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Harmful Music I do not think that music is harmless amusement or heartwarming arts so that it and its secret are to be cherished. No. Music can be very harmful through its habituation or brainwashing. I mean by 'music' not superficially aggressive music but usual music. People who gather the field as players, listeners, etc. seem to presuppose that music is wonderful.



TP dissonance For me, many of jazz music are terribly full of dissonance. I do not mean dissonance by of harmonic or of chord progression but of timing progression. We, nowadays, can easily detect dissonance of chord progression. Why? Chord progression theory is the compulsory subject for jazz and related musicians, who share it as common language. Many books and classes and web sites of it are available to learn. Even if we are not musicians, we are listening everyday a lot of music including other music than jazz, which are based chord progression theory. In this flood-of-music society, we are consciously or unconsciously educated to be accustomed to chord progression.

On the contrary, although many jazz musicians must sense and make much of timing progression, they seem to take it as personal and cherished secret. Yes, it is surely to be personal and cherished. But it should not be secret but need to be theorized and shared 'as chord progression'. ('As chord progression' does not imply that timing progression theory is language-like grammar.) This is the only way, I think, to get rid of 'full of dissonance' and re-traditionalize jazz.

My claim that essence of invention of jazz was timing progression involves implicitly that I, of course, did not invent it. Only I do or try to do is its formulation. ('Formulation' implies neither simple nor determinate.)





TP begins with Timing progression (TP) begins with jazz player's struggling to know what musical timing is. Where is timing? No jazz player do not think of the problem. Any kind of music may have the same problem because no music has no element of timing. But jazz is special about the problem.

First, jazz is not notation-oriented but improvisation. So the experiment of timing can be done utterly freely; you can utter your tone at any timing. When I say that you grope for and learn proper timing according to your sense and consonance with other tones, you can reply it's the same as other music. But jazz is different on the point that it allows timing deviation. Rather, timing deviation has meaning. In other correct words, each unnotated timing has a meaning in the sequence of unnotated timings, which can constitutes the music. That is TP.

Second, jazz manipulates subtle timing. The order of the minuteness is several 10 ms which corresponds to our timing-perception time (how long it takes for us to perceive timing). In order to know timing we have to know our timing-perception time. But how? Is this notorious self-reference? Nevertheless we can do practically in our improvisational performing. This problem has need and value to search philosophically, mathematically.

The revolution of jazz looks like each of the following three revolutions of arts. About 1500, Leonardo da Vinci looked the world through scientifically structured picture. About 1800, music which had been looked down on by him structured time by notation. Before 1900, impressionist pictures which had been ridiculed by old arts took in deviation. But the jazz's is utterly different from each of three in that it is not paper-based. Thus, jazz revolutionizes paper-based modern culture since da Vinci.



Notation and the Bell of Pavlov's Dog I set forth a notion that there can be a music (TP music) in which notation is just the bell of Pavlov's dog. When the dog only hear the bell ringing, he/she slavers and imagines the food. That is to say, (the symbol of) the bell is notation (notated symbol); the food is real music.

"Is the music avant garde?" No. It is near to usual music on the point that both have a lot of restrictions and lows. Though it is similar to avant garde in the point of conflict with notation, it has an utterly different way of conflicting. While avant garde breaks and gets rid of the bell, it does not break or get rid of but changes how that rings.

"Then, do you mean that when the bell rings one time it's a bone and two times a piece of cheese?" No, I do not mean the number of times. "Then, do you mean that it's a bone for 1/4 second and a piece of cheese for 1 second?" No, I mean the length but not that of only one tone. "Then, do you mean that it's a bone for '1/2, 1/4, 1/4, 1' and a piece of cheese for '1/4, 1/4, 1/2, 1'?" No, that is notation. I mean unnotated timing or subtle difference of timing among even the same sequences '1/4, 1/4, 1/4, 1/4, 1/4, 1/4, 1/4, 1/4'. "Then, is that one of the most important features every musical player can not help but expressing and concerning?" Yes, but I mean whether that constitutes music or not. "Then, have there been some jazz improvisation played which dose so?" Yes. "Then, do you just replay that over and over again?" Yes, but it's also reconstruction of music.

"Does it omit chord progression from usual music?" No. While usual music let chord progression be constitutive but timing progression be contingent, TP music let the former be contingent but the latter be constitutive. Thus one who has no ability to feel timing progression can no more understand TP music than one who has no ability to feel chord progression can understand usual music of chord progression.