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Notes on Music Studies: Different Classifications of Instruments

Organology is the study of different instruments. In the study, they came to classify different instruments under a system called the Sachs-Hornbostel system.

These instruments are classified into such categories:

Idiophones: Self-sounding instruments, where their material is set into vibrations. (i.e. rattles, clapping hands, stomping feet)

Chordophones: String instruments. (lutes, harps, lyres, zither, etc.) One type of lute is a harp. Harps: Instruments with a soundboard to which strings are attached. (ie. musical bow, Celtic harp)

Aerophones: Instruments in which an enclosed column of air vibrates to produce sound. (ex. didjeridu)

Membranophones: Drums.

Electrophones: Things modified electrically.

Each instrument has a different quality.

They also are related to intensity.

Their intensity are often referred to as their volume or dynamics. This can be often used with singers, measured loudness by a decibel meter.

Another term to remember is pitch: the relative highness or lowness of a sound.

From pitches we can hear different ranges. The difference between these pitches are intervals.

If they are arranged in an order of ascent and descent it's called a scale.

Mode often refers to that organization.

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Linguistics Note: Common Misconceptions About Languages and Introduction to Linguistics

I just started studying linguistics maybe a few weeks ago, and I've found I really enjoy it. I decided it would be a highlight in my studies since it has to do a lot with language learning.

But first of all, what is linguistics? It's the study of language.

Most of the times when someone looks at language, they have a lot of misconceptions.

Many of these I figured out on my own through learning a language myself, but it was interesting to find out how many misconceptions there are.

There are two main types of linguistics: the study of use and the study of structure.

There are also sub-fields to linguistics:

Pragmatics: How language is used to communicate within context.

Which uses: Implicatures (the implied message as per the context) and Paul Grice's Four Maxims. The four Maxims are the Maxim of Quality (giving correct information), the Maxim of Quantity (giving the appropriate amount of information), the Maxim of Relation (keeping comments relative to the situation), and the Maxim of Manner (stating your comments as clearly as possible).

Phonetics: Speech studies regarding sound.

Phonology: Studies regarding sound systems.

Morphology: Studying the construction of words.

Syntax: Studying the construction of sentences.

Semantics: Studying the meaning behind speech.

Psycholinguistics: Interrelationship studies between language and cognition.

Neurolinguistics: Interrelationship studies between language and brain.

Sociolinguistics: Interrelationship studies between language and society.

Now back to misconceptions:

One very common misconception is languages with less words are more primitive, but they aren't.

Another one is those who speak in an educated manner don't think in an educated manner, but speech and education are two different things.

Furthermore, ancestry has little to do with your ability to pick up a language.

Another is that some languages are more complex and harder to learn than others, but the truth is any language can be hard or easy to learn depending on the speaker's background.

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Mathematical History Note: The Mayan Zero

The Mayan number zero was written in multiple different ways but usually took the form of an empty shell, to represent nothingness.

The Mayans were some of the first to have a symbol for zero as nothingness or a placeholder despite having a completely different counting system than English.

They counted by zero (a dot-like symbol), ones (a dot), and fives (a bar). Similar to a tally system, they would add dots to bars up to five then draw another bar once full. The difference is these bars were horizontal not vertical.

The reason the Mayans counted by fives and ones and zeros makes a lot of sense when I think about it. We have five fingers on each hand. You also should look at what time period they were in. Before large quantities of crops, they needn't worry about counting past around ten if you think about it.

Unfortunately not much is completely known about the Mayan mathematics and other elements of their writings were too lost amid Spanish conquest. What is most well known is the Dresden Codex, which gifted us much information about things such as this.

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Music Across Cultures Note: Terms We Use To Describe Music, Soundscapes, and Music Review

How do you listen to music? That was one of the first questions my music professor asked us.

What is it you feel? What are some musical terms to describe what you're hearing?

We came up with a list: Beat, dynamic, lyrics, harmony, chorus, rhythm, bridge, verse.

She gave us an even better list.

Interval: The distance from one note to another.

Quality of Interval: Consonant (peaceful transition) and dissonant (abrupt transition).

Chord: Playing more than one not at a time.

Harmony: The flow of music.

Key: The scale that a song sustains their sound.

Key Scale Interval: The speed that it plays at or changes.

Crescendo: Soft to loud.

Decrescendo: Loud to soft.

Music Loudness Indicators: p Piano (soft); mp Mezzo Piano (medium soft); mf Mezzo Forte; f Forte (loud); ff Fortissimo (more loud); pp Pianissimo (more quiet).

There are many terms you can use to describe a song: velvety, smooth, soft, crunchy, damp, rough, bumpy, coarse, firm, bouncy, short, long, balanced, distinct, abrupt.

You can also describe how you feel while listening to it. What's your current landscape and what do you hear? What do you feel when you listen to that song and what do you see?

I personally heard this thing we listen to, and all the sounds around us are a soundscape.

For this lesson we covered the song The Stranger With the Face of a Man by Sarah Kirkland Snider in the album Penelope.

To write a proper listening journal, you're ought to listen to it a few times. The first time, write your first impression and how it made you feel, then what you saw, then what makes that song unique, then research the background of the song and its meaning.

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Mathematical History Note: The Ishango Bone from the Belgian Congo

Image Credit: African Heritage

Under King Leopold II of Belgium, millions of Congolese people were massacred or otherwise enslaved.

The atrocities occurred for over twenty years, and Belgian colonization of the Congo eventually led to the artifacts of local peoples being brought to Belgium.

This is only one of many examples of colonization leading to the adoption of artifacts in foreign museums. Another example of this is the Hawaiian ki'i.

Even today, many Belgian museums still retain Congolese artifacts. One of these artifacts is the Ishango Bone.

The Ishango Bone bears marks of parallel lines found in patterns and groovings.

Some hypothesize that these marks, being a series of 28, were made to record a woman's menstrual cycle, which would mean some of the first examples of mathematical counting on material was invented by an African woman.

One point made by the professor was that if this is the case, one should realize that peoples who we view as lesser or as uncivilized can be even more educated than those who claim to be civilized. Just as the Kalahari bushmen and Australian aboriginies know the land by heart and pass on stories generation by generation, each culture has developed their own concept of sequencing or mathematics.

In which case, we do not truly need advanced technology or mathematics to really survive.

As quoted, "By not having such technological advances, those people in their simplicity may be achieving a certain level of happiness we cannot."

Most teach mathematics is the beginning and the end, but in it's entirety it could be considered a luxury.

[shaelikestostudy]

A Lesson In Composition Writing: Writing in Rhetorical Concepts

Every time one writes, they write within a context.

Context is basically defined as the circumstances behind an event or situation. If you were to write, for example, "I don't want to do this," it could mean different things across different situations.

It could mean, "I don't want to do this," as in not wanting to do something at all, or it could mean, "I don't want to do this," in a joking manner.

When we write, context is very important. No matter the topic, there's always a purpose, a certain audience, or so on. Our writing takes on different themes and mannerisms based on what the context is.

When you write, you should consider the context as in your:

Audience: Who are you trying to reach?

For your audience, you really need to consider, who is it you're writing to? What is their background? Where are they from, what is their education level, is there any information about them that you need to keep in mind?

Goals: What are you trying to convey through your writing?

When I write, I always have a specific message I want to convey. An example is, last year I wrote a long essay on Polynesian art. My goal was to convey my argument that using traditional art could be connected to through using those designs on modern media. Because of the nature of my essay, my paragraphs, grammar, and vocabulary retained a formal structure. When I write short stories, however, I take on a mix of formal and friendly structures.

Structure: What form will your writing take? What format?

Another word for structure is genre. It basically means what kind of writing you are attempting. Whether it's an essay, poem, novel, short story, there's a design to it that you need to stick to. If it's formal, you must try to keep a formal tone. If it's a text to your friends, it can take on a casual tone. If you don't write in a casual tone with your friends, they could take it the wrong way. Similarly if you write to a professor too casually.

Another thing to remember is your tone. Of course there's a lot of things to remember about writing, but I'd say this is important because the tone of your writing can change the way your audience sees it. If you write one way, it could seem a sarcastic or dry remark. An example of this is often times found in text messages when you add a period. In any form of writing periods are considered proper and are very important. But, when you write a text to a friend, especially a younger audience, they can perceive it as dry. How will your audience react to your tone, structure, and stance?

Word of the lesson: Hilina'i - Confidence

"To believe in one's self." Hawaiian.