Music Software Projects New York University Adjunct Instructor Scott Burton

The Pythagorean “Dodecaphonic” Scale The Pythagorean chromatic scale we built so far is build by successive multiplication of 3/2 Goes up until we have as many intervals as we want This version builds the scale in two directions: Powers of 3/2 up 6 intervals Instead of continuing up we stop at 6 We add 6 more by going down from the base freq Powers of 2/3 down 6 intervals

The Pythagorean “Dodecaphonic” scale... This results in more useable “accidentals” (sharps/flats) Notice we have 13 intervals now... This scale sounds more consonant Intervals are built with smaller integers in the numerator/denominator More “super-particular” than prior Pythagorean build method An improvement but there are still problems with some intervals... primarily the 3 rd or “M3” See spreadsheet living spec pythag_sheet_phase5.xlsx

The Pythagorean “Dodecaphonic” scale... See spreadsheet living spec pythag_sheet_phase5.xlsx

Break

Rhythm Tempo Meter – how we “chunk” beats into a pattern Phrasing – how to make it not sound like a computer generated it

Rhythm - Meter Odd and Even Combinations of 3 and 2 Meter of 4 (“4/4”) and 3 (“3/4” or waltz) are common “Odd” meters are 5, 7, 9, 11, etc. And they sound “odd” Meter of 5 can be thought of or counted as Our example nanafly is a 12 beat cycle so even sounding What beats are stressed? Can be one of more stresses and of varying intensity

Rhythm & Song Structure Refer to prior lecture sheet: rhythm_sheet_nanafly.xlsx Standard notation for pop song structure is letter sequence Standard pop song example: “AABA” Depending on how many unique letters in the string: 1. Randomly select N rhythm patterns. Since there are two unique letters (A and B), N = 2 2. Use the set of nanafly patterns in the spreadsheet 3. Programmatically load the.csv or make your own data file – just don’t hard code 4. Example function signatures: 1. Play(“AABA”) 2. Play(“AAABAAABAAABCCC”) 5. Note: our “atomic” unit of rhythm is a 12 beat pattern because it sounds more interesting than something in 3 or 4

Deliverables for next 2 weeks Implement the new Pythag Dodecaphonic scale After construction sort by frequency (base of 528Hz) Play the new chromatic scale 1 second note duration 0 seconds silence between notes Be able to play a “song” given letter notation (e.g., “AABA”) TEST NEXT WEEK (Oct 23 rd ) You can use the following during quiz: spreadsheet living specs your code