Tone or Sound dark smokey and bright

[Targa]

Except everything we describe is in words. Literally everything. Because that's how you communicate and describe things.

You've never played charades then?

 

[Pete Thomas]

Good point

 

[skeller047]

Words are symbols, essentially standins or markers for the things we experience directly. As such, they are incomplete and imprecise. That’s just the way it is.

I think “smokey” implies mystery and perhaps a frisson of danger. Think of a dark night club inhabited by various shady people. Air and subtone in the sax sound evoke this for me.

Bright and dark just describe the prevalence of harmonics in the sound; bright means more prevalent, dark means less. They are always present but how intensely they appear places them on the spectrum.

 

[Vlad]

Smokey to me says Players No6 and what small clubs used to be like..coff...

 

[PiccoloPirate]

At a session, my buddy on the Rhodes asked, what do you want to play?
My reply, just roll in a thick foggy mist,
in three flats, to fill the shoreline.

 

[PiccoloPirate]

"I think “smokey” implies mystery and perhaps a frisson of danger. Think of a dark night club inhabited by various shady people."

Slugs' perhaps.

IIRC, there was another rough club in the East Village, after Slugs closed,
Tough part of town, in the 70s.
Having 9 German Shepherds helped.

 

[Colin the Bear]

Smokey to me means Bert Reynolds and that pesky Sheriff, or maybe that Robinson guy.

I'm sure those silent film makers thought they were communicating with their audience.

If a picture paints a thousand words...

 

[skeller047]

I used to smoke those!!!

 

[PiccoloPirate]

^^^^
A pianist was often playing along with the silent film.
They were given the movie synopsis and the score. For competent sight readers only.
Was told that after a few showings, they played what they thought was more better. 🎶🎶
Some of them were teenagers with skills.
Popcorn was delivered in huge bags, as not all theaters, had machines, until the late '50s, in NYC.

 

[skeller047]

My dad worked for Granny Goose. Occasionally he would bring one of those giant bags home. Movie week!!!

 

[mrblackbat]

Hehe; well I do suck at it....

But even in charades you typically act out each word in the phrase, or even each syllable....

Similarly a lot of sign language works in that way.

 

[mrblackbat]

Smokey to me means Bert Reynolds and that pesky Sheriff, or maybe that Robinson guy.

I'm sure those silent film makers thought they were communicating with their audience.

If a picture paints a thousand words...

That'll be because the correct spelling is "smoky" when looking for the adjective.

But Burt actually plays the Bandit, the sheriff is Smokey.

 

[thomsax]

Here is some heavy material;

Modelling Perceptual Dimensions of Saxophone Sounds​

(PDF) Modelling Perceptual Dimensions of Saxophone Sounds

PDF | In the past, musical instruments were developed over long periods of time by skilled craftsmen. Today, most instruments are mass-produced. Design of musical instruments as mass-produced products requires using strategies which make it easier to identify customer needs and...

www.researchgate.net

 

[mrblackbat]

Here is some heavy material;

Modelling Perceptual Dimensions of Saxophone Sounds​

(PDF) Modelling Perceptual Dimensions of Saxophone Sounds

PDF | In the past, musical instruments were developed over long periods of time by skilled craftsmen. Today, most instruments are mass-produced. Design of musical instruments as mass-produced products requires using strategies which make it easier to identify customer needs and...

www.researchgate.net

And going back to the point about metaphors when describing stuff - the material here weighs next to nothing (though the history of the metaphor actually comes from weighty tomes!) when read on my phone.....

 

[thomsax]

And going back to the point about metaphors when describing stuff - the material here weighs next to nothing (though the history of the metaphor actually comes from weighty tomes!) when read on my phone.....

Phones makes us stupid. Down load and read, and read again ..... . As a rock & roll saxophone enthusiast I use differnt words compared to a jazz player when descibing a sound. To get a smokey sound you have to smoke through the neck. A.C. Reed had a smokey sound just look how he got the smokey sound , around 2:48.

View: https://youtu.be/-h3uC5YdNpk?feature=shared

 

[mrblackbat]

Phones makes us stupid

Being stupid makes us stupid.

 

[Targa]

Being stupid makes us stupid.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTUr-aHx1p4

 

[Dr G]

I don't care for the term "smoky". "Bright" or "dark", to me, at least connotes the weighting of the frequencies in the spectrum.

It would almost be interesting to blow a single note into a spectrum analyzer, then see how much variation one can induce by adjusting embouchure and air stream.

 

[Pete Thomas]

I don't care for the term "smoky". "Bright" or "dark", to me, at least connotes the weighting of the frequencies in the spectrum.

I’ve said a few times I like to differentiate between tone and sound. I tend to think smoky is more of a sound whereas dark and bright can be applied to tone and hence measured in terms of frequency spectrum. Well bright anyway.

I originally perceived dark as more of a sort of atmosphere, but I concede that I’m in a bit of a minority with that one. Although what people tend to call dark, I often call warm. I think of dark as having a sort of mysterious edge to it.

 

[Pete Thomas]

Just noticed what I wrote 15 years ago, how’s that for consistency?

To me dark implies mystery or brooding.

But it can also mean warm or mellow.