Re: ANN: MIDI input plugin for jEdit

[David Raleigh Arnold]

On Fri, 02 Jan 2009 10:10:56 -0700, Andrew Hawryluk wrote:

> On Fri, Jan 2, 2009 at 2:45 AM, David Raleigh Arnold
> <address@hidden> wrote:
>> If the spelling is related to the key according to the "chromatic
>> scale" in that key, there will be lots of time saved in nearly all
>> instances. The chromatic scale in C is c cs d eb e f fs g gs a bb b 
c.
>> It can easily be transposed for other keys. The idea of an "official"
>> chromatic scale in each key has been resurrected. See wikipedia.
>> Regards, daveA
> 
> Precisely. I chose
>     c cs d eb e f fs g af a bf b c
> for C major, and changed the cs to df for C minor. This is the best
> guess you can produce for individual MIDI notes.
> 
> More sophisticated analysis would require knowledge of all 
simultaneous
> pitches from each voice, along with previous and subsequent pitches in
> each voice, many of which would not have been entered yet. E.g. a
> perfect system would spell an ascending chromatic scale in sharps and 
a
> descending chromatic scale in flats. Unfortunately, I think this would
> require the routine to predict the future.
> 
> Andrew

I think it would be less guesswork if the relative minor used the
same choices as the relative major, which would mean that there would
be only 13 chromatic scales. A scale in this sense is merely a list of 
pitches. It doesn't have to be a list of pitches which is ordered in a 
particular mode. Having said that, the relative harmonic minor dictated 
the choice of gs over ab. Modal proximity by 5ths dictates the rest. 
That's obviously how it was done centuries ago, whenever the tonal 
chromatic scale was originally dreamed up. 

Of course it would not be one touch typing of all notes, but it would be 
one touch typing of all pitches. It would not be "a perfect system" but
I never cracked it up to be one. It would be more than halfway to 
perfect almost all of the time. There was a time when many apparently 
considered it to be a perfect system, but that can't be true now, or 
the tonal chromatic scale would still be taught in schools.

The tonal chromatic scale was not taught any more because it had no 
practical use, except for temperaaent weirdness. It has a very 
practical use now.  Regards, daveA

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