Re: Accidentals: Unwanted naturals

[Jonathan Wilkes]

--- On Sat, 8/29/09, Graham Percival <address@hidden> wrote:

> From: Graham Percival <address@hidden>
> Subject: Re: Accidentals: Unwanted naturals
> To: "Jonathan Wilkes" <address@hidden>
> Cc: address@hidden
> Date: Saturday, August 29, 2009, 7:10 AM
> On Fri, Aug 28, 2009 at 12:01:05PM
> -0700, Jonathan Wilkes wrote:
> > > If the above seems confusing, consider this: if
> you were
> > > playing a
> > > piano, which key would you hit? If you would
> press a black
> > > key,
> > > then you must add -is or -es to the note name!
> > 
> > The hint at the end about black keys doesn't work for
> b- and e-sharp, nor 
> > c- and f-flat, nor double-sharps and flats.
> 
> Yes, but most novices with no knowledge of lilypond or
> music
> theory won't be writing in 5 sharps or flats, double-sharps
> or
> flats, or b/c e/f sharp/flats.

These accidentals are common.  B-sharp crops up in jazz tunes, even in c major, 
as a lower chromatic neighbor to c-sharp in a little tinkling 
over an A7 chord.  If it's repeated within a measure, you don't have to 
know any music theory at all to realize that b-sharp to c-sharp 
is a lot easier to read than alternating natural- and sharp-signs in 
front of what looks like a stationary note.

Using the black key/white key dichotomy makes other sharps/flats seem 
more exotic than they are, which leads to poor notation when 
unnecessarily avoiding them.

> 
> 
> > What about something like this:
> 
> > If the above seems confusing, imagine someone asks you
> for the first 
> > four notes of Beethoven's fifth.  If you say, "g,
> g, g, e-flat," you 
> > are correct.  However, if you say "g, g, g, e,"
> you are wrong and 
> > will be corrected by any theory teacher within a
> fifty-foot radius as 
> > follows: 
> > "That's an e-flat, not an e.  Have a look at the
> key signature."
> >
> > Unlike the theory teacher above, Lilypond doesn't know
> the answers ahead 
> > of time and assumes you know what you're doing. 
> The way you say 
> > note-names out loud at sounding pitch corresponds
> directly to the 
> > way you enter pitches into a Lilypond score. That
> means no matter what key 
> > signature you put in front of it, Beethoven's fifth
> always starts with 
> > g g g ees when input into a Lilypond score.
> 
> Too verbose.  It also relies on knowledge of
> Beethoven's fifth
> [symphony].  Do people in China know classical Western
> music that
> well?  What about a banjo players who's only done
> fiddle tunes?
> 
> It's true that the piano example won't be understood by
> somebody
> who's never seen a piano before, but at a certain point
> there's
> nothing we can do other than pointing people at a music
> theory
> website or whatever.

Yes, I agree with the points you make.

I would just add that there is a big discrepancy between GUI notation 
programs and Lilypond regarding this issue.  In a GUI program if you're 
in d-major and you enter a note on the top line of the treble clef, it's 
an f-sharp by default.  But after re-reading the LM I think it's pretty 
clear on these issues, so that someone "making the switch" need only read 
and reflect.

-Jonathan

> 
> Cheers,
> - Graham
>