Bowing Gestures

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuFPmEJkSkA]

So much expression in bowed instruments comes from how the musician uses the bow. I love watching all these dimensions of the bow represented simultaneously in real-time with the actual music. Unfortunately, I don’t find it all that readable, so it’s not very instructive. There’s a little too much going on and the data’s too raw for me to get much out of it without a great deal more study.

The Beatles: Song Keys

This is probably my favorite graphic from the Charting the Beatles project. I think it’s pretty cool how much information is packed into this static image, and the kinds of trends you can see just at a glance. Things like Help! having no songs written in a minor key or how the three of the Beatles’ more unusual records—Revolver, Sgt. Pepper, and Magical Mystery Tour—immediately stand out from the rest because of the variety of unusual keys the Beatles used on those albums.

I wish the visualization was interactive, though. I’d like to be able to mouse over the pie segments to see which songs they represent. I’m curious, for example, which songs on A Hard Days Night were written in Fm.