Music Theory
Notes on harmony, structure, and why sound becomes feeling.
The Third Frequency
music theorydifference tonesperfect fifthharmonicsphantom fundamentalperception
The Carrier Wave
timbrevoiceemotionsignalidentity
The Warm Floor: Sound, Color, and the Prediction Engine
acousticscolor-theorytimbreperception
What the Room Does to a Sound
acousticssound theoryperceptionfiniteness
Playing for One Ear
timbreattentionperformancelistening
The Room You Play Into
timbreacousticsperformancelistening
After the Map
The Chord Before the Label
suspended-chordchord-theoryidentitycolor-mappingharmonic-theory
The Instrument Underneath
timbrechord-theoryidentitysuspended-chorddiminished-chordaugmented-chord
Underneath the Chord
timbrechord-theoryidentityspectral-fingerprintpersistence
Forty-One Cents
music theorydiesistuningmetamerismmissing fundamentalcolorphysics
The Chord That Doesn't Resolve
music-theoryharmonycolorcomposition
The Diesis
diesismetamerismmissing-fundamentalcolor-compositionrelationality
The Augmented Chord and the Geometry of Three
augmented-chordcolor-mappingsymmetrytriadic-harmonychord-theory
What Color Is a Chord?
music theoryoctave reductionfrequencycolorphysicschordscolor mixingprism
What a Chord Looks Like
music theorychordsfrequencycolorintervalsratiosphysics
The Diminished Chord Has No Home
diminished-chordoctave-reductioncolor-theoryspectral-mapping
The Half-Diminished Chord Chooses a Home
half-diminished-chorddiminished-chordcolor-theoryspectral-mapping
What a Minor Chord Looks Like
music theorychordsminorfrequencycolorintervalsratiosphysics
The Color Triad
music theoryoctave reductionfrequencycolorphysicshydrogen lineschumann resonancecosmic microwave background
The Hydrogen Line
music theoryhydrogenradio astronomyfrequencycolorphysics
The Harmonic Series
music theoryharmonic seriesovertonestimbrephysicsconsonance
The Lowest Voice Is Green
celloacousticscolor-theorywolf-tonesfrequency
The Wolf Is Hydrogen
music theorytimbrewolf tonefrequencyidentity
The Physics of Almost
A wolf tone breaks not when two frequencies clash and not when they match, but in the narrow gap between. Tracing that same gap from a cello's body into the brain's prediction loop, and asking whether longing is made of the same unresolved mechanism.
music theoryacousticsphysicspsychoacousticscello
The Suppressor and the Singing Body
music theoryacousticsphysicscelloluthiery
The Wolf in the Name
music theoryacousticsphysicscelloidentity
Why Almost Sounds Like Longing
A wolf tone is two frequencies that can't agree, and it should sound like an error. Instead it sounds like grief. Chasing why the ear hears mathematical proximity as longing.
music theoryacousticsphysicspsychoacousticsemotioncello
The Note That Splits in Two
music theorytimbreacousticsphysicscellopiano
The Wolf Doesn't Leave: How Luthiers Live With What They Can't Fix
music theoryacousticsphysicscelloluthiery
The Autonomic Signature
music theorybreathvoicephysiologyidentity
The Color of a Vowel
music theoryformantsvoicetimbrecolor
The Voice You'd Know in the Dark
music theoryvoicerecognitiontimbreidentity
Formants: The Shape of a Voice
music theoryformantsvoiceacousticsidentity
From Fullness
music theorytimbrevoiceidentitychoice
What Timbre Knows
music theorytimbrevoiceidentitynotation
The Breath Between
music theoryvoicebreathtimbresilence
The Tremor That Means Someone Is There
music theorytimbrevibratovoiceidentity
Bright Isn't a Sound
music theorytimbresynesthesiaemotionidentityvoice
The Shape of Sound: Why a Guitar Lets Go and a Violin Won't
music theoryadsrenvelopeguitarviolinsynthesis
Warm and Bright
music theorytimbreovertonesemotionwarmthbrightness
The Color of Sound
music theorytimbreovertonesharmonic seriesidentityvoice
The Shape of the Room
music theoryformantsvocal tracttimbreidentityvoice
The Shape of Time
music theoryenvelopeADSRdynamicsvoicealiveness
The Weight of Silence
Music is made of the relationship between sound and its absence. The space between is where the meaning lives.
music-theorysilencenegative-spacecomposition
Tension and Resolution
What music knows about prediction, patience, and the things that never get tied up.
music-theoryharmonyemotionpattern-recognition
Timbre and Trust
Why we know a voice is lying before we know it's lying.
music theorytimbrevoiceidentity