SHOSYS ACADEMY 2: Basic Scientific Terminology In Music

SHOSYS ACADEMY 2: Basic Scientific Terminology In Music

Kelvin Sholar

1 Introduction To The Blog Series

This series of lessons and tests incorporates an easy music appreciation curriculum for adult beginners who are remote learning, or are self-taught. Lessons are posted on Mondays while Tests are posted on Saturdays. For more in depth and private guidance, I offer personal instruction by Zoom (Personal Meeting ID 8522954569) – for 1 dollar a minute. Time schedules range from a minimum of 30 minutes to a maximum of 60 minutes. Email me at [email protected] to set up personal instruction. I accept payments and cash gifts by Cash App ($KelvinSholar), Zelle ([email protected]) or Paypal (paypal.me/kelvinsholar).

2 Revisiting The Tree Of Knowledge

In Lesson 1, we learned about the tree of knowledge. In this Lesson, we will learn about the first branch of the tree of knowledge: Knowledge Of Specifics (1.10). The goal here is to learn about sound; including the basic terminology of musical science and basic historical facts. In these lessons we are biased to learning about musical specifics relative to western culture.

Within 1.10 Knowledge Of Specifics, we will find Knowledge Of Terminology (1.11) at the first leaf from the left. In “Taxonomy Of Educational Objectives”, Benjamin Bloom describes Knowledge Of Specifics as “The recall of specific and isolable bits of information” (Bloom 63). Knowledge Of Terminology is described as: “Knowledge of the referents for specific verbal and nonverbal symbols” (Bloom 63).

2.1 Knowledge Of Scientific Terminology

In order for students to understand basic musical literature, they should at least know what basic terms refer to. This means that students should learn the basic terminology for the properties of sound.

On the most concrete physical level, when we listen to the children’s song “Mary Had A Little Lamb“, (CLICK The Mp3 player below)

we hear how our brains translate periodic changes of sound pressure waves at the ear drum, (changes which were caused by the vibration of air), into a psychological image. The vibrations of the air were created by playing the mp3 player. The resultant psychological image that was created by the brain is what we commonly call “sound”.

The physical process of hearing begins with dynamic pressure waves traveling through air molecules that are funnelled by the external ear (the pinna) into the external auditory canal where it meets the ear drum. The ear drum sends mechanical vibrations through the ossicles and the middle ear muscles into the cochlea where it stimulates the organ of Corti – a winding duct with nerve fibers of the spiral ganglion attached to it that separates the scala vestibuli and the scala tympani. Musical sounds are then digitized within the human body by being reduced to electrical impulses in the brain that are identical to any other nervous signals from the other senses (Jeans 2).

Sound properties are both physical and psychological. The physical properties of sound include frequency, amplitude (or intensity), duration, onset, envelope and wave form. According to Gareth Loy in “Musimathics: The Mathematical Foundations of Music: Volume 1“: “The rate of periodic pressure change is frequency, and the strength of pressure fluctuations is intensity. The onset is the time when the sound begins, and its duration is the length of time we can hear it. The characteristic way in which the intensity of a sound changes through time is its envelope. One final attribute, wave shape, completes the basic list of the physical properties of sound. Our hearing uses the shape of sound waves to characterize sound quality” (Loy, pg. 2).

Loy writes that the psychological properties of sound include: “pitch, loudness, timbre, duration, amplitude envelope, spectral envelope, consonance, volume, rhythm, vibrato, and sound location information” (Loy, pg. 154). Here, we will focus on pitch, loudness and timbre. Pitch corresponds to frequency, but it also depends on what range the frequency is in, how loud the sound is and how many other frequencies occur. Loudness corresponds to amplitude of intensity; but like pitch it also depends on what range the frequency is in and how many other frequencies occur. Timbre corresponds to the spectral signature (combinations of frequencies) and wave form of a sound pressure wave.

3. Bibliography

Bloom, B. S.; Engelhart, M. D.; Furst, E. J.; Hill, W. H.; Krathwohl, D. R. Taxonomy Of Educational Objectives: The Classification Of Educational Goals. Handbook I: Cognitive Domain. New York: David McKay Company, 1956

Jeans, Sir. James. Science And Music, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1937

Loy, Gareth. Musimathics The Mathematical Foundations of Music: Volume 1. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The MIT Press, 2006