“Cholewiak noticed two changes in song when humpbacks sang together. Overall, the first singers switched more often among various musical themes when a second singer hung around. Also, the first males adjusted their songs so that the pair was more likely to sing the same theme simultaneously.”

From a musical perspective, does this makes sense to me? Would my musical behavior take the same approach if I was joined by another player?

The first observation, that the initial singer switched more often among musical themes when joined by a second singer, certainly makes sense. You are no longer holding down the themes by yourself – you are now joined by another player and variation becomes more compelling. The challenge of switching, the finesse and skill by which it takes to switch, means that each player’s ability comes to the forefront. Can he catch me? Can he keep up? Can I keep up?

The second observation, that the first singer adjusted his song so the pair was more likely to sing the same theme simultaneously is interesting. My first impulse would be to think that the second singer would adjust his song to fit the first, but upon further thot, I can see that it is more important for the first singer to “rate” the joiner – is he a threat or just a pipsqueak? So the first singer, by adjusting his song to match the second singer, is laying the groundwork to compare apples to apples.

While Cholewiak does not use the term duet – only the author of the article – there are differences to note between this behavior and human musical duets. In a duet, the musical piece is realized by two voices, whereas in the case of the humpbacks, they synchronize their singing. There is no mixing and matching of parts to create the whole.

Is this synchronized singing evidence of musical behavior? More thots on this in a later post

Sez Wikipedia: The handicap principle is a hypothesis originally proposed in 1975 by biologist Amotz Zahavi to explain how evolution may lead to “honest” or reliable signaling between animals who have an obvious motivation to bluff or deceive each other. The handicap principle suggests that reliable signals must be costly to the signaler, costing the signaler something that could not be afforded by an individual with less of a particular trait.

First off, not only have I found concepts in Zahavi’s book “The Handicap Principle A Missing Piece of Darwin’s Puzzle” fun to apply to all things music but I love the way Zahavi and his co-authors write – as if they tried all the experiments on themselves and then wrote about their observations. For instance, consider Zahavi’s musings on the finding that great tits, whose songs were more rhythmic and contained more syllables, were more successful breeders.

“There is an inherent conflict between collecting information and precise execution of vocalization. Both activities demand concentration, but to collect information one must concentrate on listening, looking, discerning, and correlating, while precise vocalization demands that one concentrate on execution….One who tries both to listen and to vocalize is likely to falter a bit in the rhythm- a stumble that will display divided concentration.”

Maybe he tried talking and listening to someone talk at the same time – or is he also a drummer?

Based on my own observations “in the field” of the drum circle his ideas re: faltering are valid. Playing the drum (vocal execution) while listening for the beat (collecting info) is very hard. As one trains as a musician, the skill of listening while playing/playing while listening becomes so enforced that it becomes second nature, allowing the player to easily enter what I call a “musical state of mind”.

While this is probably not the goal of the great tits, I find studies such as these great fodder for understanding my own musical nature – insights which I’m getting excited about sharing as I prepare for the upcoming 2010 Annual Conference of the Canadian Acoustical Association in Victoria this October. This will be my first foray into the world of science and am looking forwards to meeting others who are intrigued as I am about the chirps, squeaks, hums, thrums, moans, calls and songs us humans and other animals make.

Most of my explorations ended up on digital equipment where I could reduce things to numbers and examine their mathematical patterns.  I learned quite a bit by doing this but programming electronics does not feed my soul.  The greatest pleasure for me as a musician is to interact with others, where I open myself up to the risks and rewards of creating in real time.

I have been working with three musicians – Kirk Watson, Alcvin Ramos and Haagen – and have found myself invigorated and challenged as a musician to bring my best to the table. We’ve been jamming and improvising together where nothing is scripted but everything unfolds beautifully. The thrill of interacting with others – of listening and responding, testing my boundaries, taking leaps of faith – is for me the creative adventure of music making.

Music is easy to create if you know and follow the codes. The kicker is it takes a lifetime to learn them. Every day I practice. Today I worked on a track that I thought would be interesting to post a sample of. It is only an exploration of a patch I created. It consists of a sparse bass line and some percussive elements, is 1 bar in pattern length and is tweaked in real time.

The difference between this improvised track and a finished song is in orders of magnitude. There are mistakes or musically undesirable parts to this track. There are boring parts – parts where you wish something might change.  There are also parts which groove where I should have stayed rather than move on. Such is the benefit of hindsight. Once I learn the patch I will be better able to control these elements.

This track may eventually become a component of a song, or it may end up being one of countless explorations that never make it to the light of day. Anyways, thot i would post it for your edification and/or enjoyment
[See post to listen to audio]

Here are two more snippets from explorations from this week:
This one explores filter sweeps.
[See post to listen to audio]

This one explores gating my violin in different patterns
[See post to listen to audio]

Why is it that this particular group of beats has this effect? This particular organization of sound? And how does one explain the trance state that it creates- where I’m still conscious of my surroundings but in a much different way than waking reality?

There remains so many mysteries to music . Music is much more than a sum of its parts – the individual notes or phrases or themes- somehow they all combine to loft the resulting mix into the realm of music and away we go.  Our bodies and minds get wrapped up in it and we dance and sing.

If we are open to the potential of another creature having music we need to understand the essence of music, not just the aesthetics. Each time I pick up my violin, program my drum machines or play with other musicians I am thinking bout what lessons I can learn from my behavior. Why do I choose certain notes over others? Why and when do I change the patterns I’m playing? What is human -specific about what I’m creating?

Back in the studio tonight, preparing for Shambhala. I’ve been working closely with two amazing musicians, Kirk Watson and Alcvin Ramos, focusing our creative efforts on how best to combine our acoustic instruments (violin, bass, shakuhachi) with technology. We will now be joined by a third amazing musician, live PA artist Haagen who will bring his gear into the mix. Together, we will be exploring the creation of human music.

Working with these fellow musicians has definitely broadened my horizons in terms of understanding music. First and foremost they release me from playing every role in the creation of a song. I can better concentrate on specific aspects of sound. I can take time to listen to what’s evolving outside the realm of my own creation. I can rest, recharge and wait for musical inspiration to hit.

The communication that is created between musicians is one of the most intriguing features of music. How do we know what to play and when to play it? What are the cues we are listening for? Why do we have these cues and where do they come from? Is music an innate language or one that we learn as we grow as musicians?

How is a song brought into being? Why is it brought into being? What is its lifespan? Why do some outlive others? Can everyone create music? What is the ratio of creators to listeners? Why do composers compose? Why do I compose?

What would the human species look like if we only had one song? Would we still consider ourselves be a musical animal?

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?

Studying humpback whale song has made me interested in where human songs come from and the idea of copyright. Are songs the creations of our own mind or do we use other songs for inspiration? Humpbacks seem to borrow and trade quite freely, as noted by researcher Mike Noad when the east coast humpbacks in Australia adopted the tune sung by the west coast whales.  (More on this here).  I have to wonder if before money was attached to copyright, our species did the same.

Where is the dividing line between inspiration and out-and-out stealing? The Black Eyed Peas are currently being sued by Phoenix Phenom for the song below. A valid lawsuit? Check out these videos.

Since first traveling to Alaska to hear the Humpback feeding call in 1996 I have often wondered if these animals had a root sense of music. The patterned play of notes seemed too close to my ear to discount this possibility.

On my journey from being a musician to being a “music researcher” I had to drastically change the way I interacted with sound. Basically I had to remove all of music’s hold on my brain so that I could study it without being influenced by it.

My main technique was to compose with tracks out of alignment, making my music sound absolutely horrendous. Listening to my creations caused multiple physical reactions – from my back tensing up, to jaw aches and migraines.

Not many people get a chance to listen to “wrong” music (as opposed to bad music or music you might not understand) as by the time a song hits production, the alignment and symmetry of a piece are usually fixed but if music can heal, can it also harm?

I received an invite to be interviewed by the CBC Radio series “Inside the Music” .  I am honored as this was an opportunity to inspire and share my work, but also to be considered among the great names in Canadian music was humbling.

Presented by National Geographic Explorer Wade Davis, the Interview will be aired this Sunday, November 22nd at 3:00pm on Radio 2 or 9:00pm on Radio 1.