jerry 10

Hi Paul,

The very first time I heard this clip (two days ago), I thought I heard a drop.
That was just kind of listening to the chord without paying too much attention
to the individual pitches.

Then, if I focussed attention on just the top note and followed
it through the two chords, I could hear it rise, - I'd be very surprised if I didn't
doing it that way.

However, I've tried listening again today, and like Bob, I can't hear it as falling at all,
even trying to listen in a naive not expecting anything way - that's not easy to do!!

I wonder if varying the attack on the new note will affect the
illusion - I have a feeling that if it has more attack it is more likely
to seem to drop - and if it had no attack at all and one also did a portamento
slide from the previous note, presumably one would hear it glide up
in pitch.

Maybe also one needs to get someone to suddenly play the chord without
telling you what it is all about, so that you don't think to particularly
follow the top note, and then ask you what you have just heard.

I did also wonder if the illusion could be because of the way a constant
pitch note can sometimes appear to do a very fast portamento from a lower pitch when you
play it if it starts anything less than immediately at maximum volume.
- the very beginning of a note can colour ones perception of its pitch, also
the end of it for that matter. So, the beginning of the second note would
appear a bit flatter than the end of the one before it even if it is
in fact higher in pitch later on.

But, I expect you've done controls for that already.

I was planning to listen to it again today and try to measure how much
it seemed to go down in pitch, by playing another note and varying its
frequency to the one I thought I heard it go down to. But, not possible
as it won't do it any more, also even if it did maybe trying to compare
notes like that will make the change go away.

Another thought, which would suggest it could be culturally based
- going flat has a kind of lazy, going home, to the familiar, feel about it
and going sharp has a kind of adventurous bright feel to it, going
to something new.

So, could it be just that we so often hear the high thirds in the
music played around us so much of the time,
and so when it moves to those, they seem familiar, so flat?

Nice to know what the jerries are about now.

Robert