Wanna buy a guitar..

What guitar should i buy, or should you buy? These are from my experience..

1. Wood of the guitar. Different wood gives you different sound, e.g. spruce top gives a very bright sound while koa top gives a relatively mellow sound. Rosewood back gives a bassy sound and maple back gives a more thin sound. It depends on what sound you like.

What about the quality of the wood? Let's say if you have a normal spruce and grade A spruce, the only difference is the stability of the wood. For the grade A wood, it's already seasoned and the sound quality is assured. But, for a non seasoned wood, chances are, it turns out to be very nice or very bad, some (those that are not completely dry) may even bend, which is very very bad..

Another thing, some say the different wood looked differently, e.g. some has more packed pattern, some loose. The packed one is sold more expensive, because of it's "artistic" look, not the sound quality..

2. The bracing. Even from same wood, different manufacturers have different style of bracing design. It affects the sound quality also. Hence, you'll have to try out few guitars so that you can get the sound that you prefer. Personally, i prefer Martin guitars than Taylor guitars.

3. The action. Even how good the sound is, if the touch is very bad (very hard to play), it's useless. I'd tried some handmade guitars before, although the sound is not bad, the strings are way too high from the fret, hence it's akward to play fast. The neck thickness, the buzzing of strings, etc.. these have to be considered.

4. Then, you have to check check very carefully the accuracy of tone each strings at each bar. make sure that the tone (especially after 12th bar) is still consistently in tune.

5. The value of the guitar. I'd been thinking of this question for some time. Good instrument will have their value increase over time. e.g. you bought a Selmer saxophone at 50's, now the price is almost 30 times the price last time.. But if you buy a kapok guitar, do you think you can even sell the guitar? This is the different, hence buying good guitars is another kind of investment, provided you really know how to take care of it..

These are what i know so far. I heard people say that hand made guitar's sound quality will increased by time, but machine made one won't.. I doubt on this. Also, don't be cheated by the price and think that price higher, sound better.. it's not that case. Some price are meant for the outside look only, not the sound nor feel.. E.g. standard taylor has standard price. Those limited edition one will have the more or less same sound, but the design varies a lot..

Imagination.

Does scientist create a new theory out of math or imagination?

Initially, i thought it's the upmost important for a scientist to good in maths and derivations stuff, such as how to derive a new equations and stuff like that.. But after a further thought, i feel that it's more important to imagine than to derive ike a rationalist, though it doesn't mean that math is not important..

Faraday discovered electromagnetism, found the relationship between electricity and magnetism by imagination, not derived it out of math (although math did help). Einstein discovered relativity theorem when he imagine a situation where speed is close to speed of light. Of course, math did help. Also, John Dalton, J.J. Thomson, Ernest Rutherford and James Chadwick's contribution in atomic models is out of imagination as well. Etc..

So, it's like... driven out of imagination, using math as a tool, a new theory can be formed. Imagination>Theory>New stuff. Maybe music works in this way also...

What about pure math?? Since what we observed is kind of... uncertain, as what we see in quantum physics. Hence some scientist try to derive everything out of pure logic, such as string theory!

Tritone substitution. It's classic, yet modern!

Lets talk about big band..

When we listen to big band, usually we find that there are a lot of weird chords jumping around, pop out suddenly and vanish during the second stanza (although 1st and 2nd stanza are the same in melody). These may be tension notes, or tritone (for my limited music knowledge)!

Often, jazz players use tension notes, and are made up of 1-3-5 (basic chord notes) -7-9-and the sequence goes on till it repeats again (tension notes). The second rule they use is the root-elimination, 5th-elimination, 3rd-stays, 7th-stays and chosen tension note(s)-stays.

One funny thing occurs: Since there is no root, no 5th, the chord played (together with tension notes) will sound like some other chord, say:

C7: C-E-G-Bb....Eliminating root and 5th: E-Bb
F#7: F#-A#-C#-E......Eliminating root and 5th: A#-E or Bb-E.

Can you see that? So, instead of using C7, some composer tends to use F#7 to substitute C7, and you see these in many r&b songs. With the root and 5th retained, F#7 gives a more 'funky' feel to the overall composing!

If playing a progression like:

|C |Am |F |G7 |C |

it can be alter to
|C |Am |F |C#7 |C |

or
|C--Bb7 |Am--F#7 |F-F#dim7 G#7|G7-C#7 Bdim7 |C---|

or
|C-Bm7b5-E7-Bb7 |Am-A-C#dim7-D#7 |
|Dm9-F#dim7- |C#7-Bdim7-G13-G13b|C--- |

Just try la.. it's fun!

Music shift?

Suddenly i have a thought: baby boomers and music style revolution.

During World War 2 (WWII), many men died as they fought in a battle. This ended up causing a phenomena where there was an unbalanced ratio of adults to children. Slowly when these children grew up, they became the main part of the society. But, do you think they will prefer the classics-classical & big band- or the new born rock and roll?

Big bands and classical orchestras are formed by a band of 'old' musicians, who talked about the deep theories in music and the fine progressions and arrangements. Usually they made the gentlemen style, quiet but meaningful. This is contradicted to the rock 'n' roll, funk, r&b or hippies which were made up of good-looking young players, who also share the same interest as other baby boomers around the country.

It's almost the same for today.

Rock music has a more energetic feel, which is preferred by teenagers. Loud music, heavy beats and opportunities to dance around freely..

Since there were no 'market' already, the classical orchestra and big band slowly vanished. Teens tend to follow their teen idols and no adults were there to preserve the fine classics.

~~But, as well, there were many other factors that causes the shift, such as high cost of maintain a band made up of more than 30 members. During the war, some fine players in those big bands had lost their life as well, causing a discouraging situation.~~

Is there any significance on "throwing away an old idea and come out with a whole new idea"? As in "throwing away the well established classic and roar out a ROCK N ROLL tiger", and this tiger is the one that influence the most on todays' music.

Since we are not throwing away any idea, we continue to establish a firm theory on the particular music as:

baroque to romance
delta blues to cool/fusion jazz
rock 'n' roll to alternative rock.
The next generation will lead to...?

Three different theories (but similar), two great shifts in the main direction, one cause...

Color tone?

Recently i found that i dislike cartoon picture with uncreative colour tone.. Those that you may see in those children's stationeries or toys.. I think they look like dead objects.

Personally, i feel that an good art work can produce multi-angled perspectives from multiple views, whether it's by physical eyes or inner-psychological eyes.

If the art work is a 2D work, perhaps tone plays an important role. However, the meaning behind it makes it alive. In 3D art, it's possible to unlock the normal predicted perspectives to a wider view. If 1D, such as poem/stories? I think same things applies too.

Music as well... But how to explain? I still have got no idea.

That day i saw in a magazine, where at one point, in a room, you see a multi circle picture composed of the paint of the room. Shift a single angle and you will get a whole lot different view on it! It's great, you won't get bored in this kind of art work. Every angle is another great art!

Bible as well.

Modern art that emphasis on simple lines and classic art that is precise and detailed, which one will produce more imaginations and limitations?

It's too subjective... (No conclusion)!

hymn vs contemporary worship music.

"A Mighty Fortress Is Our God"-Martin Luther (paraphrase of Psalm 46).This is one of the earliest hymn. Early hymn are paraphrased from the bible verses. Self written lyrics were not allowed.

Charles Wesley developed the new style of lyric writing. He integrated one's personal feeling to God with the original bible verses. And hence broke the old rule of lyrics writing. E.g. "Where Shall My Wondering Soul Begin?"-perhaps the old love songs are written in this way.
(http://www.hymnlyrics.org/newlyrics_w/where_shall_my_wondering_soul_begin.php)

"Hark! the Herald Angels Sing" is a song of Wesley as well, it's still very God centered but not by paraphrasing.

These are some other hymn which are not paraphrasing bible, yet quite God centered: Amazing grace, count your blessings, fairest lord Jesus...
(http://www.hymnlyrics.org/mostpopularhymn.php)

Current worship song such as Kathryn Scott (one of the contemporary christian song singer) sings praise and worship song that are musically not suitable for church worship. Yet, it's a very good choice on personal listening at home (usually when praying or praising God at home). Some other examples are Doug Horley, Michael Smith, etc. The lyrics tends to be very similar to modern love pop songs.
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contemporary_worship_music)-if you trust wikipedia..

Yet, not all are like this. Say, if you see the hillsong lyrics and arrangement, it's very suitable for church worship. I take an example, "everything that has breath" is very God centered. Some other such as "To you" is very much like a love song, especially:

"Hear my cry
My deep desire
To know You more".

It's alright to be like a love song, since we all love God. Just to show the effects of pop culture on church music.

These are "lyric"ally. If seeing it musically, the contrast is more obvious. From no instrument, till A capella, to piano.. This is actually very similar to normal music development. Later, musical instruments are added in.

Some people like the old style of serious worship, some like the current 'euphoria' style of worship. I think both can't be eliminated.

Also, when there was rock and roll music, there were rock and roll church music. When there were is rap music, there are rap church music as well.

At the past, If not mistaken, church music (hymns/Bach's music) is leading the development of the art of music. It's a contrast now.

Musically, we can clearly see the contemporary factors in it. Yet, I'm not too sure about the lyrics part. It's kinda confusing to analyze words for me, since i'm still not trained well in literature knowledge. So, if can, please tell me more so that i can sharpen my skills on it.

(I depends mainly on the church music history on wikipedia. Many tell me don't trust wikipedia, but just take it since it's relatively too hard to find any other reliable sources online.)

Pop Music.

Recently, i realized why I hate pop music so much. It’s mainly caused by the ‘unchanged’ and uncreative instrument playing method. Yet, I totally changed my mind recently!

Pop music is a trend of music. Every era has a different trend on music, and i call this pop music. For every era, their pop music will be sharing the same type of composing and singing methods. And they are, as well, sharing a roughly same idea-trying to reveal the ‘current’ state of social or art status. It can include what ordinary middle class society hoping for, or what teenagers think of ‘love’. Or it’s just a mere fantasy-fantasy in different era is very different! It’s another kind of human history on everything. Some composers tend to write out their feel on what happens via a very literary style, some just ordinary white words. I’ll prefer those parables.

Perhaps we could know more about current state of socio-economy and art via music. Art is always a more relaxing method to understand what happens around us, the thoughts of writers and to play around with!