Ray Charles Right On The Beat
By Emma Norman
It’s no news story that Ray Charles was something of a musical phenomenon – a hugely talented, innovative and yet blind pianist. But in case you were in any doubt, there’s now scientific evidence! Music can now be visually analysed to put Charles and other musical heroes to the test.
Kenneth Lindsay, a musical acoustician from Southern Oregon University, has achieved the visual analysis of music by studying the physics of individual sounds and beats within a song. Lindsay can be found in his lab fervently tapping his feet - his research has focussed on swing.
Swing music has a rhythm different to that of other styles of music as its micro timing of beats use a different kind of note; triplet notes that are two thirds the length of your Mr Average note. (You may want to retain this fact for your local pub quiz, or even to just casually drop into conversation to impress your musically-challenged friends).
Lindsay was able to visually depict Charles’s ear for a beat by breaking down songs, measuring their notes and rhythm to minute detail, within milliseconds of each note. By separating the different voices and instruments that make up the song, according to their note and pitch, the accuracy of each component’s beat was then depicted on graphs.
The moment of truth and definitive proof of Charles’s talent was when Lindsay identified that Charles’s finger clicking was right on the ball at the start of “It don’t mean a thing (if it ain’t got that swing)”. It was never more than five milliseconds out.
Although I say congratulations to Lindsay and his graphs and of course to Mr Ray, this is bad news for those of us who are, let’s say, not quite so musically gifted yet living in blissful ignorance!
More musical madness:
- Utter nutter - Jim Miller: turkey baster visionary
- Get involved - PopSci is calling you
- Interesting - Love songs for love birds
Kenneth Lindsay, a musical acoustician from Southern Oregon University, has achieved the visual analysis of music by studying the physics of individual sounds and beats within a song. Lindsay can be found in his lab fervently tapping his feet - his research has focussed on swing.
Swing music has a rhythm different to that of other styles of music as its micro timing of beats use a different kind of note; triplet notes that are two thirds the length of your Mr Average note. (You may want to retain this fact for your local pub quiz, or even to just casually drop into conversation to impress your musically-challenged friends). Lindsay was able to visually depict Charles’s ear for a beat by breaking down songs, measuring their notes and rhythm to minute detail, within milliseconds of each note. By separating the different voices and instruments that make up the song, according to their note and pitch, the accuracy of each component’s beat was then depicted on graphs.
The moment of truth and definitive proof of Charles’s talent was when Lindsay identified that Charles’s finger clicking was right on the ball at the start of “It don’t mean a thing (if it ain’t got that swing)”. It was never more than five milliseconds out.
Although I say congratulations to Lindsay and his graphs and of course to Mr Ray, this is bad news for those of us who are, let’s say, not quite so musically gifted yet living in blissful ignorance!
More musical madness:
- Utter nutter - Jim Miller: turkey baster visionary
- Get involved - PopSci is calling you
- Interesting - Love songs for love birds
Image: Alan Light
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