Originally Posted By: Uncle Mickey
Originally Posted By: Matt Finley
Dissonance is in the ear of the beholder. With education and familiarity, what one originally thought was dissonant may become less so, or even desirably consonant, over time and perhaps with practice. Originally an improvisor by ear, once I learned more music theory as a teenager, a lot of the mystery cleared up and I suddenly heard beauty in what had been dissonance based on confusion.


Right on, I experienced this and a whole lot of stuff became prettier and more accessible. History has proved that, too. The more we hear something "new", the more we tend to "accept" it over time. I think it works that way with time signatures, too.




Dissonance is only partly in the ear of the beholder - sort of.

A perfect fifth can't sound dissonant, it's always going to be pure - look at an oscilloscope to see why.

All the notes have a defined physical character. However, we can gradually become aurally acclimatised to a dissonant interval - psychologically and it can therefore become more familiar and less of a surprise. It sticks out from the terrain in the same spiky way, but we are accustomed to the feel of it, it becomes less of a contentious issue for the ear. It does not become less dissonant though- physically the wave form is the same and interacts with the other waves according to physical laws.

Western ears have gradually accepted a larger pallet since Debussy ish.

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