some of the musical experience

I think that the most explainable musical discovery that I ever made was that 3x4=12. In the world of time signatures and counting I developed in a very intuitive way. I started in the school's orchestra 2 days a week in 4th grade on violin. In 5th I switched to viola and it changed to 3 days a week. We didn't have too much in the way of music theory besides a one-hour class once a week throughout elementary school. And what we learned about music in there was learned but didn't "click" in the minds of the students the way that is optimal.

After playing an instrument for years, I started revisiting the same basic theories that had been presented to me for years. And they made perfect sense. I realized things about counting a 4/4 time signature in triplets, making it seem as if in 3/4. And counting 1-4 only on the down beat of a 3/4 song to make it seem as if in 4/4. Then other time signatures made sense, and rhythms were able to make out without hearing it first. All of this happened so quickly because I knew all of this before, from the total immersion of music, I just didn't know exactly how to explain it in musical terms. With being able to do that, it let my mind know that I understood things. I had been so young that I didn't realize how I was learning all these things. The words made to describe what I already knew "clicked" very fast. Musical immersion at a younger age makes it so much easier, for I think that notes and pitch are something that is much harder to be learnt through literal meaning than through cognitive understanding. There is no word for a note other than higher and lower. Later in life it hard to understand the raw thought first, and the words describing it secondarily. For as we get older, we have such a beleif in our language and our surroundings that we rely on the fact that the words will tell us, and the commonality of human minds will make it so that decifering what these words really mean will be easily done.

For the longest time I didn't know what the names of the notes were. I knew the string names just from the repetition of my teachers refering to them, but for the msot part I just corrolated where the dot was on the staff to where I put my finger down. Honestly, I didn't know that a low 3rd finger on the G string was a C natural (hands down without hesitation) until about a year ago. But with adding a literal piece of information (the note name) to this highly responsive and automatic corrolation of notation and action, it changed the way I thought about music--or rather, it made me think about music for the first time.

Because of this, when I listen to classical music, sometimes I have to force myself to listen to it rather than thinking about the dynamics and tone and timing. When listening to rock and pop since being classically immersed, I find myself able to focus on the harmonies, bass line, and rythem. Sometimes I find myself having a deep respect for the melody of the lyrics. But most of all, I love how I can just listen to music. Aware of the count it's on if asked at any one point, understanding why I like the harmony, and interpreting the lyrics. I find that I enjoy songs for years if it has an interesting verse melody, but I get tired of it fast if the only good thing about the song is the semi-catchy chorus and a hook or two.

thought: all notes are the same. The same song can be started on any note, and still be recognized.
related bragging: With my eyes closed, and not using the black keys for reference my feel, I can tell, by tone, which keys on a piano are C. It helps if the piano is tuned.
unrelated yet corresponding thought: all colors are the same.

All about that for now, more later.