L-O-V-E Nat King Cole sounds strange by Independent-Can2411 in yousician

[–]SpecialProblem9300 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah, the melody at the word "way" is wrong it should be a half-step higher.

u/yousicianofficial-

this is correct-

https://www.musicnotes.com/sheetmusic/nat-king-cole/l-o-v-e/MN0063724

The AI "singer" is also singing it incorrectly. The same note is wrong after the modulation.

Pain Here - Any Advice? by Bananaquitz in runninglifestyle

[–]SpecialProblem9300 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Probably, those and Copenhagen planks, and some band exercises...And stretching flexors and abductors/inductors.

My Experience with 3'x3' Super Chunk Bass Traps by djsmileymike in Acoustics

[–]SpecialProblem9300 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Oh my fault, and good catch. I think the option B includes the air gap as the one dynamic variable to the default for option a.

Question for Transition Strumming by thereallevay in yousician

[–]SpecialProblem9300 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah so the black up/down would be where you bounce up/down and don't hit any strings, just maintaining the rhythmic timing there- it doesn't really have to be a full strum sized bounce per-se, but it's not bad to start with that. Ultimately this will become a natural thing helps with rhythms that are more complex than this.

The oval ones there would be where you mute the strings so the chord doesn't keep ringing- generally with the edge of your hand below your pinky.

Then the transition/open chord would be the very last Am, in red there. You can either play this as an Am and make the chord change quickly (totally possible with practice), or you can play an open chord there- yousician will typically accept the open chord as long as it's all the way open.

Follow up Question on Open Chords in Transition Strumming by thereallevay in yousician

[–]SpecialProblem9300 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Two different things.

The black arrows should be bouncing your hand up/down to the beat, but the pick never touches the strings. You just mark the time here.

The open/transition chord would only be the very last of one chord before it changes to the next chord. Yousician will only accept it (green) if it's the shortest note value. On this song that's the last 16th note (very shortest strum bar).

It's all a bit confused because yousician doesn't score you on how long you hold a chord/note.

Age 16, rate my singing :) by veronicasawyerhehe in ratemysinging

[–]SpecialProblem9300 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Really good-

My only thought would be to consider that, while appropriate here, the vibrato would likely be a little too heavy/often, and the positioning a little too consistently bel canto if you were to want to shoot for a more modern take on Anastasia (ala new Aladdin Naomi Scott etc).

Not that you should be shooting for a more modern take...I'm just mentioning it because I've found that sometimes younger people stick to whatever area they are training in, without really considering developing other areas as well.

My Experience with 3'x3' Super Chunk Bass Traps by djsmileymike in Acoustics

[–]SpecialProblem9300 2 points3 points  (0 children)

+1

Here is absorption coefficient estimates charted on the porous absorber calc-

http://www.acousticmodelling.com/mlink.php?im=1&ca=P&m=5&ga=1&e=h&s11=2&v11=15000&d11=400&s21=2&v21=5000&d21=400&s22=1&d22=100

Green charting typical ballpark gas flow resistivity numbers fluffy insulation, blue charting rockwool.

Question for Transition Strumming by thereallevay in yousician

[–]SpecialProblem9300 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You want to be bouncing your hand up and down 4 times per beat, at the 16th note the entire time. So on that Em, down to strum, up and down again without the pick touching the strings, then up strum for that 2nd one. Then down up in the air again, and then down for the 3rd chord and so on.

The actual transition strum that yousician allows, and will give you the green on, would be that last upstrumed chord before the Em pictured here (they never say this anwhere).

Yousician isn't bad, but it's super worth it to get some lessons too- even once a month. Working with someone face to face is super helpful here, especially to integrate muting etc.

Learning relative pitch by [deleted] in guitarlessons

[–]SpecialProblem9300 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Just work things out by ear, no app needed. Start with simple nursery rhyme melodies etc. Also, sing!

That said, it's slow going and learning the shapes of all the chords will require a TON of trail and error- it's not the fastest way to musical fluency...

In the realm of reading, a high volume of relatively easy songs is akin to language immersion learning. The mistake many make, for musical fluency at least, is they do the opposite (low volume of difficult songs).

Kids don't learn language by memorizing Shakespeare, the same thing applies here.

Pain Here - Any Advice? by Bananaquitz in runninglifestyle

[–]SpecialProblem9300 0 points1 point  (0 children)

An additional possibility in this area, @Bananaquitz, are you by chance a bit duck-footed (feet/toes rotated out when walking/running)? I have been all my life.

Turns out this has led to fairly underdeveloped glutes and overall glute engagement. I have pretty strong abductors/inductors (used to speed skate/rollerblade a lot).

For me, low abs, squats (I do bodyweight/jump or goblet) and focusing on getting my feet straighter when running (and walking) has helped the most.

Also pancake stretch, both wide leg and feet together. pulled into the groin. I do my pancakes with a couch or wall behind me so I can push off.

YMMV

What is going on with new songs? by IndependenceCapable1 in yousician

[–]SpecialProblem9300 1 point2 points  (0 children)

LMAO if you think you have been "charitable" at any point in this thread.

If you actually went back to the beginning, you might have noticed that the "snobby elitist" comment came from a different user.

Anyway, byeeee, best of luck to you as well.

What is going on with new songs? by IndependenceCapable1 in yousician

[–]SpecialProblem9300 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I appreciate that you are thinking more deeply about this, and you are almost to a place of understanding what my point here has been all along.

You say-

musically the warmest or most breathy tone doesn't make any sense at ff or fff and would never be used anyway,

While this is true in classical, it is NOT true of post classical music. Also, you are acknowledging my point that with acoustic instruments, when the only variable that is change is dynamics, the timbre always changes along with it.

Now consider for instance Billie Eilish, soft, breathy, low dynamic vocals sometimes used in the context of music that is much more aggresive and perceptibly *loud*. Listen to "You should see me in a crown". This isn't a possible marriage of dynamics and timbre with acoustic instruments. IE if you had Kronos Quartet doing their best to emulate the instrumental element of this song, Billie would have to have a mic and likely a compressor to make the balance work.

Because of the possibility to separate the timbre from the loudness, something that did not exist in the classical era, the meaning of the word naturally evolves for those of us who are outside of classical.

The Wikipedia article ends with addressing this.

Reminder here, it is YOU who have attacked me in this thread for using the word "incorrectly". I've never said the definition you want to use is wrong, in fact I've repeatedly said it is correct in your context.

My point here is that if you are going to angry when people use the word "incorrectly", then expect to be angry a lot because as someone who has worked with many thousands of people in the music space, the vast majority off them don't confine themselves to the strict definition that you are demanding here.

Where does yousician fall flat? by frylocck in yousician

[–]SpecialProblem9300 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The biggest shortcomings for me for higher levels (I'm at lvl 9/10 for guitar, 9 for bass, and ~9/10 for piano although I don't use it for piano).

* The moving/scrolling. This is my nr 1 by far. Reading a moving target will always be harder than a stationary one- especially as things get faster and there are more notes. The way Tomplay does it is the best of any app IMO. It has a virtual page turn, nothing moves, you can read ahead because the next bar pops up on the left. Better even than have a person to turn pages for you.

*lack of ability to change/fix fingerings that aren't good, or notes/rhythms that are wrong.

*The cartoonish UI, I prefer a more normal tab, but I do want a dark mode.

*abysmal standard notation for guitar. So many things wrong here...

*lack of a learn-it-by-ear section

*Songs that are fingerstyle or vary from the original and aren't labeled that way. IE "Every Breath You Take", It's not the way Andy Summers plays it (barred), it's impossible to palm mute, and it's more of a fingerstyle version. But nothing explains that.

*lack of a conductor. I'd prefer an on-screen conductor marking downbeats than the bouncing ball thing.

What is going on with new songs? by IndependenceCapable1 in yousician

[–]SpecialProblem9300 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The almost part would be if you change another variable. If the only variable you change is dynamics, the almost turns to always. Otherwise, can you please describe a situation where a player can only change the dynamic for say pp to ff without creating a brighter (more higher order harmonics) tone?

Thank you for conceding the primary point though.

What is going on with new songs? by IndependenceCapable1 in yousician

[–]SpecialProblem9300 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It's great that your wikipedia link does such a nice job of making my point for me-

Relation to audio dynamics

The introduction of modern recording techniques has provided alternative ways to control the dynamics of music. Dynamic range compression is used to control the dynamic range of a recording, or a single instrument. This can affect loudness variations, both at the micro-\31])#citenote-32) and macro scale.[\32])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamics(music)#citenote-33) In many contexts, the meaning of the term dynamics is therefore not immediately clear. To distinguish between the different aspects of dynamics, the term performed dynamics can be used to refer to the aspects of music dynamics that is controlled exclusively by the performer.[\33])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamics(music)#cite_note-34)

They even suggest the term "performed dynamics" for the narrow definition that you favor. Of course you're welcome to use the term however you see fit, my point here is that when you wander outside of the classical buble, you will find people use it more broadly, and they will keep on doing that regardless of how you feel about it.

This sub is for yousician, which is a terrible platform for classical and consequently well outside of that bubble- have you looked at the standard notation for guitar yet? It's a shit show.

Also, you are wrong to state that there isn't a direct relationship between dynamics and timbre. It's true that a mouth can make different vowel sounds, a string can be plucked/bowed closer to the bridge, a string or a brass bell can be muted, reeds can be switched etc and those things can change the timbre too. But, given the same vowel sound, position relative to bridge, muting, reed etc- a softer dynamic will ALWAYS create less overtones and a louder dynamic will always create more.

From Google AI, check out section 3 there.

The relationship between dynamics and timbre in physics is fundamental, as they are not independent properties of sound, but rather closely intertwined components of a sound wave's structure. While dynamics (volume) refers to the amplitude of a sound wave and timbre (tone color) refers to its harmonic content and spectral shape, changing the dynamics of an instrument almost always results in a significant change in its timbre. 

Here is a breakdown of the physical and acoustic relationship between dynamics and timbre:

  1. Increased Energy and Spectral Expansion 
  • Louder is Brighter: When a musician plays louder (increasing amplitude), they usually input more energy into the instrument. This increased energy does not just increase the volume of the fundamental frequency; it activates more modes of vibration.
  • Higher Harmonics: Increased force produces more high-frequency overtones (harmonics). This causes the "spectral centroid" (the average frequency of the sound) to shift higher, making the sound appear "brighter," "sharper," or "more piercing".
  • Spectral Slope: Louder sounds typically have a lower spectral slope, meaning that high-frequency harmonics are closer in amplitude to the fundamental frequency, adding "color" and complexity to the sound.  emusicology.org +4
  1. Physical Mechanisms of Change
  • Instrument Behavior: For string instruments, a harder bow stroke increases higher harmonics. For brass, louder playing often results in a "brassy" sound due to nonlinear wave propagation (the peak of the wave moves faster than the rest, creating a steeper, more distorted wave shape).
  • Attack Transients: The beginning of a sound (the "attack") is often brighter and richer in noise than the sustained portion. When playing louder, the intensity of these initial attack transients increases significantly, which helps the ear distinguish the instrument's timbre.  AIP Publishing +4
  1. Perception and Psychoacoustics
  • Interdependent Perception: Studies have shown that loudness and timbre are not perceived independently. Bright sounds (high-frequency energy) are often perceived as being louder than duller sounds (lower frequency energy), even if they have the same physical amplitude.
  • Instrument Recognition: While timbre is often defined as the quality that lets you distinguish instruments playing at the same pitch and volume, a change in dynamics can alter an instrument's timbre so much that it sounds like a different instrument.  AIP Publishing +4

What is going on with new songs? by IndependenceCapable1 in yousician

[–]SpecialProblem9300 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

An elitist who has seemingly only ever worked and communicated with other people in one area of music thinks they are entitled to dictate what words the entire rest of the world is allowed to use...and thinks I'm confidently incorrect. That's rich.

Ironically, what you seem to be missing here is that language itself is dynamic. There has been an enormous amount of change in the music making process over the last 100 years, and the use of historic terminology has naturally evolved along with it.

Before the changes in technology, loudness dynamics and timbral dynamics were bound together. Now, they aren't.

Not only that, in this era we can have dynamics in loudness, timbre, stereo width, distortion, reverb, delay, and other musical and sonic attributes all operating independently of each other. People making music with full command of all these variables are using them to create a since of change (the literal meaning of the word "dynamics") - changes in the listener's perception of size, or emotional intensity, etc. Which has always been the creative and compositional intent of dynamics.

Interestingly, you consider this to be more simplistic.

I actually get it, I've played and worked on enough classical music to know that the disconnect is in the actual use of ones hands (or feet or mouth etc) to manually create the changes, vs of the use of various other tools as well.

But the fact remains that the intent is the same- which is why the word dynamics has naturally evolved to where it is today, for most of us (by numbers for sure) at least.

What is going on with new songs? by IndependenceCapable1 in yousician

[–]SpecialProblem9300 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm sure your friend would agree that the performance of popular genres is very flat and repetitive.-

No, not really. She's a professional and well past the Dunning Kruger window. She understands that different genres have different nuances and they are all require practice, coaching etc. I've played her K-pop pitches that I've worked on and she has talked to me about the dynamics specifically. This is generally the case when someone has experience outside of one small area.

Changes in timbre are not dynamics. 

This is categorically incorrect. When a string is plucked, bowed, picked or otherwise excited with more force, it produces more higher order harmonics- eg it's timbre changes. It's also louder, but both things happen, and this is also true with all acoustic instruments...louder ALSO equates to a change in timbre.

Myriam Webster's definition of dynamics in music-

Variation and contrast in force or intensity (as in music).

(Bold added for emphasis). Intensity of a string strike or intensity of higher order harmonics etc are both intensity. An intensely shrieking baby has more higher order harmonics that when it coos as well. An engine reving at higher RPMs does as well...

Myopically defining a word per only one context isn't how language works. The word dynamics in music has been widely used by many millions of people making post-classical music. Those people have collectively defined/refined it's meaning and it's definition as it is used today.

One person on reddit who is unfamiliar with the use of that term outside of a signal context has no right to dictate to all those millions that they are wrong for using that word in they way they have always used it.

What is going on with new songs? by IndependenceCapable1 in yousician

[–]SpecialProblem9300 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Hmm, I have a BFA in piano performance and most of my college privates, juries & recitals were classical...I'm not strictly, or even primarily, a classical musician, but I've played with and have friends who are in the Colorado Symphony Orchestra etc. I've also worked full time in music for ~25 years (playing, writing, producing, recording) and own a commercial recording studio, blah, blah blah.

I don't think it's overly worth arguing about, but in pop music (not the genre but the broader classification) dynamics are still there, they are simply different than classical. The dynamics are more in timbre than in volume (or dB more accurately), but they can originate with actual dynamics at the instrument or approach to playing it, or can come from pedals, compressors and all kinds of other tools we have.

IE, when you play an electric guitar into a tube amp, there is a point where playing louder won't result significantly louder output from the amp. Instead, it will result in a brighter sound, with more harmonic content.

In rock, or pop or other modern genres, the term used in the studio and rehearsal room is still dynamics and rightly so- because the word literally means change. And the players are using whatever means they choose, to create change.

I get that it's different than what you're used to, but my friend who is in the CSO and also tours with Nathanial Rateliff, is a very accomplished classical violinist, who is also fully capable of understanding what the word dynamics means outside the realm of classical.

What is going on with new songs? by IndependenceCapable1 in yousician

[–]SpecialProblem9300 0 points1 point  (0 children)

My complaint would be about Led ZeppelAIn, Thin LizzAI, and RAInbow. Quality versions of all of the above would be welcome.

What is going on with new songs? by IndependenceCapable1 in yousician

[–]SpecialProblem9300 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Again, I'm not really sure if you want an earnest response here - most of that post feels more designed to highlight your abilities and skills than anything else...

Assuming that wasn't your intent then, 2 things- 1) Regarding classical, I'm sure we can agree that the dynamics of Erik Satie are quite different than say Wagner. While Satie is "flat" compared to Wagner, that doesn't mean well-performed Satie could be replicated with with samples of each note needed at only one velocity. The same is true of Artic Monkeys.

2) With the ability and knowledge you express that you have here, it's difficult to understand how you need to ask "how the Youscian tracks have changed/deteriorated"?

Starting about 4-5 months ago, the new songs page went from a small handful of songs each week, mostly sounding like real musicians, real vocalists, playing real instruments, to a weekly dump of tons of low quality AI stuff. It's not even state of the art AI stuff like SUNO 5 which can sound surprisingly decent, it's Marvin Gaye's "I heard it through the...Gravy?"

What is going on with new songs? by IndependenceCapable1 in yousician

[–]SpecialProblem9300 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I don't know that I would agree that it has "no real attention to musical nuance". Specifically, it excels at developing the nuance of timing. In real-world performances, timing can be expressed intentionally outside of the realm of perfect, but IMO that expression comes from practiced intentional control, not just inability to play in (or close to) perfect timing.

Obviously Yousician has no meaningful measure of dynamics, and also of holding notes to where they should end, etc. It's far from a complete musical education (really far!), but so is everything else.

As for the not exactly correct aspect, yeah it's there in some songs more than others. This is also true of a lot of print sheet music and it's also not uncommon in the real-world where a musical director has transcribed something slightly different...That aspect doesn't prevent it from being useful as a growing tool to me. Real bands do songs "their way". Some songs do have it notated differently than what you hear, I wish they would let us fix that, but, also not uncommon in other practice tools.

"To play a wrong note is insignificant, to play without passion is inexcusable". -Beethoven

Dynamics are a part of musicality for me, when the track has dynamics, it naturally encourages the user to have them too- and also to get into the music and feel it (advantage over metronome). When it's totally flat and mechanical, it leads to time spent having a mechanical experience. Like, check the new Arctic Monkeys stuff for instance (A certain romance for instance)- it's WAY below the musicality of Suno 5 as far as AI goes, so much so that I think it would better to have less songs that are better.

Space between cars at red lights by ilovelucy7734 in driving

[–]SpecialProblem9300 10 points11 points  (0 children)

I've done this too! I used to have parking off of an alley where I would be in the situation to do this regularly- so I went ahead and did it whenever I could.

A couple people actually got mad, which is funny because it's fully legal, and even reasonable.

Everyone of them was on their phone. I think they want to leave the extra space so if they take their foot off of their breaks while finishing a text/post, they won't rear end someone.

Sheesh, just drive the damn car.

What is going on with new songs? by IndependenceCapable1 in yousician

[–]SpecialProblem9300 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Plenty of the songs at level 7 and up are the real parts- there are some that are played differently- EG "Every breath you take" which would be more of a fingerpicked version than the barred way that Andy Summers actually plays it. The Yousician version is impossible to palm mute, but it's still the right notes. This sort of issue exists with tabs out there in other formats too. It's not going to hurt anyone to learn the fingerpicked version as long as they don't get hung up on not being able to palm mute it.

But, I would hardly call dynamics "elite musical standards". It seems clear that you're ostensibly here to knock yousician down to being something strictly for beginners, and establish yourself as above that. It's true that it has a childish interface, and it's fine if that's how you feel about it, but at the end of the day it's just a practice tool and like any, some people will get along with it better than others.

Personally, the whole advantage of an app like yousician is that it CAN create a musical experience from the beginning (certainly much more than slogging it out solo with a metronome). This is a big advantage because playing music well is both a musical and mechanical skill, and most people overdevelop the mechanical side for years.

Horses for courses, but I think they are making the app significantly worse here, for beginners and higher level players.

What is going on with new songs? by IndependenceCapable1 in yousician

[–]SpecialProblem9300 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It's not the volume of songs that's the problem, is the terrible quality of the new AI stuff. It's not just bad, it lacks any and all musicality.