Music

[Colonel]

Oh gosh, you're thinking, he's been at the crack
again. Rob Ford all over again.  But no.

For many years, many decades ago as a youngster
I studied music.  And oh God, it was dreary.  Sonatinas
and minuets.  Royal Conservatory of Music.  Theory
of Music I and II, Harmony and Counterpoint.  All of
which I ditched as fast as I could.  I wanted to get
my hands dirty.

But a funny thing happened on the way to middle age.

That musical training has paid off in spades.

Oh dear, you're saying, crack is a terrible thing.

No, no, I must insist.  And here's why:

1) Pitch.  Operating machinery, if you can recognize
pitch, you don't need to stare at the tachometer.
You know when an engine sounds good - just like
someone with a good ear for pitch can instantly
pick out someone flat.

2) Rhythm.  I know as white guys this is not our
strong suit, but a good sense of rhythm pays off
when it's time to shift gears, or do something else
technique intensive, like manipulate the flight
controls to enter a tumble.  A good ear for rhythm
can also help you spot an engine that's starting to
go sour and miss.  This is true of turbines as well
as reciprocating piston engines.

Carefully listening to (and feeling) an engine, I
can spot trouble coming a long way off, when other
pilots are happily updating facebook.

3) tactile feel.  If you spend some years with a
musical instrument, you're going to develop a
pretty precise feel for what you need to do, to
bend a string (for example).  This kind of delicate
feel is what allows a pilot to manipulate the flight
controls precisely and delicately at CLmax, while
possibly generating many positive or negative G's.

I am also convinced it's the reason I don't need
to use a torque wrench - you can feel the elastic
stretch, as you climb up the stress/strain curve.

Anyways.  For those that are convinced that what
they do has nothing to do with physics, and that
music doesn't have anything to do with physics:

[youtube][/youtube]


Gratuitous Geezer Rock Moment (1970's)

[youtube][/youtube]

From Back When Music Was Worth Listening To.

I will admit that they were ridiculously loud.  I
saw them in Toronto in the early 80's on a
Wednesday night, and when I woke up Friday
morning, my ears were still ringing.

[Eric Janson]

I'm sure you'll enjoy this:-

[David MacRay]

The musical ball bearing machine is incredible I especially like how he chose to fret the bass by hand.

We went to Cineplex to watch a screening of the Peter Gabriel concert DVD Back To Front. What a great value at $5.99!
I was especially amazed to see when Tony Levin played a regular four string fretted bass with a pick for Big Time, verses the five string fretless he predominantly used and then a few times switched to a keyboard synthesizer.

[vanNostrum]

'[font=verdana][size=2]'1) Pitch.  Operating machinery, if you can recognize
pitch, you don't need to stare at the tachometer''

True 
The O 360 at take off  sounded like an F, [/size][/font][font=verdana][size=2]for climbing, a 200 RPM reduction lower the pitch [/size][/font][font=verdana][size=2]a semitone to an E ,
a 300 RPM reduction for cruise went down a full tone to a D
Or so I thought


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