[Trombone-l] Acoustics of brass instruments

[Richardson, Timothy Mr. DAC USAG Franconia DPW]

To some extent I'm sure that is true.
 
However what I'm trying to point out is that recent research has shown some
specific types of neurological processing for music that appear to be hard
wired.  Further, the brain mechanisms for recognizing pitch, rhythm, timbre,
and melodic line appear to be distinct and in different locations.  Why this
should be so is a mystery to me.  I don't even have a good guess.  
 
At any rate, we don't have to learn to recognize "pitch."  Given a set of
frequencies that meet certain parameters, the brain will assemble it into
one tone with a characteristic the brain calls pitch, and another called
timbre. .  With practice, at least some of us may learn to hear some of the
discrete frequencies present, which is what sam was recommending.  It was
not clear to me if he was recommending we change the discrete frequencies we
produce.  
 
Sometimes the timbre gives us a secondary clue to the frequency mix.
Sinusoidal tones are usually recognizable.  We talked about the hairclipper
buzz recently.  That timbre indicates the waveform is a square wave.  We
know intellectually a square wave is made up of a fundamental plus odd
harmonics, with the 3X frequency at 1/3 amplitude, the 5X at 1/5th, etc.
Can you hear those upper harmonics?  Can you learn to?  sam says yes and
that there is an advantage to doing so.  I didn't disagree, just made the
point that recognizing the pitch and the timbre are not learned, they are
inborn.  
 
 

  _____  

From: jeffalbert.smb at gmail.com [mailto:jeffalbert.smb at gmail.com] On Behalf
Of Jeff Albert
Sent: Tuesday, June 06, 2006 13:22
To: Richardson, Timothy Mr. DAC USAG Franconia DPW
Cc: Chris Tune; TROMBONE-L at server5.samford.edu
Subject: Re: [Trombone-l] Acoustics of brass instruments




On 6/6/06, Richardson, Timothy Mr. DAC USAG Franconia DPW
<timothy.a.richardson at us.army.mil <mailto:timothy.a.richardson at us.army.mil>
> wrote: 

 There is no learning
involved, it is hardwired.  Of course musicians become more sophisticated, 
but everybody does these things to some extent.


Isn't that contradictory?  One sentence says there is no learning involved,
then the next sentence says that some people do it differently after they
work on it.  Isn't that learning? 

Jeff