The Art and Science of Whale Song
by groovedwhale on Feb.05, 2010, under Interspecies research, Whale Research, music
Over the course of the Grooved Whale Project and my research into whale song I’ve radically altered how I process the world. I’ve become accustom to analyzing myself and my behaviors much as I would do another species. The challenge I had with analyzing my musical behavior was that when my brain was in the state of music, no logic was allowed to enter. Let me explain:
When I am fully involved in music (most often while playing my violin) I am in a place where the sound plays me. There is no conscious decision of what notes to play, of moving the bow up and down. There is no conscious recognition of individual notes, patterns or progressions. The music just is. It pulls me in and directs me where to go.
This state is recognizable – I see it in performers when they hit the zone. Have a look at this James Brown video but first turn the sound down. If you were a non-musical species studying this behavior, what would you conclude?
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May 19th, 2010 on 8:19 pm
What you say is interesting and thought provoking.
From my experience, I wouldn’t say logic is excluded, even when the will of the music takes you into the zone. Some very sophisticated thought is going on– but it’s non-verbal, non-visual, and it’s synthetic rather than analytic. A lot of it is muscle-think, that’s going straight into the dance on the (in my case guitar) strings, and expressive inflection (as distinct from the thought content) of the vocal. I’m literally thinking the feelings, both physical and emotional, that make the music happen.
Thinking and feeling are commonly imagined to be separate processes– one objective, one subjective– so “thinking a feeling” seems like a contradiction in terms, but I’ve decided it’s not true. I know what feelings in my hands/arms/body will make the next note or chord happen– and the next, and the next– as do you– and the thought signals stream straight to the necessary muscles.
We don’t do it by being objectively logical; I call it being rationally subjective, for lack of a better term. And it’s not just physical; when I move on to the next song, I deliberately change my emotional state accordingly. Actors do the same thing; now it’s time to be happy, now it’s time to be sad. . . on purpose, or in other words, logically. It’s the rational way to express the meaning in the music.
Enough for now. My thinking on this is still “under development”. I wonder if this has any bearing on your research, and am curious to hear anything you might have to say back to it.
Regards,
Alan James