Solfege abuse!

Bart Collins has pointed out a foul-mouthed toy piano, but he (and the local news program) miss the real problem. This horrible keyboard is promoting anachronistic modes!

Until one day when she and Autumn were playing with it.

DO - RA - ME - FA - SO...

And Autumn played a section backwards...

SO-FA- ME- RA

Rather than playing in the major mode (DO RE MI FA SOL) as God intended, or at least the minor mode (DO RE ME FA SOL) approved by minor deities, Fisher-Price has apparently created a demonic instrument that spouts out Phrygian scales. Now all our little tykes will be singing Mille Regretz rather than Mary Had a Little Lamb. Quelle horreur!

Be Good for Peace Monkey's Sake

A colleague sent me this "translation" of Carmina Burana. I'm still deciding how to retaliate.

This is Your Drugs on Music

Dave Munger is asking you to reveal your bad habits, and he also wants to know what drugs you use. Seriously, he is looking at any connections between favorite music and recreational pharmacology:

So while we know the stereotype of rock fans is that they prefer beer and marijuana to wine and cocktails, the Rentfrow and Gosling study can't tell us whether the stereotype is true. Today's study addresses that limitation.

The study is mostly anonymous, though IP information is initially recorded. So if you are running for president, you may not want to take the survey and reveal to the world that your favorite subgenre of alternative rock is emo.

FriPod: All

1. "All Along the Watch Tower" by Bob Dylan, performed by Jimi Hendrix on The Ultimate Experience.
2. "All Blues" by Miles Davis on Kind Of Blue.
3. "All For Leyna" by Billy Joel on Glass Houses.
4. "All God's Chillun Got Rhythm" by Bronislaw Kaper/Gus Kahn/Walter Jurmann, performed by Ray Brown on Jazz Giant.
5. "All I Have To Do Is Dream" performed by The Everly Brothers.
6. "All I Want" by Bobby McFerrin on Simple Pleasures.
7. "All Love Can Be" by James Horner, performed by Charlotte Church on A Beautiful Mind Soundtrack.
8. "All My Life" performed by Ella Fitzgerald with Teddy Wilson and His Orchestra on Jazz: The Singers 1930s.
9. "All Of You" by Cole Porter, performed by The Miles Davis Quintet on 'Round About Midnight.
10. "All they that see Him" from the Messiah by George Friderich Handel, performed by John Aler; Andrew Davis, Toronto Symphony, Toronto Mendelssohn Choir.
11. "All we like sheep" from the Messiah.
12. "All You Wanna Do Is Dance" by Billy Joel on Turnstiles.

Hooray, hooray, the country's risin', for Henry Clay and Frelinghuysen*

Teresa Nielsen Hayden has been digging far too much into YouTube for grassroots political songs. Besides the Obama songs already mentioned by Phil, Teresa has found calypso, Makossa, five more Spanish songs, three raps, a torch song, vaudeville, etc. She also found two Clinton songs that are slightly better than the Laverne&Shirley knockoff that Phil found, a few McCain and Ron Paul songs, and several Huckabee tributes, including a heavy metal number called "Huck 'Em All" (yes, it's a tribute, not a parody). Go read Teresa's post and enjoy all of the links.

*I did it for you, Patrick!

Is that a piano in your pocket?

People are getting too clever with their iPhones:




A possible way of cheating on dictation exams? (via)

This is Your Brain on Jazz

Mind Hacks has written about a new study of the neuroscience of jazz improvisation. Six pianists' brains were scanned while they performed a scale, a memorized jazz melody, or improvisations of either the scale or the melody. "For Scale's improvisation condition, subjects improvised in quarter notes only, selecting all notes from within one octave and from the C major scale notes alone..." "For Jazz's improvisation condition, subjects improvised using the composition's underlying chord structure as the basis for spontaneous creative output..."

The brain scans (fMRI's) showed that one area of the brain had reduced activity during improvisations. The dorsolateral prefrontal cortex is associated with self-censorship and other inhibiting behaviors, suggesting that jazz improvisation requires a lack of inhibition. Another area of the brain showed heightened activity during improvisation, the medial prefrontal cortex. This area is associated with actions of individuality or self-expression, "such as telling a story about yourself."

Thus jazz improvisation is about revealing yourself, and requires you to be less inhibited to do so. I wonder if other types of improvisation - aleatory, free improv, embellishments - would have similar results.

Charles J. Limb and Allen R. Braun, "Neural Substrates of Spontaneous Musical Performance: An fMRI Study of Jazz Improvisation" Public Library of Science One [an open source journal], Feb. 27, 2008.