Listen With Mother or in this case Uncle!

[Uncle Gizmo]

I happened upon this,

Code Radio + 24/7 concentration music for programmers jazzy beats from freeCodeCamp.org

which I understand is electronically generated music. It's specifically for programmers, no idea how that works! Thought you might like to have a listen....

 

[Gasman]

Not for me I'm afraid. I'd rather listen to music I like.
Then again I'm not really a programmer.

 

[Uncle Gizmo]

I'd rather listen to music I like.

It does tend to get a bit boring after a while! That's probably the idea, you go back to your programming!

 

[The_Doc_Man]

Most people who need background noise are merely trying to drown out random noises with something non-random because you can quickly adapt (concentration-wise) to rhythmic and predictable sounds. That's why white noise works for people trying to get to sleep.

"Generated" music comes from the idea that if you do some rather complex (but automatable) analyses of popular music within a genre, you can derive some common themes and elements that could be used to synthesize similar music using random elements constrained to be within the derived parameters.

The music reminds me of the story of the street musician sitting on a corner with a hat in his guitar case, strumming away on his guitar. A guy walks past, stops to listen for a few minutes, and finally says, "You've been strumming on that same chord for maybe ten minutes now. What's going on?" The guitarists says, "Well, all of the folks that move their hands around from one chord to another are looking for the perfect notes. But I've found them."

OK, weak joke, but the point is that someone came up with the idea that music is popular because some theme within that composition appeals to someone on a deeper level that cannot be consciously understood. (The auditory equivalent of the visual arts line, "I may not know art but I know what I like when I see it.")

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_music - includes a history section

https://www.theverge.com/2018/8/31/17777008/artificial-intelligence-taryn-southern-amper-music - discusses how modern music is being affected by advances in music generation totally composed by computer or composed by humans using computers for certain orchestration steps.

 

[kevlray]

Makes me remember when our family went to Nashville and the Grand Ole Opry (more years ago than I would like to admit). But they had a drummer for most of the artists that could talk to other people on the stage without missing a beat, because most of the artists had the same beat for their music.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

kevlray, it's worse than that. Most (but by no means all) country music is one of only about four chord progressions, so a back-up stage artist can fit in once he / she gets the rhythm of the piece. For that matter, rock and roll has the same issue.

 

[kevlray]

That is true, Then again I listen to a lot of old Beatles tunes. They liked to mix it up from time to time.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

Absolutely they did, but many of their biggest hits were "1-4-5" or "circle 6" progressions - the two most common progressions in modern (and maybe not so modern) music.

Now someone who "mixed things up" was Leonard Bernstein, composer of "West Side Story" among others. There are a couple of really out-there progressions in his body of work.

 

[kevlray]

I am a big fan of music, but not trained enough to know all the progressions. Been trying to listen to more classical music (Bach, Mozart, etc.) and really pay attention to the music.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

kelvray, since I played music on Bourbon Street in New Orleans as my way of paying my college tuition, I was up on progressions.

Knowing them meant that when our guitarist, who was also our lead singer, said "We are playing 'What I Say' - 1-4-5 in F" - it didn't matter if we knew it. We could fake the accompaniment if we had heard the song just once because we could get the rhythms and breaks. So as a musical tool, it was important.

While I met some really questionable people during my time on Bourbon Street, some of them of highly questionable gender, I still wouldn't change the experience. Because (a) I finished college with no student loan debt and (b) I met a bunch of interesting people who, like me, were just trying to make an honest dollar.

When you get to classical music, you see more complex chord structure. However, some older hymns derived from classical music retained some of those progressions as a simplified version of their original source material. Those hymns are at least contributory to modern simple ballads and their progressions.

 

[kevlray]

You talk about your time on Bourbon Street in NO. I remember hearing a story some months ago about an trumpet player that was too young to be in the bar, but could play from the street through a window.



I was in NO once and on Bourbon Street as teenage with my parents. Thus too young to experience the music and culture of the area. And I have watched enough cop shows to know that it can get pretty crazy there.

 

[The_Doc_Man]

The cop shows exaggerate anywhere from slightly to the level of complete fantasy. Except for the festivals (which are now more numerous and frequent than in my youth), the street isn't THAT crowded other than the inevitable tourists. In fact, it has toned down. A lot of the massage parlors and (euphemism) specialty shops are now T-shirt and souvenir shops after a crackdown about 20 years ago.

Most of the people were there to make a living and just didn't have the skills to do it as a regular 9-to-5 gig. Many of the dancers were there trying to support their kids in the absence of the deadbeat dads. A couple of them tried to interest me but both of them were heavy smokers and I had enough smoke in the bars. Didn't want it at home. But our guitar player married one of the dancers and they were still together last I heard, with six kids. She turned out to be a good person and I was happy for both of them.

The story about a trumpet player who couldn't be in the bar is not familiar to me, and to be honest, our lead singer was illegal for the first year we were in our steadiest gig. More than once we played beyond our break time because we knew vice cops were in the bar. But we are talking late 1960s before the big vice crackdowns.

I have good memories of the place overall, and I know I learned a lot about people. Which is why I'm gay-friendly. Hell, I even shared Thanksgiving dinner with a group of gays who were alienated from their families. Everybody has a story, and all you have to do is listen to find out who and what they are.

 

[murphybridget]

I'm glad to hear your guitar player found happiness with one of the dancers. It's amazing how life can bring people together in unexpected ways. Thanks for sharing!