The Mijor Triad
Sep 30, 2004 myMusicShare/Save
When I used to play the guitar (in my teenage years), I was intrigued by the psychological perception of pitch. If I play a C, and I tune the E string a little flat, it still sounds like a major third. But if I keep turning the peg, eventually it’s no longer a flat E, it’s a sharp E-flat, and it sounds like a minor third. So what happens perceptually in a listener trained on an equal-tempered scale (basically, anyone in the Western hemisphere at this point) when the note is right smack on the middle?
Picture me sitting in my room, head cocked to one side, trying to turn this peg back and forth as minutely as possible until it was exactly precisely in the middle. Clearly a fool’s errand.
But 10 years later, Csound has shown me the way. So for anyone who has ever wondered what happens to such the listener in such a case?
It just makes you nauseous.
Behold, The Mijor Triad.
September 30th, 2004 at 10:30 am
A) I can easily picture a wild haired teenage Arthur sitting in his room tuning a guitar for hours. It is scary how easily I can picture this.
B) Try singing it.
C) Oww! My Ears!
September 30th, 2004 at 10:59 am
I hates the devilnoise! It burnses!!
For real, though, I think any sustained tone with that timbre and volume is going to botherate. It’s probably the theory behind the dial tone; they make it irritating so you either hang up or start dialing.
It also reminds of the beginning of “Sleeping In” by The Postal Service. But less pretty.
September 30th, 2004 at 3:13 pm
YOU FOOLS! YOUR PUNY SNIFFLING WILL NOT BE TOLERATED! THE FUTURE MARCHES ON!
By which I mean, two things:
I actually love the sound of the dialtone. If I’m high or delirious or otherwise out of it, I can sit with the phone on my ear humming harmony for fucking ever. (well, not true because those bastards cut you off and that really atrocious sound starts…)
You’re right though. It sounds pretty awful, even without the quartertone. As I learn more about Csound, I will pretty it up. Today I’m learning how to do panning and envelopes. Should help a little…
September 30th, 2004 at 7:20 pm
So I’ve been futzing with it, and it looks like the perception is different depending on the octave the notes are in! This one, for example, sounds decidedly major to me. (This one is a little less jarring, but still not pretty. I’ve got a ways to go….)
Bizarre.
October 3rd, 2004 at 2:02 am
IT’s okay. But it’s not as cool as the chord I could have sworn I invented when I was 10. That chord goes D G#, C#. You may call it Lin Major.
You’re welcome!
Siempre,
Lin-Manuel
October 4th, 2004 at 7:06 pm
Hmm. I think discovered might be more apt. Watch me play piano sometime and you will find that, more often than not, if I’m soloing in my right hand, my left hand is playing…um…Lin major. (except in some other key, so like Din major of Bbin major, or something?) Very common jazz piano voicing. You’re Bill Evans, and you didn’t even know it.
By the way, no one has paid any attention to the actual question here. Does the mijor triad sound major or minor? Or neither?
October 5th, 2004 at 1:20 am
It gave me vertigo. It’s my kryptonite. Just like one of my friends’ kryptonite was playing the first 7 notes of a major scale and stopping: C D E F G A B .. “AAGGHHH!”
October 5th, 2004 at 1:05 pm
lol!! I just sang those 7 notes and stopped. It was utterly terrifying.
October 31st, 2004 at 12:35 pm
I’d say it sounds neither, but more major than minor. This is the future of music.
October 31st, 2004 at 12:49 pm
Finally, someone who understands my genius. Vindication at last.