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June 2011
30/06/11
Why does the bounce work so well?
“Its secret is ... a ‘gravity bounce’ that feels like having your own conductor to help you keep in time...” Martin Walker, PC Notes, Sound On Sound Mag., 2010
Many musicians have told me how much easier they find it to learn new rhythms with this metronome.
So - why is that? Think about that familiar moment when an orchestral conductor comes onto the stage at the start of a performance, silent and motionless for a moment or two.
Then he raises and drops the baton, and you hear a single chord with all the instruments wonderfully in time with each other. This simple visual cue is enough for all the players to come in, synchronised to within a millisecond or two.
29/06/11
Polyrhythm videos
Thought I'd start a thread about polyrhythm videos on youtube and elsewhere. Added this one also to the Polyrhythms video resources page.
Efe People's Polyrhythms
Efe Peoples Music, Indigenous Africa, Likembe (thumb piano) Song
Links: See Efe People and Efe People of the Ituri forest for more about the people who make this music
28/06/11
Very Minor Bounce Metronome Update 28th June 2011
This is a very minor bug fixes update. Change log entry here.
For the 4.2 update see this earlier blog post
27/06/11
Nice black on white accessibility video
This was another slight puzzle - what to do to make interesting videos for the page for visually impaired users. I wanted to do videos that were black on white for high contrast. Interesting rhythmically of course. Then - the obvious thing is to do one of the contrasting shapes for people who are completely colour-blind (monochromats).
So anyway this is what I ended up with, and thought it turned out rather well, interesting to look at and listen to:
7:5:3:2 Polyrhythm showing use of shapes to distinguish the rhythms
27/06/11
Tune Smithy Fractal Tunes with Lissajous 3D animations
It was a bit of a puzzle to know what to do for the video for fractal tunes for the Tune Smithy Bonus page. Just audio files on their own seemed rather dull with the rest of the site so rich in video content. And I did do a demo of how to make tune smithy tunes, but they didn't seem quite right either.
But then I had the idea of combining the Tune Smithy tunes with the Lissajous 3D patterns, and this is the result:
Hasegawa Tōhaku Pine Trees animation from Lissajous 3D, and Pygmies in the Jungle fractal tune in Tune Smithy
Breathing space animation from Lissajous 3D, and Navigating the pacific by stars wind and waves fractal tune in Tune Smithy
27/06/11
4/4 : 4/3 type harmonic polyrhythms
Perhaps you might like this new video I did recently for the website:
Gradually changing Tempo Harmonic Polyrhythm for time signatures: 3/4 with 3/5 with 2/4 with 7/5
This is where it's used: 4/4 : 4/3 type Harmonic Polyrhythms (or Cross Rhythms)
26/06/11
Fibonacci Sequence Inharmonic "Golden Rhythmicon" - Approaching the golden ratio rhythm
Here is something I've been exploring, while adding new content to the website - fibonacci sequence polyrhythms like these ones:
More videos like this in the new page: Approaching the golden ratio with the Fibonacci sequence.
Reverse Buzz Roll for Fibonacci Sequence Inharmonic "Golden Rhythmicon";
Golden Ratio Rhythmicon - 1:2:3:5:8:13 polyrhythm with reverse buzz roll
What's interesting here is that, first, the golden ratio is the "most polyrhythmic" possible rhythm in a well defined sense.
So - it is impossible for a human to play, at least without assistance, as it never repeats exactly. But ratios of Fibonacci numbers get closer and close to the golden ratio and are more accessible to a human player.
26/06/11
New Bounce Metronome Update 26th June 2011
Bounce Metronome has been updated with the new searchable on-line wiki and other new features. As with all updates, go to the Download page to download the latest version.
Main updates
- Added an on-line wiki with all the tool tip help - searchable and you can also use it with Auto Translate if English is your second language. Searchable help particularly is something I get asked for from time to time.
- It also has FAQs, background material, the new version of the "How to use a metronome", and tutorials including video tutorials.
- Sticky Bounces - I did it for the Bounce on Lyrics, but may be useful in other situations as well. Ball halts momentarily at the start of each beat, in a very obvious way.
