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i gotta say, reading music theory is hard for me bc i do genuinly not know what 'a note' is. rather than 'a concept of music theory'. 440 hz is something of meaning to me but "a" is not and i don't really get why 880 hz should be a again. (i know. its super 'harmonical' bc the intervalls fit perfectly. but phenomenologically, in terms of hearing, i do not get, why tradition considers these two different frequencies to be 'the same note'.)
— in short i feel like i need to know the thing music theory refers to before that can start to make sense for me.
i consider taking lessons, so i guess they will push etudes on me? ;)
I am going to get back to you on this, I've just been a bit busy to type out a lengthy response.
But briefly, the logic behind the octaves is that the same note in each octave is twice the frequency of the previous octave's note. There are musical systems other than the 12 equal temperament we're familiar with, though.
Also, which instrument are you wanting to pick up? I can give more advice on piano than anything, but I also know French horn, trumpet, baritone, and tube (same scale and fingerings for all 4).
One of these days I'm going to finally buy a saxophone because that's what I wanted to play in band, but the band director looked at my grades and tested me for perfect pitch and made me play the French horn.
yup i've read about the math behind this. thing is i do not know what any of that refers to in reality. it seems totally arbitrary to me. yet i am supposed to hear a 5th. (note that i studied the most abstract shit for years. abstraction is not my enemy.) my plan is to expose myself to this using any instrument, that's easy enough to learn, until i understand.
i tried guitar now for a few days. rn i doubt this is gonna work out. my ellbow and shoulder hurt and i still get no fingerposition that works (i.e. enough pressure, on only one string per finger).
keys are maybe the better choice since you can at least see the relations, and i dont have to wrap my arm around a stick but i doubt, that i will sit in front of a keyboard regularly after 8 hours of work ...
idk i need to cry maybe.
It's definitely arbitrary. A=440Hz is a relatively new standard (it's actually an ISO standard). We didn't even try to define pitch before like the 19th century, but it has ranged from 390-455.4Hz.
See Concert Pitch on Wikipedia
But with a guitar it's pretty easy to use a tuner to mess with the pitch and hear why we settled on it.
I can't find the right term for it now, but there's a phenomenon in music where slightly off key notes will smack into each other and have a subtractive effect while on key notes have an additive effect. You can see this in a large choir. Not everyone in the choir is going to be a phenomenal singer, but when you get dozens of people singing at once it can sound incredible.
It might help to think of notes as kinda sorta being like wifi channels. They're the frequencies that don't interfere with each other.
And yeah, the guitar definitely takes some getting used to. You'll have to develop finger calluses and strengthen your fingers to be able to compress the strings properly. But learning any musical instrument requires some sort of physical stamina building.
If you opted for an acoustic, I'd recommend buying the cheapest electric you can find. It doesn't have to sound good, but it's much easier to press the strings on one. You can also buy a practice guitar neck to work on it when having a full guitar would be a pain.
Honestly, the piano is the best starter instrument. The keys are easy to learn, the keys are easy to press, and you get practice using your hands independently. The biggest drawback is that pianos are big and take up space. But, if you have a college around you, there's a chance that there's a piano lab that they'll let you use.
But there's one instrument you have on you at all times that's completely free: your voice. Like any other musical instrument, basically anyone can get good at it with enough practice. And you can practice while doing other stuff.
I'm not really a classically trained vocalist, although I was in choir in highschool (it was the class you got stuck in if nothing else you needed was offered at that time), but I practice in the shower daily and have improved to the point where I'm close to being able to intentionally polyphonically sing (people have a second set of vocal chords, see throat singing).