jhnbrbr
New member
Hi all! I just wanted to share an interesting thought which occurred to me some time back. At the time I had a girlfriend who was doing an MSc degree which involved writing computer software to recognise geometrical shapes. I was still a church organist at the time, and one day, while I was staring at the hymn book during a particularly boring sermon, the thought went through my head that what goes on in our brains when we recognise a tune must be quite similar to what goes on when we recognise a geometrical shape. When I thought about it some more, I realised that there are some quite amazing similarities. For example, if I drew the outline of a human body on a piece of paper (even if i drew it badly)you would instantly recognise it. If I then rotated it though say 30 degrees, you would see all the lines had moved, but you would still recognise it for what it was. I could continue rotating it , and you would still identify it as the same shape, but when I had rotated it through a full 360 degrees, you would then register that there was a stronger relationship with the view you saw first.
Now, to take the musical equivalent. If I played "Oh Danny Boy" on the piano (and even if I played it badly) you would be able to recognise the tune. If I then transposed it up a semitone, you would hear completely different notes, but you would still identify it as the same tune. You would still identify it correctly if I transposed it to other keys, but when I had tranposed it a full octave, the tune would have a closer relationship to what you heard first.
I haven't got a clue what all this tells us, or what use it is, but I still find it a fascinating thought.
Now, to take the musical equivalent. If I played "Oh Danny Boy" on the piano (and even if I played it badly) you would be able to recognise the tune. If I then transposed it up a semitone, you would hear completely different notes, but you would still identify it as the same tune. You would still identify it correctly if I transposed it to other keys, but when I had tranposed it a full octave, the tune would have a closer relationship to what you heard first.
I haven't got a clue what all this tells us, or what use it is, but I still find it a fascinating thought.