Re: what about simplifying music notation?

[Michael Ellis]

On Mon, Mar 14, 2011 at 11:06 AM, Francisco Vila <address@hidden> wrote:
>
> 2011/3/14 David Kastrup <address@hidden>:
> > Francisco Vila <address@hidden> writes:
> >> Frets in a guitar are absolutely chromatic.  I did not mention
> >> fretless instruments.
> >
> > So please explain how you are would sort frets into a diatonic scale
> > arrangement corresponding to white keys on a piano, with the frets
> > corresponding to black keys put someplace else.
>
> I a sense, frets behave like buttons.
>
> > The frets in a guitar are not _deliberately_ designed around a chromatic
> > scale, but because their positioning is dictated by physics.
>
> Still, frets behave somewhat like buttons.
>
> > Contrast that with a flute or a saxophone or anything else with a
> > _deliberate_ design of controls.
>
> That's why I mentioned Stanley Jordan who percutes strings against the
> fretboard only, thus allowing complex two-hand polyphony and making
> frets look as if they were buttons :-))
>
I'm not familiar with Stanley Jordan's music but a guitar tuned by
fifths,  like a cello or violin, has a very convenient relationship to
diatonic scales because the first 3 modes (ionian, dorian, and
phrygian)  have symmetric tetrachords starting on the 1st and 5th
degrees of each mode.   See the diagram below.

  HEAD
---------------
.  .   .  .   .  .
c g  d a  e b
.  .   .  .   f  c
d a  e b  .  .
.  .   f  c  g d
e b  .  .   .  .
f  c  g d  a b



So the major scale patterns are very easy to visualize.  Of course you
need to have huge hands or play high on the neck to execute them
without shifting.