Dual Tone Multi Frequency, AMIRITE?

January 10, 2009 6:04 PM

Beep boop beep! If you wish to become a Touch Tone Genius, you must first practice the Telephone Keypad. Start with the standards -- sheet music and mp3 samples can be found at these two sites. Once you've mastered the easier songs, you can move on to the more challenging classical pieces, like Mozart's Turkish Rondo (K331) for Two Office Phones and Two Cellular Phones. Just don't dial any real phone numbers; that could be a violation of copyright.
posted by not_on_display (10 comments total)

Sadly the phone's a bit limited by itself. Why not use the telephone as an instrument alongside others, as in Telephone and Rubber Band by the Penguin Cafe Orchestra?
posted by xil at 6:13 PM on January 10 [1 favorite has favorites]

I was just thinking the other day that it would be nice to have a MIDI-enabled phone or a phone tone VST synth.
posted by lekvar at 6:44 PM on January 10

But what does DTMF really stand for?
posted by danb at 7:15 PM on January 10

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Touch_tone#Keypad
posted by weston at 7:17 PM on January 10

This...well, rang a bell. I thought I remembered something along these lines; looks like it's true.... Telephone technology has been incorporated into some very elaborate music: Ten open connections were part of John Cage's "Variations VII".

And I'm very much afraid that the people who created 'Songsmi...I can't even finish typing it...may try to do something with 'Touch Tone Genius'. Please don't anyone let this post get into their hands....
posted by Kronos_to_Earth at 9:08 PM on January 10

Damn you xil, that was going to be my contribution.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 10:18 PM on January 10

Also, we cannot stop replaying the Touchtone Genius clip right now.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 12:48 AM on January 11 [1 favorite has favorites]

Well, if you are going to visit that last site, you might as well see this and this.
posted by wittgenstein at 2:24 PM on January 11

Here's the original animation for which the Touchtone Genius song was commissioned. Not sure why some kids felt the need to make a singalong video.
posted by you at 3:36 PM on January 11

When I moved into my new apartment building with a keypad entry, my friend decided she had to figure out how to play Funkytown on it. I think she said someone on South Park did that? She set off the alarm.
I pretended like I didn't know her.
posted by bitslayer at 7:45 PM on January 11 [1 favorite has favorites]