On 11/19/2013 08:52 AM, wrote:
[Steve Newcomb]
> Actually that's a great metaphor, Len. Why do people complain about big
> key signatures? Because they haven't learned to read the notation,
Yes indeed, but why is it that so many people never learn to read the
notation?
In my opinion, because its kind of scary and intimidating in ways that
it really should not be, given that the underlying concepts are really
very beautiful and quite simple. Basic geometry/modulo-arithmetic is all
you really need to grok it.
Because classical music notation started out biased towards C Major and
everything else has been added on top over the centuries, we have the
completely unnecessary notion that, say, "Phrygian dominant" (and its
"strange" key signature) is some sort of hyper-intellectual thing when
it reality, its just a different simple formula for selecting from a
repeating palette of 12 notes. Basic math with basic modulo arithmetic.
Somebody should write a novella - maybe somebody already has? -
imagining what the world would look like if software-refactoring had
been invented *before* music notation. In such a world, we would perhaps
have refactored the notation of music a few times in response to
advances such as modes, blues, bebop, klezmer etc.
In such a world, would grokking the thing-behind-the-syntax (in this
case), musical structures, be easier? I believe so.
Does this tell us that syntax (its clarity, its beauty) really, really
matters for grokking any form of abstract structure?
Yes, I think so :-)
My 2cents
Sean
--
Sean McGrath
CTO
Propylon
US Tel: +1 775 2976310
e-mail: web:www.propylon.com
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