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MUSIC GENRES AND MUSICAL FORMS. ACT II: We were in the wrong

Hello again! I hope the previous post has been of interest to you, I want to thank you for your attention, your time and for joining the conversation. I also hope that the foundations of something we all thought we knew about the vast world of music have been removed.


Without more to say, welcome back and let's continue.


One thing that needs to be taken into great consideration is the concept of the music itself. Theorists Danhauser and Rubertis agree that music is the art of organizing sounds in a coherent way. Pay close attention to keywords: organize and coherent.



Let's be clear that organizing sounds is not the same as combining or mixing them (I'm so gonna get it by setting these bold statements, I know), some theorists use the terms combine or mix; But let's not forget that music is mathematical, after all, talking about coherence and organization makes the effect of the theory completely different and even brings it more seriousness and responsibility.


Responsibility? Of course! At this point you must have realized what I am suggesting: musical compositions are not entirely dependent on "inspiration", nor on feelings, nor on the Muse. Musical ideas are structured under a delimited order (believe me or not, you also follow it without knowing it and unconsciously).


It was here that Mr. Professor's first lunges began, since he did not hesitate for a second to defragment the harmonic progressions of rock, which was still widely heard in the Mainstream scene at that time. You see, all songs or compositions revolve around a key, which is nothing more than a hand-picked scale, and the chord progression

It responds to the degrees of that scale that has been chosen.


Note: remember that all scales have 7 tones and each tone corresponds to a degree of the scale, each degree fulfils a different function and can generate sensations such as beginning (I), cadences (IVI), relaxation (IV-VI) or tension (IV-VII // V-II-I).


Come on, I dare you to take out your guitar, keyboard or piano and see that rock progressions are really, if not exactly the same, quite similar!


I'll give you a push:


'Stand by me', and / or 'Every breath you take'

Key: C Major. Chords: C - Am - F - G

Harmonic progression: I-VI-IV-V


'Dust in the wind'

Key: C major. Chords: C - G / B - Am - G - F- C / E - G.

Harmonic progression: I-V-VI-V-IV-I-V


You see it? Music is mathematical, if you were thinking of leaving your career and switching to music to avoid numbers, here you will not be safe from them either.



Having proved my point, what you should know is that rock music (for example) is not a genre, but a musical form, as these harmonic progressions come from the Greek musical modes, from which musical forms such as jazz also descend.


So, I don't know if you're following me here, rock being a descendant of Jazz, and Jazz a descendant of... something else. We cannot call them genres anymore since neither is a matrix. See why I mentioned the missing link in the previous article?


And this is not only applicable to rock or jazz, it goes the same with everything we think we knew.


And therefore, what we had known as "sub-genres" in general simply does not exist as it does not have a true justification of being, since the essence never changed or was rethought and playing with speed is not exactly something that is' ground- breaking '. If you play the Ravel bolero at different speeds it will continue to be that, a bolero, not by changing the speed you are creating something different.


The truth is that to create or propose a new musical trend or rather, musical form, you have to carry out an arduous investigation and a justification, well, basically you must carry out a thesis work in which you justify in detail what is new.

Here is how delicate or risky it can be to make new proposals and call them a new "musical genre" (Ah! The audacity), because if your new "genre" is a fusion between this and that, or if only by defragmenting its progression harmonica, I see something similar to 'something else' ... I have news that may not be to your liking.


I know that first-hand information is not easy to grasp and much less process, since I am aware that many sensitivities and biases are in some way impacted and this may affect the receptivity of some. And it is not my intention to upset those sensibilities (I think), because I myself was in that limbo of confusion of terms (the more you know ...) and as we well know the world is full of information, but also the information during its transmission can be compromised and improperly modified or decoded.



P.S: There is still a lot to say on this topic, and I still have one more post to publish about it. Because I know some of you might want to point your finger to get to the culprit, but hey! It's not your fault, the world is full of misunderstandings too.


See you at the next ACT!


Integrity. Love. Unity.

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