The piece of musical technology that I have chosen is the Guzheng, which is a traditional Chinese zither that is said to originate in the Qin Dynasty. A zither is a type of musical instrument that falls under the string family and is comprised of a flat wooden sound box with multiple strings placed horizontally. To play this instrument you would use one or both hands to pluck at the right and left portion of the strings. The left portion of the strings can produce pitch ornamentation and vibrato (History of Guzheng). The Guzheng was mainly played in Chinese folk music, where originally the instrument had twelve strings. But, with modernization in technology the modern Guzheng now has 21 to 25 strings as well as tuning devices and pedals (World Instrument Gallery). With the addition of more strings and other pieces to the Guzheng it gave the instrument more variety to play different chords, pitches, and harmonies. I do not have any experience with this instrument; however, I have heard it being played in the background music in Chinese movies.  

The piece of music that I had chosen is called “Spring River in the Flower Moon Night” or in mandarin “春江花月夜 (chun jiang hua yue ye). The creator of this piece was Zhang Ruoxe, who was a Chinese poet in the early Tang Dynasty. Originally the piece “Spring River in the Flower Moon Night” was a poem that translated into a folk song using the Guzheng. The Guzheng helped showcase the deep emotions and meaning that came from the poem. Folk music is a type of story that has meaning, the Guzheng was used to tell these folk stories in a musical way.  

The musical technology I picked is an amplifier. It’s purpose is to increase the amplitude of the instrument so that more people can hear it. It usually uses a certain type of cable like an XLR, 1/4 inch, or TRS cable, depending on the instrument, then you can run the cable through the input of the amp. The signal that is sent through the instrument runs through a series of controls and modulations such as “volume control”, “gain”, “base” (controls the EQ curve of the lower frequencies on the spectrum), and “treble” (control the EQ curve of higher frequencies). It also runs through a preamp before making its way to the speaker cabinet. There are a number of artists who use the amplifier in a way in which it was not designed for. One in particular is Jimi Hendrix, who cranked both his fuzz pedals and his amplifier in a dirty channel and this would make it really loud, distorted, and brought about sounds that were never heard before. I have used a couple of amps in my life, such as when I have performed at school. 

The way Jimi Hendrix used the amplifier brought about a new way of creative freedom and spoke to people. It created a new audience of people who enjoyed the new sound and broke musical boundaries that had not been broken before.

A very important tool in music that has helped many artist in the industry would be auto-tune. Auto-tune is very important because it is a piece of software that corrects the singer if they are singing out of tune whether it be the studio or live. Many artist use it nowadays to make an appeal to the younger audience. It enhances an artist’s voice even if they don’t have the talent in singing by adding a different alternative.. Many artist such as Justin Bieber, Kate Perry, Chris Brown, and many more. Even though auto-tune is not necessary for many artist, it does help solidify their performances or songs so that their fans will like it regardless. I’m not experienced with auto tune because I don’t sing at all but I am sure it would be a nice tool to use. Below I have chosen a song that incorporates auto tune and you can clearly hear it . It enhances the song and somewhat creates a catchy tune to it.

In the present day of music making, many artists today use technology to create different sounds and melodies for the basis of their songs. Music technology can be defined as a knowledge, techniques, and tools that help humans or animals to achieve goals. This basically means that music could be made from literally anything that creates our interpretation of sound and music. New technological advances like autotune and turntables help artists express and create different versions of their type of music they are used to producing. I feel like when people use autotune it is usually to create cool new versions of their original voice. Music nowadays are so diverse, that many artists try to differentiate themselves by adding cool new sounds and alternatives to their usual sound. Artists like Travis Scott, and Billie Eilish use autotune to create different sounds for their music, which most of their fans love. Although their voices without autotune sounds just fine, spicing it up with the help of autotune help make their music a bit more popular and enjoyable. Autotune sounds like a cool instrument to create music with, but I have never used it in my life. It sounds like something I would definitely try in the future to see how it really changes your voice. Autotune is noticeable in the song Antidote by Travis Scott, he uses this instrument to enhance his usual voice. This helps create dynamic in his song and nice consonant harmonies with his overlapping vocals. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KnZ8h3MRuYg

There are many different forms of musical technology that have been used in history as well as being used in present day to help better our understanding of technology or even just for listening to a wide variety of music. The form of musical technology that I chose to discuss today is ‘the guitar combo amplifier.’ Guitar combo amplifiers are usually used in ‘rock ‘n’ roll’ music. Rock ‘n’ roll music would not be loud if there wasn’t amplification. So many different types of bands use this across the world. And it is used in majority of concerts you would go to. Many rock ‘n’ roll music artists in the industry today use guitar combo amplifiers. I personally don’t have no experience with this technology form, but I have heard so many people playing it whether it be in real life or in videos, and it has always amazed me at how loud the sounds can get.

The song “Shut the Door” by Fugazi, was well- known for the rock ‘n’ roll vibes that it has to it. The band wasn’t very famous, but people who like rock ‘n’ roll music were very big fans of this piece. As you can see in the video the 2 guys are playing the guitar combo amplifier. This is the main parts of the song itself. It goes from soft to loud, back to soft and then they get super loud again. This song/band went viral back in 2010.

There are a lot of musical technology used during a concert. The most critical would be loudspeakers. Loudspeakers are defined as stereo equipment, that create sound through the conversion of electrical impulses. There are many different variations of loudspeakers that serve different purposes. I do not believe this technology can be used in a way that it is not designed for. I do have experience with loudspeakers, I own a pair for my computer at home. The loudspeakers are used mainly when I want to listen to music while doing work. Loudspeakers are also important for speakers that have to make a speech. If the speaker is making a speech, it is important for all people of the audience to fully receive the message, loudspeakers will serve their purpose 100 percent of the time.

Loudspeakers are used for many songs when the artists perform. The example I picked was NGHTMRE at the Electric Daisy Carnival 2019. Loudspeakers are a must-have equipment for edm artists at venues. If edm artists did not have speakers, It would decrease the entertainment tragically for people at the venue. I believe that a performer would prefer loudspeakers at any venue, no matter what size.

Music Notation is an important form of technology of music. One important form of music notation in Europe is neumes. Around the early 800s, a system of notation was developed using neumes. This is known as figures that present either single tones or many groups of tones. Neumes are different from modern notation. In the past neumes didn’t display pitches, instead they showed outlines of how the music may unfold. A man named Guido of Arezzo (ca. 991-1033) had devised a staff system of lines and spaces that allowed for exact pitch requirements. They had been used to recite the Christian holy scriptures known as melodic. 

Many people were able to use this device especially in the Middle Ages. I am not aware of any specific people who used this technology in a way that it wasn’t designed to be used. People were mainly looking for ways to expand ways of music notation and more advanced ways to present tones. Personally I have no experience with this particular form of music notation. However, the modern version is used now to see the different tones and sounds. I wasn’t able to find a clear piece of neumes but I was able to find a brief history and picture form of using neumes. I found this information very interesting and it was an interesting early form of music notation involving neumes. 

The piece of music technology that I’ve chosen is the software: Ableton Live 10. According to website musictech.net “Ableton’s definition of melody and harmony: melody is the tune, the lead, the hook, a one-note-at-a-time part… played together,”(Delaney).  The purpose of the not-free software is for anyone, beginners and professionals alike, to be able to mix music and make their own way into the musical world. It works to achieve that purpose by having specialty tools encapsulated within the program, such as midi-effects for harmony, and more.

I believe there might be people out there who use the software for other purposes besides music, especially through pirating or by selling copies of the software illegally, therefore making money off of it, and not the intended purpose: to create music. I do have experience using this technology, in high school I used to put covers of songs on youtube, and I used this software to mix my vocals (pitch correction) with the instrumentals, along with adding specific effects into the background. The technology was influential towards the music it helped produce because it helps artists to create their remixes, covers, original pieces, and even to be a DJ.