1. You always know what you hear
Unless you are tone-deaf, you can tell when a note is played higher or lower than other.
Or can you…
Like there are optical illusions, there are also auditory illusions (and I do exploit them as a composer).
One of the most important concepts in music theory is the harmonic series. Essentially, whenever you speak or make a sound, there is the fundamental pitch that you hear as well as many pitches above that pitch resonating that the same time. These other pitches give sounds their unique qualities and timbres.
There is a phenomenon called the missing fundamental.
If you were to take all these upper pitches from a note and remove the fundamental, you would still hear the fundamental.
This can make notes sound like they are rising even if they are falling. Or can make you hear notes that aren’t even playing. Or chords that aren’t present.
One great resource to learn more is auditoryneuroscience.com. There, you can test yourself amongst actual samples and see if you get fooled. When you’re done, head back here for the other misconceptions.
2. You are Completely Tone-Deaf
Odds are that if you think you’re tone-deaf, you’re not.
Only 4% of people are tone-deaf.
Though those who study amusia (a.k.a., tone-deafness) don’t agree on specific criteria for being tone-deafness, what they do agree on is far stricter than the way most people use the term tone-deafness.
At the heart of the matter, though, to be tone-deaf, you cannot be able to distinguish between pitches. This means:
- You can’t recognize your favorite song
- You can’t sing happy birthday (or even attempt it)
- You can’t tell if one note is higher than another
It’s important to note, though, that just because you are a bad signer does not make you tone-deaf. You may just need practice.
However, if we were to take the concept of tone-deafness to the extreme, you may not even know the difference between different sounds.
Because like the first misconception explained, every sound is a combination of higher pitches (typically referred to as the harmonic series). If you are completely tone-deaf, you cannot discern between each of these upper pitches. This means you cannot tell the difference between two people on the phone.
This is what life would be like if you are completely tone-deaf:
- You do not know who answers the phone
- You don’t know their mood
- You don’t know who’s calling your name
- You can’t tell if someone is using a sarcastic tone
- You don’t hear vowels, only consonances
Though that is more extreme, it is possible and uncommon.
More likely, you are either only tone-deaf in the sense that you can’t differentiate between pitches (or more likely that you just need practice).
If you are tone-deaf, that doesn’t mean you are a worse person. In fact, many tone-deaf live perfectly normal lives and are completely capable. There was even one tone-deaf person who spoke three languages!
3. Music is a Universal Language
The phrase “music is a universal language” is quite common and completely wrong.
Music is neither universal or a language.
I mean, we already talked about those with tone-deafness. Many tone-deaf people don’t understand music because a pitch is one of the basic building blocks of music. This means it’s not completely universal.
But all musical abilities aside, let’s look at how music is neither universal or a language.
What would it mean for music to be universal?
Growing up with Western music can make it seem like our system of music is completely natural.
Even math and science helps to justify our musical system: rhythms are based off powers of two (e.g., whole note, half note, quarter note, eighth note, etc.), and a pitch is based off the harmonic series.
This feels so natural. It feels like it is universal.
If this system of music were universal, then everyone, regardless of culture, would understand it.
Yet, people don’t. Music is culture-specific.
Let’s look at the reverse. Here’s a video of Javanese music called Gamelan:
Does it have meaning like most music you’ve listened to?
Or how about another with the songs of the African Pygmies:
Music is given meaning from cultural context. Without the context, music has no meaning. Therefore, unless there is a universal culture, music cannot be universal.
In fact, other aspects seem so natural but are not universal. Like when we talk about a pitch rising, we refer to the frequency of air vibrations increasing. However, there are even other cultures that refer to that as a lower note! Wow!
What would it mean for music to be a language?
4 qualities are typically needed for language:
- Discreteness—Meaningful units that can be combined to form meaning
- Grammar—Rules for how the units are combined
- Productivity—Can create a large variety of meaning
- Displacement—Can communicate about objects that aren’t right there (i.e., past/future events, fictional events, your neighbors next door)
Music doesn’t meet any of these requirements.
Music is created from individual notes. However, individual notes do not convey any meaning. Meaning is attained through how they are combined.
Music lacks the grammar that we would normally associate with language. There are “rules” in music. However, each of those is meant to be broken. The language uses grammatical rules to create meaning. However, in music, the meaning is not created from following those rules but rather by breaking them.
Music doesn’t necessarily even convey a large number of meanings. Music often has lyrics which can convey meaning, though the lyrics are using another language. Meaning in the music itself is much more subjective and often hard to define. Hence, it lacks productivity.
Finally, music cannot refer to objects that aren’t right in front of you. Composers can write about other objects or events, but listeners may not know what the music refers to.
Hence, music is not a universal language.
4. The Best Music Hits the Charts
You’ve heard of the Top 40 charts, right? Or the many other systems used to gauge how popular a piece of music is?
Well, what if I told you that the results are manufactured. More specifically, the popularity of these pieces does not resemble how good the pieces are.
Don’t believe me? Let’s look at two ways in which music labels manufacture the success of their music.
Firstly, they take advantage of a psychological phenomenon known as the mere exposure effect. This states that the more you are exposed to something, the more predisposed you are to liking it (different from exposure therapy).
If you listen to a song more often, you are going to like it more.
So songs that labels want to become popular will get played more on the radio. In fact, it’s not uncommon for songs to be unpopular for over a month before it gains traction. But the exposure helps.
This does lead to a problem for radios, though. Because at first, you may hate the song. Why would you tune in to a radio that plays music you hate?
Radios know this so they couple the mere exposure effect with another psychological phenomenon: the framing effect.
Instead of simply playing the new song that you might hate, they sandwich it between two popular tunes that you do like. This keeps you interested because you know that you’ll soon get to a new song you like.
Additionally, because the new song is framed between two songs you already like, you form a positive association with the new song. Its framing determines your attitude.
And with enough repetitions of this formula, mediocre songs can hit the top charts.
What do you think?
What do you make of these misconceptions?
Did you know any of them before? Anything surprising?
Let’s have a great discussion in the comments below.
