The secret recipe to awesome music listening

Today, I'm going to tell you how I take a piece of music I don't particularly like, break it into components and thus appreciate its nuances (or pelvic thrusts, depends on the philosophical plane of the music)

First the recipe, then I'll explain why it works. (you still need a mildly discerning ear for this, or the ability to concentrate and focus)

The secret recipe to awesome music listening:

Ingredients:

a) 1 6' x 4' or larger sofa / bed with sufficient cushioning

b) 1 awesome set of comfortable headphones (Bose QC 2 for the haves) or a serenely quiet room with good speakers

c) Lightless-ness. a complete absence of light. Remember, we need to accommodate the vegans.

d) 30-40 minutes of time

e) A hi fidelity recording of the piece. Do try to avoid playing the track in question on youtube

f) A relaxed and positive demeanor. Remember, this can sometimes be frustrating.

Method:

Slip in the cd/lp or whatever medium the song is on and grab the remote. Try to use level equalization. Not too loud, but it should be all you hear and make sure that the bass or top isnt turned up too much, we need to hear everything clearly. 

Look at the eq in the picture. Its not a bad general setting for good speakers. Keeps the bass from booming and the high notes from becoming shrill. Also, most of the melodic sound is in the mid band, which gets a slight nudge.

Look around your room, remember where the tables are, because now you've got to turn off the lights and plop onto the sofa/bed. 

Play the track once. Listen to it like you would normally listen to music. (Im assuming I dont NEED to tell you to put on the headphones if thats your chosen medium of delivery, but hey, PUT THEM ON)

First repeat:

Here is where you need both patience and a decent ear. You have to listen to this track around 4-5 times. With every repeat, single out and listen to only one element at a time.

For example:

a) For the first enlightened listen, try to ignore everything but the drums and percussion. Concentrate. Really try to pick out every cymbal hit and ghost note. Do like Arjuna did with the bird and focus, ignoring everything else.

b) Next repeat, target the bass. figure out what the bloke is trying to do. Picture him playing his lines, on stage, alone, just for you

Depending on what you are listening to, pick out the instruments or sections (like the horn sections of a big band) and listen to them individually. Make sure you dont lose your focus.

Finally, after you've heard 5 different tracks played by entirely different instruments, all claiming to be the same, listen to the whole thing with completely open ears. I promise you, you'll hear a sound unlike anything you've heard from that particular song.

The Baniyas science:

The four essential components of music, the very basic, can be broken into Melody, Harmony, Rhythm and Bass.

What we essentially did, in this exercise is to isolate each and listen to them. Also, if there were several instruments playing different harmonies and melodies at the same time, we gave our ears time to identify them individually so that we can make some sense of them put together. Capiche?

My favorite way to look at a piece of music is to compare it to a painting. Since its easier to perceive minute differences with eyes (mostly due to the practice they get), there are some direct relationships between art and music that made a lot of sense to me. 

The melody, is like the the lines of a painting, defining form and structure and the basic tone of the piece. 

The harmony, is like the colors of the painting, that give it flavor. Changing the color/harmony can completely change the mood of a piece (of either art or music).

A good example to understand the aspect of melody is to listen to Bach's Cello suite no 1 in G major part 1: Praeludium. Its just a melody, but an extraordinarily beautiful one. Follow the recipe and listen to it! I've seen people buckle before the beauty of this song, people who you'd think would stab you if you exposed them to anything that can be construed as culture!

For harmony, the mass connect is easier. Listen to some songs from an album by Paul Anka called Rock Swings. He's basically rearranged some famous pop rock tunes. Which means, he's kept the melody and played around with the rest... the color. listen to them side by side with the originals and see the difference, and dont forget to use my recipe :)

Kinect, we art thy followers!

For over a month, Ive been trying to write a blog, and I've come to have a better understanding of why most books suck. It's hard to write something good and fun. Its harder to keep your (my) writing straightforward and simple. There's a little voice at the back of my head saying "put in a big word you barely know the meaning of here, and here, and here". Nope, sorry, that doesn't work.

Then some gadgety goodness happened, and thats something I always have something to say about :)

First up, its the Kinect:

The Kinect looks pretty damn cool. And if you've seen terminator, its going to give you all sorts of SKYNET nightmares.

But its just so cool!

Microsoft has done what Nintendo started and tried so very hard to do, ie take the electronic interface to a whole new level. They did something amazing when they launched the Surface too, but its not really a game changer if the average middle class Joe-ginder cant/ will never be able to afford it.

So, for a grand package of Rs 10k, I can make like Tom Cruise and play Minority Report in my house.

Didn't I say it was cool?

And it isn't a toy. Its bloody sophisticated. It very accurately mimics body movement. Some crazy people hacked the Kinect and released open source drivers to use the sensor with a pc. You wont feel like a god till you can close a pc window by clapping your hands!

I got to field test it on day 2. I had about 20 people over, comprising of around 15 singers (between 17-29, from Shillong, and with impeccable manners) and the rest were adults including a very talented pianist with a pretty good classical repertoire all stored in his head (no sheet music for any of the pieces I heard him play, classical or pop), Neil Nongkynrih. It took the all mighty Kinect 10 minutes to break ice and turn the slightly serious and formal gathering to an eight hour long party. Obviously, it wasn't all because of the Kinect, I'd like to give my charming personality some of the credit here :)

On to Numero Dos, the Amazon Kindle:

The Kindle (a recent acquisition) is a joy to read. I had been planning to choose between the Kindle and the Indian designed Adam, and, for now, the Kindle won (I still intend to get the Adam at some point, mostly because it has a whole different forte too)

The Kindle is awesomely compact to carry around. Yes, you tend to need to turn pages more oft, if you, like me, prefer a nice large font. But its as easy to snug with in bed as a book.

Im currently reading Terry Goodkind's Sword of Truth series on it. I started reading this series many years ago, but had to stop as the second half set of books weren't available here, in India. Now, I'm in heaven

Now all I want for Christmas is a fireplace!

So whats YOUR problem then?

People are stupid. And I'm not excluding myself.

Why cant people let go of the things they've been holding onto longer than the things they ask others to let go off, which the latter cling to only because the former are holding onto their things in the first place. HA 41 words in a sentence. An editors nightmare, I'm told. That's a little bomb I've left for my girlfriend, with whom I'm currently pissed, to come across when I finally give her this blog's link. Much like the lingering, un-discernible, strangely floral smell in Delhi's air early winter. Shes a journo and has OCD. Obsessive compulsive disorder. Seriously, I dare you to mispronounce a word in front of her. And I still chase her, I feel like a lost little boy if I don't have the hem of her skirt to hold. Talk about self destructive.

Sigh

This is one time when getting it out of my system didn't help. So I'll cut the post short (edit: that didn't happen once I decided to include some Ruben magic in the post), and maybe finish some of the many I started in the last few weeks, only to abandon,  like the majestic notes of Ruben Gonzalez's playing do to your ear, as they fade after making oh so sweet love to your mind. So depress.

Nice guys most definitely finish last, if I can so presumptuous as to call myself that.

Please listen to this. Keep the lights dim and your heart light. Beauty thou hath a sound. Emotive music at its finest.

And this is just about as beautiful as it gets. Even if you don't like the tune, though theres nothing not to like, its the color of the piano tone that overwhelms the senses, imperfect though the reproduction in the old recording is.

Many people think playing a piano is hitting some keys and getting a sound. Little do they realize how the pianist hits those keys, ie the mechanics of his touch, completely change the sound of a piano. 

Think of a golfers swing, the mechanics. The level and relaxed positioning of the shoulders, waist, knees, legs, arms, elbows. The flow of the club as you move it back and forth, how you pivot at the waist, thinking about every tiny detail the instructor told you, and you grandly duff the ball. Once, twice, a thousand times. Then, all the conscious thought disappears, all the mechanics become sub conscious, and only the fluidness of your body is in your mind. Thats when you hit the 320 yarder. Thats when you produce that sweet and harmonious sound from your piano, the little inflections in the hand, arm and shoulder become sub conscious, and you suddenly begin to use gravity rather than force the keys. Its a quest. The nuances of which elude even the most seasoned pianists, who care only about speed and virtuosity. True virtuosity implies perfection in every aspect. And I'll get it someday, peacefully, when I've stopped caring how long it'll take. And I keep playing that one note in the middle of the keyboard, patiently, coaxing the sound to come out.

//For pianists: Ive tried many schools of techniques, but I've found the Barbara Lister Sink method and Seymour Fink manual to, together, be simple, complete and fun. The much toted Taubman approach is too painful to ever be able to enjoy playing the instrument after those grueling 20 hours of lectures, but hey, if you want to be a concert pianist, go ahead. I have tried others. But the main key is the simple motion that Lister Sink stresses on. Listen to her sound! But these are only guides, everybody's body is, after all, different//

Thank you *all* (with a grand readership of one at the time of writing this) for tuning in.

Au revoir 

Remembering Buffy

This I like. Every once in a while, you come across something that triggers an instant flashback.

Introducing the Emergency Bra

So this is a new product on the market, a bra that doubles up as two filtered masks. That opens up a whole world of imagination for us closet perverts. They can really rake in the money selling an exclusive line thats been pre-worn by hot celebs, specially the bustier ones, to men and lesbians!

Question time - After its been gently supporting whose ta-tas would you like there to be an emergency so you can be sniggering under the E bra? (Is that sentence structured okay? Grammar nazis?)

Well, first, I thought my girlfriend. Then I thought what sort of loser fantasizes about the woman he anyway can see naked? (blame trashy, stereotype promoting american comedies for that line of thought)

Then, magic happened. Sarah Michelle Gellar. The first name that popped into my mind. And it hasn't for a while now, mostly because she's been of the radar and one's usually to busy to reminisce. And its not like she has the most impressive rack, but, shes Buffy.

Oh the 7 years spent, religiously watching Buffy. Ive seen every episode. I have the DVD box sets. If nothing else works, my gravestone will read "died at 60 waiting for SMG to comeback for one last season of Buffy"

Then I spent a few hours recalling some favorite scenes, both on and off the screen. For example, when 2 friends turned up unannounced on a "Buffy night" while I was deeply engrossed in tv viewing ecstasy, I actually threw them out of the house. ITS-BUFFY-NIGHT-YOU-FUCKING-RETARDS. Needless to say, I wasn't one of the popular school kids.

Who else, which other pretty lady from the decade before this one did I think of? Well, Liv Tyler for one. I once told an acquaintance with whom I was friendly, and who (apparently) came out of the closet while studying at Browns, that I thought she was one of the most gorgeous women ever. And imagine that coming from Steven Tylers seed! Are we sure Mrs Tyler wasn't humoring the milkman?

I miss the good old days sometimes. The ones before sex was a tangible, known item. Our imaginations were definitely in much better shape then. They definitely got exercised a lot more.

Anyway, I plan to spend my free time over the next 2 weeks re-watching the much loved Whedon series. My girlfriends going out of town and left alone, I'm a total geek :)

Alfie

Sometimes the problem with music, in fact often the problem with lack of musical knowledge, is lack of exposure.

Where in Delhi would one get to hear and experience Swing or Bebop? Forget Stride! Even good classical music? We do have an annual mediocre-ly performed opera by the neemrana foundation, but its often appropriated and Indianised.

Where then, my non existent readers, does one experience different forms of music, and get the opportunity to decide whether they like it or not?

After years of observing the music "scene" in Delhi from various perspectives, this is the epiphany I had, over a burger at the Hard Rock Cafe (as I told a new friend and musician who had a terrible time dealing with a recent rejection from an audition, I've had all my better epiphanies eating good burgers)

-----

Exposure defines the course of culture. It does. Its the music, the movies, the dance, the culture thats bombarded over every form of digital and performing media that infects the masses. Infects here is a good word. Every form of art has its merits, but its unfair to judge an art form one doesnt have much exposure too, or classify it as being an elitist form or as jazz is often referred to in India... "Elevator music" (as it is often found playing softly in 5 star hotel lobbies and elevators, which is strange because often the same people who call it elevator music call it an elitist form of music)

Do remember that Jazz was originally the poor mans music. It was pop. It was looked down upon by the blue blooded gentry even.

I'd like to try a social experiment. Adopt a small village in some remote corner of India, spend a few years teaching them English (possibly by letting loose a herd of Christian missionaries... umm... school of? pack of?) And then slowly replace all the local bollywood media with European Classical (none of that American contemporary John Adams crap) and early jazz and blues. Im talking Bach, (my favorite) Chopin, Liszt, Tchaikovsky, Beethoven, Strauss, Mozart, Verdi, Scarlatti, Bizet to Scott Joplin, James P Johnson, (my other favorite) Art Tatum, Fats Waller....

Also the movies... I'd select the musically rich Astaires and Kellys, that I feel are amongst those that provided the initial inspiration and structure of the still song and dance rich Bollywood movies.

I wonder how that town would look after a few months, how people would talk, how they would interact. Would this affect the general aggressive North Indian male behavior? Would it produce a breed of locals that would identify that tune im humming as A kiss to build a dream on rather than Paheli from Parineeta (As it was in a Thermodynamics class in college by the guy sitting next to me)?

And imagine the kids growing up in that environment, the fashion, the food choices even!

You get where im going with this, right?

Im not a snob. I listen to everything. And enjoy it. But is it my fault that I prefer the sublime melodic compositions of Chopin over those of some crass, in your face Bollywood number, written for the express intent of drawing an easily titillated public into a theatre?

Sigh

Just a little bit of a snob then.

Oh... I almost forgot. I called this post Alfie, because I came across a gorgeous arrangement of the piece by Preston Keys in an old Journal style piano magazine called The Piano Stylist, that im sure my adopted village would have loved.

Coming soon: What does one mean by an arrangement of a song and more about The Piano Stylist

Say what?

KickAMP? Kickass!

Every once in a while one makes a random and not so thought out purchase that turns out to be fabulous. It could be a cheap little thing that lies around, used only a few times a month, but man does it make those few times enjoyable!

*Swings the spotlight around*

It reminds of a strip from Archie... Where Veronicas dad is complaining about the size of her new bikini and she responds with "A small bikini is a bikini thats smaller than the price tag"

Well, the KickAmp is smaller than its power adapter. Its got detachable speaker plugs, which makes it very easy to connect with speakers (you can just carry two not to long speaker wires around between your venues with the plugs always attached and pop them into the main body when setting up) and has a standard 3.5mm jack input (read headphone jack).

So why blog about it? Because when i was looking for a small amp for garden parties and as an accompaniment to a pico projector, I found nothing about any of the micro amps in the market online! So I went ahead and bought the KickAmp anyway.

Its loud, 40W or not, for 50 people in my garden to enjoy with 30 year old philips speaker (sweet sounding, i'll never change them) and an iPod pumping out the tunes at about half the volume. Turn it up and the neighbors complain!

Need a small amp for those garden parties and farmhouse retreats (not that we do any of the latter)?

Buy it!

Art Tatum

Thomas 'Fats' Waller, a veritable genius of stride, once said " God is in the house" when Art Tatum walked into the club where Waller was playing. This is perhaps one of the more famous anecdotes of Jazz music, and as true as can be.

Tatum was to Jazz and jazz piano as Tesla was to electricity. He owned it, changed it, redefined it, evolved it, understood it far beyond people decades after him and presented it in a way nobody could or has been able to since.

A fabulous Japanese trombone playing friend of mine knows of my fascination of Tatum, and he got me a DVD on Art Tatum from his last trip home.

Heaven.

Humeresque... listen, listen

Tatum influenced almost every major jazz pianist who heard him and after him. Many people, at least here, home, in Delhi, haven't heard of Tatum, but even the more commonly known greats like Oscar Peterson and Charlie Parker were highly influenced by him.

Even the brilliant classical pianist Vladimir Horowitz was intimidated by him!

Wiki has a nice compilation of some of these anecdotes here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Art_Tatum#Legacy_and_tributes

And he was mostly blind.

Maybe my ears and hands will work better if I pop out an eye.

Sigh.

Maybe one day ill put up a video of me playing Tatums arrangements... But it ain't gonna be anytime soon.

Still sick and bored and waiting for Civ 5

So, as of now, I think I know why I started blogging. These are my shouting grounds. Sometimes you just want to say something. And you need to get it off your chest in an open/public space, so that subconsciously know that you told someone.

Its like standing at the Grand Canyons and shouting it out loud. Someone probably heard it and someone might have something to say. You don't need to go out and invite people to listen to what you want to say, you just want to say it in a public space and let the occasional stranger who stumbles across judge you. Heh, Ive done enough judging of my own!

I might never have started this had Civilization 5, the next installment from the mother of all gaming franchises, had been released, say a month early. Blimey! The number of hours spent on every single edition of that game are obscene. OBSCENE I tell you!

Optoma HD 20

Ive been wanting to tell people about this for some time. It might be the reason I might become a (heavens forbid) blogger. These few posts might just be a novel way to kill an evening when down with the flu!

So, Optoma and a few other companies released budget full - HD projectors, but thats old news... about a year old. I was in the market for a projector around then, and picked up the Optoma HD 20 after reading reviews.

The reviews were very accurate, but nothing can beat the pleasure of a device surpassing expectations.

So the blacks are weak and slightly grey, but the picture is gorgeous. Needs a little tweaking to get there (and im still tweaking, always unsure what looks best, but happy with tinkering).

So, the good:

1) Great picture, throwing around 80" across at approx 11'. With an HD source, fantastic, with a VGA source (read PC), not too bad. There is some slight cropping when trying to fill the screen with the vga source, but i prefer that to a smaller though complete frame.

2) Bright. Very using even in daylight

3) Optoma service. So my device started throwing a green/blue tint after only about 300 hours. Bloody irritating. And since I got this in from the States, I didnt expect any quick solution. But a few emails and a 2 hour trip to a certified partner & INR 700 later, it was serviced, firmware updated and running better than ever.

4) I like the glowing buttons on the remote.

5) Connectivity options: Ample, I have it connected to an Xbox 360, and through a VGA distributor to my computer, planning to add a PS3 (might as well, its a fun-ner blu ray player). Adding the Xbox was a bitch though. Had to crack open the xbox connector... but those are MS flaws.

The bad

1) Limited positioning. You MUST place it around 8" above the top or below the bottom of your screen, limits ease of use. I had to build a rack above my bed at a height slightly lower than comfortable (I bump into it often) to get the best throw on the screen across the room. But its worth it, whats comfort compared to a 80" HD tv in ones bedroom, yes?

2) The blacks. But no ones stopping you from spending USD 5000 to fix these problems!

3) Runs hot (dont care)

4) Fans a little noisy (turn up the volume if it bothers you)

5) Color bleed. Read about it, very rarely noticed it

Lots of other good but tedious to read through info online. Bottom line, if you have a limited (and by limited i mean less than USD 2k) budget, its a good buy. (about USD 999)

p.s. I dont use Indian pricing because the markups are ridiculous, I saw this advertised for almost USD 2500 in Delhi

First blog - utterly boring alert - Samsung Galaxy S

Utterly boring I say, because 'people' i know would disapprove of such a mass-appeal/connect-less topic.

4-5 weeks on the Samsung galaxy s -

The good

1) Insane screen, makes me forget all the shortcomings! Gorgeous colors, How could people have called it over saturated?

2) Fast and responsive (usually), installing an app killer is a life saver

3) Google contact integration made it easy to switch from the iPhone (moving my huge book of mostly unknown contacts over quickly and wirelessly)

4) Decent speaker phone for talking, this is compared with the iPhone 2 & 3G

5) Very nice camera (daytime only)

6) Seemingly unlimited application screens.. ive hit 13

7) Quick setup on the pc with Kies. I dont like the software too much, but its functional and allows you to backup everything. Samsung could improve the experience though.

8) Light

9) Loving swype, takes a little getting used to, has frustrating moments, but definitely the right direction for touch screen typing

10) Very well integrated with other google features as well... gmail, chat etc.

The bad

1) Terrible terrible sms limit issue. My sim had sms's on it from an ancient sagem i used a decade ago. apparently because of that this kept prompting me to put sms limits, and the one time i accidentally hit ok, it wiped out all my sms's without warning. tsk.

2) No flash! sammy, what were you thinking? They should offer to take back the phones and solder flashes onto them. How absurd to leave this out. Sammy, please, dont go the evil Apple way!

3) Ridiculous rip of the iphone interface. I would really like something new, heard HTC did wonders with their interface. Hell give me a stock android over this terrible Iphone rip

4) Speaker sounds terrible playing back recorded vids. Terrible i say

5) Apps. too many are designed for phones with a trackball, and too many for phones with a smaller screen. Considering the sales figures for this phone, I think devs need to get more galaxy s specific. (not a Samsung problem per se)

6) Proximity sensor issues, have occasionally dropped or put calls on hold with my cheek. Shouldn't happen. No miss, not once.

7) Battery. Achilles heel. Thought the gorgeous Amoled would give me hours extra (if one believed the reviews around the net)

8) Where in the world is Froyo? Heh, that reminds of Carmen Sandiego. I need to find a copy of that game, great fun. Of topic, sorry, Froyo. Soon. Give. Because then it'll be time for Gingerbread.

9) Extremely odd issues with mail sync. Not gmail, pop mail. In the beginning i got mail from my 2 pop servers easy and without issues. Lately, it just doesnt sync. and then arbitarily, much later, pulls in the missing mails. Trains left the station buddy, you're late! A real pain!

10) Back cover too flimsy. But hey, it can either be light and feel flimsy or heavy and metallic. I get that.

11) Serious problems with my bluetooth handsfree. Dont know if its the phone or the BlueAnt. I suspect BlueAnt. Really seems like a shitty handsfree. Shouldn't have switched over from Jabra, but their excellent earpieces break far too easily. Thats when i started using the speaker phone and was pleasantly surprised, was used to the crappy iPhone 1sts gen speaker.

12) Grease magnet alert.

Im hoping Froyo solves many software glitch issues.

If you want a nice high end phone, buy it. Its fun, new, sexy, fast and Android. And dont worry too much if something as much better than this as this is over the older 'super phones' comes along 20 mins after you buy it and makes you want to shoot yourself! If you can wait, let Samsung integrate the new processors they launched and a flash into it.

I wrote this for peeps randomly googling to find out whether this is worth their money, ask questions sires, and answered they shall be.

Will post my own Galaxy vs Iphone once my brother gets his iphone to India :)