Remember, remember, the fifth of January?
In an email from philosophersmag.com
Hi there
It's Thursday morning here in the UK, and I've been thinking about
mnemonics. Specifically, I've been trying to figure out how many days there
are in each month using that '30 Days Hath September' thing. And I've got to
say it is quite the worst memory aid ever invented. Okay, so it's pretty
clear that September hath 30 days, but then what? It could be anything.
July, maybe? Or December (that would rhyme, right?). But oh no, it turns out
to be April. Right. Well how the hell does knowing that September hath 30
days lead to April? It's absurd, and it should be banned...
Nonsense! O Silly Person! (meant amiably)
The point of a little rhyme, that scans rhythmically and uses rhyme, is that it becomes memorable precisely through the facts of meter and rhyme. The content has no part in this. It doesn't appeal to logical calculation, but to musical memory.
If there were a logical way to reconstruct it, there would be no need for the rhyme.
No, it cannot be July, because July has a stressed second syllable, whereas April has a stressed first syllable, which is what is needed. The only possible mistake here would be August, the only other two-syllable month with a stress on the first syllable. There is (counter to my own argument) an easy way to figure that it cannot be August; simply remember that there are no two adjacent 30-day months. Invoking that, it has to be April, and then, since the scansion requires a one-syllable month next, it has to be June, since the only other options are March and May, which are both adjacent to April. As to September and November, any of the last four months would do. But if you can remember the first line, then the only error you could make would be December instead of November.
Ban it? Pshaw!
Philosophical analysis and re-synthesis is hardly the only mode of thought worth using, and certainly not the only one to yield useful results.
Some things we just have to learn - such as, for instance, the arrangement of streets in our home town, such as Islington or Milwaukee. Repetition is the way - repetition and familiarity. How else could we learn the alphabet? Or learn to read at all? How else to learn German vocabulary, or your part in Hamlet, or Beethoven's Eroica?
It isn't a mnemonic at all.
So a neatly tripping rhyme is an excellent technique for tying together reliable, but a-logical information.
It renders itself open to parody, of course, as in my favorite ditty to calculate Easter.
"No need for confusion
If we but recall,
That Easter
On the Sunday immediately following the first full moon after the vernal equinox
Doth fall."
My Web Home Page
My "pondering music" blog
My Agent
©ajm 2005
Hi there
It's Thursday morning here in the UK, and I've been thinking about
mnemonics. Specifically, I've been trying to figure out how many days there
are in each month using that '30 Days Hath September' thing. And I've got to
say it is quite the worst memory aid ever invented. Okay, so it's pretty
clear that September hath 30 days, but then what? It could be anything.
July, maybe? Or December (that would rhyme, right?). But oh no, it turns out
to be April. Right. Well how the hell does knowing that September hath 30
days lead to April? It's absurd, and it should be banned...
Nonsense! O Silly Person! (meant amiably)
The point of a little rhyme, that scans rhythmically and uses rhyme, is that it becomes memorable precisely through the facts of meter and rhyme. The content has no part in this. It doesn't appeal to logical calculation, but to musical memory.
If there were a logical way to reconstruct it, there would be no need for the rhyme.
No, it cannot be July, because July has a stressed second syllable, whereas April has a stressed first syllable, which is what is needed. The only possible mistake here would be August, the only other two-syllable month with a stress on the first syllable. There is (counter to my own argument) an easy way to figure that it cannot be August; simply remember that there are no two adjacent 30-day months. Invoking that, it has to be April, and then, since the scansion requires a one-syllable month next, it has to be June, since the only other options are March and May, which are both adjacent to April. As to September and November, any of the last four months would do. But if you can remember the first line, then the only error you could make would be December instead of November.
Ban it? Pshaw!
Philosophical analysis and re-synthesis is hardly the only mode of thought worth using, and certainly not the only one to yield useful results.
Some things we just have to learn - such as, for instance, the arrangement of streets in our home town, such as Islington or Milwaukee. Repetition is the way - repetition and familiarity. How else could we learn the alphabet? Or learn to read at all? How else to learn German vocabulary, or your part in Hamlet, or Beethoven's Eroica?
It isn't a mnemonic at all.
So a neatly tripping rhyme is an excellent technique for tying together reliable, but a-logical information.
It renders itself open to parody, of course, as in my favorite ditty to calculate Easter.
"No need for confusion
If we but recall,
That Easter
On the Sunday immediately following the first full moon after the vernal equinox
Doth fall."
My Web Home Page
My "pondering music" blog
My Agent
©ajm 2005
posted by Andrew Massey | Wednesday, October 12, 2005
1 Comments:
Andrew,
I think this is hilarious, in an incredibly geeky way. My dad's aunt taught me that rhyme, as well as "i before e, except after c, or when sounded as 'ay', as in 'neighbor' and 'weigh'." She also taught me the difference between stationery ("e", as in "letter" versus "a" as in "stand"), among other memory devices.
I was sorry to miss your presentation to UPA 2006! Being a musician by genetics, environment, education and will--as well as a usability professional by trade, it would have been great to hear. I'm enjoying your blogs and website, and making connections. You might also enjoy Monotonous Forest, one of my favorite bloggers who is a huge contemporary music fan: http://monotonousforest.typepad.com.
Thanks!
Post a Comment
<< Home