Musical Practice and Performance Stack Exchange
Musical Practice and Performance Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [consonance-and-dissonance]

Dissonance is the cultural perception of two or more pitches sounded harmonically that form intervals not expected within the current musical context. These intervals typically occur higher in the harmonic series than other intervals considered to be "consonant".

Dissonance is the experience of hearing multiple pitches sounded harmonically that form intervals that are unexpected in the surrounding musical context. These intervals commonly create musical tension, and can be found farther up in the harmonic series than intervals considered to be "consonant".

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Are there objective criteria for classifying consonance v. dissonance?

There has been a fair bit of to-ing and fro-ing regarding consonance and dissonance lately here. What I cannot understand is that the two terms seem to encompass rather subjective opinions. Looking at a recent list, I find myself disagreeing with…
Tim
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How can stepwise movement be concordant?

I am learning rules of counterpoint. One of the rules states: Do not make stepwise concordant movements longer than a fifth. As far as I understand stepwise movement is either 2nd minor or second major. So, it is either one semi-tone or one tone.…
Roman
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What exactly are Avoid Notes?

Trying to find out about so-called 'avoid notes'. They seem to be notes that are a semitone above notes from a chord, thus produce dissonance. Not even sure what constitutes dissonance! But quite often I use 'avoid notes' because that extra…
Tim
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How is dissonance created?

I was listening to a fairly obscure piece called "Rats in Spats" by the Combustion Collective and it sounds (I'm not a musician) dissonant somehow. Can the rhythm section play in a different key than the lead? Just curious. Don't get too…
Sandy Kerns
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Intentional dissonance and "distortion" in the climax of a piece of music

I've just recently discovered this piece of music by Nils Frahm, "For – Peter – Toilet Brushes – More". The YouTube video is only the parts of "Toilet Brushes – More". The parts closer to the end are just beautiful, and as it reaches the end, you…
user80398
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Is dissonance a type of inharmonicity?

I thought inharmonicity was basically when the partials of a complex wave don't belong to integer multiples of a fundamental frequency. I thought when this happens to get a "dissonant" sound, e.g. a tritone on a piano. I recently found the term…
Stan Shunpike
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If you were to write a song, how would you use dissonance and consonance?

im still a newbie to this so i kinda need an answer to this
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Just Intonation > Equal Temperament "Consonance and Dissonance"?

So for months now I'm becoming increasingly frustrated with this Just Intonation versus Equal Temperament, so maybe with this question we can nip it in the bud. If we could refrain from "complex mathematics" which i have trouble comprehending and…
Seery
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what pitch(es) present in this trench whistle?

A friend bought me a replica trench whistle during the recent First World War Centenary. I'm hoping to use it as the basis for a scale or harmonic structure for a piece of music I'm working on. When blown, it makes a dissonant tone which sounds to…
S. Imp
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How to use more dissonance in songwriting without going too far

I am not a classical musician but I have learned a bit of counterpoint and from what I remember, dissonance is usually used sparingly like on upbeats and between two passing tones. Nowadays however, I often find examples in popular music where…
user35708