Hopefully I've caught your attention with my article title. I
think if you get out the metaphorical eraser and make some space in your
attentive brain cells, you might really come away with some valuable
information. You will have some new approaches to try in your musical
exploration. I am a guitarist and I think this material applies really
well to the physical layout of the guitar, but it can be used for other
instruments as well.
First let's set the table by defining fractals. Technically speaking, fractal equations have the characteristics of a line. However, at the same time, they also have the characteristic of a surface area. Ah, you ask, 'How can this be?', or 'What does this mean anyway?' Well,
to put in layman's terms, but to twist up your mind more thoroughly, a fractal exceeds the shape it occupies.
Okay, we're on a roll now. Think of it this way. Fractals are not contained. They go on and on. There is another basic building block of a fractal - recursion. Recursion is the process of repeating an item in a self-similar way. Self-similar simply means an item is either an exact or approximately similar representation to a part of its original self. We're on a real mind-bender now aren't we?
Let me give a couple of illustrations to make what I'm talking about clearer. Have you ever seen a Norman Rockwell painting that is a painting of the same painting of the same painting, etc.? How about a movie where the movie's hero and the villain both end up a house of mirrors? The hero sees an infinite number of villain images in the mirrors and reflections of mirrors.
Now I will give you a crash course on set theory. We will use all the kids that go to a high school as our main set. Now, we can start creating subsets from our main set. How about the boys track 800 meter relay team? We could pick out the senior class, the Phi Beta chess club, the girls volleyball team. At one level, all of these sets are the same. They all belong to the same high school. At the subset level, they are quite different. Do you think there is much in common with the Phi Beta chess club and the girls' volleyball team? I sincerely doubt it.
Drum roll please. It is time to connect the dots and bring all of these things together. First of all, I want you to think of chords, scales, rhythms, shapes, melodies, chord progressions, and even songs as a high school set. It is very productive and creative to make subsets of chords, scales, etc. For one thing, it may even be practical.
Do you have a dominant 13th chord fingering that you find physically very hard to play? This may come as a revelation to you, but you don't have to play all those notes! You can just play a few of them. They will still be part of the 'high school' or 13th chord. You may have to experiment. After all, we showed how the different subsets can be quite different. Time and experience will help you with that. However, this is also a huge creative plus.
Now let's take the next step and apply the fractal factor. Remember we are going to take an idea and make an exact or approximate representation of it. (This is where the physical layout of the guitar really pays off.) The original idea could be a chord, a rhythm, a shape, a melody, a chord progression, etc. This could be your idea, or someone else's idea. It doesn't matter, because we are going to change it anyway.
This is just one example. Let's say I have a melody I like that has 11 notes. I take and keep 4 notes out of it. The pattern I play is on three strings of the guitar. I am going to experiment and keep this exact geometric pattern and move it around horizontally and vertically on the guitar. Now I am going to alter the second note of the melody and mess around with that. Now I am... Get the idea. There is an infinite amount of creative fruit to be had here.
First let's set the table by defining fractals. Technically speaking, fractal equations have the characteristics of a line. However, at the same time, they also have the characteristic of a surface area. Ah, you ask, 'How can this be?', or 'What does this mean anyway?' Well,
to put in layman's terms, but to twist up your mind more thoroughly, a fractal exceeds the shape it occupies.
Okay, we're on a roll now. Think of it this way. Fractals are not contained. They go on and on. There is another basic building block of a fractal - recursion. Recursion is the process of repeating an item in a self-similar way. Self-similar simply means an item is either an exact or approximately similar representation to a part of its original self. We're on a real mind-bender now aren't we?
Let me give a couple of illustrations to make what I'm talking about clearer. Have you ever seen a Norman Rockwell painting that is a painting of the same painting of the same painting, etc.? How about a movie where the movie's hero and the villain both end up a house of mirrors? The hero sees an infinite number of villain images in the mirrors and reflections of mirrors.
Now I will give you a crash course on set theory. We will use all the kids that go to a high school as our main set. Now, we can start creating subsets from our main set. How about the boys track 800 meter relay team? We could pick out the senior class, the Phi Beta chess club, the girls volleyball team. At one level, all of these sets are the same. They all belong to the same high school. At the subset level, they are quite different. Do you think there is much in common with the Phi Beta chess club and the girls' volleyball team? I sincerely doubt it.
Drum roll please. It is time to connect the dots and bring all of these things together. First of all, I want you to think of chords, scales, rhythms, shapes, melodies, chord progressions, and even songs as a high school set. It is very productive and creative to make subsets of chords, scales, etc. For one thing, it may even be practical.
Do you have a dominant 13th chord fingering that you find physically very hard to play? This may come as a revelation to you, but you don't have to play all those notes! You can just play a few of them. They will still be part of the 'high school' or 13th chord. You may have to experiment. After all, we showed how the different subsets can be quite different. Time and experience will help you with that. However, this is also a huge creative plus.
Now let's take the next step and apply the fractal factor. Remember we are going to take an idea and make an exact or approximate representation of it. (This is where the physical layout of the guitar really pays off.) The original idea could be a chord, a rhythm, a shape, a melody, a chord progression, etc. This could be your idea, or someone else's idea. It doesn't matter, because we are going to change it anyway.
This is just one example. Let's say I have a melody I like that has 11 notes. I take and keep 4 notes out of it. The pattern I play is on three strings of the guitar. I am going to experiment and keep this exact geometric pattern and move it around horizontally and vertically on the guitar. Now I am going to alter the second note of the melody and mess around with that. Now I am... Get the idea. There is an infinite amount of creative fruit to be had here.
If you liked this article, check out http://www.LouisGuitar.com for more articles and music resources.
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