Welcome to the Wakefield Doctrine (the theory of clarks, scotts and rogers)
OK, so we drew the attention of the clarks yesterday, both with the Post (and it’s excellent video of Giada, Alton and Bobby totally illustrating the three personality types) and with the photo that Molly posted in ‘the FaceBook’ (reproduced here with assumed permission)
(You should go to the Facebook for the Comments! we heard from ‘near ever body’ Nell, Jasmine(!)* DS#1, ‘KH and a number of Comment-shy Facebookians…)
Tritone paradox?
You know how you read something and lights start to go off in your head, connections among ideas that are seemingly un-related? Well, this morning I was browsing through some youtube videos and found myself watching a video that promised to teach me to play the correct ‘bass lines’ for modern gospel music. Well, at some point in lesson, this teacher-fellow, mentioned tension and resolution (“…when we say, praise the Lawd, thats a Fifth note and the tension wants us to get back to the First note, Amen! “). He went on to describe what triads, are and (the) role they play in this kind of music and thats when the lights started flashing.
Suddenly, it was “hey! triads!! that means three! …and what do we know that has three? the Wakefield Doctrine!”
So, off I went, clicking my way through google search results, trying to learn enough about tension and resolution to add to how we talk about the three personality types of the Wakefield Doctrine. Well, I got as far as:
“…the Wakefield Doctrine maintains that we all are born with the capability of living in the reality of the outsider (clarks) the predator (scotts) or the member of the herd (rogers), and, at a fairly early age, we settle into one of these three. However, we never lose the ability to experience the world as ‘the other two’ do. In other words, although we spent virtually all our time in our predominant worldview (lets say, as a clark), there are moments and times (usually under some form of duress) when we look up and see the world as a scott …or a roger. This usually is a very fleeting experience, but it explains why many new Readers will say, “I read the Doctrine and I can see that I must be a roger, but there are time when I am acting just like these scottian (‘sco-shun’) people! What gives?”
What gives is that you see the world as you would (have) if you were one of the other two types and you act accordingly. (Not very skillfully, but appropriately …this matter of the skill involved in each of the three types is for another Post.) You return to your pre-dominant type pretty much right away, but there is that attraction between and among the three worldviews that is the ‘tie-in’ with today’s Post Title.
…as to what a tritone paradox is? Why doncha ask the Progenitor roger? he the reckers of intelligence in musical matters, I just follow the flashing lights in my head!
…for you clarks (and a handful of rogers who think they are not being watched, here is a little more commonplace example of this, whatever the hell it is, music)
About clarkscottroger
You knew I’d bite for this one…
The musical example cited is wrong for this application. It illustrates minor keys descending in a circle of fourths. A function of Bach’s system, but unrelated to tritone use or chordal tension.
And believe me, Bach’s system works equally well for gospel, blues, bluegrass, country, rockabilly, death metal, or any other category of Western music. No one gets special consideration. A bass line is a bass line.
Jesus just left Chicago, he’s headed to Memphis, but JS Bach is driving the bus.
With that said, classic Bach-style church music offers a very clear example of chord resolution. At the end of a hymn, there is always an ” amen” sung, as a kind of punctuation. This is so that everyone knows that it’s over. The ” a” is on a IV chord( derived from the 4th scale step), and the ” men” is on the I chord ( derived from the 1st scale step). When you get back to the “I” chord, you’ re home, and you get to sit down just after that.
It’s just another use of I-IV-V chords, and if you understand those applications, then you already know about a quarter million songs.
The ” paradox” with tritones is that they can never resolve of their own accord. They can be used as a stepping stone in another progression that does resolve, but they can’t get there on their own. Imagine little Nell, strapped to the train tracks and screaming her head off; hear the piano chords in the background that keep going upward and never come back? Those are stacked tritones. You can raise tension by going upward, or release it by going down. Tritones are notes that are exactly 3 half-steps removed from one another.
Ain’t it fun?
…I am (still) not sure of where the lights started flashing (clearly ending in the Post), but I think it was the tension/resolution inherent in most (Western) music structure. As a clark, we sho loves symmetry so the thought that there is something in the nature of the world of a clark that requires something from the reality of a scott or a roger is simply irrisistable.
And who knows? it might be there. To a clark, nothing is final, therefore everything is possible. All standards and rules are subject to exception, which is why clarks tend to be the (genuinely) creative ones (of the three types.
Even now as I read your explanation on (the) tritone paradox, the attraction (to the idea) remains strong… sort of like my one-time obsession with arrhythmia, (if there are some rhythm structures that are more compelling than others, then what is ‘the thing’ within it (the rhytm) that causes you to tap your damn foot? and if there is complusive rhythmn then is there a …sequence… a progression that causes the opposite effect?)
(you’re right, I did know… lol)
and now that you bring it up, maybe my next Doctrine Road Trip should be to New Orleans,
You probably secretly like the French Impressionists ( Ravel, Debussy, Erik Satie) don’t you? Come on, you can admit it, no one’s listening… I actually found some of that for classical guitar, and not only is there no key signature, but no time signature either. Stuff just hangs in the air like mist. I like it…there, I said it. ” Afternoon of a …Clark?”