What Makes Music Sound 'Bad'?

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This is episode 3 of the music fundamentals series!

In this segment we are very briefly exploring the concepts of consonance and dissonance, and how the sound waves of two pitches interact.

Timestamps:
00:00 Intro
00:45 Part 1 - Who Decides?
04:23 Part 2 - Consonance
07:14 Part 3 - Dissonance

Read the scripts here:

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Sources:

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[cWeeks]

This is the only good video on dissonance ive found on YouTube

[dominicesteban]

Showing the superimposed waveform for each dissonant interval is pedagogical brilliance! I've learnt so much from this series even though I thought I had the basics down.

[yeshanperera]

This is the best explanation I had on music theory. It's on point and much more organised. Even the graphics are so pleasing to watch ❤.

[gorkemgenc]

incredible teaching, I want to see your other videos now at 1 am 😭

[atamaminami]

Great video! This is helping me understand concepts I've heard so many times yet I don't usually hear covered in a way that facilitates my understanding.
I've no idea what the difficulty of creating an effect like the one at 1:53 is, but it looked quite pleasant! And I appreciate how you remind the listener now and then that what you are talking about is only the western parts of music theory and that even then it isn't something absolute when it comes to "what sounds right". Hopefully that leaves less people feeling like this is the only "right way" to create music.
Music following the norms does usually sound stabler or better to most, but not do many people enjoy different experiences, and none of our brains are the same, but also the unpleasantness can be useful if harnessed with that in mind.
Hope life allows you to continue on creating this channel! Have a great day!

[ashilkn]

Awesome! Just what I was looking for. Excellent video😄

[bradparker]

Subscribed!! A jazz and general music lover here, but also a non-player with very limited theoretical understanding. Also, a scientific type with good understanding of harmonics and wave interaction, so this presentation certainly speaks in a language I fully understand. I have no intention of learning to play an instrument but still find the theoretical aspects quite fascinating. With jazz being predominantly instrumental, in absence of lyrics (from which many seem to derive their listening pleasure) I have always perceived it to be more emotional than many other forms. The content covered here goes some way to explaining why. i.e. dissonance making resolution that much more satisfying. Thank you..

[StefanosAndritsios]

Very good video !! also the images of frequencies <3

[__-hzlp]

This video is great and really helped me in writing my Internal Assessment for maths. Thanks

[CokePaul]

Please go forward with your videos, it’s very cool & helpful

[cinematichormone]

Thankyou so Much for such a well arranged Fresh series.

[anonanonymous]

This entire series is so good, thank you for this ❣

[dominicesteban]

I would add that the Ives piece at 8'55" is "difficult to listen to" (I agree) not primarily because of his use of dissonances but because it has the rhythmic qualities of the noise heard at any major crosswalk in lower Manhattan (which was seemingly Ives' musical intention given the title). It is of course incontestable that the tonal dissonances reinforce the "rhythmic dissonances", making it essentially shit as a piece of music but excellent as a piece of orchestral cacophony. As you hint at beautifully, we've all experienced how dissonance used properly by master composers (classical or modern) can create the sublime in music. Thanks again for the video - FWIW, you are very good at creating this kind of content.

[slosheroni]

Nice shout out to Black Sabbath. The first time I heard those opening notes it felt like I just entered the cauldron bubble

[dylansaleh]

It's 3 am and you're saving my sorry ass from failing a whole course. Thank you

[SouthBendRicky]

I have One Pri - Doz of music that does reserve the title father music . There's not title for Tesla . Frequency vibrations and what else ? You have to earn something like that, you don't give it away . Plus a lots of hard work . Eyes on you.

[minecortesbrl]

in brazil, we call the perfect 5th and perfect 4th as "quinta justa" and "quarta justa"
or just 5th and just 4th, i believe thats because the 5th and the 4ths in the 12 equal temperament maintains the same ratio as in the just intonation, and for some reason they call if perfect in english

[timothyclark]

These can get along however division ... Grants individual preference

[timothyclark]

Questioning these polarities is aggregating and peaceful

[jurgendeblonde]

Very well explained and nicely illustrated. However, perhaps it should be pointed out that the so called perfect 4th and 5th isn't that perfect due to the Western tempered tuning system that had all the intervals 'corrected' so they could fit into a transposable system. It's true, in a way, that our system is based on Pythagorean findings, however, we had to deviate from his system to get to ours. If we'd actually stuck to Pythagoras' system we'd get perfect fifths and fourths (that have no beatings) that aren't necessarily transposable. If you listen (and watch) a 'perfect' fifth or fourth, you will actually see that there's destructive interference, albeit at a very slow rate.