# Misconceptions and myths about classical music



## ejsledge (Dec 6, 2013)

One common misconception about music is that the tempo / speed of the music, even if there are no indications to slow down or speed up, remains the same throughout a movement. With human beings at the helm, there is no way that the speed will remain constant. The speed does remain constant if the music is played on a computer. I have a computer program to write music, and whatever speed you type in is constant - and it sounds like computer music, believe me ! There is a natural tendency to speed up and slow down all through a piece of music, with our without indications in the score to do so. Every person has a little different idea of what speed should be taken, therefore, in case of a large group of players, the need for some coordination - a conductor. But no conductor, no matter how determined she/he is to maintain a constant tempo, can actually do so - and if done so, the music would be static and sound "computerized". Experience will teach a musician to sense when to speed up and slow down and do this with other players (unless she/he is playing solo). And then there are solo players who speed up and slow down so much they drive you crazy!!


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## ejsledge (Dec 6, 2013)

Next up: playing "in tune". Is there such a thing? What does that mean? All ideas welcome!


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## mmsbls (Mar 6, 2011)

ejsledge said:


> One common misconception about music is that the tempo / speed of the music, even if there are no indications to slow down or speed up, remains the same throughout a movement. With human beings at the helm, there is no way that the speed will remain constant. The speed does remain constant if the music is played on a computer.


Yes, we certainly expect most classical to have varied tempos due both to purposeful conducting and random human frailty. My daughter recently had a funny experience with a gig she played. It was a group of string players along with drums, electric guitars, and electric piano. At one point the drummer said he couldn't hear the "click track". She wondered what he could be talking about until she realized that all the non-string players wore headphones so they could hear the steady beat.


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

I think it is a misconception that computers play at a steady tempo. If you are recording midi from a keyboard for example, it is played back almost to the micro-second at the exact same tempo you played into it, unless you quantize the score for printing. Also the tempo can be hand drawn as curves in better production software or randomized / humanized. It's still very hard to make this come out sounding totally human of course, but we are getting there. It will not be long before our brain waves can conduct the computer playback. That is not science fiction -- that's a couple of years away.


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## Couac Addict (Oct 16, 2013)

Weston said:


> I think it is a misconception that computers play at a steady tempo.


Especially when the cassette from my Commodore 64 starts to spool.


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

From the hollywood "elite": 

1. Classical music is boring and thus any classical music depicted in films must be the most foresquare, dull performances they can find.

2. Those listening to classical music must be mental cases, so depict those listeners in films as manic-depressives or schizoids or just plain eccentrics. Nobody "in his right mind" listens to classical music.


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