Does music actually have rules?
 

I'm at a music class. we are being taught about the diffrent rules of music etc.

But, are they really rules? does art actually have rules or are they boundaries that our society creates?
After all, music is the art of creating vibrations in the air.... I dont think there are really rules of how it should be done.

There are rules and then there are rules. Some notes will create harmonies together, others won't. There's not that much you can do to change that "rule".

Then you can have rules for making certain kinds of music just like there's a rule on how to write a haiku poem. If you don't follow the rules with the syllables, it's not a haiku .. but it could still be a poem. So it depends.

When it comes to making music in general, a lot of people like to break what they perceive as rules while still making what people would generally call music. So in those cases, I guess they are more like guidelines.

You can do a lot of different stuff, you just have to make it sound good. But some notes just don't go together, so yes, there is a rule saying "the notes have to harmonize or it'll sound like ****".

Tore said it well. There are rules that we have created by observing the way music works. Such as which notes and chords work best together, etc. They are more like guidelines, though. Just because there is a specific C major scale and there are specific notes and chords that go in that scale doesn't mean you can't go out of the scale and still find something that sounds good, I do it all the time. You have some experimental artists to break all rules and boundaries to make their music. I guess it depends on how you define music.

why do so many of the new members come in with these overly pretentious threads about the meaning of life, exchanging the last word with the term music, in an attempt to sound profound.

Why does there need to be a deeper meaning. Why do we need do delve into the subconscious mind in an attempt to better understand why we like a certain chord progression, why must we ponder whether or not the government conspires via radio-friendly songs in an attempt to get us to buy into foreign invasions?

This ain't a psychology forum. why do people give time to these threads and neglect to talk about, y'know...actually music?

Why are you so aggressive all the time?

It is a decent question, maybe he is not trying to "sound profound" but actually have people contribute to something that he is trying to figure out in his head.

WHY THE **** NOT


He is talking about music. Just not about a particular band or genre. It is still relevant.






And now to reply to the opening post.

Are you referring to technical western rules in music, as in keys and progressions or different rules? Like unsaid rules, like what is right and wrong as a collective? I think that society does create boundaries, and in many cases they are bad ones, and I don't just mean musically speaking, it is present in art and in architecture as well(one of the ones that society has affected for the worse and vice versa)

I like the idea of music being something that is fun for people to create and for people to listen to. From my experience the most talented musicians that I have met were the ones open minded enough to embrace new things, and make mistakes.For instance, I have a friend who has a music studio(his band is linked in my sig) and he was given an old piano for the studio, the guy asked him would he like him to tune the piano, and my friend said no. The piano doesn't sound perfect, but playing on it adds an ethereal and spooky quality to the music. Once a musician accepts that there is no rules in music, he/she is free to explore more exciting territory.

Rule # 1.
Must have sound of some kind.

Rule # 2.
?

I'm not sure if you're asking why NEW members do this, or why ANY member does it. In the case of the first, well, I assume they're looking around for something that hasn't yet been a topic, and a lot of the more popular ones are gone now. It's surely an attempt to avoid falling into the trap of opening with a "X vs Y" thread or "What's your favourite single" type of thing. At least it shows some thought has been put into the idea, so I have no problem with it. And as Po says, it's a valid question.

If you're talking about the topic itself being questionable, I'd say that music infuses, influences and directs most of the things I do, and probably a lot others here too, so whether it's politics, love, collecting CDs or even making lists, it's all linked together by music. Different if the OP had said "Does life have rules?" That's also a valid question, but belongs in the subforum for such discussions.

Haha you took the words right out of my mouth. Why the **** not?

Here are some rules:

Find your own voice - don't try to imitate someone else.
Don't sing too high or you won't sound good.
Don't try to do things you aren't good at, while performing.
Don't perform junk - perform music people will want to hear.
Have the microphone positioned so you can keep your mouth right on it, while playing your musical instrument and looking at your music.
Get your mouth away from a directional mike when singing loud, and close to the mike when singing soft.
Don't let musical instruments drown out vocals.