MUSICAL PATTERNS
Colophon: Type set in Body: Swift Regular 8.75pt/12pt Display: League Gothic 60pt/48pt Dimensions: A5 (148 mm x 210 mm)
MUSICAL PATTERNS
Elective 1
Khyati Trehan S1000085 GDPD '10 Graphic Design
Guide: Immanuel Suresh
PROJECT BRIEF Guide: Immanuel Suresh
Mapping Musical Patterns and Human Behavioural Patterns Introduction The project aims to provide insight into why music moves us so. Deliverables such as visuals/information graphics/ interactive animations/publication design would attempt at illustrating research in the field of musical patterns, human behavioral patterns and the brain and the possibility of connections between them. Such a visual may also have the potential to simplify and explain basic western music theory principles. Process The project will be carried out in the following steps: 1. Parallel study of Western Music theory, brain & human behavioral patterns. 2. Visual representation of the above individual concepts. 3. Mapping similarities in patterns across separate subjects of study. 4. Application of the above to an appropriate medium, so as to make available to the audience. Target audience The target audience for this project could vary from the youth to the middle-aged (16-30 years) though the tone of visual language as well as text will be simple, so as to clarify a research study as intensive as the above.
Gamut of Study Music is a worldwide phenomena and there are several ways different cultures approach it. To begin with, I need to decide which perspective of music I were to study intently. The two directions that were directly accessible to me were Hindustani Classical music and Western classical music. Hindustani classical music has no formal notation system associated it with and is passed on using the oral tradition. Indian music also is a lot more fluid and not as structured as Western Classical music, as the former finds its roots in nature. The smallest unit in Western music is a semitone, whereas that of Hindustani music extends to microtones and is far more complex. Given these, and given the fact that my role is of a graphic designer, and not a musicologist, I chose to understand Western music theory for this project.
Music Theory
INFORM COLLECT ANALYS Theory is the study of the theoretical elements of music including sound and pitch, rhythm, melody, harmony, and notation. Learning music theory is like learning a new language. The concepts and rules that make up music theory are very much like the grammatical rules that govern written language. Being able to transcribe music makes it possible for other musicians to read and play compositions exactly as the composer intended. Since it is a vast topic and is something that is taught over years to be able to reach a position where one may be able to sight read sheet music, I could only cover basics that would help me understand the mathematical roots of musical construction. These spanned from Pythagoras's discovery of scale tuning to modern formations of polyrhythms. My sources of learning were several but I relied mainly on Andrew Fermanczyk's youtube channel. It was full, ind epth music theory course, completely for free. There was homework assigned at
ATION TION & IS the end of each lesson that helped internalize the teaching.
I also took month long theory and vocal lessons at Music Tek in Delhi, a music school start by Manoj Mavely. Mavely is the first ever drummer from the Indian sub-continent to be awarded a $28,000 Scholarship to study at the world renowned Berklee College of Music, Boston.
Aditya Balani is a guitarist, composer and songwriter. In 2010 he graduated (summa cum laude) from Berklee College of Music (USA), where he received the Berklee Achievement Scholarship and won the Kenwood Dennard artist competition. He is the academic director of the Global Music institute in Delhi that deals with education of music in India. By interacting with him, I understood how music is taught and he also provided me with books from the Berklee curriculum that were self instructional such as the Practical Music theory book by Sandy Feldstein. Throughout the course of learning music theory, I came across several concepts that were represented visually already but I repeatedly tried to make remember them easier by creating my own visual
clues. For example, to distinguish a sharp from a flat, I imagined a character that would jump up is a 'sharp' object were to poke him, which reminded me that a note would go 'up' a semitone if it had a sharp attached to it. The character would be lowered on the ground if he were to lie flat, which helped me remember that a flat lowers a note by a semitone. Mathematically speaking, rhythm can be boiled down to simply performing equations of fractions. However, the speed at which a percussionist or a dancer derives and solves these fractions is what makes rhythm as complex as it is. The division of melody is far more layered. The circle of fifths is one such topic that is most interesting. The term 'fifth' defines an interval or mathematical ratio. The circle of fifths is a sequence of pitches or key tonalities, represented as a circle, in which the next pitch is found seven semitones higher than the last. Musicians and composers use the circle of fifths to understand and describe the musical relationships among some selection of those pitches. Since this was a concept that was already visualized over the years, I tried to build on it and break it down to a more details explanation of how it is derived.
Fig (Left): Notes on interval study from lessons by Andrew Fermanczyk's videos
Fig (PTO): Notes on brain and music from 'Musical Thought'
Fig: Major scale formation, triads, diminished and augmented scales
Music, Brain and Culture
We construct musical parameters in our brain to contract music in our minds using different parts of the brain. The process of perceiving music is a combination of structural appreciation of music and emotional reaction to music. Books such as Musicophilia (by Oliver Sacks), Music, the Brain & Ecstacy and Musical thought provided insight into concepts such as musical imagery, stereophony, relationship of fixed action patterns and music, synesthesia, entrainments, etc. One of the topics that was closely linked with patterns was rhythm. Rhythm is the basis of several social activities. Just as we bind several senses at once to to perceive, rhythm binds individual nervous systems of a human community. It can play a great role in coordinating basic locomotor movements, a trait that is closely linked with entrainment. The aspect of repetition and symmetry found in rhythm finds traces in evolution, the basis of which is imitation.
The Harvard lectures of Leonard Bernstein were breathtaking. Bernstein used several of musical examples during the course of the lectures. Many of these he could play on the piano, but each lecture also featured Bernstein conducting entire movements and even complete works. These apparently needed to be rehearsed and then filmed for presentation during the lectures. One of the most intriguing topics he covered included drawing parallels between the complex emotions that certain classical pieces arouse such as that of power and pity, or pathetic apologetic tunes, and the aspects of theory such as dissonance and polytones that works behind the scenes. This brought to the fore how music has the ability to be expressive by being objective, two terms that are practically antonyms of each other.
Fig (Above): Leonard Bernstein at a Harvard Lecture.
DRAWIN PARALL
The research of the two subtopics i.e., theory and effect of music on behavior, was done simultaneously to be able to draw parallels. Music theory topics were grouped into rhythm, the dissection of the grand staff, accidentals, circle of fifths explanation, and intervals. I went over all the research topics that belonged to cultural and psychological aspects of music again and handpicked from the data a few concepts that were related to each music theory subtopic. Fig (Above): Post-its are sup-topics of music theory whereas the ones marked red are from the cultural & psychological aspects of music.
G ELS
GRAPHIC INTERVE
C DESIGN ENTION The terms data visualization and infographics, are often used interchangeably. It's understandable as the meanings often overlap. They both seek order, and it is always the intention that they should be informative. Infographics are generally created for the purpose of telling a specific story, and will usually be intended for a specific audience. Therefore they may be text heavy. Data visualization is the creation and study of the
visual representation of data, meaning information that has been abstracted in some schematic form. Infographics can contain Data Visualisations, but Data Visualisations cannot contain Infographics. Since my field of study combined is too complex to be understandable using only visuals and will need supporting text, it made sense to visualized concepts separately and use them to illustrate the text to create an infographic.
Fig (Left): Notes on interval study from lessons by Andrew Fermanczyk's videos
Fig (PTO): Notes on brain and music from 'Musical Thought'
Case Studies of Various infographics
Fig (Top Left): These posters by Birmingham graphic designer Rob Ricketts show how to recreate bassline percussion sequences from classic dance tracks on the iconic 1980s Roland TR-808 drum machine. videos
Fig (Bottom Left): The infographic by Francesco Franchi shows what the bees are fed to develop them into queen, drone and worker.
Fig (Right): Nicholas Felton documents everything about his life and creates annual reports heavy with infographics.
I studied infographics that had to do with music as well as those that were strong from the point of view of layout and hierarchy.
Fig (Top): Explanation of enharmonic notes
Fig (Bottom): Rhythm notation in use to demonstrate fractions.
Elements of the infographic
Fig (Next Page): Circle of fifths using different device to show increasing pattern of sharps after every fifth scale.
The most structurally complex component of the information to be represented was the circle of fifths explanation. Even though in the 1st models I mentioned number of sharps, just mentioning didn't make for the part. After speaking to Akshan Ish, I realized that even something as simple as a number increasing by 1 every needed to be visually represented without using number. Using a symbol that was explained in the key/how to read this section made this pattern conspicuous.
Format & Dimensions
Fig (Above): Yellow boxes appearing on clicking title containing the 2nd layer of information. A2 landscape version of the infographic.
The initial output decided on was a layered infographic that condensed 75% of the basics of music theory. The 2nd layer of information could be viewed by clicking buttons, making the infographic either an interactive pdf or a web platform. An A2 landscape oriented poster could be the print accompaniment. However, on second attempt to put sections together, I decided to use a layout that would be suitable for both web, as well as print, as the A2 poster could not contain the cultural information on music. For web, the format would be comfortable for scrolling and for print, the width would have to be less than 36 inches to be suitable for the plotter. Fig (Left): Vertical scroll format of the infographic.
The infographic aims at an audience that has knowledge of music and practices an instrument or vocals but is not thorough with the theory behind their practice. Such a target group may know that sharps and flats are the black keys on a keyboard but may not know why they are arranged in a sequence of twos and threes among the white keys.
FINAL INFOGRA
PHIC
BIBLIOGRAPHY Books
Videos & Web
Oliver Sacks. Musicophilia Vintage, 2008
Jacob Bronowski, The Ascent of Man BBC Documentary Series
Daniel J. Levitin. This is your brain on music Penguin Books, 2006
Andrew Fermancyzk, Music theory videos Piano Academy, 2010
S.A.K Durga. Ethnomusicology B.R. Rhythms, 2004 Robert Jourdian. Music, the brain and Ecstacy HarperCollins Publishers, 2002 Nils L. Wallin, Bjorn Merker & Steven Brown. The Origins of Music MIT Press, 2000 Tia DeNora. Music in everyday life Cambridge University Press, 2000 Gareth Loy. Musimathics MIT Press, 2000 R. Murray Schaufer. The soundscape Destiny Books, 1994 Carlos Chaivez. Musical thought Harvard University Press, 1961 Sandy Feldstein. Practical Theory Alfred Music, 1982
www.brainfacts.org/Feeds/Dana/ElizabethSpelke-Ph-D-on-the-findings-of-the-Dana-Artsand-Cognition-Consortium www.funandlearnmusic.com/ www.waynepascall.net/multimediaportfolio/ id65.html
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would firstly like to thank Suresh, my guide for keeping me enthusiastic about this project and sharing his knowledge on the subject. Suresh introduced me to several videos, tutorials and books on the matter that played a huge part in the process of the project. Not many people know that he plays the guitar and is very musically inclined. I would also like to thank Dhiman for the initial discussion regarding the scope of the project before I wrote the proposal. The project wouldn't have been possible without all the people I met who were passionate about music and playing instruments. I am thankful to Aditya Balani of GMI for taking time out for me and brainstorming ideas for differently representing of theoretical music. My batchmates gave me feedback continuously and helped test the infographic. I troubled Vanessa, Pragun, Isha, Aadarsh, Hena, Shailendra, Rahul, Nikunj, Hrishikesh, Aishwarya, Jyothi and Varenya in particular.