When math is hard for musicians

meno in #guitars • last year

I should begin by saying that not all musicians are mathematical neophytes, but its surprising how many of them are. This lack of understanding of math, of physics makes them say the silliest things at times, that if you think about them for a second are just hilarious.

Case in point

Davide lo Surdo is an Italian guitarist who has recently come to my attention. Apparently he's broken all the records when it comes to speed. Here, however, in the "speed" claim is that I have to pull the hand break with both hands.
According to his Wiki page:

Davide Lo Surdo (born July 24, 1999) is an Italian guitarist. Rolling Stone described him as “the fastest guitarist in history” due to his ability to play 129 notes per second

Wut?? 129 notes per second?

In other words he can vibrate a string at 129 hz? That is what the claim is... right?

Lets think for second. What happens if you vibrate something at 129 hz? What does this vibrating do?

Hrmm... let's think....

Oh no... wait, we don't have to think. Here's an example of precisely that.

It's just a consistent tone, one that can be identified too. We could easily bust out a guitar tuner and see what in the hell is this.

It's a flat C or Do for my spanish speaking friends.

He doesn't need to fret a thing!!!! A MIRACLE!

I could give this guy any guitar string, tuned to any pitch and he can vibrate his hand and play a C. What an amazing human being!!!!!!

We all need to stand in awe and bask in his greatness.

On a serious note.

It's obviously a stupid claim, one that I cannot possibly take seriously.

So who is to blame here? Rolling Stones? Wikipedia? Ignorance?

I would love to know!

MenO

#meno #music #funny #pob

last year in #guitars by meno

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steevc last year

I found some numbers saying the fastest players can manage around 20 notes per second. That is fast, but if this guy could do what is claimed then he is in another league, moving his hand faster than a hummingbird flaps its wings. Human muscles cannot do that.

Music is not a race.

I wondered where this post was going as we know music is full of mathematics. Pitches are all about ratios and note durations are fractions. You don't necessarily have to think about those when playing. We can just feel when it's right.

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meno last year

i think any focus on speed alone is probably stupid... It would be like us discussing how fast someone can speak, even if it's just gibberish

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ciderjunkie last year

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meesterboom last year

Well thats odd. The hertz or the frequency is indeed the vibration/oscillation. However that is not to be confused with the number of times a note is picked.

In this case he is picking a note 129 times a second (not the same note but many notes based on his style of tremolo/arepggiated sweeop picking) but this is not necessarily related to the frequency of the note(s) that is/are being picked which is dependent on string and fret position.

I can pick up my guitar and pick a note in any part of the chromatic scale and it would oscilate at the rate determined by the string thickness, tuning and fret position. This however would be unrelated to the speed I picked the note at.

Unless I am missing something?

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meno last year

his record is supposed to be on a single note.... but that aside... you cant hit something faster than it can vibrate without changing the pitch/vibration and thus effectively creating a cacophony...

oscillations are affected by string thickness but in order for a note to be a note, it has to oscillate at a specific frequency.

for example... the first string in a guitar, E, if you tune standard is

329.63 Hz

In perfect world, that would be what your guitar is doing... however if you play the high E on let's say the third string by fretting, it will sound different, but not because it's oscillating at a different frequency, but because there is never a situation to where a note is pure.. it always has "garbage" if you will.. battling frequencies that add color to the note itself... but the core note, the loudest one is E at 329.63

All vibrations on all instruments are imperfect and they carry lots of harmonics, distortions and other non ideal sounds with them. This is on top of the note itself.

If I had to make an analogy that would probably be easier to understand. Imagine that I'm amazing at filling a children pools using a bucket. Ok?

And then I tell you I'm so fast, that I can fill the pool faster than the water a firefighters hose can give me. That if you fill my bucket with the hose, I can carry the bucket so fast to the pool, that it would be faster for you to fill my buckets and let me carry them to the pool, than for you to aim the hose directly at the pool.

Is that making any sense? hahahah I'm laughing at my ridiculous attempt of a mathematical analogy, but I think I did my best! hahahahh

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meesterboom last year

I got the analogy but to your first point, the record was not a single note. In fact I dont believe that it would be possible to get anywhere near on one note.

The record was based on

To achieve this record, Davide’s technique was to play a sequence of five different arpeggios based on the first three strings of the instrument (E–B–G) using the sweep-picking technique.

I watched a video of him playing. To me its a hot sloppy mess that barely qualifies as music but each to their own.

So that goes back to my original point that it is the number of notes he is playing a second and not one note he is hitting at a rate faster than it can vibrate which indeed would not work :O)

Note (intended pun) I dont really believe he played so many notes in one second. I suspect subterfuge probably related to marketing his kak new single

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meno last year

Lol... I just saw some videos of the guy... I call BS on this big time... its almost comical to see his hand shake like that

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