undefined | Better HN

0 pointsalar444y ago0 comments

Harmonics or harmonies? Your edit is nonsense either way.

0 comments

4 comments · 2 top-level

jjeaff4y ago· 2 in thread

I wouldn't be so quick to call nonsense. Spending time listening to certain things most definitely affects your ability to pick out specific details.

All heavy metal music sounds about the same to me. But I'm sure that is not the case for fans of heavy metal.

alar44OP4y ago

Why does someone that listens to classical hear harmonics (I'm still not sure whether you mean tonal harmonies or harmonics aka timbre) better than someone who doesn't?

Sure, maybe they'd be better at picking out a bassoon in the mix than a metal fan, and a metal fan might be able to tell the difference between a Jackson guitar and a ESP guitar than the classical fan, but that's just due to familiarity, not their overall sense of hearing.

I don't think any serious musician would agree with you whether you're talking harmony or harmonics. However, listening to music in general will definitely allow you to hear different harmonic intervals better than if you didn't, but this is again just due to familiarity/ear training and doesn't overlap into your overall ability to hear.

We just use mnemonics. For example, Amen = 4th twinkle twinkle = 5th NBC = 6th etc.

nwienert4y ago

Hearing is a process that extends from your ear all the way through your brain. The hard line you think exists between “hear” and “familiarity” or “ear training” doesn’t exist. The last few years I’ve been spending around Vietnamese, and while I still speak relatively little of it, I’ve been able to slowly adjust to be able to separate out sounds and words that previously sounded like one big mess.

1 more reply

akomtu4y ago

So there are 16,000 neurons in the ear that perform something like FFT with 16k bins over a 100ms sliding time frame. Now imagine there is a 2nd layer where each neuron is watching the corresponding neuron in the 1st layer and when that one fires, it looks up what other neurons are firing at the same time. This correlation event is recorded somewhere inside the neuron. After listening to lots of sounds, the 2nd layer neuron will notice a simple pattern: when its frequency fires, neurons corresponding to 2x, 3x, etc. frequencies also fire. As a result, the 2nd layer neuron fires upon seeing a harmonic pattern.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse