# The specific art of music

Music resonates heavily in the [emotional](mind-feelings.md) parts of our brain.

- Even across [cultures](people-culture.md), everyone ends up developing an approximate similarity with music's evoked experiences.
- Most of the differences originate in specificity (e.g., a fast-paced culture may adopt a faster tempo, but it will be the same relative mood for slower versus faster tempo).

And, these domains can be subdivided

## Notation versus concept

In the same way that [programming](computers-software.md) and [math](math-symbols.md) have many arcane symbols that average people can't understand, learning the syntax of music notation is a form of [communication](language-writing.md) of prior information.

The concepts, however, are far more universal and intuitive than the music notation.

In fact, raw computerized notation can yield odd experiences that move into the uncanny valley.

- A computer can create a pitch-perfect reproduction of a song, and it will feel awkward or inhuman.
- Even with [developments in machine learning](computers-ai-ml.md), computers still have a certain type of unnatural feeling due to the many permutations and variances that can't be sufficiently recorded in notation.

## Time and tempo

The primitives of the music's time represents as note by note.

From there, the notes at the same time will expand into chords, or notes at different times will become progressions.

- The representation of these notes usually involves adding various tails to the dots to indicate forms of longevity.

The "standard" for notes is the quarter note. This is likely because the psychological association to basic [language](language.md) is defined by about four syllables:

- e.g., "My name is Mike" represents a complete thought, while "Mike" isn't helpful and "I, Mike" is barely a concept.

The notes group together into measures, or bars. These are predictable intervals of timing.

The bars group together across lines.

- For readability, the bars are segmented, but they represent a continuous line across the composition.
- The bars themselves also communicate information about repeated sections of the song.

The time signature dictates how many notes fit into a bar. This communicates through two numbers represented one on top of the other:

- The top number is the number of notes present in the bar.
- The bottom is the *type* of notes (which is usually 4). The number is almost always to the power of 2 (and soemtimes a multiple of 3) unless the piece is trying to [do something weird](art-movements.md).

The tempo itself is a form of [hypnosis](mind-awareness-meditation.md).

- We deeply associate our [feelings](mind-feelings.md) to music through its synchronization to [our heart rate](body-systems.md).
- The maximum endurance for most people into a music-induced hypnotic state is about 30 minutes.
  - This varies dramatically, however: some [neurodivergence](mind-neurodivergence.md) like ASD and SPD can be instantly overwhelmed by the music and other neurodivergences (e.g., schizophrenia) and drug use can dramatically prolong it.

As far as tempo, the music can be precisely measured in beats per minute, or BPM:

- Even when there are no acoustics/drums as backup, the BPM still represents as changes in the notes (e.g., guitar strumming, changing direction on a violin bow).
- 60-80 BPM is usually a deep reflection or some form of vulnerability.
  - It closely reflects in the audience for downtempo, background music (e.g., for [meditation](mind-awareness-meditation.md) or journaling).
  - Most romantic dance music sits at about 70 BPM.
- 85-105 BPM is for calm focus or soft movement.
  - Audiences tend to see it as useful for concentration or focusing without any sense of urgency.
- 110-120 BPM is for emotional flow.
  - Audiences sense a reflective movement, but it stays slow enough to remain emotional.
- 120-128 BPM is more expansive and reflects the [natural conflicts](people-conflicts-inner.md) from emotional changes.
  - The music is still elaborate, but doesn't move into the range of feeling frantic by most people.
  - Most upbeat dancing sits around 120 BPM range.
- 130 BPM and higher is intense and urgent.
  - Most popular music avoids this tempo unless they're trying to create something intentionally severe.

It's worth noting that even a numerically precise measurement like BPM is still subject to interpretation.

- The extra elements in drums can make a tempo technically be double, triple, or quadruple what someone else may imagine.
- Many cultures likely shift this tempo upward as population density increases (e.g., Asian pop music can often be easily 140 BPM).
- The common denominator is that there's a [mathematical pattern](math-important.md) present.
  - Many DJs naturally implement the tone shift by intentionally using fractional BPMs, and will augment a song to create that situation (e.g., coming off a 120 BPM song would feel odd with a 100 BPM song, so they'll down-tempo a 100 BPM song and then speed it up as the song starts).