UPDATED: 18th January to include further information from Dr. Daniel Müllensiefen.

Researchers from the “Music, Mind and Brain research group” at Goldsmiths, University of London are embarking on a project to discover how musical people are – including those who don’t consider themselves musical at all!

In collaboration with the BBC Lab UK, they have developed a simple 25-minute test which you can take online to discover how strong a sense of musicality you have.

The research hypothesis is that people without any level of musical training will be able to do very well – and in some cases just as well as formally trained musicians who take the test. They think it’s possible that people develop a strong sense of music just through everyday exposure to and appreciation of music; even if they’ve never considered themselves a musician.

Click the image below to take the test:

(You’ll need to register with the BBC website if you haven’t before – it’s quick and easy!)

What is “Musicality”?

The test is in seven short parts. Three ask you various questions about music, what it means to you, how much training you’ve had, and so on. Four are interactive musical tests, which ask you to do things like tap along with a song, or arrange short clips into groups that go together musically.

But before you start worrying that you’ll have to whip out your instrument, or brush up on your singing – there’s no need, as the test focuses on aural skills. Dr. Daniel Müllensiefen, one of the lead researchers on the project, explains “Musical performance is one aspect of musicality but by far not the only one – and maybe not even the most important one.”

At the end of the test you’re shown your scores for each of several dimensions of musicality, including “enthusiasm for music”, “musical perception” and “emotional connection”. Click to read the rest…

Learn to hear how the Dorian Mode can add brightness to a minor song

So let’s add the Dorian Mode to your aural tool-box!

Reminder: A mode is derived by taking the notes of a scale and changing which note in the scale is used as the root note. You don’t need to know much theory to learn from this article, but if you want to check the theory background, there’s a great lesson available from Gary Ewer’s Easy Music Theory (which specifically introduces the Dorian):

• Music Theory Lesson on Modes

To summarize: the Dorian is a mode of the major scale that is formed by using the same notes as the major scale, but using the second note as the root. This creates a group of notes nearly identical to the natural minor scale, except that the minor sixth note is sharpened to the major sixth. This creates a brighter spot in Dorian when that note is played.

The examples below consist of the minor scale and the Dorian mode for comparison:

The Natural Minor Scale (click to enlarge)

The Dorian Mode (click to enlarge)

Click to read the rest…

Bonus Question answer

Last time around, our bonus question was this:

Where was the first echo (or delay) effect first manufactured?

If you have been following the Hearing Effects series so far, then you’ll know by now that nothing has a clear-cut answer. There is always too much debate about who really did what, and who really did what when; and this is even among the official records’ archivists!

However, regardless of who first “pioneered” the echo effect; the first to commercially manufacture it was Ray Butts in the early 1950s, who designed and built his wire-based echo machine into guitar amplifiers. (There might be someone out there to dispute that, but most fingers point to Ray.) It is a common mistake that the “echoplex” distributed by Maestro was the first, but that mix up is understandable since the “echoplex” holds the popularity award, and is still certainly regarded as the “Holy Grail” of echo effects.

This leads us straight into our next topic of echo/delay/reverb effects. Smooth, aren’t I?

Inspired by Nature

Alright, let’s dive right in. Everyone knows the sound characteristics of, say, yelling in a giant stadium or a cavern, or even out in the open high mountain ranges (for those who have actually experienced the wonder of something like the Grand Canyon).

Nature has built-in reverberation. For each different environment, sounds behave accordingly. The larger, more open and unobstructed spaces produce a longer delay between the sound and the bouncing around of that sound that reaches back to your ears. Those reflections can take a few milliseconds or up to a second or two to reach back to you. Once they do: Click to read the rest…