I really liked the idea of people debating what is and what isn’t music. I never really thought of this before. The fact that there is science behind it and whole philosophies about it amazes me. I specifically thought the church’s views of what is and isn’t music was interesting. The fact that they associated dissonance with the devil really showed me that the tones and pitches of music can have a huge effect on the listener. Everything in music is so intentional in order to get the artist’s vision across to the listener as accurately as possible. There are so many elements of a composition and by changing one aspect of it can have a totally different effect. I really enjoyed reading about the new terms that were introduced to me in this chapter. Learning about the term timbre made me finally put a word to a concept I’ve always thought about: How do we differentiate between sounds? This makes me think about artists and their individual style. There are famous musicians that are known all over the world and then there are other musicians that are not known even in their small town. One’s original style is so important and separates them from the ordinary. Overall, the reading helped me think about music from a more technical and critical mindset.

I got my sounds for this project from https://freesound.org 

This is link to my instrument composition: https://youtu.be/KpLeaWAs4pM

My concept for this project was to gather creepy feeling sounds. I wanted to choose shapes and movements that corresponded to the sounds I found. The bass sound seemed to fade out and that’s the reason why I made the shape disappear from the screen. The laugh was an evil laugh and thought the shape should be round because it was a laugh, but made it only half visible and hide to emphasize the creepiness of it. The swoosh sound reminded me of glass breaking so I made the shape sharp and wanted it action to be quick and violent. The zipper sound reminded me of, indeed, a zipper, so I wanted the shape’s movement to be quick and drop down like it was being pulled away.

This is the link to my code: https://editor.p5js.org/yunglizard/sketches/oAx44K9bi

Patatap

I favored Patatap over Flora Drift. I felt that it allowed me more creative freedom and a lot more options to play around with. I believe Patatap was more of an instrument rather than a composition because when I used this tool to play sounds, I manipulated the rhythm of the sounds and played multiple sounds at once in order to create a cohesive greater sound. In other words, Patatap was more of an instrument since its used to create the composition. I think that each set of sounds that can be renewed everytime you pressed the space bar carried a certain feel that worked well. Each sound in each set grouped together well and create a certain atmosphere. I imagine that if the sounds had no type of correlation, the outcomes would be not as pleasing. I also liked the clear directions. I knew what to do and how to do it by the simple clear instructions first displayed. I don’t think the graphics necessarily matched up with the vibes of the sounds. I would definitely change the graphics in a way that complemented the sounds more so that the user can get a more impactful experience. For example, if the tone of the sounds had a more electric feel, the graphic would be futuristic themed or robotic in order to correspond to the vibe.

Flora Drift

Flora Drift was more of a composition due to the fact that there was already a melody involved. There was already a musical structure implemented that the whole experience followed. You could only adjust the structure or add to it, but you could not completely change it completely, unlike Patatap. I think the graphics on Flora Drift worked really well because it established a cohesive vibe that the music was giving off. It put the user in a certain mood and made sense. I feel like Flora Drift was easier to grasp and understand due to the overall theme. The sounds were mellow and relaxing and the movements in the graphics complimented that. I think the unclear directions did not worked well because, personally, it took me some time to figure out what to do. I didn’t really recognize how I was manipulating the composition at first.  Also, I think that the options of manipulation were not as exciting. The music did not alter as much as I would have liked it. If I could redesign this tool, I would create more options and give clear directions to the user. I would even try to add on the already pleasing visuals by making the visuals change as the sounds change since the visuals stayed constant. I feel like that would make the experience for the user more interactive and give them more to be entertained by.