This week I will be talking about basic sonority culminating in the “Tritone” and what it means. I had a wonderful, though complicated, weekend in the city and am happy to be back at music school.

Lets start with the idea of a major scale. Where does this concept come from? Why did we choose those notes and call them that?

Upon research, the Etymology of the scale pitch names is not only complicated, but mostly apocryphal. Why well call our most prominent note C instead of starting (logically) on A is a matter of debate and speculation. Where we got the actual tones from is not so speculative however.

Lets take any given note. We’ll call it “C”. The human ear – for documented neurological reasons – is attracted to combinations of sounds we call “consonant.” These sounds are easily found by taking the frequency of the base sound and altering by a ratio that is in a whole-number relationship to the original sound. For instance of you double the frequency of the note for the ratio 2:1 (middle C is about 261 Hz so double it to 522), you would get the same note an octave up. If you added half-again the original note for the ratio 3:2, you would get a “fifth” above it (in the case of Middle C [261 Hz] you would add about 130 to make the note G [391Hz] ).

Interestingly enough, this is how the first tonal stringed instruments as we know them today were invented 3000 years ago. Take a string and pluck it (the base note or “Root”). pinch the string in the middle (1/2ing its length) and play again: 1/2 the length is double the frequency so you hear an octave higher. Place a fret there to mark it, and repeat for the other notes.

A slightly more complicated notion is that each note that you hear on any instrument not only plays the Root, but if you listen very VERY closely, you can hear other notes “tucked into” that first note. In fact the volume of these “overtones” is what makes an instrument sound different from other instruments. The first overtone of a piano, for instance, is louder than that of a guitar playing the exact same note. The volume of ALL of the overtones of the instrument (there are a LOT of very faint, barely audible overtones for each note) consist of its “overtone profile” providing us with the characteristic sound.

Heres where we get to scales.

It just so happens that the first two unique overtones (that is – ignoring octaves) of the note “C” are “E” and “G”. WIth the strongest being the fifth (the “G”) above. The relationship of a fifth is a very powerful relationship, so we can look at the first two overtones of the G – which are “B” and “D”. If we go in the other direction, we find that C is the fifth of “F” whose other overtone is “A.” So lets look at the overtones of the C and the notes a fifth above and a fifth below it:

C: E, G
G: B, D
F, A, C

Put all of these together and you get (in alphabetical order -starting at C, the original Root)

C, D, E, F, G, A, B

Voila. Your Major Scale.

(Incidentally, if you start that same sequence at the letter A, you get the basic Minor Scale)

From there, we can talk about basic western tonality.

Look at your guitar (if you have one) and examine where the frets that make the different notes are. Notice the dots are on some of the important intervals. Examine the frets.

Another thing you can do is to play a note and listen for the overtones – the other notes that are in the pitch. It may be difficult, but can be done with some practice. If you don’t have an instrument, you can listen here:

http://www.onlinetuningfork.com/

Play the first note (E) and listen to the very high pitched sound you hear at the beginning of the note along with the normal low note. That’s not just your ears ringing. That’s an overtone.

Let me know if you heard them in the comments, or post other observations you’ve had!

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Music is made from only 3 elements: Rhythm, Sonority, and Silence.  For the most part musicians are great at the first 2 elements, but the third is almost… well silent in the vocabulary of a musician, especially a guitarist. Most tend to overplay or try to get in as many cool licks as possible in a given song.  In my experience in the Crash band, I see something different.

I have the privilege of playing with some of the best musicians in the country at Crash.  One in particular is Daniel Ortega, a phenomenal guitarist. Danny and I come from two different worlds of guitar playing. He plays the beautiful soaring lead sounds and those great creamy rhythms and tones reminiscent of U2 and Radiohead. On the other hand, I play much more forte and precise, dynamic solos and heavier, driving rhthyms inspired from the great classic guitarists such as David Gilmore of Pink Floyd and Jazz legend Pat Metheny. Not to say that if Danny and I so desired, we could play the same way, the truth is we don’t want to; it is not a part of our guitarist DNA.

Because this great musical relationship exists at Crash, Danny and I are constantly creating space for one another. Submitting certain guitar parts for the sake of great musical balance. Sometimes Danny will play a smooth overdrive part and I will take a higher, shimmery part with a lot of sparkle and delay, or sometimes I will play a mean, low fuzz part and Danny will play a high compressed ebow part, each way, it equally attributes to the overall band’s musical expression and is equally cool in the process.

However, sometimes it is necessary for one of us to not play a thing. Sometimes there is simply too much going on for us both to play. And depending on what part is necessary, that could mean either of us, at any point, may not play a portion or all of a particular song. Danny and I have a mutual respect for each other personally and musically, so this decision (made on the fly usually) is fair so both of us aren’t sitting out too long.

On a deeper level, there is something that the silence creates. We forget that the silence is still a MAIN part of the band, or the project, or the fellowship, or the business, or the relationship. Sometimes it is necessary to understand that two equally great forces usually needed to play in compliment, that one sometimes should be singled out and silenced of  its own accord in order for the overall goal to be accomplished. The idea that talents and gifts of two people or entities are most powerful in mutual submission.

Rhythm, Sonority, Silence. I think life, as in music, are the same.

Yesterday I was on the elevator when I saw a commercial for a shampoo. That’s not unusual.

The shampoo was called Slek. That is unusual.

It’s a good name for an expectorant, a vomit inducer, or a laxative, having that wet sound ending in a nice plop. It’s not a shampoo name.

Onomatopoeia is cultural, though (dogs here go wa wa, not bark or woof), and perhaps it’s a sonorous word in Chinese. Or perhaps they were looking for “slick” or “slik” and just got it wrong: short ‘e’ and ‘i’ are often confused (‘Windy’ is a common name, and it’s a delicate matter to explain why it might not be a good one). I could never use “Slek”, just as I would never use “Bawang[!]” (exclamation point mine) shampoo – not even if it is endorsed by Jackie Chan.

“Bawang” makes me laugh. I think of cartoons, of Bugs Bunny or Fritz the Cat. It’s the sound of a rubber mallet hitting a head or of a cat suddenly getting an erection walking down the street. I am afraid I would start laughing, slip on the soap, and be found in the most awkward and humiliating of positions – you don’t think Elvis’s last thought wasn’t that he was going to be found with his pants down his ankles and his fat ass seeping over the seat?

Perhaps in the search for avoiding words and acronyms that are offensive in other languages, marketers have overlooked euphony. Or all the good words are taken.

sonority aus der tschechischen republik, ist eine echte, hörenswerte entdeckung. er ist ein äusserst begabter produzent und dj und spielte schon mit nathan fake, murcof, telefon tel aviv und hexstatic zusammen. wem das nicht wirklich etwas sagt, soll nicht nervös werden. hört einfach in seine tracks rein und ihr wisst, dass hier jemand sein handwerk versteht. sonority stellt uns hier einige seiner wunderschönen electronica produktionen und zwei live aufnahmen frei zur verfügung.

This new artist of the Czech booking agency is 24 years young student of Muzicology from South Moravian city called Židlochovice. His nick is Sonority. He is without question one of the biggest newcomer recently in Czech music scene. The production of Sonority (is presenting in Radio 1, Radio Wave etc.) is affected by artists like Boards Of Canada, Clark, Daedelus, Akufen or Funkstörung. His style is very difficult to describe, there are elements of IDM, click’n’cuts, microsampling, breakbeat, ambient and drill & bass. Media and audience call him Czech Apparat or Trentemoller.

In his live performance we can listen to beautiful melodic area with protracted software of shouts, where is unexpected sequence of stir, tons and sounds. Sonority had already opportunity to gig like a support of big electronic giants like Telefon Tel Aviv, Murcof, Milanese or Nathan Fake, his multigenre specialization proves for example corporation with Czech clarinet quartette Clarinet Factory or remix for project called Sklenik (ex Ohm Square, Liquid Harmony), Uncless, Kora et le Mechanix and Ten And Tracer in Hungarian label Bitlab Records.

More information about Sonority included example of his production you can find in a web sites of agency Clubzone or at his myspace address.

Audio:

Sonority – Foem EP

TRACKLIST:

Sonority – Foem (Uncless rmx – radio edit) by josefsedlon

Uncless – Shinkanzen (radio edit) by josefsedlon

1. Sonority – Foem (original mix)
2. Sonority – Foem (Uncless – Solaris edit)
3. Sonority – Foem (Uncless – Fullmoon club remix)
4. Sonority – Foem (Machine Funck – dubstep remix)

play & download link: klick here for zip.. elemental-el021 (right klick for zip download)

BEATPORT link..

Full tracks (right klick = download)

Video:
- Sonority vs. VJ Kolouch
@ EuroConnections 30th January 2008, Palác Akropolis, Praha (CZ)
video 1
video 2
video 3