Balance In The Noise

I’ve always wondered how the greatest musicians of our time, come up with such beautiful and intricate melodies that last for generations. But what makes music, music? And when is music just considered noise. After watching a Ted Talk by Jackson Jhin, a Notre Dame student that deconstructed what it is that makes music music, I was able to understand that there is a spectrum of people who enjoys when music is predictable and when music has variability.

In the Ted Talk, Jackson uses both sound and imagery to explore the delicate balance between predictability and variability that makes the human ear and brain interpret harmonies as appealing and dissonance as noise. In showcasing it this way, I was able to understand that music is fundamentally the balance between pitches, rhythms, melodies, predictability and variability. When you transform noise into music it needs to be intriguing and interesting, mixing in predictability and variability is your big help here. If you can’t predict what’s going to happen next the sounds become chaotic.

Jackson Jhin, tells us that before we judge a song we must look at its components and dive deeper to understand what makes the song what it is. When we do so we’ll be able to see the balance in it and notice how the song all comes together. He encourages that to become a better producer, deconstructing our favorite songs can help us understand what makes those songs our favorites.