If you look at it it seems completely incomprehensible with all the frets and strings. But is guitar hard to learn?

March 2, 2023October 20, 2021 by Unfakely

Is guitar hard to learn?

Reasons why the guitar is so popular.

Of all the musical instruments, there are few with such a wide range of types, models, and different ways to play, and in different styles as the guitar. It is the king of every rock band, and thousands of more or less famous rock legends have treated it with passion or violence on stage, during the last 70 to 80 years, in front of screaming teenagers.

It is also one of the oldest instruments still in use today. And it comes in a huge variety of models, six strings, seven, eight, twelve, small, big, acoustic, electric, and even with double or even triple neck. There are all kinds and for every taste. You just have to learn how to play it. And that’s where it sometimes gets a little uncertain…

Because how on earth could you ever make order in all that chaos lurking between the six strings, and the 19 or more frets… How could you ever decipher the code and understand where to put down the finger…?

A reason why the guitar seems difficult.

Is Guitar hard to learn? The guitar is difficult in the very beginning. The strange position, the many strings, and all the frets. But it gets easier as you get familiar with the outlining of the instrument. If you play fingerstyle you have to play each string separately. That needs more studying. The easiest technique is strumming. You can learn a few chords to accompany a song in no time. Just like everything else though, the key to succeeding is persistence.

The different types of guitars.

So, I asked my dear friend and colleague Professor Nicola Marsi, guitarist and guitar teacher. This is some of what he told me, but let’s start with a look at the instrument itself. There is a vast number of different types, and a guitar is actually not one instrument but a whole family of instruments.

A broad distinction would be that between acoustic and electric guitars.

The acoustic guitar has a built-in resonance chamber – The vibration from the string is amplified inside the hollow body. It sounds good as it is. In this category, we also have the classic guitar.
The electric guitar doesn’t have any resonance of its own. Unplugged, it is almost mute. It has microphones underneath the strings, and you need to connect the guitar to an amplifier to be able to hear anything.

Which one is easier to learn? At this point, it’s about the same.

Which guitar technique is the easiest?

This also is a vast field, and there are many different ways to play the instrument. Three basic distinctions could roughly be something like this:

The position of the guitar.

The classical technique. Sitting down, you position the guitar on your left leg, and the neck points upwards at about 45°. You put the left foot on a footstool to raise it about half afoot. This gives a somewhat better position for the left hand to be able to play fingerstyle.
The Acoustic/Electric technique. You position the guitar over your right leg or hang it over your shoulders with a strap, standing up. The guitar neck is often a little lower than the classic style. How high you hold the guitar can vary from very high to below the belt. The left hand is closer and that can be an advantage.

How to play the strings.

You can play fingerstyle. That’s when every finger plays one string and one note.
Strumming is when you play all the strings in one movement up or down. This produces a chord.

With what you play the strings.

You can play with your fingers.
Or you can play with a small piece of plastic or wood, a pick. You hold it between the thumb and the index finger.
There’s actually a third option, finger picks. It’s like having a pick on every finger. You play as you would with your fingers, but it’s the plastic or steel that picks the string.

And now, is one technique harder than another? Playing fingerstyle is more difficult than strumming. It’s easier to just strike all the cords than to keep track of the different fingers of the right hand. For the rest, it’s a matter of choice.

Which guitar style is easiest to learn?

This is another topic where there is so much variation that it could be difficult to reduce it to a simple list. A would very broadly pin it down to three styles.

The classical style. In this style, you play sitting down and with nylon strings. We have a lot of classical music, but also South American music, Spanish flamenco, etc.
The acoustic guitar. This is everything from the teenager playing three chords at the bonfire, to Bluegrass, Folk, Pop, Jazz, and a lot more. This is a category that is very rich in content. You have millions of easy songs to choose from.
The electric guitar. This is the rock- and pop music instrument by excellence. This is the guitar for all the most famous rock riffs, and solos.

Finally, which is more difficult? Well, you just can’t say that one style is harder than another. Playing many notes very fast is more difficult than not. Those who practice most of all, I would say, are classical guitarists, and soloists on electric guitar.

Is the guitar hard to learn compared to other instruments?

Now, this is tricky. Think about it like this: Playing an instrument for two hours every day for one year gets you to a certain level. That level is lower if the instrument is difficult. But you will always be comparable to anyone who has practiced as much as you. It’s in no way easier to become the best in the world just because the instrument you’ve chosen is easy to play.

Most people could probably learn how to play only the melody of Twinkle, twinkle little star with their right hand on a piano in, let’s say, half an hour. To play the same melody on a Theremin, which is probably the most difficult instrument in the world, you would need a whole lot more practice.

The guitar is often put somewhere in the middle of the difficulty list.

Is guitar hard to learn? It also depends very much on how far you want to go.

I think, with a few days of training, anybody would be able to learn three, or four chords, and play them in the right order to accompany his/her favorite song. That’s very easy, and extremely fast compared to almost any other musical instrument.
To play like the best classical guitarists, on the other hand, you would need ten, fifteen, or more years of studying 4 – 8 hours a day. And you need to start at a very young age.

But, is guitar hard to learn, then?

From a strictly learning point of view, the guitar has a few positive properties, and some drawbacks, compared to other instruments.

The negatives:

The neck and the frets are difficult to understand at the beginning, It’s not as straightforward as the blacks and whites on a keyboard.
You would need certain coordination as you strike the strings with one hand and determine the pitch with the other. All instruments require coordination to a certain degree though.
A guitar is, kind of, big and awkward. It can be hard to find the right position around the big wooden case. And bending the fingers around the neck to find the right position for the chord is also awkward. You have to try out which guitar, and which style is best for you. An how to hold it. There’s no right answer here. Ask your teacher.

The positives:

The difficulty of understanding the pattern on the neck diminishes with time. After some training, it will start to feel more logical and apprehensible.
You can see exactly what you do. It’s all in front of you at a normal observable distance.
It’s not a loud instrument unless you play an acoustic guitar with steel strings. Even so, there are always solutions to the disturbing-others issue. You can play the electric guitar with headphones.
It’s maybe the most common instrument of all. It’s easy to find good teachers and good school literature.
The frets give the notes a precise position. You only have to put the finger somewhere between the two frets and you’re good. Instruments in the violin family have a smooth neck without frets. It’s more difficult to find the correct spot on the violin neck.

Which is easier, the Acoustic/Classic or the Electric guitar?

Watch this video on YouTube

Reasons why the electric guitar is easy to learn.

The acoustic guitar is much bigger and can be more tricky to hold, especially if you’re short/young.
The electric guitar is much thinner and therefore there’s less bulk to get around.
The neck of the electric guitar is typically thinner and easier to bend your fingers around
Because of its construction, it requires less pressure on the string.
The classical guitar has nylon strings which are softer on the fingertip. But it still requires more pressure on the string.

The classical guitar has a wider neck with more space between the strings. That can put more strain on the gripping hand, especially for younger players.
With an electric guitar, you can have a full-blown sound without disturbing anybody wearing headphones.

Watch this video on YouTube

Reasons why the acoustic/classic guitar is easy to learn.

There are all kinds of middle ways. E.g. you can have an acoustic guitar, with or without a pickup (A so-called acoustic electric guitar) with a thinner body.
With an acoustic/classic guitar, you don’t need an amplifier. You just pull out the guitar and play. This is a major advantage. You can bring your guitar anywhere and you’re always ready to play.

The many knobs and levers on the electric guitar can be intimidating for a beginner.
The Classic guitar position can be more ergonomic. But not for everybody. You have to try it out for yourself.

It would seem that the electric guitar wins this round. But that’s really just a very broad generalization. The guitar world is enormous, and the best guitarists in the world all have their own preferences and styles. There are different guitar sizes and forms, different widths and depths of the neck, and different positions and different ways to treat the instrument. After you’ve learned some more, you will know what works for you and what doesn’t.

Then, of course, you need a guitar that’s in tune with the style you’re going for. If you want to play like Eddie Van Halen, you can’t buy an acoustic guitar.

Today it’s also easier to buy a guitar. The many cheap brands are getting better and even if just have a few dollars to spend, you can still find a decent playable instrument.

How long does it take to learn to play the guitar?

A list of tips and tricks on how to succeed.

Be persistent. Our brain and body work much better with short repetitions than with long sessions. It’s much, much better to practice fifteen minutes a day than to practice five hours Sundays.
Organize your study. If you have half an hour, do 10 minutes this, 10 minutes that, and 10 minutes something else. It’s too easy to just play the things you already know in a way you’re already comfortable with if you don’t have structure. And to get better you have to learn new things, not just repeat the old, That’s just the way it is.
Record yourself. Hearing yourself from the outside is very helpful. You may find that what you think is bad, really is quite good, and vice versa. Don’t overdo it, but a simple recording app is an awesome tool.
Take breaks. Especially in the beginning, the position with the right arm around the big wooden box and the left hand cramped around the neck, is tiresome. You resist only a short time. Play for ten minutes, then get up and walk around before you continue. And listen to your body. Pain in the fingertips from the strings is no big deal, but shoulders, back, arms, and wrists shouldn’t ache.

The reason why you should at least try out a real, certificated teacher.

Approximately one-third of all non-professional guitar players suffer from pain. Most commonly in the neck and lower back followed by pain in the wrist, and the shoulders. These problems can be dealt with but you have to know how to resolve them, and what is the cause of the pain.

Having a good teacher is the best way to avoid these issues, and if you already face stiffness and pain, a teacher can point to where your position is wrong, or to other errors that you make. It’s almost impossible to observe yourself, but for someone else, it’s often obvious what’s missing. That goes for musical expression and playing technique as well. An experienced musician who guides you from the outside, and follows your progress from an external point of view, can be a big help. And as a beginner, a good, certified teacher can’t be overrated.

It’s also a way to be consistent in your studying. If you have lessons scheduled, and you pay for them, it’s harder to skip the daily practice.

So finally, Is guitar hard to learn?

Learning how to play the guitar, is not very difficult. It can be intimidating with the seemingly disorderly outlook of the strings and the frets, but if you practice, with time, that will not be a problem. And the fact that you can learn strumming chords in a very short time, makes it a good candidate for a beginner’s first choice.

Conclusion

No, Guitar is not a difficult instrument to learn. There are a few initial hurdles, but not more than most musical instruments. Be aware of rigidity and pain in the neck and lower back, shoulders, and wrists.

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Were there music videos before MTV?

September 19, 2022August 25, 2021 by Unfakely

Were there music videos before MTV?

The history of music videos starts somewhere in the 20th century. But were they around before MTV started in 1981? Is the format of music videos older than that?

yes or no?

What is a music video?

A music video is a short film that illustrates, comments, or at least in some way interprets the music within the video. It is mostly relatively short, as it reflects the song, although some videos can have substantial parts before and after the music, and thus become longer.

It is an artistic format that in some way promotes the song and the band/singer in the video.

It is also disputable if simply shooting an artist playing his music, really is to be regarded as a music video. The format suggests some creative touch to the footage even if it centers around a live performance.

What is MTV?

For those of you who don’t know, MTV is an American Cable TV channel centered around Music. The channel started out in 1981 as a music video-only TV, where so-called Video Jockeys presented bands, singers, and musicians for the audience, playing their videos.

It later developed into a more complete and complex channel with reality, drama, and comedy TV shows, live concerts, and documentaries.

But why focus on MTV? Well, the cable channel was closely connected to the format and was fundamental in the history of music videos. Without MTV, the music video would probably never have become what it is today.

The first music video ever.

With the definition above, the history of music videos started in the 60s. But long before that, there was music and images tied together in an expressive and imaginative way…

In the very first years of 1900, something called illustrated songs were widely performed in vaudevilles, theaters, and nickelodeons. The illustrated song consisted of music, often a singer accompanied by piano. Together with the song, still-, or moving images projected from glass slides were shown. They were often done before the show, and in the case of nickelodeons, after, or in between at reel changes.

Before
sound movies had conquered the world in the early thirties, there were the “talkies”. These were the first steps toward full-length
films and they were immensely popular, especially in the US. The first sound systems in the mid and late twenties had a synchronized disc instead of the soundtrack printed directly on the film itself. For technical reasons, the talkies had to be short and they were particularly suited for music/songs. Many of our greatest sound-film movie stars started out in these short films.
The Bessie Smith short film “St. Louis Blues” from 1929 has some of the music video features mentioned above. It’s set in a bar with extras and the chorus placed around the tables. Mrs. Smith acts naturally at the counter, fingering a beer in front of her. It’s very far from the normal stage performance, and could, if you stretch it a bit, be regarded as the very first music video.
From 1939, the Mills Panoram offered 3 minutes-musical videos from a wooden furniture-like movie jukebox. It was often seen in bars, in nightclubs, and in restaurants as a curiosity of modern society. For 10 cents you could see a b/w “soundie” with a random famous singer.
In the 60s the Panoram-idea was reinvented with the French Scopitone and the Italian Cinebox. These had films in color, a choice of artists, and much better audio- and video quality. Still, they had a hard time competing with TV.

Why were music videos made before MTV?

The TV entered our homes after WW2. But it wasn’t until the late 50s that we started to have some serious TV listings. In those days, many TV shows and programs weren’t perfectly timed and the birth of TV advertisements made TV schedules unpredictable. Often there were spaces of 5, 10, or even 15 minutes between TV shows that needed to be filled with something. The short 3 minutes music video format was perfect for this.

Jack Teagarden and Phil Moore, together with Louis Snader who funded the enterprise, invented a 3-4 minute format aimed at TV and featuring some of the best singers and musicians of the era. Nat King Cole, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Cab Calloway, Sarah Vaughn, and Lionel Hampton are just a few names on the Snader Telescriptions team.

These are sometimes labeled the first music videos, but the problem is that they were pretty much just filmed gigs. And if we need creative video editing to be able to call it a music video, we have to wait another ten years.

In this category, we have the music video credited by the Guinness world of records as the first ever. In 1958 Jiles Perry Richardson Jr, also known as The Big Bopper, recorded the superhit Chantilly Lace together with two other songs.

Check it out yourself to see if you agree with Guinness…

Films

To distinguish a music video from a full-length film is not difficult. The film is much longer and usually has a different type of plot. But in the sixties, there were movies that contained songs with footage that if you cut them out of the film, they would fall into the music video category. Two films are worth mentioning here:

“A hard days night” from 1964 by Richard Lester featuring the Beatles.
“Don’t look back” from 1967 by Donn Allan Pennebaker featuring Bob Dylan.

The Beatles’ first music video.

In 1966, the world’s best-selling and most famous pop band, the Beatles, stopped touring. They sort of got fed up with the tight schedule, the screaming fans, the impossible playing conditions, the hotels, and the constant traveling. Instead, they started recording short promo videos for their newly released singles.

The first one was We can work it out, coming out more or less like a straight-up concert gig in a studio. But already a few months later they released Paperback Writer and the style was different. Now there were inserts of the band members not playing but doing other things or just posing. In 1967, the videos Strawberry fields and Penny Lane showed even more creative tendencies, and so the modern music video format was born.

Watch this video on YouTube

Why did they start making music videos?

The reasons for producing music videos were always to promote the artist or artists. From the beginning of the 20th century until today, advertising and selling was always the goal. Today the music industry has undergone a true metamorfosi. There is much more money to be shared from many more sources. But the music video is still one of the major tools for reaching the audience.

A good video can reach billions. The song Despacito by Luis Fonsi has an astonishing 7,4 billion views on Youtube. Compare that to the Mills Panoram at the entrance of the nightclub in the 1920s and its total public of maybe a few hundred inebriated guests.

Interestingly, today’s music-stars generally make much more money on live performances than they do on copyrights from music files and videos. So, even though artists proportionally make less direct money from the music videos, They have an increasing impact on the artist’s possibility to promote those prosperous live performances.

Today, the music video boosts much more than just the song. It is selling a whole package in which the image and personality of the artist are the main features.

How were music videos made before MTV?

After the Beatles’ first videos in the mid-60s, many other singers and bands started making creative videos showing more than just them playing the music. The form was new and nobody knew for sure where it was heading. Without complex video editing programs, the products were quite simple. Still, many of the directors of the first releases showed a strong desire to experiment. Here is a random collection of some of the videos from that time :

The first music video on MTV.

MTV was launched on August 1, 1981. The first video] was the Buggles with Video Killed the Radio Star, followed by Pat Benatar’s You Better Run. The idea was to play music with music videos around the clock. But although the idea was revolutionary and the concept a winner, the channel struggled in the beginning.

Watch this video on YouTube

One reason was the simple lack of videos. There were so few around that MTV had to let the VJs talk too much, they had to use concert footage, and they had to repeat the artists that actually produced music videos a bit too frequently.

But after Viacom bought the channel in 1985, together with a broadening of the music segments, MTV slowly grew until it totally dominated music promotion. In the late 80s, and the 90s as much as 90% of an artist’s total budget for promotion went to MTV.

… And at that point everybody was making music videos. But that’s a subject for another article.

I should mention Thriller by Michael Jackson. It aired in December 1983, and it opened the doors for Afro-American artists, who before that were rarely seen on the channel. Apart from the racial issues, the spectrum of music styles widened significantly after Thriller. Soul, R&B, Rap music entered the previously Rock-based channel, and that helped in building the totally dominant position MTV reached in the late 1980s. Thriller is regarded as one of the most influential music video of all times.

Watch this video on YouTube

Music Videos – Records

These records are evidently subject to interpretation. The format is not defined, and what is or what is not a true music video can be debated.

First ever… 1958 The Big Bopper, with Chantilly Lace.
First ever… I would put my money on one of the early Beatles videos. Penny Lane, Strawberry fields, but the first was obviously Paperback Writer.
Longest ever… Could be Ghost by Michael Jackson, 38 minutes.
Longest ever… Or it could be Level of concern by Twenty One Pilots, with an astonishing 4264 hours (… yes, that’s 177 days, 16 hours, 10 minutes, and 25 seconds, puh!). But that’s a loop of the three minute-song where fans were invited to send their own videos to the song. Your choice if that’s a true music video.

Most expensive… Scream by Michael and Janet Jackson. 7 million dollars was the price tag.
Most influential artist… Maybe Beyonce. Rolling Stones has her Formation video from 2016 as the best music video ever. Single Ladies won three Grammys, as well as a truckload of other awards, and is regarded as one of the best and most innovative videos ever.
Weirdest music video… Now, there’s quite a pick. Here are a few:

Watch this video on YouTube

Watch this video on YouTube

Watch this video on YouTube

Watch this video on YouTube

Watch this video on YouTube

… But there are many, many more.

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Yes, music videos are definitely older than MTV. It’s just that the definition isn’t all that clear, and depending on what you consider a music video, the starting point changes.

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The chromatic scale – Is there any divine, or universal reason why the scale of a keyboard is precisely 12 notes, and not 11 or 13?

January 18, 2024June 22, 2021 by Unfakely

The chromatic scale

Is there any divine, or universal reason why the chromatic scale of a keyboard is precisely 12 notes, and not 11 or 13?

yes or no?

… And why are they organized in that specific way… With 7 whites and 5 blacks?

It has something to do with the physical laws, something to do with our ears and the way we perceive sounds, and a little to do with practicality.

Disclaimer: This is a very interesting subject, if you’re into music, sound, recordings, and such. Be aware though, that the article is a bit technical

The magical world of pitches and harmonies.

In the physical world there are sounds. Every sound has a pitch, a frequency, and the frequency is measured in Hertz, Hz.

An interval between two notes means that the frequency of the two notes is different. The more mathematically logical the relationship is between the notes, the more consonant the interval sounds to our ears. Consonant roughly means that it seems harmonical, pleasant, and in tune. Dissonance means disharmonic, unpleasant, and harsh.

For the vast majority of people, the actual pitch doesn’t really matter. We can’t immediately detect if the song is played in E or E♯. What we hear are the intervals, the distances between the notes, and from them, we decide if the song is pleasant and if the singer and the instruments are in tune or not. That is why we can transpose songs, and play any music in any key, and it sounds just as good.

The mathematical connections between notes

If you double the frequency, you get a pitch exactly one octave up. The A (A4) above the middle C on a keyboard is normally tuned at 440 Hz. The A (A5) one octave up is 880 Hz. And the A (A6) another octave up is 1760 Hz, and so on.

So, the most simple, mathematically logical relationship is doubling. Consequently, the octave is the most consonant interval. It’s so pleasant and harmonic that we actually use the same name for the notes, all over the keyboard. In this case A. To our ear, they seem like two versions of the same note.

Consonant intervals

The most consonant interval is the octave, obtained by doubling.
The second most consonant interval is a perfect fifth, which is 3/2 of the original frequency. C to G on a keyboard.
The third most consonant is the perfect fourth, 4/3 of the original frequency, C to F on a keyboard.
The fourth most consonant interval is the major third 5/4 of the original frequency, and the major sixth 5/3 of the original frequency followed by the minor third and the minor sixth. But now we are closing in on the dissonances.

In fact, a harmony, major or minor, consists of three notes, The keynote (the perfect prime), the third (minor or major), and the perfect fifth. And if you look at it, the distance from the fifth to the octave is a perfect fourth. So, there you have the consonant intervals, the prime/octave, the third, the fifth, and the fourth.

Dissonant intervals

The most dissonant interval is the note halfway between the octave, the diminished fifth, the tritone. It is 17/12 of the original frequency, and as you see, now we’re quite far away from any close connection.
The second most dissonant intervals are the minor second 17/16 of the original frequency and the major seventh 19/10 of the original frequency.
Other dissonant intervals are the major second, and the minor seventh.
As the notes in the musical universe aren’t limited to the whites and blacks of a keyboard, even more, dissonant intervals can be obtained by using notes that are in between the semitones of the keyboard. A quarter of a tone, an eighth of tone. But more about that later.

The diatonic scale

The diatonic scale, which is the basis for all western, traditional music theory, is made of 5 whole tones and 2 semitones. The whites of the keyboard.

On a major scale the sequence of the intervals is 1 – 1 – ½ – 1 – 1 – 1 – ½.
If you do these intervals, it doesn’t matter where you start on the keyboard. The intervals will produce a perfect major diatonic scale.
The C major scale is C – D – E – F – G – A – B – (C)

Overtones

Any note played by any instrument or sung by a voice, has overtones. The only sound that doesn’t have overtones is a computer-generated sinus tone, sine wave.

The overtones come from the simultaneous vibration of different parts of the vibrating object. Let’s take the cord of a guitar. When the cord vibrates in its full length, it also vibrates in its half length, and the third of its length and so on. So even if the full length of the cord produces the note that we want, the half cord produces a very weak octave, the third of the cord a very weak fifth over the octave, and so on. These overtones, their distribution and strength, give the sound its character. And together with the attack of the note, they let us distinguish a guitar from a flute, a piano from a voice, etc.

relationship frequency of overtones — Overtones

As you can see, the overtones match the consonant intervals pretty accurately.

Now, let’s say we have five of the overtones in a C-note. That would be C – C – G – C – E.

The special case of the dominant.

The fifth note in music theory is called the dominant, and a chord made up from the fifth note of the scale is the dominant harmony. It has a very close and special relationship to the first note. It would be the G in the C-scale, and any harmony built up from the fifth note of any scale is privileged, and special.

If we do the same overtone-trick from the G note but with seven notes, we’ll get G – G – D – G – B – D – F.

If you combine the two overtone series, you get C – D – E – F – G – – B. It’s not a perfect C scale, but it’s close. The only note missing is A.

Another way to get to a diatonic major scale is playing perfect fifths in a sequencE. You will have to start from a fifth below the C… F – C – G – D – A – E – B.

And you can play a series of thirds, minor and major… A – C – E – G – B – D – F (A technique that is used very frequently in jazz…)

Or it can be described as two tetrachords.

… But these are more of an intellectual – philosophical description, that doesn’t really add anything to the understanding of why the chromatic scale has 12 notes and the diatonic scale has 7.

The thing to remember here, is that there is a physical relationship between the notes in a consonant harmony, and thus in a consonant diatonic scale. The notes are not just there by chance.

The chromatic scale

cluster — Jerry Lee Lewis playing all the notes in the chromatic scale with his foot.

So, the diatonic scale is made of 5 whole tones and 2 semitones, the whites of the keyboard.

If, instead of using whole tones and semitones, we just use the semitones. Then you would have to fill up the 5 whole steps with the half step that lies between. Since there are 5 whole steps in a diatonic scale, you have to add five semitones to get a scale of only half steps, a chromatic scale. 7 + 5 makes 12.

The chromatic scale is the 12 semitones equally distributed between one note and the same note one octave up or down. This perfectly equal distribution is called temperament, and it’s a compromise between the perfect pitch of the natural tones, and the practical need to be able to play in any key.

But it doesn’t necessarily have to be 7… There are many other ways to combine the notes.

During the centuries, and in different parts of the world, various ideas of tuning and constructing scales have been offered.

Maybe most notable is the pentatonic scale: With the major third C – D – E – G – A.
Or with the minor third A – C – D – E – G
The hexatonic whole tone scale C – D – E – F# – G# – A#
The hexatonic blues scale C – E♭/E (gliding pitch) – F – F# – G – B♭

Watch this video on YouTube

And there have been many others. All these different ways to combine notes normally still consider the fifth and the fourth as fundamental. Their close connection to the unison, the keynote, make them indispensable in most scales.

And it doesn’t necessarily have to be 12 notes in the chromatic scale either…

There are numerous other ways to separate the different notes from each other. Here are just a few examples, but there are so many more used in different time periods, and in different regions.

You could for example double the number and tune the scale in 24 steps.

Watch this video on YouTube

Or you could use 19 steps, which in some way would be rather close to the 12 tone scale, with a few notes added.
The 72 equal temperament, or 72 edo divides the octave into 72 equal steps.
The Byzantine music theory uses the 72 equal temperament scale
The Arab tone system is based on 24 equal steps in the octave.

Watch this video on YouTube

The problems with alternative scales.

The difficulties become obvious when you actually try to play music. How do you play a note that is between one and the other? A keyboard would have to be completely reconstructed. But even instruments like a violin are still constructed to play the 12 notes of the chromatic scale.

And the preparation, and training of the musician often doesn’t prepare him for playing between the notes.

The only real exception would be the voice. A human voice doesn’t have finger positions where the note should be. A singer tunes with the ears and sings according to what he/she hears. The Arabic singer who is trained in a 24 note scale can produce a perfect intonation within that scale.

The wonderful compromise of the 12-tone equal temperament.

If you have a keyboard tuned in just intonation, and you start from C and put E, and G on top of it, you end up with a beautiful C major chord. Now, if you start from G and put B, and D on it you will have a G major. But while the interval between C and G is a perfect 5th, the interval between G and D is not. Remember that the keyboard was tuned perfectly with the C as the root. The G is in perfect tune compared to the C, but not compared to the D.

And the further away you get from C, the more out of tune the instrument would seem. G♭ major would sound quite awful.

If you look at old classical music, before the 18th century, they almost never used keys with a lot of flats or sharps. It didn’t sound well at the time.

To resolve this, we use something called a temperate tuning system. Instead of tuning the various intervals perfectly, we tune only the octave perfectly, by doubling the frequency. Then we distance the 12 semitones in between equally. Every half note has the exact same space, 100 cents.

The distance of an octave is 1200 cents.

At the end, the piano is slightly out of tune, but it’s so little that you don’t hear it. The benefit is that you can play in any key and it sounds just as good as in any other.

C equally tempered

C just intonation

C# equally tempered

C# just intonation

So, it’s easy to hear that the last chord is out of tune. If the keyboard is tuned in just intonation with the C note as a base, the C# will come out quite distorted, as it has 5 sharps.

J.S. Bach and the Well-Tempered Clavier.

In the beginning of 1700 Johann Sebastian Bach wrote two books of 24 preludes and fugues in each. They were equally distributed between the 12 keys. He wrote them in enthusiasm over the newly invented temperature. Something that permitted composting in any key with equally good results.

In the 16th and 17th centuries there had been many suggestions to resolve the problem with the equal temperature, and not even Bach had our modern equal temperature at his disposal. It would take more than a hundred years before the equal 12 tone temperament was widely accepted. The two books with the total of 24 preludes and 24 fugues are regarded today as masterpieces of technical perfection.

Conclusion

The scales and music theories of the world depend very strongly on traditions, preferences, practicality, and fashions and trends. Still, the foundation for the 7-tone diatonic scale, the 12-tone chromatic scale, as well as almost all other scales, to at least some degree is the physical relations between the various natural overtones of any pitch… The vibration of the half cord, the third of a cord, the fourth, and so on.

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Yes, the reason why the chromatic scale has 12 notes, can be found in the physical laws of the universe. Although we humans have made these laws more practical, more flexible, and better tuned.

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Theremin – Can you play music just by moving your hands in the air?

September 20, 2022June 14, 2021 by Unfakely

Theremin

Can you play music just by moving your hands in the air?

yes or no?

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What is a Theremin?

The Theremin is an electronic instrument created in the 1920s and patented in 1928 in the US by the Russian inventor and musician Leon Theremin. The instrument has two antennas, one for pitch, and the other for volume. The musician moves his hands in the air closer and further away from the antennas, thus controlling the height and strength of the sound. It is the only musical instrument you can play without touching it.

The sound is smooth, flowing, and with a very electronic, eerie touch. The typical Sci-Fi-/Horror movie from the 50s type of touch. And it was actually extremely popular in the early sound motion picture days.. Hitchcock’s Spellbound, Robert Siodmak’s The spiral staircase, and Cecil B. DeMille’s The ten commandments are just a few of the many films that included the Theremin in their soundtrack.

The tech-talk

The Theremin generates electromagnetic fields around two antennas. One is standing up, controlling the pitch, and the other one placed horizontally in a u-shaped bow at the side of the instrument, controlling the volume.

Two oscillators are connected to the pitch antenna, one with a slightly variable frequency and one with a fixed frequency. The two signals are mixed, and the frequency from one antenna is subtracted from that of the other, through a process called heterodyning. The hand and body of the musician act as the earth in the electromagnetic field. It interferes with the frequency of the variable oscillator, and changes the pitch.

The volume antenna works in a similar way.

Have you ever desperately tried to adjust the antenna of an old radio or a tv, only to discover that when you hold your hand around the antenna the sound/picture is ok, but when you move it away, it gets all distorted? That’s the principle we are talking about.

Can you really play music on a thing like that?

Of course, you can. But… And that’s something to consider before starting a career… It’s regarded by many as the most difficult instrument in the world.

You move your hands closer and further away from the two antennas. The closer the hand is to the pitch antenna, the higher the tone. The closer the hand is to the volume antenna, the weaker the tone. That means that you will need a lot of precision training to get the distance right. It doesn’t have frets that are tuned in semitones, like the guitar. It doesn’t even have strings that you can look at and feel, to determine where to put down your finger, like the violin.

The difficulty in playing and the rather limited repertoire have produced very few who truly mastered playing the Theremin. Many have tried but few have succeeded.

The most famous Thereminist is without a doubt Clara Rockmore from Lithuania. She was a professional violinist with innate absolute pitch (She knew the exact frequency of a tone just by listening to it without having to confront it to an instrument.). That probably helped her a lot when reaching for the perfectly tuned note.

It was the world’s first truly electronic musical instrument

Jimmy Page playing the Theremin-solo of Whole Lotta Lovin’

I’ve already mentioned the usage of the Theremin sound in the film industry. Its strange and futuristic color made it an attractive partner in all movie production from the thirties and onwards.

The portamento-type gliding pitch and the typically spacy sound was something brand new in the music industry. Today, with all our computerized music, maybe it is difficult to understand, but in the thirties, forties, and fifties the instrument was sensational. It was a completely new approach to sound making and it gained a lot of attention.

The Beach Boys used it in their smash hit “good vibrations”
Pink Floyd used it on the song “The Great Gig In The Sky” from the album Dark side of the Moon
Led Zeppelin used it on Whole Lotta Love from the album Led Zeppelin II. Although this was a modified version. Jimmy Page only controlled the pitch, not the volume.
… And many more.

These are somewhat old songs, and it’s logical. The Theremin was the first and only electrical sound source apart from more conventional electronic pieces like the Hammond organ. The Theremin’s typical synthesizer-ish sound had no competition until Robert Moog started creating his Moog-synthesizers in the 60s. From then on, the Theremin’s attraction diminished.

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Fun fact:

Robert Moog was fascinated by the Theremin. His own development of the Moog synthesizer was very much based upon the Russian invention. The whole Moog industry actually started out as a retail for Theremin kits. Today Moog’s biggest selling products are Theremins in various shapes.

A short history

After the Russian revolution and the following Russian wars at the beginning of 1900, the newborn Soviet Union invested a lot of money and human capital into various scientific projects. Many of these aimed at developing various new weapon techniques, as well as ways to spy on foreign and domestic enemies. One of these fields was proximity sensors, gadgets that can sense people and objects without any type of physical contact.

The young Lev Termen was recruited, and very soon the talented scientist had invented a device with which you could detect electromagnetic interference from a distance. Unfortunately, the distance was just a foot or two and completely useless as a spy device. Instead, a completely new musical instrument was born… The Theremin, named after the inventor.

In 1927, after having toured Europe and Russia, Termin moved to the USA, where he changed his name to Leon Theremin and patented his invention in 1928. In the following years, the instrument slowly conquered the western world, and Leon Theremin continued to develop his creation, as well as invent new things. He created the very first metal detectors for the Alcatraz prison, and he continued to work on his own television technology.

Leon Theremin was more of a visionary than a down-to-earth technician. And he was still a Soviet citizen and had frequent contacts with Russian agents.

The tragic fate of Leon Theremin

In 1938 he suddenly left the US to go back to the Soviet Union. His homecoming didn’t go as expected, though. The Russian authorities arrested him upon arrival and sent him to prison. Shortly thereafter he was put to work within the State financed research and development laboratories, the so-called Sharashka, as a convict.

Here he developed many “useful” devices.

In 1945 a wooden plaque of the Great Seal of the United States was presented to the Ambassador in Moscow. Inside it, Theremin had constructed a passive electronic bugging device… “The thing”. It was operational for 7 years inside the Embassy, until it was accidentally exposed in 1952.

In 1947, he was released from forced participation in espionage technology development but remained within the KGB until 1966 when he retired.

He was awarded the Stalin Prize in 1947.

Isn’t it dangerous with all that electricity?

No, it’s not. The frequency of around 500 kHz is very low. That kind of electromagnetic radiation is called non-ionizing and there has never been any confirmed alteration in cell structure caused by non-ionizing radiation. And you are holding your hands around the instrument, but reasonably far away from it.

It is probably much more hazardous to use a normal cell phone. A cell phone operates in the area of around 2 GHz. That’s four thousand times the frequency of a Theremin… And you hold it close to your head.

Special difficulties when playing the Theremin

Since there are no references whatsoever to where the notes are – you’re holding your hands in the air, playing depends entirely on your ear… What you hear. Having said that, it is extremely important to have a very good understanding of intonation. Just like when you sing, but singing is much more natural and innate. You play the Theremin with your hands, and your hands are not used to intonation in the same way your vocal cords are. Many Thereminists explain it as thinking of the note coming in from underneath, moving the hand inwards. Then stopping when the correct pitch is reached.

Another difficulty consists in the fact that it is your body’s position, in this case, your hands, that determines the pitch and volume. One, small motion, an uncontrolled breath, an itch on your back, a change in weight on your feet, could completely alter the whole intonation thing. Close to the antenna, the semi-notes are just a few millimeters apart. The musician needs to be able to stand perfectly still for a long time. To do that, you need a good posture and good understanding of it

The Theremin today

It is still in use. Thousands of people all over the world continue to struggle with its relentless difficulties. It’s an odd member of the orchestra, but it is unique in the way it is played, and it being able to move all over the tonal spectrum without limits. It also has some theatrical characteristics, as the performer moves the hands in a sensual, expressive way while the body is completely motionless.

The initial flat model has grown into various shapes. Many have invented new versions, and many improvements have been made over the years. New techniques make it easier to play today than it was a hundred years ago. It still is one of-, if the most difficult instrument to master of all.

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Yes, utilizing the hands as ground in an electromagnetic field, you can play just moving them in the air around two antennas. The instrument is called Theremin.

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