I have a little hobby, a little game I play in my head... which surely my musician friends will understand. Heck, they might even try it, too.
It's called: "What Chord, O Conductor?"
It is best played in a generally quiet, rural area, either early in the morning or late at night. The Conductor mentioned isn't that of an orchestra, but that of a locomotive. Yes, the game is thus:
Can I identify the exact chord played by a train whistle? (Extra credit is earned if no piano or other point of reference is used :-)
This morning, I heard the lonely wail of an A-minor-seventh (Am7) chord, in second inversion (E-G-A-C)*. Each train's whistle evokes a different mood -- sometimes whimsical, sometimes weird. But usually, they consist of 3 or 4 tones in a tight cluster. I often wonder whose job it is to tune those whistles to play those chords, and does each "train-whistle-tuner-person" have their own personal favorite tone grouping?
If you know anything about that the train-whistle-tuning process, please post a comment. In the meantime, there's music all around us... Happy listening!
* (Yes, I suppose this could be a C6 chord in first inversion, but I digress.)
