That’s a really interesting read.
I’m shocked at the similarities between country and punk. Did not imagine that!
I analyzed chord progressions in 680k songs
111–120 of 160 posts
Re: I analyzed chord progressions in 680k songs
#112> An “interval” is a combination of two notes. Minor nitpick: it's a "dyad" that is a combination of two notes. An "interval" is the difference between two (or more) pitches. And just as you'd measure the space between your eyebrows using a ruler, you'd measure the interval between middle C and concert A using your ears. The bonus, however, is that our listening apparatus is already quantized to octaves-- if you hear…
"(Though most renditions of "Happy Birthday" lend credence to Morpheus' lesson from The Matrix that there's a difference between knowing the path and walking it.)"
I have to resist the temptation to deliberately sing my renditions of Happy Birthday on the diminished fourth/augmented fifth of whoever the loudest person is, as a passive protest of the fact that even if I do, it hardly affects the result.
It has somehow become a very impressionistic song, when sung by The People. There's definitely the sense of the relevant intervals as the song progresses but the sheer randomness of the intervals of each singer relative to each other has, I think, attained some sort of actual cultural status that is actually special to that song. Get a few people to sing "Row Row Row Your Boat" and they are generally much more on tune for some reason, barring those who can't carry a tune at all under any circumstances. It's like some sort of cultural signaling about how they don't take birthdays too seriously or something like that.
Re: I analyzed chord progressions in 680k songs
#113I find the analysis interesting in terms of a hobby project, but I'd be careful extrapolating too much out of this. 680k is quite the sample size, but my issue lies within the myopic selection of one instrument and the issues that arise from the platform of Ultimate Guitar. 1. I am curious, how many of the 680k songs are unique? It is rather uncommon for massively successful songs to only have one version of tabs out…
> People tend to have a warped concept of the history of music. Pachelbel's Canon in D is by no means a complex song and has stood the test of time. Music through out time has also served different purposes. Hell, go back to Ancient Greece, Gregorian chants, and Medieval music. Those various time periods were not generally fully of complexity either. I would argue such times were generally less complex than modern mu…
Complexity is not just variation in chord progression, key, or melody.
Dark Side of the Moon is basically the same chord progression repeated over and over; but with different rhythm, tempo, arrangement for each song. The variation within the scope of the repetition and call backs to various melodic and rhythmic motifs at various points throughout is part of what makes the album such an epic and thematically cohesive listening experience.
Re: I analyzed chord progressions in 680k songs
#114Oh, the data came from Ultimate Guitar? So as every guitarist knows: it's wrong.
Re: I analyzed chord progressions in 680k songs
#115I’m having a hard time believing power chords only account for 5.8% of chords in metal.
The probability that the tab on Ultimate Guitar for any given metal song is accurate, tends to zero.
Re: I analyzed chord progressions in 680k songs
#116Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't see anyone harping on notation, but using notation to point out why the analysis is lacking.
The author self-reported lack of music knowledge. Using notation to point out the mistakes makes no sense. Unless the message in those critics is "learn notation".
You don't need to learn any notation to understand the concept that human perception of music is driven by relative frequency relationships, not absolute frequency.
Re: I analyzed chord progressions in 680k songs
#117As others have said this is interesting but use of Ultimate Guitar is flawed as the tabs/scores are so bad on that site, very often not even being close to the real chords. On top of being simplified tons and tons of songs get rewritten with a Capo so people can just play G-C-D shapes, if your analysis doesn't look for "Capo" and then transpose all the chords then you end up overrepresenting the key of G and it's cho…
The power tabs and guitar pro tabs are a big step up over the text based stuff on ug. You can play it in midi and see they are usually perfect.
Re: I analyzed chord progressions in 680k songs
#118Earlier quoted context omitted.
I-IV-V-I, II-V-I and maybe I-VII-VI-V and you can consider yourself "advanced" ;)
I have an almost irrational love for I-IV-VII-V. It's got a sort of happy, laid-back nostalgic vibe - sort of the best way I know to smuggle an extra major chord into a key. It can be approached in some fun different ways - can be thought of a "mixolydian" progression off the tonic, but it's also two I-IVs stuck together - almost a little mini-modulation if you wanna think of that way. Sunrain[1] by Lotus is probably…
Jeeze this song is hard to listen to.. it almost feels like intentional syncopation on the guitar part but I can’t imagine they would have left it in intentionally after hearing how grating it is against the drum groove
Re: I analyzed chord progressions in 680k songs
#119Earlier quoted context omitted.
The author self-reported lack of music knowledge. Using notation to point out the mistakes makes no sense. Unless the message in those critics is "learn notation".
You don't need to learn any notation to understand the concept that human perception of music is driven by relative frequency relationships, not absolute frequency.
Yeah, that seems about right.
Many musicians can just play a song that feels good. Never knowing anything about notation or frequency stuff.
Maybe a data guy can extract something useful from an incomplete dataset too. What was the author trying to do? Showing some prowess with data while learning about music. I think the result was good.
Re: I analyzed chord progressions in 680k songs
#120Earlier quoted context omitted.
Literally everyone? Have you got a source for that claim? I don’t disagree that music performance was a pastime for many people before recorded music, but let’s be real here.
There was no recorded or productionized music back then. And yet people liked music as much as we do now. So the only way to enjoy music was to do it yourself. Singing and playing an instrument was just a basic life skill that everyone had back then. (Say, like driving a car or using a computer is today. Not everyone is a professional driver or computer programmer, but not being able to use a computer at all today wo…
> before recorded music literally everyone was a musician in one way or another ... playing an instrument was just a basic life skill that everyone had back then
You're just making this up. Playing an instrument is a complex skill that requires a lot of work and an expensive piece of equipment. Music has been a profession since at least Mesopotamian times