever so slightly.

Quality sound

I chose to listen to Home, Sweet Home by August P. Stenger . This recording consisted of, of a piano playing very faintly in the background and a wind instrument, maybe a flute playing as the dominant instrument. This recording sounds like it is very old because there is a good amount of static noise and the recording can't reproduce some of the higher notes the instrument hits. This piece was recorded on a Berliner's Gramophone and it sounds like the device wasn't set in the right place to be able to hear both instruments clearly.

New Notation

Note notation has remained pretty much unchanged since it was first conceived. Beethoven uses the same notation as composers today and probably tomorrow. I do not think this is a problem because this allows every one who has been taught music the ability to read everything that has ever been composed. Also its universal across the world, so there is no language barrier. I do not think there is a need for a new notation, but I do believe there are better ways to show these notations. Like guitar hero I think music should move across a screen. If you look at the notation of most popular composers, its a mess. It is very easy to get lost in all the notes, and hard to get back into rhythm. Moving the notation across a screen may elevate some of these problems.

Two Songs

The first song I chose to listen to was from my collection and it is called "Contagious" by Trapt. This song has a medium to fast tempo at about 100 beats per minute, and it is homophonic. This song had a very linear note pattern therefore it was conjunct. Contagious is played in a very distinct pattern which consisted of A, B, A, B', B being the chorus.
The piece I chose from Naxos was, "No. 1: Modere" by George Taylor. Unlike the first song, this piece had a slow tempo, with maybe only 70 to 80 bpm. The song was conjunct because the notes fell in a pretty linear pattern rarely jumping around. The piece was played in a minor key because it had a depressing sound that wasn't upbeat or happy sounding. As far as a pattern went I could not find one. Nothing seemed to repeat.

Electrophone; the electric wave

As I chose to do earlier in the year, I listened to four radio stations from my home town. These radio stations included, 92.3 (Rock - Alternative), 107.9 (Hip-Hop), 99.5 (Country), and 98.5 (80's Rock). For the most part, these stations aren't very similar and they play a wide variety of genres, but each station is effected by electrophones in one way or another.
92.3 has two very popular electrophone, that is within almost every song that is played. These electrophones would be the electric guitar and the electric bass guitar. After listening to nearly an hour of this station, I heard two songs that didn't have a single electrophone in it, and these were acoustic songs. I also heard a few songs that included synthesizers, but these were limited.
For the second station, 99.5, there were less electrophones. I think there were less electrophones in this station due to the type of genre it is. Country music is an acoustic based genre. I did hear a few electric guitars, and maybe an electric keyboard or two, but for the most part is was all acoustic.
107.9 is a Hip-Hop station, therefore every song I heard was done almost exclusively with an electrophone. I can honestly say I don't think I heard one song that used an instrument other than an electrophone. Every beat was composed by an electrophone.
Lastly, 98.5 was ruled by one electrophone in particular. This electrophone was the electric guitar. Since this is an 80's rock station there was nothing but guitar solos and power cords. Every song had one electric guitar, if not more, and at least one electric bass guitar as far as I could tell. This genre is hugely reliant on electrophones. Overall, I think every genre of music within the last three decades has been effected by electrophones.

Aerophones Classic Style

Listening to 88.1, I noticed aerophones in just about every piece. From the beginning to the end, I don't think there was a time when I didn't hear any aerophones. These areophones ranged from flutes, to oboes, to trombones, and every thing else in between. These instruments usually played very large parts when it came to the melody of the music. They set the tempo for the piece and emphasized the high points and low points within the piece. I believe aerophones might be the most important family of instruments out of all the families.

Keyboards

When people think about instruments that have had huge effects on music, the guitar usually gets most of the glory. In all reality, I believe the keyboard has had more of an effect on music than any other instrument. Think of any band in almost any genre of music and I'll bet they use a keyboard. After thinking about this I went through my Itunes and literally almost every song I put on had a keyboard in it. Even Heavy metal songs had a large keyboard parts they were noticeable.
Along with being a large instruments for bands, keyboards compliment the voice very well, therefor they are great instrument for vocalists such as Elton John. Keyboards also have such a broad range of sounds they can create that they can be used with out even being noticed. They can be played as drums, keyboards, clarinets, and almost any other instrument you can think of. With these kind of capabilities its no wonder the keyboard is such a widely used instrument.

In the radio

I chose to listen to four very different radio stations for a total of an hour. I chose to listen to stations from my home town online because I'm not familiar with any local radio stations, and plus I found out that I don't actually own a radio in my apartment. The stations I chose to listen to were, 107.9(Hip-Hop), 99.5(Country), 92.3(Rock/Alternative), and 98.5(Classic rock). Each of these stations are very different from each other, So therefore the guitar plays a different role in each one.
I would say the guitar stood out the most in 98.5. This is because there were many guitar solos, and the guitar was the instrument that led the songs and stood out above all other instruments. Most the classic rock songs used power cords and the guitar sets the melody for the rest of the band.
The next two stations had a good amount of guitar in them also. 92.3 and 99.5 both had a large quantity of songs where the guitar was the stand out instrument. 99.5 used the acoustic guitar most of the time, just because that is the style of country music. 92.3 consisted, for the most part, of just the electric guitar. This station was full of repetitive power cords. There wasn't much as far as guitar solos go, and I would say the drums equaled the guitar as far as the most outstanding instrument within the song.
lastly 107.9 was the only station that lacked guitar. I don't recall hearing one song in the entire time of listening to it, that contained a guitar, or any other instrument other than a synthesiser. There was a complete lacking of instruments and each of the songs were just artists. There was not one song that was performed by a band of group of artists.

88.1 Daytons Classical station

Listening to 88.1 The DPR, I heard a few different pieces. I believe it was 3 whole pieces and 2 partial pieces at the beginning and end. The pieces all had similar set ups. Each piece started in a slow melody with mostly chordophones, which then slowly crescendo into a fast melody composed of a combination of all the instrument families. The chordophones I heard consisted of, but weren't limited to, violin, cello, maybe a harp, and definitely the piano. One thing I did notice tho, is there is a lack of membrano phones. Throughout the entire hour, I heard maybe two minutes worth of membrano phones.

Membranophone

Building my membranophone, I found it to be much easier than building the idiophone. There was no tuning involved and I didn't have to go through the difficulty of trying to find a base that wouldn't hinder the sound produced. I took a piece of plast bag and I stretched it across the top of a semi large glass. This actually produced a decent sound and if you have the talent, you could play a nice little solo on it.

My Idiophone

As I started to brainstorm about the construction and materials required for my idiophone, I immediately hit a wall. It was difficult to figure out what type of idiophone i should create and what it should be made out of. Eventually i came across the idea to use pop cans that i could roll into skinny aluminum rods and set them across a series of angled pieces of paper. This might sound easy but it is very difficult to roll aluminum.
Along with rolling the aluminum, I had to cut the rods to different length so I could get a different tone from each one. After placing these rods across the rolled paper, I realized they were not in the proper place for each of their specif harmonic frequencies. It took many different tries to get the rods at just the right place in order to get the best sound from them. Once finished though, I was surprised at the sound that came from this simple set up. This was by no means comparable to an actual xylophone, but it didn't sound nearly as bad as I thought it was going to.

Personal Song Description

After learning and discussing the different aspects that go into categorizing music, I decided that the song Come Gansta by Tech Nine would be a good song to describe. I want to look at what this song is composed off and why I like it so much.
To start with, like most popular music, this song is homophonic. It consists of a melody along with lyrics. The melody is pretty consistent through the entire song and the lyrics are actually well evolved and meaningful, unlike many of the urban rap artists that are popular.
I'm not exactly sure whether its played in minor or major because the melody is done electronically and not with any instruments and the song doesn't have a sad or happy tone. As far as form goes the song is full of repetition. The lyrics don't repeat but the melody in the back is the same thing over and over with very few changes.
I like this song because, while it might have a simple repeating beat, it is accompanied by meaningful lyrics that are catchy and appealing to me.

Music in Everyday Life

I was asked to note all the music that I heard within a twenty four hour period. This is not an easy task because I was constantly hearing music, whether it be in my room or in class.
To start my day off I woke up to the alarm on my phone, which just happened to be a song by Tech Nine. Soon after waking up I noticed music from a few different rooms down the hall and my roommates room next door. On my way to class I listened to my Ipod and heard multiple types of music coming from dorm room windows.
While in class I heard music coming from rooms down the hall, and multiple phones rang during my classes that coincidentally had songs for their ring tones. It seems that even in places where you would least expect music, it still seems to find its way into the room.
Later that night I couldn't go more than a few mins without music. I didn't matter if I didn't have music on, cause almost every one else within the building seemed to have music on. Even if I went outside I could vaguely hear the sound of music coming from houses that were having parties. It seems that music is a part of everything, even where you least expect it. In twenty four hours I heard music almost the whole time, except when I was sleeping.

Music in Silence

While sitting for over a half in hour in the quietest place I could find I realized a few different things. One being that it is very hard to find a silent place. I tried three or four different locations and each time i ended up moving because it was never silent. Eventually, when I did come across a near silent study room, I still heard noise.
This brings me to the second thing that I realized. When you sit in silence for an extended period of time your hearing seems to become more keen and picks up on the smallest noises. For example when I was sitting in the study room I could hear the slightest thing, such as the air kicking on, or some one locking their door down the hall.
While this is kinda boring, I started to understand music within silence. There is still ambient noise in a silent room, whether it is your breathing, the air conditioning or just outside noise coming in, and eventually your mind starts to make rhythms with this noise. I found my self breathing at steady and rhythmic pattern that matched the hum of the fan within the vent on the wall. So sitting in silence might not seem like music, I do understand where people generate the idea that there is music in silence.