Blog Entry 08.21.07
In Search for the notes
Looking for perfection in music.
In Search for the notes
Looking for perfection in music.
I gotta love music. I just finish a jam session with my band and I felt really good about it. We play soul jazz tunes and with this one song, ‘Runaway’, nothing felt better than having the bass in my hands, laying down the groove and dancing to it. The whole band - rhythm, harmony and melody - just clicked. Before we went into the last chorus getting ready to push up the intensity, I gave my singer a quick glance and she acknowledged back. “We gonna bring the house down with this song!” we both thought.
On the way home traveling on the MRT, I took time to analyze the small intricate details that made music so good. While non-musicians will tell you whether a song sounds good or not, it takes a properly trained musician to explain to you how the different parts fit. Let me give it a shot.
A band is basically broken up into three sections namely rhythm, harmony and melody. The rhythm creates the beat and steps the tempo. The harmony ‘sits’ on the rhythm and creates the sound and tone or one would call it the colour of the song. The melody, easiest to identify, is the catchy lyrical tune either sang by a vocalist or played instrumentally. Songs are played in a certain ‘key’, which is a set of notes that creates the tonal centre. This set contains 7 notes and are mixed differently to give chords, fill-ins, bass lines, melody and solos, which ultimately make up the song.
My band just grooving to the music.
As a jazz and seasoned bass player, I always find the best way to mix these 7 notes to give the most soulful sound which melts the listener to the bone. Excuse the metaphor, but it is possible. I’m not sure whether you check out much bands but there are those occasional ones that make you feel, ‘Man, that music felt good.’ That is what I try to emulate, to pick that ‘perfect’ combination of notes. In more musical terms, I pick notes to get that maj7, m11, dom13 sound, mix it with a groovy rhythm, and blow the audience away.
But it begs the question, how does one seek the ‘perfect’ combination of notes? Or more specifically, does mathematics have an answer?
To be continued in the blog entry "In Search for the x"
