"For our rhythm tutorial's midterm, in which we were required to make a piece of music, I made a song called "frozen lightning". The song is 2 minutes and 17 seconds and is comprised of only 2 tracks, a "drum" track and a "synth" track. The drum track is an electronic drum kit labeled "tribal" and the synthesizer was made on the ES2 synthesizer on Logic Pro X. The entire song was made exclusively on Logic Pro X. Both tracks were recorded live in one take, without the spacing of the notes being edited afterwards. The idea of this was to capture the sounds in real time, the imperfect rhythm of me actually playing it live, as opposed to being perfectly in time as it might be if I clicked the notes in. Yet, because these sounds were made on Logic and have effects added, there is an element to these sounds that is inhumanly perfect (they could only exist with digital editing, could not be organically made live). By using these digital sounds in a real-life tempo, I aimed to convey the contrast between a sound that is digital and a sound that is more organic/human. This is meant to blur the line commonly drawn between that which is seen as synthetic and that which is seen as natural. Often times our culture has a conception that the in our world there are "natural" things like plants and animals and that these natural things are sentient (conscious) and that on the other end of this spectrum there are synthetic things which are man-made, artificial, and not conscious (electronics, robots, etc.) This distinction between these 2 groups is often seen as a fundamental distinction between electronic music from other forms of music, there is a synthetic element to electronic music in the fact that it creates sounds that one could not make otherwise, often patterns of notes that could not even be played live (ex. an extremely fast snare roll faster than a human could play).
I have noticed that many electronic songs seem to make use of this, by creating pretty sequences or textures of sounds that are perfect to the human ear, often in the form of robotic rhythms that are perfectly in sync. To hear these perfect digital sounds in these perfectly digital time sequences tends to be very appealing. At this point, many of us who have heard a fair share of electronic music may even subconsciously expect it in our brains, when we hear these synthetic textures, that these textures will be in some sort of perfect timing. This is why I have found it very interesting to create sequences of digital sounds that seem to be almost rhythmless, or lack any sort of traditional sort of rhythmic structure. Often when I first make a song like this the rhythm will sound bad or off to me, but over time ends up having a whole different type of appeal than the traditional electronic music I am used to.
One appeal I have found while listening to music made by instruments is that I can imagine a real-life human being playing each and every one of the sounds present as it hits my ears, which reminds me of my own humanity. This beauty found in the humanness of these sounds is deeply fulfilling as it seems to emphasize the beauty of my own humanness as well as those around me. In the past, I have found a different type of appeal to electronic music, in its ability to create states which seem otherworldly and not human. Yet, as our culture further and further integrates itself into this world of technology, it is slowly becoming apparent that the world of technology is not some far off theoretical dimension but actually a synthetic extension of our own organic world, our vessel of consciousness. Some people are starting to understand technology and the digital world as an extension of our own consciousness. Listening to songs such as "frozen lightning", and observing how these digital synthetic sounds, move in uneven, imperfect, real-time intervals reminds of the humanity and consciousness which exists in these digital systems. It is a reminder that there is a living breathing entity orchestrating the digital sounds conveyed during one's experience of listening to electronic music. When I hear the spacing of each note or beat in relation to one another I am able to relive the moment of creating the sounds, remembering each moment I tapped one of my fingers on each of the keys.
This mindset I seek to achieve prior to making my songs such as "frozen lightning" is a term known in psychology as "flow". Flow is described by Wikipedia as " the mental state of operation in which a person performing an activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the process of the activity. In essence, flow is characterized by complete absorption in what one does, and a resulting loss in one's sense of space and time." Flow states are a big inspiration on my day to day being which trickles into my music, as with my music I seek to create a genuine representation of the feelings I am experiencing at each moment. Often the feelings I experience are not of my choosing but rather something I am naturally subjected to. Sometimes it is hard to process unwanted emotions over other emotions that may be seen as more desirable. Often with certain music I make such as "frozen lightning" I allow myself to make whatever naturally comes out of me instead of making a sort of premeditated intentional sound. Allowing the sounds to create themselves without my own personal desires in consideration acts as a way for me to practice accepting unwanted feelings, and learning how to make the most of them (ie. creating sounds that I find beautiful or appealing out of what I make in the moment). These patterns that I create in these flow states (such as the note pattern in frozen lightning) which may not fall into conventional beauty standards of music allow me to question my how I am affected by other predispositions to cultural norms of beauty. I believe that by listening to these unconventional patterns and training one's mind to recognize them as appealing, one may be opening up other neural pathways in the brain that could inspire openness to other types of new experiences that one may have been previously conditioned to close themselves off too. Certain psychologists have predicted that there is a link between one's openness to experience and their overall levels of happiness and satisfaction in life.
Although it can be understood in many ways, one way of understanding meditation is training oneself to be present and aware of their state of being in any given moments. Certain researchers have found activities that induce "flow" states as analogous to meditation in their abilities to create presentness, to cause an individual to be thinking about nothing else than experiencing the ever-present NOW which is right in front of one. So I am wondering, if the theoretical aim of meditation and flow-states is to find a complete presentness in a given moment, if this presentness were to be understood as isolating the moment as an individual frame not entirely associated with any other, then how would the blip of sound of a song present in this moment be related spacially to the sound present in another moment. If one were theoretically meditating 100% for a length of time, I am curious how one would perceive the spaces of time in between beats or notes?
According to Godfried Toussaint in "What makes a good Rhythm Good?", the perfect time signature most analogous to the internal human rhythm involves 5 hits over 16 beats, and he backs this up with extensive math that I wouldn't attempt to argue against. Yet, even if one were to accept Toussaints claims in this text, might this only hold true when looking at the part of our reality that understandable in a context that is "rational" and systematic? I am thinking about religious conceptions of "God" or "enlightenment" among various traditions, that view God, enlightenment, the "ultimate" however one may choose to understand it, as something that is inherently indefinable by rational. One example of this is the concept of Nirvana (ultimate enlightenment) in Buddhism was said by the Buddha to be incomprehensible to the human mind until one actually died and entered the state.
I am curious if the lack of formal structure in the rhythms of "frozen lightning" could be paralleled to the ultimate spiritual reality or "divine happiness" as understood by followers of religion. To listen to this track it seems one must trust the sounds despite their potential initial lack of appeal, in the same way religious individuals maintain trust in a higher power. If one is able to listen to these sounds with a mindset similar to when meditating, might one hear the sounds differently? If put on loop the end flows right back in the beginning as it was made to sometimes be listened to on loop for a long period of time. There are very few sounds used but the way they change up without rhyme or reason makes each part feel very unique, at least in my own listening experience.
In my own listening experience of this song I often choose to listen to it on loop for an extended period of time, as I feel that this way of listening maximizes the intended effect of the song to pull the listener into a meditative state. In my own experience of listening to more structured genres of music like pop, the song is often extremely satisfying at first but may become boring if listened to too many times in a row, I would probably prefer to listen to a variety of pop songs in a sitting. But with the song "frozen lightning" I feel the exact opposite, the first time I listen I feel like it is interesting but confusing, and as it loops and the brain can take time understanding how to process, it becomes more rhythmic in ones head and becomes increasingly satisfying. In a sense, this seems like it could be similar to the reason the brain tends to like pop music because it can predict what will happen. Once you have listened to frozen lightning multiple times in a row your brain learns how to interpret something as music that before may have been more difficult because you become able to predict the sounds despite the ambiguity of the pattern they are following. I believe that this can create a sense of satisfaction like one feels when they are listening to an electronic dance song and the bass is about to drop and you know it and when it does you become inundated with emotion. I wonder if the process of listening to this song repeatedly and training your brain to recognize patterns in these sounds could somehow improve one's IQ, problem-solving skills, ability to adapt to new situations, handle unplanned circumstances, or anything else in that nature. Over the years as I have increasingly listened to more unconventional genres of music such as soundscapes, noise, field recordings, etc., I have noticed that it has changed the way I think about sound. Sometimes I enjoy hearing construction noises or machinery on the street that I may have thought of as unpleasant before exploring these genres of music. I am curious as to other ways that exposing oneself to certain unconventional sounds could change the way the process external stimuli and information.
The more I listen to this song repeated the more I am comforted by its sound, the more normal it sounds and the more present I feel. I am curious as to the sounds used in this song are affecting my brain on a scientific level, and how this can be related to the research addressed in "What Makes a Good Rhythm Good?" I am curious to the initial listening reaction from others who did not have the experience I did of actually making the song. I am wondering if others will be reminded of something organic or synthetic and whether they will find it soothing or distressing. I am also curious as to how these conceptions from others might change over a period of repeatedly listening to the sound.
I would also like to think more in-depth about these sounds potential relation to meditative states, and if there are relations if this would have to do with the process that went into making the sounds or based on the texture and pattern of the sounds themselves. Overall I enjoyed making the song "frozen lightning" with rhythm in mind as well as listening to it and thinking about it in relation to everything we have been learning. I am also curious how future readings for this class might affect the way I think about this sound. Thank you for listening and reading!"