Non harmonious notes.

[XW-Addict]

Can someone explain to me  how to use and apply musically non harmonious notes like , 

B / C and E and F. They don't go well together and I do not know cases in music theory about all four of them. So far they do nicely with other notes or when they not closely together. Any music or tune where they are commonly used  would be nice to know for study. 

[Jokeyman123]

For music theory purposes-these pairs of notes are called minor 2nds, or an "interval" of a half-step-which you can create using any 2 immediately adjacent tones on a keyboard or any other western music melodic instruments-music and instruments from other cultures can use even smaller "intervals"-dividing up the 12-note western musical scale into what are called "microtonal" scales. Strictly speaking, there are really no "non-harmonious" tones-any tones can be harmonized with any others-it just depends upon what kind of sound or sonority you are trying to create. The most obvious use of this "interval" is the movie theme song to Jaws-that used a minor 2nd interval as a repeating motif to signal the coming of the shark!  Thelonius Monk-a famous jazz composer and performer-used these "dissonant" intervals in his compositions and when he played solo piano. Other musicians mistakenly believed he was playing "wrong" notes and lacked technique, when in reality the opposite was true-he used minor and "major" 2nd intervals in his solos to try to obtain a unique different style-since so many others had already developed considerable technique playing standard harmonies. I recommend you listen to 20th century composers such as Webern, Berg, Schoenberg, Varese and many others who used dissonant intervals to construct musical works-so called "12-tone" or "atonal" music used every conceivable musical interval and harmony again to try to create music that was new and different-you will hear abundant use of these minor 2nd sounds. Also. look up Harry Partch-not only did he use these so-called "dissonant" intervals-he invented his own tonal systems, and created and built the instrument that could play these-not necessarily very pretty sounding to our usually consonant musical ears-but will give you an idea of how these types of sounds have been used.

[Tom banjo]

A major 7th chord uses this move imo.Sometimes I look for what kills the harmonic feeling the best and this is it imo. It is used in the chicken reel and the pink panther theme.Kinda says it is good for cartoon sounds.Kind of a "stop the presses '' feeling

[jnmac]

Donald Fagen (Steely Dan) uses this in a lot of music, whether together or separated by an octave. Deacon Blues is a good example. I'll try to attach a midi file, so you can see the notes.

Steely Dan - Deacon Blues.mid

[Jokeyman123]

Homespun, a company that used to make lesson videos on VHS, and i\I think now on DVD, has a great lesson tape with Donald Fagen explaining some of his song-writing ideas, very interesting. One interview i read years back-he said he had enrolled in Berkeley School of Music way back when he was first starting out-his keyboard teacher gave him his first and only lesson saying he'd been called on tour-and wouldn't be able to give him any more lessons, Donald  wouldn't say who it was-I am guessing it might have been Joe Sample who I believe taught there for awhile, as did Joe Zawinul and so many other inspiring players-so he said-I'm going to teach you everything I know and can in one lesson!!! I can only imagine what that must have been like, I wish it had been me (maybe not!) 

[jnmac]

Thanks to Casio (for one), an amateur like myself has affordable access to so many beautiful instrument sounds. However, thanks to "the Joes'", Donald and so many other amazing artists, if I had to choose only ONE sound, I'd have to sell my car and purchase a Rhodes.