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Owing to the large number of tones in the Zzean language, how Zzeans perform and view music radically differs from mainstream Western views.

Vocal music

For Zzeans, non-"tonal" elements such as rhythm, ornamentation, and scale choice are vital for distinguishing singing from normal speech.

Zzean singing traditions include:

• an intoned singing tradition
• hiphop/rap (speech with stylized rhythm and sometimes autotune)
• a religious chanting tradition with much ornamentation
• something really weird and independent from Cuam music's weirdness

Choral vocal music that uses big block chords is wordless; polyphonic word-ful singing is used in specialized contexts.

Instrumental music

The boundary between vocal and instrumental music in Zzean culture is ill-defined, as pitched instruments can "speak" by imitating the tones of speech. One can also choose to play instruments in a more "relaxed" or "conversational" manner by playing in speech-like contours rather than song-like ones, an option also available for voice.

Instruments

• a shruti box that plays 5-note drones for guiding singing
• "talking" pitched instruments: drums, flutes, trombones and fretless bowed strings

Scales

Zzean music is abstractly based on a pentatonic framework, onto which the five tone levels of Zzean are mapped. Seven-note scales are viewed as ways to ornament 5-note scales. However, not all Zzean pentatonic scales are octave-equivalent.