![]() Today’s pop music is largely the same with a combination of keyboard, drum machine and computer software greatly diminishing the creativity and originality. ![]() Timbral quality peaked in the 60’s and has since dropped steadily with less diversity of instruments and recording techniques. Translation: most pop music now sounds the same. The results of the study revealed that timbral variety went down over time, meaning songs are becoming more homogeneous. Loudness- volume variance adding richness and depth Pitch- harmonic content of the piece, including its chords, melody, and tonal arrangementsģ. Timbre- sound color, texture and tone qualityĢ. Joan and his colleagues looked at 500,000 pieces of music between 1955-2010, running songs through a complex set of algorithms examining three aspects of those songs:ġ. Demand for youth sports competes with music studies, but also, fewer parents are requiring youngsters to take lessons as part of their upbringing.īesides the decline of music literacy and participation, there has also been a decline in the quality of music which has been proven scientifically by Joan Serra, a postdoctoral scholar at the Artificial Intelligence Research Institute of the Spanish National Research Council in Barcelona. In 1909, piano sales were at their peak when more than 364,500 were sold, but sales have plunged to between 30,000 and 40,000 annually in the US. Stores dedicated to selling pianos are dwindling across the country as fewer people take up the instrument. Even home architecture incorporated what was referred to as a “piano window” in the living room which was positioned above an upright piano to help illuminate the music. Prior to the 1980’s, it was common for homes to have a piano with children taking piano lessons. ![]() Public school music programs have been in decline since the 1980’s, often with school administrations blaming budget cuts or needing to spend money on competing extracurricular programs. Two primary sources for learning to read music are school programs and at home piano lessons. Over the last 20 years, musical foundations like reading and composing music are disappearing with the percentage of people that can read music notation proficiently down to 11 percent, according to some surveys. In the case of classical music, if you can’t read music you can’t play in an orchestra or symphonic band. With few exceptions such as Wes Montgomery or Chet Baker, if you couldn’t read music, you couldn’t play jazz. His ability to compose and create new styles and directions for jazz was legendary. Jazz masters like John Coltrane would practice six to nine hours a day, often cutting his practice only because his inner lower lip would be bleeding from the friction caused by his mouth piece against his gums and teeth. The experience gave me the ability to visualize music (If you play by ear only, you will never have that same depth of understanding music construct.)īoth jazz and classical art forms require not only music literacy, but for the musician to be at the top of their game in technical proficiency, tonal quality and creativity in the case of the jazz idiom. In college I continued in a jazz band and also took a music theory class. Sight reading would quickly reveal how fine-tuned playing “chops” really were. You would need to sight read, meaning you are given a difficult composition to play cold, without any prior practice. Our high school had a top Illinois state jazz band I also participated in symphonic band, which gave me a greater appreciation for classical music. Throughout grade school and high school, I was fortunate to participate in quality music programs.
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