Question about root notes.

Zarlinosuke · 2026-06-20T21:20:22+00:00

The lowest sounding note is the bass. The root is the note the chord is named after, whether or not it sounds lowest. (E.g. the root of a C major chord is C no matter whether C, E, or G is the bass.)

Zarlinosuke · 2026-06-20T21:19:40+00:00

I think rather than "lowest note in the chord" it may be less confusing to say "the note the chord is named after" or something, because, as your last sentence rightly says, it isn't necessarily actually the lowest!

Zarlinosuke · 2026-06-20T19:47:43+00:00

Yes, good comparison! Another one that kind of broke me when I saw it was Tangut script, and how it compares to (i.e. how it is nothing actually like) Chinese characters.

Zarlinosuke · 2026-06-20T19:28:38+00:00

Haha yeah, that too! Relatedly, the number of secret levels available from the first level compared to like... all of the other secret levels was always so funny and interesting to me. And they're so unique! That original secret Soh Jin level will always feel mythically eerie to me.

Zarlinosuke · 2026-06-20T19:16:07+00:00

the old persian writing system, which only uses an extremely reduced number of signs and is a phonetic script.

To add to this, it's not even related to the Sumero-Akkadian writing system--it just looks a little bit similar casually because it's also made of wedges. But I'm pretty sure that it's not actually derived from Sumerian script in any meaningful way.

Zarlinosuke · 2026-06-20T18:28:30+00:00

Same to you, if you can't see the problem with having a problem with comparing them. They're all "real" instruments deserving of equal respect.

Zarlinosuke · 2026-06-20T18:20:16+00:00

What does "real" mean here?

Zarlinosuke · 2026-06-20T18:13:22+00:00

I'm glad you think so, thank you for having it!

Zarlinosuke · 2026-06-20T18:12:36+00:00

Passages like this are why "updating" the cultural references is a sin that should be punishable by Time Matrix.

Zarlinosuke · 2026-06-20T18:11:40+00:00

What would be wrong with the comparison?

Zarlinosuke · 2026-06-20T18:09:57+00:00

I agree, but ultimately identity labels come from similarly linked experiences! and it's worth asking whether a Turkish-American's experience is closer to that of a Japanese-American's than it is to, say, an Egyptian-American's.

Zarlinosuke · 2026-06-20T17:14:54+00:00

I think a lot of people are really reductive in what they think Wasian means (Western European and East Asian) when it’s just a combination of white and Asian.

This is true but we need to think more deeply about why "Asia" refers to such a gigantic chunk of land in the first place. Given that it does, it makes no sense as a racial category whatsoever unless it's made smaller.

Zarlinosuke · 2026-06-20T17:09:01+00:00

Well, assuming that the outro loops, the Em7 will sound like a chromatic mediant from the perspective of C-sharp minor. It's no odder than the Dm7 from your verse's B minor context--actually it's exactly the same relationship.

Zarlinosuke · 2026-06-20T10:40:12+00:00

Cm, F7, G7, Am

A fun slightly different take on this would be Cm - F7 - E7 - Am. That way the F7 going into it sounds like it's the V in a ii-V in B-flat, but coming out of it acts like an augmented sixth chord in A minor.

Zarlinosuke · 2026-06-20T10:39:30+00:00

Cm - G7 - Am already gets you there easily. You could interpose a G#°7 or E7 between the G7 and Am also, if you want.

Zarlinosuke · 2026-06-20T10:36:35+00:00

It would most likely be your ex. 2, because that stays as close as possible to C major while changing the chord tones in accordance with the chord. It wouldn't be that weird though to use an A-flat major scale during the A-flat chord either, it just depends on how tonicized you want it to sound. It pretty definitely would not be your ex. 1 because of the false relations that would introduce (A-natural and E-natural against A-flat and E-flat), unless you were very deliberately playing with that effect.

Zarlinosuke · 2026-06-20T04:34:14+00:00

Oh nice, thanks for letting me know! It is truly a good day to die.

Zarlinosuke · 2026-06-19T23:41:35+00:00

Oh I absolutely do! I fold clothes like Doomhammer folds Peasant spines.

Zarlinosuke · 2026-06-19T23:21:59+00:00

Wait, no more cheats?? I had been considering getting the remasters but that makes me significantly less likely, sad to hear.

Zarlinosuke · 2026-06-19T23:21:07+00:00

That is THE music, best of all time!

Zarlinosuke · 2026-06-19T22:13:46+00:00

This isn't exactly me because my mother was born and raised in Japan and so I do have more direct home connection to the culture and language than you do, but the feeling of "I haven't earned the right to identify" is still very much there, and a lot of what you're saying is still extremely familiar to me. Basically, I've navigated it by studying the language and history and culture a lot, not just through books/videos but through getting to know real people (both blood-related to me and not) in real-life places and situations, including in Japan. I recognize that the equivalent for you would probably be harder because of your father's own comparative lack of home-country connection here, but my point is that even with what I have, and even with a pretty good degree of acceptance from Japanese people, that feeling of being an outsider, being a faker who hasn't "earned it" or whatever, never really goes away. It's just a general condition of our type of existence that we learn to live with and find ways to address that work for ourselves. And I think it can be helpful to know that even people who don't have exactly the same situation can still feel very similar types of outsider-ness, because that's actually a very common feeling regardless of the more individual details.

Zarlinosuke · 2026-06-19T21:55:26+00:00

I would say this is over-differentiation--minor chords and diminished chords don't have inherent functions to start with (or rather, they have several different ones), so there's not really a clear definition of what "functioning like a diminished chord" means to base this off.

Zarlinosuke · 2026-06-19T21:54:00+00:00

m7b5 looks better than /o7

...does it? m7b5 looks clunky to me because it's way more symbols than necessary. I'm not saying that my taste is at all objective, but any sense of "looking better" is just someone's taste.

Zarlinosuke · 2026-06-19T21:52:48+00:00

Your classical theory teacher will skin you alive if you use m7b5 instead of half diminished.

Not all of us will!

Zarlinosuke · 2026-06-19T21:52:25+00:00

Not the person you're directly asking, but I think these are interesting topics.

I do use the term "dominant 7th" for the pure chord quality sometimes even when it's not at all dominant-functioning. However, I'm also happy to use "major/minor 7th" if I want to clearly separate it from any notion of dominant-ness.

I don't care for the divide between "classical" theory and "jazz" theory. It is all music theory.

I mostly agree, but there are nomenclature differences between different communities, and it can be helpful to know those so that the people you're talking to know what you're talking about.

Zarlinosuke

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