Graham English

Posts Tagged ‘definitions’

Hit Songwriting Tips Podcast 04-17-07

Topics covered: The definition of a song, what a song is not, the purpose of a song, the way of the Samurai Songwriter.

Sound Journal: Ringing

Last week I mentioned creating a sound journal as part of a listening practice and to improve your aural intelligence. So I thought it would be a good idea to give some examples of how to do this by keeping a public diary of sound. Hopefully, this will be good for both of us.
Today, I [...]

Define: Microtones

Division of the octave into intervals smaller than the half-tone, the smallest interval used within the tempered scale. Examples include Fokker’s thirty-one-note organ, Partch’s forty-three-note percussion instruments, etc. Microtonal music, compositions based on microtones.

Define: Raga

1. A generic term for Indian scales, consisting of five, six, or seven different notes and calculated to create a certain mood. Each raga is suited to a particular time of day. The word itself comes from the Sanskrit meaning “color,” so that an infinite variety of nuances is possible in the playing of ragas [...]

Define: Counterpoint

1. The art of polyphonic composition.
2. Composition with two or more simultaneous melodies. Double counterpoint is written so that the upper voices and the lower voices are inverted. Thus, the low voice becomes the top voice and vice versa.

Definition: Binaural Diplacusis

Binaural diplacusis or interaural pitch difference is the different perception of a single auditory stimulus by the two ears; the difference may be in tone (disharmonic d.) or in timing (echo d.).

ToneTester tests your ears for differences in how they hear pitches (“binaural diplacusis” or “interaural pitch difference”). You adjust a slider until your ears [...]