Music As 'Code'

The Hendrix Code 

 

 

This was a T-shirt idea I had for the Hendrix Chord. When I created it, I was thinking about a comment by a friend that music notation is 'code'. It is, in fact, if you look at jazz chord symbols, like G7(#5,#9). But music notation is code no more than a paragraph is code. It is a simple base-12 system and rhythm is based on simple math. 

Most of music is not intellectual; It is based on things that can require study, as one would study any manual. In music there are 'manuals' going back centuries and we hear the effects to this day, without needing to look at the manuals. But you could if you wanted to, and like software manuals, you'd find things you didn't know you could do.

Music might be like code in that you can learn from others by shadowing their work. It is "open-source" in many ways, which began with the standard MIDI file format in the early 1980s and can be shared around and opened in music notation programs which are translated into music fonts. (Petrucci is the main font for noteheads, stems, key signatures; Seville is used for fretboard charts, and a few others).  But it only is a map of various switches (controllers). We can view E7(#9) as a formula, but once you learn what the symbol stands for you know the formula (or voicing). But the manual tells you that the chord symbol represents a dominant seventh chord with a raised ninth, and tells you how it can be constructed. If you don't know what a dominant seventh chord is you can consult the manuals (or ask on Quora like most people do). It's a better heuristic than hundreds of line of code. Music notation is exformation--all you need to know.