minstrel: Flute music help please

[Corey Cole]

Here's my attempt at Ladder, er I mean Music, Theory 101, which is about as
far as I know it.  This message will work best if you read it using a
monospaced font such as Courier.

The ladder analogy (which I like, thanks Jehanne!) works best if you think
of each rung of the ladder as being a half step on the musical scale.  Then
you can start anywhere on the ladder and the "dance" will be the same.

C Major:  C | D | E F | G | A | B C
(where the vertical bars are "unnamed" rungs of the ladder).  In this key,
the notes of the scale are all on the lettered rungs.  C and D are two
half-steps apart, while B and C are only one half-step apart.

G Major:  G | A | B C | D | E F | G
Same number of rungs, so the dance goes the same way.  If you slid this
under the other diagram as with a cryptographic decoder, the lettered rungs
would match.  There are the same number of half-steps (rungs) on which you
can dance.

In fact, the unnamed rungs almost match, all but the last one.  Since you
are going to dance on the the same relative rungs, you don't get to use the
one labelled "F" on the G-ladder.  Instead, when you get near the end of the
ladder, you'll find yourself on the last unnamed rung.  Since that's pretty
cumbersome to say, that one is called F# (F-sharp, sharper than an F, but
not as sharp as going all the way to G).

C Major:  C | D | E F | G | A | B C
F Major:  F | G | A | B C | D | E F
Again, the cryptographic "key" is the key of "C" (how's that for stretching
the analogy to the breaking point?).  You dance on the rungs in the same
relative position as the lettered ones on the C-ladder.  In this case, you
get to dance on the rung between A and B, but not on the B rung.  For
reasons I won't go into here, that rung gets the name Bb (B-flat, flatter
than a B, but not as flat as going all the way down to A).  Incidentally,
the symbol isn't actually a lower-case "b", but that's the closest I can get
without resorting to a symbol font.

So in all cases, if you're playing a major scale, you dance the same
pattern.  Only the note names are confusing, because they don't take the
intermediate rungs into account until you add sharps and flats.

Incidentally, every major has a "relative minor" that uses the same notes as
that major key.  You can play in Em (E-minor) on your G flute by resolving
back to E rather than G.  (I'm not explaining that too well, sorry...
anyway, all of the notes in E minor are exactly the same as those in G.)

Standard sheet music tells you what notes are sharp or flat in a key in a
subtle way.  If a piece is in G-major or E-minor, the staff has a sharp (#)
symbol on the top line of the treble clef.  Notes on that line are normally
F, so the # there means "play an F# whenever you see an F".

If a piece is in F-major or D-minor, there is a flat (b-like) symbol on the
3rd line from the top.  That's the B line, so it means whenever a B note is
in the score, play a B-flat instead.

I hope this has been helpful and not too annoying to the many musicians on
the list who have more music theory in their little fingers than I have in
my entire body.  (Another terrible metaphor.)

    Have fun!
        Lord Erasmus von Spielburg
        mka Corey Cole

> From: "david ball" <dkball at hotmail.com>
> To: minstrel at pbm.com
> Subject: Re: minstrel: Flute music help please
> Date: Sun, 29 Sep 2002 22:31:46 -0700
>
> Yes, we need to meet at an event sometime when we both have time to chat
and
> play a bit (or you can play and I can sit in awe muttering to myself "I'm
> not worthy").
>     The ladder analogy would make sense, except that not all the rungs are
> evenly spaced are they? If every note was just another hole in the flute,
or
> if all the keys on a piano were white, I don't think I'd be having such a
> mental block about all this.
>     I do have several beginner recorder books. And yes, it sure looks like
> it is in code to me *grin*. I have done a good deal of teaching on a
number
> of subjects in my life. And the two things I have found out is most
subjects
> are not nearly as difficult as they are generally presented to be, and in
> almost every case, if you can figure it out, there is one way that will
make
> it easy for a particular student to grasp, and many ways that will just
get
> that deer in the headlights look.. you know, like the one you see from me
> about now.
>
> David Falcone