Octaves Anonymous

Around and around we go...

Upon being asked to steady a mic cable in class confusion was set in. Dr. Twombly then twirled the cable so it would revolutionize as one big piece, and confusion remained. At first, a wondering came to be about whether profs think students in music dont understand that notes correlate to wave forms, but this did not last long. After talking about this basic concept, it was time to steady teh end of the cable again, and this time things were a little different. Twombly sped up the pase at which he twirled the cable causing it to revolution at two points. Why did he do this? He did it because as he then stated that it was a representation of octaves.

It is funny how physical examples of sight can help one understand something. Obviously it would have been really hard to create a speed where the cord had anything like 10 spinning sections, but the first demonstrations did the job. With physical representation, concepts become much clearer, and in this case it brought much of the new media world towards home so to speak. When you see the basics of how a sound wave works for a pitch with a physical example it says so much more than just that.

Without any explanation concepts of chordal structures and what makes an octave can confuse a person, but seeing how partials go together in a more physical manner settles many questions. To the idea of teaching octaves with a cord, i give this a bravo just for making things so much more simple.

Christian Lundeen