Art & Music: Module 8

This module introduces musical notes and scales:

You are invited to explore the following activities:

  1. Use Note Explorer to identify three pairs of notes (dyads) that sound aesthetically pleasing to you when played together.

  2. Create your own scale of notes. (If you like, you can choose the three pairs of notes that you previously identified.)

  3. Create a random note generator that will produce a list of notes using your scale.

  4. Use a random note generator to generate a list of notes in either the major pentatonic or minor pentatonic scale.

  5. Edit the sequences of notes to refine them.

  6. Which do you prefer: the musical sequence generated using the pentatonic scale or the musical sequence generating the scale that you created?

I like both the pentatonic scale and the scale I made. The pentatonic scale sounds aesthetically pleasing. In my scale, I think it also sounds good because I based the notes off of the A flat major scale. However, I do prefer the pentatonic scale a little more than the scale I created.

After creating and listening to both sets of notes within the random note generator, I believe that I found the pentatonic scale notes to be more appealing to the ear. It seemed to flow better and sounded smooth compared to the disjointed set of notes that were generated from my own list. The notes from the bounded list that I created do not all come from the same octave. In addition, since I don't have any experience with music theory, I seldom understand how the notes in each are supposed to interact with each other. I chose to do a few notes that had a smaller ratio, while choosing some with more of a dissonance sound to have a variety in my dyads. I incorporated the notes in my dyads into my scale, which I think contributes to the odd nature in how it sounds.

I preferred my bounded list of notes that I created because I felt like it had more kick to it and was a little less bland than the major pentatonic scale that I opted for. Surprisingly, my list of bounded notes was very similar to the major pentatonic scale, with my scale including an extra B note. I felt that this extra note made the melody of random notes sound more creative and since it was a higher note I felt that it flowed better. I prefer higher, sweeter notes as opposed to lower and duller notes like those in the minor pentatonic scale.

I preferred my own scale since I felt like it was a quite fun mix of harmonious and discordant sounds. In comparison, the pentatonic scale sounded a bit too bland and "stable" to me.