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…
We’ve all heard them, and they get stuck in all our heads. But why? Why is it that Disney can seemingly create earworms? Though there’s no such thing as a Disney formula, today we’re going to get close to one. And best of all, this theory is not one that I’ve hacked together to try to show something new and inventive. Not at all. I stumbled upon everything you’re about to read. About two months ago, I was asked to do a medley of several popular Disney songs. I ran into a problem. One of the keys of a good medley is variety. The more I tried to put songs together, the more I realized that these songs are similar! Though every song seemed fresh and new when I first heard it, I began to find out that they borrowed many elements! And for the past month, I’ve then been exploring these elements to see how present they are in Disney songs. Let me tell you, many of these tropes are everywhere. So today, we’re going to look at just a few of these elements that Disney songs have that make them so…
There are numerous books out there that will claim to change your life - from self-help to multi-step programs. But the jury is still out on how helpful such schemes truly are. That is not to say personal change cannot be inspired by someone else’s story, however. A story is a powerful thing. Words can be both a weapon and an elixir. Or, as Albus Dumbledore would say, “Words are, in my not so humble opinion, our most inexhaustible source of magic, capable of both inflicting injury and remedying it.” If ever there was a book capable of changing one's life, of bringing about healing and understanding of ourselves as humans, it is this - You’re a Miracle (And a Pain in the Ass), by author, podcaster, and overall fantastic human Mike McHargue, also known as “Science Mike”.
Trigger Warning
“This is a dangerous book,” Mike warns his readers in the author’s note. It’s true, parts of this book could be tough to read, even triggering. The author writes about his “experiences with trauma and…
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