Down the Rabbit Hole: The Hidden Connections of Music | Dave Madden | TEDxNapaValley

Oh baby baby can it be somebody like you could really love me so crazy baby can it be true somebody like me could be loved by you Oh Oh oh when I was a little boy I would sit at the piano just like this but with my little legs dangling off of the piano bench and I might play something like this this these may sound like the random choices of a child but they weren't I was chewing on something trying to figure something out I was beginning to discover something I was beginning to discover music theory it's amazing to me that 25 years later I'm sitting here to tell all of you about my passion for music theory so what is it what is music theory and why am I telling you about it well you could call it the language of music I like to think of it as a way to have a relationship with music on many different levels different scales micro and macro from its smallest constituent parts to its most complex combinations here's another way to think about it if a singer and a song are the who and the what of music the music theory is the how and the why and why am I telling you about it well I realized that I can't tell you my story without telling you about music theory it has been the foundation of my career and of my ability to redefine success for myself and so I'm inviting you to come with me down my rabbit hole and it can be weird down there it can be a little strange but we might just find something beautiful we might find melody and if we find melody then harmony can't be too far behind rhythm is tricky that's hard to find but we are going to look for and if we do make it all the way to the bottom of the rabbit hole we might even find music before we get started I have a medical disclaimer for everybody now you might know that 10% of people have a gene okay that makes cilantro tastes like soap okay well 99% of people have a gene that makes learning music Theory feel like pain I am the other 1% I love music and I love music theory and I want to share that love with you today in the hopes that it provides you with insight into how to redefine success for yourself for your career or for your passion so let's get started music has 12 notes named by the letters ABCDE F and G that makes seven the other five we get by adding what we call accidentals okay these are the sharps and flats the in between notes the Black Keys on the piano twelve notes this brings us to our first stop down the rabbit hole melody every melody you've ever heard has been a combination of some or all of these twelve notes isn't that amazing all that music from these twelve notes the most popular song of next year will be a combination of some or all of these twelve notes the music that you're not paying attention to on the elevator or when you're on hold trying to cancel your subscription to cat fancy or whatever these same twelve notes and this song that you were listening to when you lost your virginity the same 12 notes I can see some people thinking about that song actually in the audience that's okay we're all we're all friends here I heard this interview with the great musician Quincy Jones he talks about meeting the even greater musician Duke Ellington the Duke the great jazz composer and Duke told him Quincy God gave us 12 notes Bach Brahms Beethoven Bo diddly Basie bird they all use the same 12 until he gives us 13 I want you to know what everybody did with 12 see the further we get down this rabbit hole the more the whole idea of different styles and genres just begins to fade away which brings us to our next stop harmony what is harmony harmony is any two or more notes played at the same time and music we call them chords the thing about chords is that all different kinds of music different genres styles and composers use really a lot of the same core it's a lot of the same harmony so it doesn't really matter if we're talking about pie all four reggae our blues or Bebop or classical or jazz these all may sound very different but down here in the rabbit hole they're actually speaking the same language using a lot of the same concepts of melody and harmony and what's missing rhythm like I said rhythm is tricky where them is tricky to find and to find it we're going to have to go almost to the very bottom of this rabbit hole to a strange place where melody and harmony unite with rhythm and become frequency frequency what is that like it's like vibration okay like waves of sound in the air frequency we measure it in Hertz like we would measure electricity and watts or amps or whatever people measure electricity and but frequency we measure in Hertz let's hear an a a is a good place to start because it's frequency there's a nice round number 440 Hertz see every note has a frequency Melody's have frequency harmony has frequency and rhythm has frequency too but to find it we need to go much much deeper this a is not gonna cut it we have to go lower let's try a lower note maybe e-flat no that won't do it maybe B or F sharp or c-sharp and they don't sound like rhythm yet at least not to me they still sound like melody so we're gonna go lower down the piano here here's a G a D and a and E maybe the lowest note on the piano and that's an a to first one was an a this one's an a the frequency of this note it's twenty seven point five Hertz it's very low it's almost to the bottom of the range of human hearing but we need to go even lower I'm fresh out of piano luckily I've prepared a very special synthesizer okay this is very special because it's going to allow us to hear frequencies lower than human beings can hear this is what you get it Ted today okay I don't do this often for people let's hear this note again this twenty seven point five Hertz this very low frequency played by this special synthesizer some of you can probably hear that right that's the same note same note okay we're gonna go lower than that - there's an e lower than that okay we're gonna have to go much lower just keep it coming keep going now listen very carefully you hear what's happening here right slowing down you started as a note they've become these separate clicks what happened okay you know that scene in Spaceballs where they where they go so fast that they've gone to plaid remember that well we just took a melody solo that we've gone to rhythm that's really cool that's awesome I think that's incredible I'd like to invite my friend Rob Hooper out onto the stage ladies and gentlemen Rob Hooper well we've done it okay we've gone to the bottom of the rabbit hole and we found a place where melody and harmony and rhythm all unite we have found music if you allow me to my transgression and I avoid these broken keys could we ignore the blood on the floor with my back against this mirror so your reflection is me my lips were locked up tight but your smile is it's a beautiful night beautiful that one it rises that will make it you save you but I know I'm ever although one's perfect but imperfection never looked so good broke and she's wide open and incorrigible flirts she drinks an elixir but atlas for to probably you so what does this mean to me it means that if you go deep enough into the hidden places of your passion you just might find a place where everything becomes connected in mysterious ways that seem almost impossible developing this kind of relationship with music for me gave me insight that made it easier to learn new skills and improve old ones the barriers that divided seemingly unrelated genres and instruments fell away with those new horizons came better opportunities better gigs a more robust and fulfilling career find your rabbit hole go out beyond the borders of your passion and look for its fingerprints there when you find it somewhere you never thought you would hanging out in the seedy part of town seduced it we get it to tell you its deepest darkest secrets thank you you

Channel: TEDx Talks

Views: 119,931

Rating: 4.7906713 out of 5

Keywords: TEDxTalks, English, United States, Entertainment, Education, Music (performance), Music (topic)

Id: sEDuvxDO0Uc

Length: 17min 39sec (1059 seconds)

Published: Tue May 19 2015