{"id":1650,"date":"2021-01-04T06:12:44","date_gmt":"2021-01-04T13:12:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.timsummers.org\/?p=1650"},"modified":"2021-01-04T06:13:49","modified_gmt":"2021-01-04T13:13:49","slug":"sine-wave-blues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.timsummers.org\/?p=1650","title":{"rendered":"sine wave blues"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>I would post this as &#8216;blues&#8217; only because I know it&#8217;s not <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Blues\">blues<\/a> and never should be categorised as such. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It&#8217;s just some sort of tightened symbolic rendering, some mathemagical\/numerological shadow. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But here in our digital igloos, before our computers, respecting our &#8216;social distance&#8217;, we play with dots and waves, alone. Perhaps, at least, there is some glue in this, for us all to use later, when there are instruments and gatherings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p>In any case: for beginning to play along with harmony, there is hardly a better starting point than a simple blues progression. Here&#8217;s a little low resolution, lockdown blues, with a digital absence of style as backup. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-audio\"><audio controls src=\"http:\/\/www.timsummers.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/20210101_sine_wave_blues.mp3\"><\/audio><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><br>I&#8217;ve tried to keep it in a kind of digital lo-res, trying to be aesthetically clear that we&#8217;re working at the bottom of the computer, in binary, and making decisions by hand, in some kind of reality.<br><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p>The whole of it derives from three numbers: 0, 1, and -1, applied to a travelling harmony state. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Below is a graph of the waveform (barely recognisable as a waveform, in the green-blue strip) of the sinewave-piled blues progression, repeated ten times (GGGG-CCGG-DCGG). Below that a harmonic analysis of the waveform, based on a Fourier analysis. All is based in C Major (the red at the bottom), centered around G dominant (orange). <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.timsummers.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/blues_repeated.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"878\" height=\"158\" src=\"http:\/\/www.timsummers.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/blues_repeated.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1657\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.timsummers.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/blues_repeated.png 878w, https:\/\/www.timsummers.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/blues_repeated-300x54.png 300w, https:\/\/www.timsummers.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/blues_repeated-768x138.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 878px) 100vw, 878px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>When I add a bass line and analyse the more complex waveform, the analysis turns to the flat side, centering itself, rather properly, in a B-flattish area. It&#8217;s an alternate analysis, equally valid:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.timsummers.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/blues_w_bass.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"878\" height=\"158\" src=\"http:\/\/www.timsummers.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/blues_w_bass.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1658\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.timsummers.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/blues_w_bass.png 878w, https:\/\/www.timsummers.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/blues_w_bass-300x54.png 300w, https:\/\/www.timsummers.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/blues_w_bass-768x138.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 878px) 100vw, 878px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>If I set one of the hyperparameters higher, to filter out <em>less<\/em> of the signal, the basic structure returns, even if the extension analysis (the line at the top) disappears:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.timsummers.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/blues_combo_bass_09.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"878\" height=\"158\" src=\"http:\/\/www.timsummers.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/blues_combo_bass_09.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1661\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.timsummers.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/blues_combo_bass_09.png 878w, https:\/\/www.timsummers.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/blues_combo_bass_09-300x54.png 300w, https:\/\/www.timsummers.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/blues_combo_bass_09-768x138.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 878px) 100vw, 878px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>So to a large extent, the basic structure remains, even in a more complex system. Even my own live blues show through, somewhat:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.timsummers.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/sine_wave_blues-1.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"878\" height=\"158\" src=\"http:\/\/www.timsummers.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/sine_wave_blues-1.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1662\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.timsummers.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/sine_wave_blues-1.png 878w, https:\/\/www.timsummers.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/sine_wave_blues-1-300x54.png 300w, https:\/\/www.timsummers.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/sine_wave_blues-1-768x138.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 878px) 100vw, 878px\" \/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Thankfully, it&#8217;s not so absolutely clear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p>Harmony can indicate direction and tension in a near-total absence of timbre and dynamics. Harmony is something that folds us forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What we add on our own, in timbre and dynamics, is infinitely complicated, barely succumbing to any analysis, but still showing some structure. At least we know we&#8217;re on the flat side, and finding pillars of G major7. In the end, the variation within the analysis is akin to the many directions &#8212; the many potential continuities &#8212; we hear when we listen closely. It&#8217;s just at the edge of categorisation, where it ought to be.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I would post this as &#8216;blues&#8217; only because I know it&#8217;s not blues and never should be categorised as such. It&#8217;s just some sort of tightened symbolic rendering, some mathemagical\/numerological shadow. But here in our digital igloos, before our computers, respecting our &#8216;social distance&#8217;, we play with dots and waves, alone. Perhaps, at least, there [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[60],"tags":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.timsummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1650"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.timsummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.timsummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.timsummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.timsummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1650"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.timsummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1650\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1664,"href":"https:\/\/www.timsummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1650\/revisions\/1664"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.timsummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1650"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.timsummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1650"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.timsummers.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1650"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}