Listening to music on purpose after a long time. You guys do this everyday? Damn. 🧐
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Used to listen/collect CDs at midwit levels of interest/taste until about 20y ago when shift to mp3s broke the habit. Used to think I have musical anhedonia but I do get in the mood once every few years, and rarely a song on the radio (wife listens constantly) will catch my ear
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I have a new theory now. I’m the musical equivalent of monolingual. My brain got so wired so early to the just-tempered scale, I fundamentally can’t get into chromatic scale music except at a shallow intellectual level, and I lack the natural “ear” to be fluent in 2 scales.
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Ie unconsciously my brain got machine-code locked to just-tempered (raga) because that was almost 100% of what I heard till I was 10-12y old. And it’s just “off” enough from chromatic (western) that I can’t really adapt. And 90% of music around me is chromatic now, even Indian.
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To be clear I can’t actually consciously tell them apart. Takes a lot more musical training and talent to do that. I suspect this is also why most western-attuned ears simply can’t get into raga at all. But notably when I do get in the mood every few years it’s always raga.
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And when a song on American radio catches my ear it is nearly always a slightly “weird” human voice and a song that involves vocal play that borders on just-tempered as in hooks my attention in a slightly “raga” way even if it has no relation/influence at all
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I recall from music theory reading that all music, including western, was just-tempered in antiquity and the scale centers the natural human voice as the standard. Chromatic centers the natural geometry of instruments like the piano, and human voices/ears have to be trained to it
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I suspect most midwit ears can only “deep” listen to one or the other. As in pay direct attention on purpose. You can shallow listen to either in the background of other tasks.
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Interestingly enough I can’t do accents or impressions either, or tell slight differences in accents apart. I guess listening is an actual talent.
Replying to
Another data point: I find the harmonium (pumped reed organ) extremely grating. It’s an equal-tempered western instrument sorta hacked into service as an approximately just-tempered accompaniment instrument in semi-classical and pop Indian music.
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Classical purists hate it and will only use a just-tempered instrument like the tanpura for accompaniment (these things are used as scale-setting drones) but I don’t have the refined ear to have such subtle preferences. Yet I dislike the harmonium at a visceral level.
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The only genre in which I can tolerate it is qawalli where it adds a weird rough edge
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Hmm. Duffy (begging you for mercy), some Adele, some Maroon 5, Dance Monkey (dance for me) seemed to hook me in a vaguely “raga” way.
Oddly enough no conscious fusion attempts like George Harrison’s or John McLaughlin seems to hook me at all. I find that stuff dull.
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Replying to @vgr
are there examples of such songs that come to mind?
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What I was listening to today is this. I suspect most westerners wouldn’t like it at all.
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Oddly enough I don’t really like jazz either though it’s often compared to raga. But besides the improv and call-and-response aspect, it’s actually quite different.
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And I now think improv vs composed is a relatively surface level aspect of music. I like a lot of semi-classical Indian music genres (ghazal, qawalli, kirtan) which is raga style but composed rather than improv.
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Heh the dominant tempo of raga music is very slow/slow/medium but it’s an acquired taste. Only the last 10-15% of a piece *might* go hard allegro and maybe allow the tabla or mridangam a solo riff.
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i know nothing about the tabala but HOLY this goes hard especially in the last 5 minutes or so
music.youtube.com/watch?v=059QnV
(thx @vgr)
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Percussion doesn’t even kick in till the second movement usually. As a kid, dragged to performances I’d hate the long first movement (aalap) and fidget till the percussion appeared, and only actually enjoy the end. As an adult my tastes flipped. I enjoy the aalap the most.
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I should make a calendar appointment to listen to music on purpose like once a year at least 🤔.
I think it’s been 2-3 years since the last time. Not counting the time my wife dragged me to the symphony a few months ago (pretty good).
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End up going to a live thing (usually symphony) every year or so. Last non-classical thing was Buddy Guy in 2018 I think. Last Indian classical thing was probably 7-8 years ago. Most performers I like are either dead or very rarely tour the US.
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Take my loose terminology as gestures at shit I don’t quite get
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Replying to @vgr
Fixed 'Do' vs. movable 'Do' is probably closer to what you're meaning. Chromatic just means split into semitones. Equal tempered is the compromise from just for pianos, which can't be retuned trivially.
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