This is weird. It is hard for me to hear the difference in the cadence, but crystal clear otherwise. In the cadence, the problem for me is that the notes are dragging on, like when you press pedal on piano a bit, that makes it hard to discern the difference.
Maybe they lost something in retelling here? Made up new stimuli for which it doesn’t work because of harmonics or something?
Or maybe its just me and everyone on this thread? I have a lot of trouble hearing speech through noise (like that of flowing water), i always have to tell others, i am not hearing what you’re saying i am washing the dishes. Though i’ve no idea how well other people can hear something when they are washing the dishes; maybe i care too much not to pretend to listen when i don’t hear.
The following recordings are played on an acoustic instrument by a human (me),
and they have spaces in between the chords. The chord sequences are randomly
generated (which means that the major-to-minor ratio is not necessarily 1:1,
but all of them do have a mixture of major and minor chords).
Each of the following two recordings is a sequence of eight C major or C minor
chords:
Edit 2 (2012-Apr-22): I added another
recording that contains these
chords:
F B♭ C F
F B♭ Cmi F
repeated over and over, while the balance between the voices is varied, from
“all voices roughly equal” to “only the second voice from the top audible”.
The second voice from the top is the only one that is different on the C minor
chord. My idea is that hearing the changing voice foregrounded from its
context like this might make it easier to pick it out when it’s not
foregrounded.
Ditto for me—The difference between the two chords is crystal clear, but in the cadence I can barely hear it.
I’m not a professional, but I sang in school chorus for 6 years, was one of the more skilled singers there, I’ve studied a little musical theory, and I apparently have a lot of natural talent. And the first time I heard the version played in cadence I didn’t notice the difference at all. Freaky. I know how that post-doc felt when she couldn’t hear the difference in the chords.
Still, the notes drag on, the notes have harmonics, etc. It is not pure sine waves that abruptly stop and give time for the ear to ‘clear’ of afterimage-like sound.
I hear the difference in the cadence, it’s just that I totally can’t believe it can possibly be clearer than just the one chord then another chord. I can tell apart just the two chords at much lower volume level and/or paying much less attention.
This is weird. It is hard for me to hear the difference in the cadence, but crystal clear otherwise. In the cadence, the problem for me is that the notes are dragging on, like when you press pedal on piano a bit, that makes it hard to discern the difference.
Maybe they lost something in retelling here? Made up new stimuli for which it doesn’t work because of harmonics or something?
Or maybe its just me and everyone on this thread? I have a lot of trouble hearing speech through noise (like that of flowing water), i always have to tell others, i am not hearing what you’re saying i am washing the dishes. Though i’ve no idea how well other people can hear something when they are washing the dishes; maybe i care too much not to pretend to listen when i don’t hear.
This needs proper study.
The following recordings are played on an acoustic instrument by a human (me), and they have spaces in between the chords. The chord sequences are randomly generated (which means that the major-to-minor ratio is not necessarily 1:1, but all of them do have a mixture of major and minor chords).
Each of the following two recordings is a sequence of eight C major or C minor chords:
major-minor-1.mp3
major-minor-2.mp3
Each of the following two recordings is a sequence of eight “cadences” -- groups of four chords that are either
F B♭ C F
or
F B♭ Cminor F
cadences-1.mp3
cadences-2.mp3
Edit: Here’s a listing of the chords in all four sound files.
Edit 2 (2012-Apr-22): I added another recording that contains these chords:
repeated over and over, while the balance between the voices is varied, from “all voices roughly equal” to “only the second voice from the top audible”. The second voice from the top is the only one that is different on the C minor chord. My idea is that hearing the changing voice foregrounded from its context like this might make it easier to pick it out when it’s not foregrounded.
Ditto for me—The difference between the two chords is crystal clear, but in the cadence I can barely hear it.
I’m not a professional, but I sang in school chorus for 6 years, was one of the more skilled singers there, I’ve studied a little musical theory, and I apparently have a lot of natural talent. And the first time I heard the version played in cadence I didn’t notice the difference at all. Freaky. I know how that post-doc felt when she couldn’t hear the difference in the chords.
I added another recording. See “Edit 2” in this comment for an explanation.
Nope, the audio examples are all straightforward realizations of the corresponding music notation. (They are easy for me to tell apart.)
Still, the notes drag on, the notes have harmonics, etc. It is not pure sine waves that abruptly stop and give time for the ear to ‘clear’ of afterimage-like sound.
I hear the difference in the cadence, it’s just that I totally can’t believe it can possibly be clearer than just the one chord then another chord. I can tell apart just the two chords at much lower volume level and/or paying much less attention.
I am with you on easily telling the two apart in the original chords but being unable to reliably tell the difference in the cadence version.