After my previous posts, I've sort of been thinking on how music evolved, and what happened, and stuff, and my conclusion is, that music is so awesome, the only way it could have happened is by chance. Like the creation of the Earth, and human beings. Chance. That's it.
Let me elaborate.
Music, in the written forms, consists of 8 basic notes, which are represented on a stave, or a musical equivalent of a paragraph. Each 'paragraph' is divided into bars, or the musical equivalent of sentences. Now like any sentence, these sentences have rules. These rules are essentially musical grammar. Without knowledge of this grammar, you will be 'talking' utter rubbish.
Anyway.... onwards with the story of the development of music, the Kitchi way.
The way I would have figured out, and created music, is like so. Say I listen to this guy speak, and he starts talking loudly, and then cuts it down to a whisper, then beats is up to a roar, and does this at intervals, not necessarily regular. And lets say this guy is a public speaker, or some notory, who I have to listen to over a period of time.
When people listen to other people speak, they tend to get bored, even if its only for a couple of minutes (the boredom, not the speech. That would be weird. (If people got bored in a two minute speech. Not the boredom bit) (Hey! Brackets inside brackets! That's cool.) )
So... people tend to get bored. And I don't like this guy, and I don't want to listen to him. But I cannot but hear him. So I bring along a book, and a pencil, or a pen, or something, so I can doodle as he speaks. His voice goes up, his voice geos down.
So I think 'Hey! His voice goes up, and his voice goes down, and it doesn't happen regularly. That might look good on paper!' and I draw. A line which goes up, and a line which comes down, so the result turns out to look like a four year old's representation of a mountain. And I keep doing this.
So this happens, and I do this for all the classes I attend, or all the whatever I attend. But I keep doing this. And one day, I get bored, and draw lines through my mountains. Then I take a second look at my mountains. They're now pretty evenly spaced. With five lines.
So I go home, and separate each line, with a bit of mountain on each line, representing the first musical notes, although I don't quite know it as yet.
Then after even more time, I figure, why not give these strokes an individual sound, so I can recreate what the other guy is saying, except he would sound funny! So I get my eight 'strokes' and give them each a pitch, arbitarily.
Then I forget all about it, for people to discover it, years after I die, and create music with.
Although there is probably another explanation... this one ends up giving all the creadit to me. So I like this one.
Hmph.
Sunday, June 1, 2008
Friday, May 30, 2008
Oh.
Firstly, sorry to the one fan out there of my blog (me). I haven't posted in.. HEY! In exactly a month. So this could be like one of those monthly magazines, except a blog, and not nearly as interesting. Hmm...
Anyway.
Onwards we shall sail toward my chosen topic of bloggery. Well, this one hasn't been well thought out, nor well crafted (Atleast to me, the other ones have seemed funny/well written to some degree. I doubt this will be like that).
So.
Music. I mean the real thing. The original stuff, the thing which comes to mind when people mention 'Mozart' or 'Beethoven'. The sometimes lilting, sometimes jarring, altogether flowing and wonderful music. I'm listening to the 'Moonlight Sonata' as I write/type this, and it blows my mind.
There are 12 notes, including all the sharps. That is all. No more. And they come out with these astounding peices of music, unbelievable in their fluency. Unparalleled in their sheer majesty.
But I digress.
Why have we, the human race, collectively thought up of Music? Sure, people say 'You hear birds lilting and singing. They have music. Why can't we'. Oh, sure. They're birds for god's sake. Not us. Not even close in intelligence. There's a reason there's the phrase 'bird brained'. They're idiots.
Uhm. Yes. So we have got music. Not only the 'cultured' and 'civilised' humans, but also the 'uncivilised' humans. The tribes. They blow their horns, they beat their drums. And they like it too.
Surely some guy didn't just wake up in the middle of the night and say 'Oh! I know! We'll make a set of 12 notes, with eight main ones, call the four middle ones sharps, and create sonatas and other such stuff'. It evolved over a period of freakishly long, and people experimented with sounds. Then they came up with rules, which you cannot break. And scales, and what sounds nice.
And this was ages, and ages, and ages ago. I don't even know. And I haven't done any reasearch.
Oh... my idea is fizzling out. So I suppose I'll have to fill in the rest of this post with drivel. Yay.
God, this is an awesome song. Moonlight Sonata. In the middle... it hits a crescendo, and it sounds to me, at the peak of the crescendo, as if every thing in the world is falling to bits. No, that isn't right. Its very hard to put it words. It is astounding.
Well... hopefully, now this blog will be updated on a weekly, or bi-weekly basis, or something like that.
Let's hope for the best. And for me not to be such an idiot.
Signing off.
(Notice the coo- funky new sign off that I've got? Flippy eh?)
Anyway.
Onwards we shall sail toward my chosen topic of bloggery. Well, this one hasn't been well thought out, nor well crafted (Atleast to me, the other ones have seemed funny/well written to some degree. I doubt this will be like that).
So.
Music. I mean the real thing. The original stuff, the thing which comes to mind when people mention 'Mozart' or 'Beethoven'. The sometimes lilting, sometimes jarring, altogether flowing and wonderful music. I'm listening to the 'Moonlight Sonata' as I write/type this, and it blows my mind.
There are 12 notes, including all the sharps. That is all. No more. And they come out with these astounding peices of music, unbelievable in their fluency. Unparalleled in their sheer majesty.
But I digress.
Why have we, the human race, collectively thought up of Music? Sure, people say 'You hear birds lilting and singing. They have music. Why can't we'. Oh, sure. They're birds for god's sake. Not us. Not even close in intelligence. There's a reason there's the phrase 'bird brained'. They're idiots.
Uhm. Yes. So we have got music. Not only the 'cultured' and 'civilised' humans, but also the 'uncivilised' humans. The tribes. They blow their horns, they beat their drums. And they like it too.
Surely some guy didn't just wake up in the middle of the night and say 'Oh! I know! We'll make a set of 12 notes, with eight main ones, call the four middle ones sharps, and create sonatas and other such stuff'. It evolved over a period of freakishly long, and people experimented with sounds. Then they came up with rules, which you cannot break. And scales, and what sounds nice.
And this was ages, and ages, and ages ago. I don't even know. And I haven't done any reasearch.
Oh... my idea is fizzling out. So I suppose I'll have to fill in the rest of this post with drivel. Yay.
God, this is an awesome song. Moonlight Sonata. In the middle... it hits a crescendo, and it sounds to me, at the peak of the crescendo, as if every thing in the world is falling to bits. No, that isn't right. Its very hard to put it words. It is astounding.
Well... hopefully, now this blog will be updated on a weekly, or bi-weekly basis, or something like that.
Let's hope for the best. And for me not to be such an idiot.
Signing off.
(Notice the coo- funky new sign off that I've got? Flippy eh?)
Tuesday, April 29, 2008
Wonky Doodle
"..went to town, riding on a pony. He caught the flu and drank a frog, I like macaroni"
That's my version of the song.
Its also a great introduction to my chosen topic of reflection.
("What? He chooses what the mirror reflects? That's cool")
No. It isn't. Okay, so I lied. Call me a liar.
("Yeah, I just did."
"Great. Go soak your head")
So what I figured I'd update this blog with, is something that's been intriguing me for a heck of a long time now. The first time I thought about it, I was completely astounded. I couldn't get my head around the concept, and I was curious beyond belief. Sadly, I couldn't experiment and find out, 'cause this is one of those things where you cannot experiment, as you shall soon find out.
So here we go.
What does a deaf, blind mute experience in this world? I mean, he/she (let's say he, that way, I have to type out less letters) cannot see/talk/hear. The only two things they can sense, is touch, and smell. And that isn't much. They'd get the occasional whiff of perfume, and feel the odd touch. And that's about it.
How would they communicate hunger? How would they know where to place their hand on the plate to eat? How would anyone teach them anything about the world? 'Cause we all know that kids learn about the world by observing it. But these people can't. They can't see a table, they can't hear the sound of their parents' voice, they can't communicate to ask questions.
To quote Simon And Garfunkel "I am a rock, I am an island".
That is essentially what the deaf, blind mute would be thinking. If he thinks in a particular language that is. I think in English, other people in their chosen language. But these guys have never heard a language. They cannot speak, they have never heard a language spoken. Hence they cannot think in any particular language.
What would they do all day? In my opinion, if a person is forced to spend time with his own mind for more than a couple of weeks, they'd start going mad. And these guys have to do it their whole lives. Without talking. Heck, I know people who can't go without talking for an hour. They'd have to go their whole lives without hearing another person's voice. Without hearing their own voice.
This is the crazy part. How do I find out? Who do I ask for the answers? There seems to be no way of finding out. Scientists will say a whole crock of nonsense, which could be true, but it helps me in no way. I need to talk to a deaf, blind mute, but that wouldn't help, 'cause the bugger is deaf.
Hmm.
I've just thought of a couple of ideas, to teach them to communicate. They could be shown a perfume every time they were expected to have a bath, or have a bath given to them, or whatever. They could have a sequence tapped on their forearm every time they ate, so sooner or later, they figure that tap means 'I'm hungry'. Its like training a dog. Bit by bit, although with the deaf, blind mute, there would be no vocal signals, 'cause he can't hear you.
They would lead a hard, hard life. Or an easy one. Or a boring one. Or an interesting one. Or a peaceful one. All depends on how you look at it.
Doesn't it?
That's my version of the song.
Its also a great introduction to my chosen topic of reflection.
("What? He chooses what the mirror reflects? That's cool")
No. It isn't. Okay, so I lied. Call me a liar.
("Yeah, I just did."
"Great. Go soak your head")
So what I figured I'd update this blog with, is something that's been intriguing me for a heck of a long time now. The first time I thought about it, I was completely astounded. I couldn't get my head around the concept, and I was curious beyond belief. Sadly, I couldn't experiment and find out, 'cause this is one of those things where you cannot experiment, as you shall soon find out.
So here we go.
What does a deaf, blind mute experience in this world? I mean, he/she (let's say he, that way, I have to type out less letters) cannot see/talk/hear. The only two things they can sense, is touch, and smell. And that isn't much. They'd get the occasional whiff of perfume, and feel the odd touch. And that's about it.
How would they communicate hunger? How would they know where to place their hand on the plate to eat? How would anyone teach them anything about the world? 'Cause we all know that kids learn about the world by observing it. But these people can't. They can't see a table, they can't hear the sound of their parents' voice, they can't communicate to ask questions.
To quote Simon And Garfunkel "I am a rock, I am an island".
That is essentially what the deaf, blind mute would be thinking. If he thinks in a particular language that is. I think in English, other people in their chosen language. But these guys have never heard a language. They cannot speak, they have never heard a language spoken. Hence they cannot think in any particular language.
What would they do all day? In my opinion, if a person is forced to spend time with his own mind for more than a couple of weeks, they'd start going mad. And these guys have to do it their whole lives. Without talking. Heck, I know people who can't go without talking for an hour. They'd have to go their whole lives without hearing another person's voice. Without hearing their own voice.
This is the crazy part. How do I find out? Who do I ask for the answers? There seems to be no way of finding out. Scientists will say a whole crock of nonsense, which could be true, but it helps me in no way. I need to talk to a deaf, blind mute, but that wouldn't help, 'cause the bugger is deaf.
Hmm.
I've just thought of a couple of ideas, to teach them to communicate. They could be shown a perfume every time they were expected to have a bath, or have a bath given to them, or whatever. They could have a sequence tapped on their forearm every time they ate, so sooner or later, they figure that tap means 'I'm hungry'. Its like training a dog. Bit by bit, although with the deaf, blind mute, there would be no vocal signals, 'cause he can't hear you.
They would lead a hard, hard life. Or an easy one. Or a boring one. Or an interesting one. Or a peaceful one. All depends on how you look at it.
Doesn't it?
Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Not Personal Drivel.
Well, I originally contemplated a personal drivel post. But as you can see, this is not personal drivel. So you're safe. For now. Until I finish the other post (probably never) you need to be on your most guarded, against all forms of personal drivel, because uh... I've lost my point. Never mind.
What I actually wanted to talk/type about was Naziism.
Here we go.
Not a very long post, so you don't have to skip through stuff...
Yeah. So I was watching a comedian do comedy. And he was comedy-ing about Nazi's, and Hitler, and the like.
That is irrelevant.
I figure as much as the Nazi's got murdered and executed and wiped out from the second world war, there are still Nazi's out there, Nazi's who still Nazi-fy anything they can. Except they'd be Nazi-ing without the toothbrush-moustachy Charlie-Chapliness of Hitler leading them, and telling them to exterminate Jews, for they did not eat the forbidden fruit of Hitler's own imagination.
And soon, these Nazi's shall rise again. I'm pretty sure of that. Or they'd go on some whacko killing spree based on Aryan supremacist theories, and kill a whole bunch of people, leaving the rest of the world pretty ticked off with them.
So what do we do to prevent this gigantor catastrophe? Well, since we can't really see who is a Nazi and who isn't, apart from the warped swastika they wear, and that stupid toothbrush moustache, and the fact that they prance about spouting Aryan crap, apart from all that, there isn't any way to tell them apart from anyone else. So to stop the potential threat of this ever happening again...
Kill the world.
What I actually wanted to talk/type about was Naziism.
Here we go.
Not a very long post, so you don't have to skip through stuff...
Yeah. So I was watching a comedian do comedy. And he was comedy-ing about Nazi's, and Hitler, and the like.
That is irrelevant.
I figure as much as the Nazi's got murdered and executed and wiped out from the second world war, there are still Nazi's out there, Nazi's who still Nazi-fy anything they can. Except they'd be Nazi-ing without the toothbrush-moustachy Charlie-Chapliness of Hitler leading them, and telling them to exterminate Jews, for they did not eat the forbidden fruit of Hitler's own imagination.
And soon, these Nazi's shall rise again. I'm pretty sure of that. Or they'd go on some whacko killing spree based on Aryan supremacist theories, and kill a whole bunch of people, leaving the rest of the world pretty ticked off with them.
So what do we do to prevent this gigantor catastrophe? Well, since we can't really see who is a Nazi and who isn't, apart from the warped swastika they wear, and that stupid toothbrush moustache, and the fact that they prance about spouting Aryan crap, apart from all that, there isn't any way to tell them apart from anyone else. So to stop the potential threat of this ever happening again...
Kill the world.
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Pre-Conceptual Trauma
No. This has nothing to do with medicine.
But what it DOES have to do with, is the strange thoughty things on the inside of my head (look above for further reading).
Well, arriving at the subject of this uh, post... we (human beings, the terror of the world) have set and rigid ways of looking at things, we cannot but comprehend things in a certain way, and if it doesn't classify into one of those patterns of thinking, the object of comprehension becomes 'weird' or 'strange'.
When I say preconceptions, I mean when people grin, they take it to mean that the person is happy, rather than, say, the person is a psychotic murderer. When a person waves cheerfully, they take it to mean he's waving cheerfully, not that his pet pig is suffering from a serious bout of the 'flu.
Now I'm wondering about two different things. Why can people not view things in this manner, and why do we view things in this manner to begin with?
I suppose we view things this way, partly because the human body is made to (you can't sneeze without closing your eyes) and because other people view things this way (you're young... your teacher tells you that if a person scratches their ear, it means they are itching there. You never question that)
But I figure, if I can grimace every time I'm happy, or elated, or joyful, or wonderfully exuberant, or just plain pleased, then someone would sooner or later figure that grimace = happy. Then he/she would keep grimacing, soon the whole world would take a grimace to be the expression of joy/elation/exuberance/pleasure. And maybe the smile/grin would be an expression of disgust?
When people encounter things they do not understand, on a magnificent scale (like a ten foot tall fly) then their brain shuts down saying "No. There isn't a ten foot tall fly standing in front of you. That's just your momma in disguise. Now go home, and hide under the bed". So when you start to sock someone in the jaw, and tell them its an expression of love, they'd put a bullet through your head.
So I figure that if we had one reverse perception being on Earth (i.e a person viewing a smile as an expression of anger) then that would be well... uh, everytime someone smiles at him, he'd get angry and smile back, then they'd smile back, then he'd smile back, then they'd come and give him a hug, and he'd get furious, so he'd HUG THEM BACK!
You're probably thinking right now "Is there a point to this post? Where does it end?"
Well... there isn't a point to this post, and this post ended at that comma.
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
I WANT TV!
No, not really. Well, I could do without it, but its fun, right?
Yeah... TV. The epitome of human 'evolution'. We watch it, we view it, we need it. For lots of us, its better than food!
But that's my point. Why do we need it? Not only TV, but any entertainment... Music, Drama, TV, the Computer... anything. We have a need to be entertained. 'I'm bored' is a MORE than common phrase, repeated often, to no effect, other than bugging our other human counterparts.
Other animals don't need entertainment (as far as I know there aren't any dogs going 'Oh, that new TV show last night? Totally woof man!') No sirree, they don't. They're quite content chewing cud, or sleeping, or whatever it is they're doing all day. They could be thinking deep thoughts ('I wonder why there's a fluffy thing attached to my butt') or they could be thinking not-so-deep thoughts ('Who created the universe? What is my purpose in life?') but they DO NOT NEED TV!
Why then, is there a craving, a need, a desire for us to be entertained? Music is an integral part of most of our lives, it definitely is an integral part of mine... but I'm sure if we'd never invented music, I'd have been fine, maybe better. Who knows?
If one of us 'entertainment addicts' decided to go live in a tree for a week, or a month, or a year even, I'm sure we'd get along fine. The first couple of days/weeks would be spent in wondering what was on TV, or spent in a craving for music, or video games, or whatever, but after that, we'd be fine. We'd invent, we'd find things to do, forage for food, run from man eating animals, and other such engaging passtimes.
But that won't work, because our influence is all over the place, we cannot get away from entertainment. Even the African tribal chant is musical, but it isn't their sustenance. They do other things as well... like the aforementioned passtimes.
But you might be reading this and thinking 'Yeah, but we're more civilised, we don't run around trees getting chased by lions. We tame the buggers'.
Really? You're more civilised? Then spend a month in our society without ANY entertainment, except maybe Music... then you're more civilised.
In my opinion, entertainment is largely a part of our eternal quest for 'civilisation'. I think civilisation is a destruction of all things natural, live in an enclosed world, a world without a single thing unnatural, a world where we have created or tamed everything around us. We are well within reach of that goal. The way things are going on around here (here = Earth) I'm giving it another 150 years tops before it gets smashed to bits by nuclear war, or something as destructive.
With that cheerful thought, I take your leave.
Yeah... TV. The epitome of human 'evolution'. We watch it, we view it, we need it. For lots of us, its better than food!
But that's my point. Why do we need it? Not only TV, but any entertainment... Music, Drama, TV, the Computer... anything. We have a need to be entertained. 'I'm bored' is a MORE than common phrase, repeated often, to no effect, other than bugging our other human counterparts.
Other animals don't need entertainment (as far as I know there aren't any dogs going 'Oh, that new TV show last night? Totally woof man!') No sirree, they don't. They're quite content chewing cud, or sleeping, or whatever it is they're doing all day. They could be thinking deep thoughts ('I wonder why there's a fluffy thing attached to my butt') or they could be thinking not-so-deep thoughts ('Who created the universe? What is my purpose in life?') but they DO NOT NEED TV!
Why then, is there a craving, a need, a desire for us to be entertained? Music is an integral part of most of our lives, it definitely is an integral part of mine... but I'm sure if we'd never invented music, I'd have been fine, maybe better. Who knows?
If one of us 'entertainment addicts' decided to go live in a tree for a week, or a month, or a year even, I'm sure we'd get along fine. The first couple of days/weeks would be spent in wondering what was on TV, or spent in a craving for music, or video games, or whatever, but after that, we'd be fine. We'd invent, we'd find things to do, forage for food, run from man eating animals, and other such engaging passtimes.
But that won't work, because our influence is all over the place, we cannot get away from entertainment. Even the African tribal chant is musical, but it isn't their sustenance. They do other things as well... like the aforementioned passtimes.
But you might be reading this and thinking 'Yeah, but we're more civilised, we don't run around trees getting chased by lions. We tame the buggers'.
Really? You're more civilised? Then spend a month in our society without ANY entertainment, except maybe Music... then you're more civilised.
In my opinion, entertainment is largely a part of our eternal quest for 'civilisation'. I think civilisation is a destruction of all things natural, live in an enclosed world, a world without a single thing unnatural, a world where we have created or tamed everything around us. We are well within reach of that goal. The way things are going on around here (here = Earth) I'm giving it another 150 years tops before it gets smashed to bits by nuclear war, or something as destructive.
With that cheerful thought, I take your leave.
Monday, April 7, 2008
Age? Qua?
Age.
The thing we all think we can lie to ourselves, and others, about. When you're in school, the (almost) first thing that springs to your lips when you meet someone new is 'how old are you?'.
This got me thinking (obviously, or this wouldn't be here, would it?) Humans are the only ones on the planet who keep track of their age (as far as I know).
This seems very strange to me... why would we keep track of our age? Is there a purpose to it?
And the only reason I can think of for keeping track of age, is.... nothing. Completely and utterly pointless practice. We could just live our lives from one day to another... there would be no concept of 'old' and 'new'. Things would be kept till they broke, since there is no 'old'. 'Old' people wouldn't be chucked in nursing homes (not because of their age anyway, 'cause age doesn't exist, remember?)
We wouldn't have product lines being rolled out every few months... there in effect would be no deadlines, except 'next time the sun rises' or something.
Why this sudden elimination of time, you may ask. Well, as I see it, the concept of age is just an extension of the concept of time... and when I eliminate one, I figure just as well to eliminate the other, or sooner or later it will evolve again. So if humans had never figured out the concept of time in the first place, we wouldn't be old, there would be no new, there would be no deadlines for anything, there would exist a sort of gentle flow of life, without the hectic pace of today's life.
Life, in short, would be relaxed. People could do whatever, whenever, as long as the sun didn't rise the next day. Or the next cycle of the sun didn't take place.
But if you think about it, if time didn't exist, then most advances in Science wouldn't have happened, for all its worth. We would still be sitting in caves, chanting 'Ug', and clubbing each other on the heads.
That isn't my idea of a good time, so I figure whoever noticed the sun going 'round our earth, and charted it as 'days', and then split it into twenty four, and further split it into 60, and further split that into 60, and whatever... they were the smart ones. They had no idea what it would do for the future (probably) but it did more good than harm... that can't be all bad, can it?
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