What has three pedals, four feet and stops? (Part one)

"Music hath charms to soothe a savage breast" or so the saying goes. Ok, so why is music so good to hear?

There's talk of such things like pitch, tempo, rhythm, melody, harmony, but none of these are ever thought about when listening. We just know it is good at the time. Truth is, we ARE using these concepts, but many people do not realise this.

A possible explantion may be put forward.

The simplest musical instrument possible can be found in the physics lab, and is called the "Sonometer". A very fancy name for what it is : One piece of metal wire stretched between two points. What you do is hit it. It goes either "bing" or " bong".

This, is music. Ok, so it is very simple, but the music we listen to consists of nothing but "bings" and "bongs", plus maybe a 'twing" or "twang", but the difference is that real music is the combination of these and their interaction. Actually, there are more than four, there are eight, and they are called an "octave".

But what exactly is a "bing"? The answer is a "bing' is that which you hear when you pull the wire up and let go. This is called "plucking" the wire.

So what is a "bong"? This answer is the same, but made with a longer sonometer or wire.

Both are called "notes". Thus, there are eight "notes" in an 'octave".

This is where the skill of the musician comes in. She combines each note or notes to make something good to hear.

To explain further, let's return to the sonometer. The earliest musicians thought "Why should I have a row of sonometers, when I can ask the local carpenter to put them all in a machine?" Well, he did, and it was called , figuratively speaking, the "harpsichord". What this did was it plucked a string of your choice when you pressed one of the "keys" - an array of mechanical objects arranged to finish on the front of the machine, looking rather like a straight set of white teeth. We now call this a "keyboard".

So now, you could get a "bing", "beng" ,"bong" and even a "bung" and all the other 4 notes. The reason why the keyboard had more then 1 octave was because the musician found that using more than 1 was better. Simply put, a higher octave has wires which are exactly half as short as the regular octave.The lower octave , of course, had wires exactly twice the length.

Then people found they could combine the notes in many different ways, and found that certain notes played in succession sounded much better than the same notes played at random. This was called a "melody". The simplest melody I can think of is the Kop at Liverpool FC singing "Walk On" ("bing-bang-bong") a melody of only three notes. Another simple melody but excellent to hear is "Crockett's Theme" by Jan Hammer - 14 notes coming together that sound REALLY GOOD.

But there are only so many good melodies to make, even with the whole keyboard and a gifted musician. One of the last masters of the Harpsichord was Bach, and probably took the concept of melody to its limits. (check out his "Well-Tempered Clavier")

Others found that combinations of notes played AT THE SAME TIME sounded better too. This was called "harmony".

It was also the case that musicians were getting tired of the same note always having the same amplitude. That is, play a key, and no matter what you did, the sound was always just as loud.

This led to the invention of the "piano forte" or 'piano" . This allowed the wire not to be plucked, but "hit" by a hammer, and, the softer or louder the hammer blow, the softer or louder the note became. This allowed a key to be depressed softly, "Biiiiingggg" or forcefully"BINGGGG". "Piano" is Italian for "soft" and "Forte" is italian for "loud".

Once the piano was born, a new generation of musicians came along to play it, notably, Rachmaniov, Beethoven and Chopin. More or less like new movements of music today eg, Punk taking over from Country Music, etc.

These piano musicians became masters of the "soft-loud".

It was actually said that Chopin composed his Etude in C-Minor because he was angry upon hearing his beloved Warsaw had fallen to the Russians in 1831, and it shows. He used the LOUD option with vehemence. However, he was also master of the "soft' option, for example, take Prelude N04 in E-Minor, and he uses both options in the Prelude No14 in D-Flat-major.

It must be remembered that the analyses presented use the piano as example , being easier, but the arguments, are, in fact, general.

But the piano had more scope than this. It has another feature, called "sustain". This is because when you release a key, the note stops ringing. But sometimes this is unwanted, and this is where the right hand pedal (sustain pedal) comes in. If this pedal is kicked down and held there as you press the key, the sound is as if you still have your finger there!

The left hand pedal does the opposite, and deadens the note as soon as both a pressed.

BUT, what happens when you want a richer sound? You gotta use physics! It's best explained with the sonometer. Think of what happens with two sonometers side by side, one double the length of the other, and you pluck both wires. You get a "bing AND a "bong", but they seem related - are they? Yes, they are. As one is double the length, that is, gives a lower sound. Everybody has twanged a ruler in school at some point - the more ruler to "twang' , the lower the sound is. The sonometer just measures how much lower. Here's an idea - try plucking the longer wire twice as high and let go, you get another 'bing" but louder, and....different..?

Hmmm.

What is happening now is NOT as simple. But easy now you know the above.....