How to Solve a Song with Math

It's happened to all of us -- you hear a song that you don't want to like. You try to resist, but you can't. By the end of the song, you're tapping your foot and singing along. Why are some songs so irresistibly catchy?
Karen used to think it was magic. But when she looked closer, she had an epiphany -- It's actually just math. Songs are catchy because they're scientifically engineered to be that way. Karen shows you how.-YT
Kesavaramsays...

Major scales and "happy" 2:3 ratio frequencies makes me wanna vomit
it's more interesting to use different, and even dark melancholic tunes,
at least to me
and steven wilson
solve this

dystopianfuturetodaysays...

A. Octave B. 5th C. Tritone

Whenever you hear a pitch, there are also a number of much softer, sympathetic pitches that sound. These are called overtones. (Here is a graphic of the overtone series: http://www.deandrummond.com/oton1.jpg) Overtones are very soft, and usually only the first few are (barely) detectable to the ear - although factors like instrument construction, peculiarities of the performance space and other notes sounding at the same time can affect the production of overtones. The first two in the overtone series are an octave and a 5th, so when ^ Karen Cheng plays the octave and the 5th, the overtone series is reinforcing those pitches, which gives those intervals a very 'pure' sound.

The tritone is the 10th overtone in the series, and occurs 3 and 1/2 octaves above it's root pitch, which means that it is not only very soft, but more often than not, out of the range of human hearing. Although a naked tritone is odd sounding by itself, it is used to create many beautiful, lush and complicated harmonies. Hundreds of years ago, the tritone was considered the interval of the devil by the church and it's use was forbidden. That quickly faded away as western music began to come into its own as an art form. Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, and almost every other notable western composer have used the tritone often in various harmonic contexts.

The oft used chord progression she uses at the end is I V vi IV, which is similar to the Pachabel cannon progression used in a similar video (I V vi iii IV I IV V).

(/theory lesson)

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