Pitch Perception

As I had written in some previous Blog, Pitch is an often confused term. I too wanted to quantify pitch in physical quantities, so i conducted a perceptual experiment to find out what usually people call pitch.

I wont go into the detials of the experiment, but while conducting the experiment I came across really fantastic experiences. On of the most fascinating things was the variation among people regarding what they call pitch. Its really wide. Sometimes I could not believe that a person can preceive some thing in that particular manner.

One more significant thing to note is that each person, was not sure of what he/she really called pitch. Their own definitions became clear as they were conducting the experiment. At the same time, the comments that each one made was totally different. After conducting the experiment, I always discussed with them the results in general and the results which that particular person had come up with. I always got new inputs and insights into the problem. Each person gave me new problems they had faced with while conducting the experiment.

At this stage I have understood certain things properly and certain things are even more muddled. Most importantly what I found was, pitch is not a single physical quantity. All the following go in determining the pitch, the lowest frequency component, the lowest difference in frequencies (the fundamental frequency), the highest frequency component, the bandwidth of the signal, the existance of the 3rd or fifth harmonic and so om..... I have not still experimented with varying levels of the harmonics. I guess things may get even more complicated. Even thinking of a suitable experiment is going to be a tough job.

I hope I really am able to get a good answer at the end of my MSc period in IISc.

Great fun

Man, this semester has been really good for me!!! I could really spend a lot of time for my music. I have attended some really great concerts in Carnatic Music, fusion, Ghazals...composed some good stuff, practiced my guitar a lot. Got back to a bit of singing. This new music group I have here in IISc is really kool man. We have really talented people, great singers and great instrumentatists.

I could really take up new roles in this group, drumming, guitaring, singing!! I did not play the usual stuff, ghattam, Kongo and not so much of keyboard. I an really exploring more of my talents. I always knew I would be able to play these instruments, but actually performing is quite different and it took a good amount of practice before I came to the level I was expecting from myself. I think I have come of age as a solo lead guitar player. I am mow able to play some complex pieces without making mistakes. After the final show I listened to the CD, I believe my drumming was as tight as most of the college level drummers. Next time, I hope I can play more freely and with less effort. Its fun to drum.

Singing was one thing I used to miss in VIT. We had a lot of good singers, and I think I was under-rated always. I too lost confidence in my singing in VIT. Now I am considered among one of the better singers here, even though all those here are great singers. I too think that I have improved in the emotional aspect of my singing. I still feel that I have to start practicing properly and gain mastery in singing. I need my voice to do justice to my mind while singing.

I also composed a collosal instrumental for Veena, violin, Sarangi, Piano, Sarod and Keyboard strings harmony. Percussions were tabla, ghattam and drums. It was a monumental task think of something so complicated. I was faced with other problems, like the dropping out of the Sarod player and the second keyboard payer. But I was happy that I could manage to make the adjustments and still make it sound good. It was also one of my longest compositions, for 10 mins. The Tabla and Ghattam guys prepared their percussion solo which was pretty good. The compostion was in 9 beat metre and it was something like a description of spring, or so was my idea. I dont know how it sounded to the audience, but we the performance wasn't tight enough according to me. Lack of practice was evident.

All the same dwelving in music after such a long drought was a fantastic experience. It feels nice to be in familiar waters again.

I'll write more about what I felt while composing in some future blog