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 Previous: Surfin': Got Noise? |  Next: A Classic Tradition |
By Tom Aughenbaugh, NY6Q
January 15, 2005
Being blessed with the versatile hobby of Amateur Radio and a career as a music educator, my mind is usually working overtime on one project or another. While commuting to school one day, I was mentally practicing CW by verbalizing car license plates as I saw them. The "feel" of a certain grouping of letters caught my attention, much like a good call sign. I realized some CW character combinations make interesting musical rhythms. This led to improvising jazz and rock tunes to the rhythm of various CW character combinations. I'm certainly not the first Ham/Musician to do this but it was a revelation to consider the rhythmic possibilities in composing and arranging music.
An Anonymous File Started it All
My father, K6NW, sent me a MIDI file he received that employs CW characters as part of the music. I was impressed by the anonymous composer's effort although the timing was uncomfortably offbeat. After I dissected the MIDI file in a computer music sequencer program, the detail showed uneven beat quantization and inexact CW dot/dash ratios. I edited this MIDI file and was able to standardize the CW ratios and quantize the rhythms to dead-on accuracy for a more pleasing performance. The exercise led to the composition of "NY6Q Blues," my original CW MIDI tune using my standardized musical dot/dash ratio.
The Next Ham Hit to Top the Charts
While the "NY6Q Blues" file plays on your computer, I challenge the listener to identify the various CW elements incorporated in the different MIDI voices of this music composition. There should be 10 different items to identify (more or less, depending on whether or not you combine certain elements). The CW characters will change frequency to accommodate the harmonic progression.
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Loading the file into a sequencer program such as Cakewalk will allow you to change the tempo and to isolate voices for easier identification if necessary. (You can even "read" the code in Piano Roll view.) Most CW operators will be able to identify characters with little trouble. Since "NY6Q" Blues is a MIDI file, the actual instrument voices may sound different than my original orchestration if your computer is not equipped with a Creative Sound Blaster card. Effects such as delay or echo should be turned off for best comprehension.
Employing CW characters as musical motifs is esoteric, but it does impart a deeper meaning identifiable only to those brethren who "know the code."
Tom Aughenbaugh, NY6Q, has been licensed since 1982. He is
a fourth-generation musician and a third-generation ham radio operator active
on HF CW and digital modes. Tom is presently a middle school band director in
Southern California and composes music for a variety of musical groups,
including his own classical flute and guitar duo, Mostly Mellow Music,
featuring his wife, Kathy, N6SRM. Tom may be contacted at tom@mostlymellowmusic.com.
| Previous: Surfin': Got Noise? | Next: A Classic Tradition |
