Introduction to Pitch Notation

Welcome to the beginning of our course of study. We start off by checking in on your
knowledge of the Bass, Treble, Alto Clefs and your reading of the Grand Staff. Some of
you perform on bass clef instruments, some of you on treble clef instruments. If you
are a violist, you know the alto clef, and if you are a pianist you know the grand staff. If
you are primarily a singer, you focus primarily on the bass or trebe clefs, though all
choir members should know both clefs. Some of you have less background in pitch
notation — non-classical guitarists on the whole are not very clear about how traditional
notation applies to their instrument. Regardless of your backbround, all of you are
going to have to quickly get comfortable with three clefs plus the grand staff. The next
section helps you with this by pointing out a critical element that even the more
experienced among you may not have noticed: the symmetry of much of our staff
notation. Let's investigate this as the first step in this course.

The symmetry of pitch notation

Part of being a Western trained musician is learning the standard system of musical
notation. The history of Western classical music is, in the end, a history of composers
and their works. Composers are trained in the art of musical notation and they write
down their musical thoughts for later performance. A composer thinks musical thoughts
and writes down those thoughts just as a writer thinks in words and writes down those
words. Musical literacy is a tool, only, not an end in itself and can sometimes become a
hindrance to musical spontaneity – such as the pianist who can play Rachmaninoff but
can’t, when asked at a party, produce “Happy Birthday” at the piano without sheet
music. Some systems of music education, most notably the Suzuki method, teach
music by ear until the child is well along in her musical development, based on the
premise that we learn to speak before we learn to read and write, so we should learn to
play before we learn to read music. It is likely some of you in the class have had this
training.
Nevertheless, in order to play or sing in musical ensembles, which is of course one of
the great joys of being a musician, or in order to share your musical thoughts with
others, it is necessary to learn to become musically literate. One can, of course choose
to remain exclusively in the world of folk or rock music, many of whose greatest writers
(I think of Dylan or Lennon/McCartney) could not in fact read music. If that is your
situation, and you don’t wish to move past the spontaneous, “ear-based” approach of
rock or blues or folk performers, then you don’t really need this course! But I would
interject that such musically illiterate success was partially based on such musicians
being in the orbit of other individuals who were musically literate. The most well known
example would be the producer George Martin, whose classical music background was
of great help to the Beatles when they created their seminal studio recordings of the
mid-1960s.

Becoming musically literate is a matter of mastering a common set of symbols and is,
after all, not terribly difficult: a graph of five lines and four spaces, with ledger line
extensions, upon which we place notes of a certain duration so that one’s musical
thoughts can be shared with other musicians or remembered for one’s own use the
next day. Tempo indications, some dynamic markings and score directions; there you
have it: the world of notated music.

What is important for our work in this class is to realize how relative musical notation
actually is, and how much it is not able to capture. Our rhythmic subdivisions rarely can
capture the subtle shifts of a jazz improvisation, let alone most of the rest of the
world’s music—notated transcriptions of, for example, Indian raga performances look
stale on the page. Even in notated classical compositions, to simply play the notes
steadily in time is to be labeled a wooden, unfeeling performer. And as far as notation
is concerned, the notes today reflect a standard and rigid concept known as equal
temperament, in which every step along a 12 note scale of half steps are exactly equal
to one another in musical distance. Indeed, we have invented a term, the cent, to show
that each note proceeds smoothly, 100 cents per note.

But, as we will explore in the later pages, equal temperament is not how we actually
perform music, if we are to perform it well in tune. We continually adjust our singing
and our finger movements to keep chords in tune, which involves adjusting especially
the most movable notes, the thirds and sixths and harmonic extensions. These
adjustments are never able to be reflected in musical notation. And just intonation,
arguably the most natural and pleasing form of intonation, does not look any different
on the page than equal temperament. We will explore this topic this fully in class.

Staff Symmetry and the Location of Half Steps

For this course, you will need to instantly recognize the notes on three different musical
staves: those using treble clef, bass clef and alto clef. Also, the treble and bass clefs,
when grouped together, form the grand staff, used for keyboard writing, and you must
have fluency in moving upwards and downwards within the grand staff.

To help in this endeavor, some observations of symmetry are in order:

Bass Clef
Even though we usually are taught the treble clef first in primary school, the bass clef is
actually a more ancient clef symbol, with roots going back to the earliest period of
Gregorian chant notation. It is very useful to perceive that the bass clef, even though
alternatively named the F Clef (because of the two dots above and below the pitch F),
actually centers itself around the pitch D at the midpoint of the staff.

If you look at the boxes, you'll notice that they move tone-semitone-tone-tone-tone-
semitone in opposite directions from the center point.

As we will learn in our early classes, this "centeredness around D" has some interesting
and important historical connections. One continuing manifestation of the centeredness
of D is how stringed instruments are tuned. The violin family (violin, viola, cello and
mandolin) are tuned in fifths, centered around D (GDAE for violin and mandolin, CGDA
for cello and viola). This comes from the historical “Dness” of much early modal music.
Similarly, all you guitar and bass players know that your bottom four strings are tuned
around the D pitch, only in fourths instead of fifths (EADG). Thus the “Dness” of the
bass clef is not accidental.

Anyway, if you look at these series of ascending and descending pitches, centered
around D, you will notice that the half step from E to F and the half step from C to B
are symmetrical to the center line of D. As we expand out to the single ledger line, you
will notice the continuation of the symmetry: the B on top of the staff is a half step to
the C on the first ledger line, and the F at the bottom of the staff is a half step to the E
on the lower ledger line.

Treble Clef
In the Treble clef, the symmetry is not quite so neat, and you just need to remember
that the half steps lie from E natural to F natural, and from B natural to C natural. (The
why of this will be part of our explorations in the early part of the semester).
Nevertheless, even here there is an inverse symmetry between the E and F at the
bottom of the staff (low E moves up a half step to F) and between the E and F at the
top of the staff (the high F moves down a half step to the E.) As to the half step
between B and C in the middle of the staff, well there it is, slightly assymmetrical: you
just need to learn it!

Grand Staff
When the two staves are brought together into the grand staff, another beautiful
symmetry emerges, this time centered around C. (As keyboard instruments came into
vogue and finally formed a central compositional and performance tool for European
music, a shift to C-centeredness (“Cness”) came into being.) Here, we find middle C
floating beautifully on its own line, and the C an octave above and below resting on the
second space from the top or bottom, and finally the higher and lower Cs finding their
location two ledger lines above or below the staff. Study this symmetry well until this
image is clearly in your mind’s eye.

Alto Clef (Viola clef)

Finally, and speaking of symmetry, there is one more clef that you will need to learn
this semester, in addition to the familiar bass and treble clef, which is the alto clef. This
clef is used exclusively by viola players today (it used to also be the clef that altos sang
in choirs, but no longer). You will need it when we begin to look at Beethoven’s 5th
Symphony. It is not a hard clef to learn, in fact it is the easiest clef, were it not for the
fact that few of you have ever had to read it. It is completely symmetrical, with “middle
C” on the piano resting dead center in the middle of the staff. The other notes follow in
reverse symmetry from the center.

Introduction to Rhythmic Notation

This page, and the few links that follow, deal with meter and rhythm. I assume that all
of you either have a good background in reading rhythms, or are taking the Rudiments
co-course and gaining experience in that way. This chapter will not explain basic
rhythm reading. However, it will go into somewhat more advanced aspects of rhythmic
notation and meter, look at mixed meters, and also deal with musical symmetry and
assymetry.

Rhythm Defined

Rhythm is as central to music as it is to language. To speak is to express oneself in a

rhythmic manner; poetry, as form of “spoken music,” simply heightens and often
formalizes rhythmic speech into repeating patterns of stress and meter. Some theories
on the origin of language, such as those expressed in The Singing Neaderthals by
Steven Mithen (2006. Harvard University Press) posit that early humans sang before
they spoke, and that speech grew out of a toned singing type of activity. This book is in
our library if this concept intrigues you.

One of our first exercises will be to set words and poetry to a meter and a rhythm.

In Western music, the method for notating rhythm evolved over the course of many
centuries. The history of the development of rhythmic notation need not detain us here,
but it is a fascinating topic and anyone interested can go to this link (or find others) and
learn more about its development.

Early Notation

While rhythmic notation is of inestimable value in communicating one’s rhythmic

intentions to another musician, and also essential for performing the kinds of large
ensemble music central to the Western music idiom, I would point out from the outset
that rhythmic notation is not in itself the rhythm of the music, but only an
approximation, a grid upon which the normal flow of music has been grafted. Indeed, it
is useful to think of rhythmic notation (and pitch notation too, as we will explore) as a
digital medium, where the unending, "analog" stream of a musical performance is
approximated by fairly simple divisions of a musical pulse, much like live musicl is
sampled 44,100 times per second in a recording studio to come up with a digital
version of the recorded music for storage on a compact disk.

With this background, let’s review and define rhythmic values more closely.

Rhythmic Notation

Musical time can be divided into either two or three. That’s it. Everything else is just a
version of two or three. Duple meters (meters of 2 or 4, primarily), where we count
“two to the bar” or “four to the bar” are balanced and even. It is the music of the
march or the tango and seems to match well with our own “twoness:” two legs, two
feet, two arms, two eyes, two ears, two halves of the brain. Triple meters (meters of 3,
6 or 9, usually), where we count “three to the bar” or “six to the bar” or "nine to the
bar" are uneven. It is the music of the waltz and requires that we skip along, adjust our
stride, accommodate the asymmetry.

These two meters are really two different worlds, just like the numbers 2 and 3 are
different worlds—there is no power of 3 (3, 9, 27, 81 … ) that is equal to some power of
2 (2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64…). As we will see in this text, the contrast of 2 with 3 is a ratio of
extreme importance in music.

In the oldest practices of notated music – during early Medieval times—triple meter was
the first to be notated and was considered the “perfect” meter. The notation of duple
meter was developed second, during the Ars Nova period (1300s) and was considered
the “imperfect” rhythm. The essential point here is that the division of meters in duple
and triple reaches back to the dawn of the development of musical notation. They also
connect to the whole sense of dance, as folk dances largely divide themselves into
those with a duple and those with a triple meter. (There are some folk rhythms, for
example those found in Greece or Eastern Europe, that have a mixture of twos and
threes).
It is important when you work with rhythm that you are aware of this distinction. Duple
meters are commonly 2/2, 4/4, 2/4, less commonly 2/8, 4/8, 8/4. Triple meters are
commonly 6/8, 3/4, 9/8, 12/8, less commonly 3/8, 6/16 and so forth. They are quite
different in feeling, and yet can co-exist in many significant ways. Here is an invented
passage that moves freely between various time signatures, a common practice in more
contemporary composition.

In this system, the bottom number always refers to the actual note value that is
assigned the beat, and you will rarely see anything other these four numbers: 2 for the
half note, 4 for the quarter note, 8 for the eighth and (far less often) 16 for the
sixteenth note. The note above, of course, refers to the number of beats in a measure.
Before the 20th century, most music maintained a constant meter for a piece of music,
a movement within a large-scale work, or a section within a longer movement. In the
20th century, all manner of “mixed meters” occur, not just in classical forms, but
sometimes in rock music as well.

In the next link, still part of this chapter, we'll look at examples of metrical forms and
mixed meters.

Standard and Less Common Rhythms

Here we look at various rhythmic expressions. Make certain you understand both how
these rhythms are performed and how they feel.

Standard Metrical arrangements -- simple melodies

To begin, let's look at some simple rhythmic schemes, using single-line folk-like
melodies. These melodies come from the Boston-based group Libana, a wonderful
women's collective that perform and record chants, rounds and dances from a variety of
cultures, including Celtic, African, Jewish, Eastern European, Middle Eastern and Latin
American. Let's use these rhythms to make sure all of you in the class can read these
basic rhythms. We will sing these melodies in class, as rounds, to establish a good
foundation for our more complicated work to come.

4/4 time.
Here is a very simple chant in 4/4 time. The words are "Round and round the earth is
turning, turning always round to morning, and from morning round to night." It is sung
as a round, with a new voice coming in after the first voice has sung two measures,
thus the words of the song are reflected in the musical form.

Notice the piece is grouped in three phrases of two 4/4 bars. The first bar of each
phrase is a series of four quarter notes -- nothing could be simpler. The second
measure of each phrase begins with a two eighth notes on the first beat, and in each
instance, one syllable is used for the entire beat, with the vowel extended as a slur over
the two notes. Notice that in this simple piece, one syllable is used for each beat of
every measure, without alteration.

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It's amazing, isn't it, how such a simple melody can create a compelling harmony!
Incidentally, this melody is in the Dorian mode (rather than the standard key of D
minor). If this sound intrigues your ear, be happy; we will be spending significant time
with the Dorian mode at the beginning of the semester.

2/4 time

2/4 time is closely related to 4/4 time. The difference is largely in where the stresses
lie. In the above round in 4/4, the beats are grouped into a Strong-weak-weak-weak
feeling, with emphasis on every fourth word, which fall on the downbeat. In this
traditional German song, you can feel the alternating strong-weak, strong-weak beats,
indicating a 2/4 meter rather than a 4/4 meter. The joyful words, indicative of 2/4 time
in a major key, are: "Laughing, laughing comes the summer over the field".
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As you hear, this song is also sung as a round. How does the performance of the round
contribute to the strong feeling of 2/4 time that you hear?

3/4 time

3/4 time is most commonly associated with the waltz and minuet, although plenty of
triple-meter music is not associated with any kind of dance form. Still, in general terms
there is a lighter, less ponderous feeling to 3/4 time, due to the arrival of the stressed
beat on every third beat, which goes against our inherent physical twoness. It is not
without reason that the waltz was all the rage in Europe for most of the 19th century,
and still remains a popular dance form in ballroom dance classes. There's something
about the necessity to move our two legs to a rhythm of three beats that is both
complicated and intoxicating.

Here is a Libana chant in 3/4 time. Not a waltz, but nevertheless a melody that strongly
emphasizes its "threeness." Notice the stress on the words that appear on the
downbeat of each measure, and the "lift" that we feel on the words that come after the
downbeat. This sense of "Down-up-up" is the essence of 3/4 time. Again, the singing of
the round helps to emphasize this simple rhythmic pattern. You might also notice that
in most measures, the downbeat is reached by a leap up or down, which helps to
accentuate the strong beat.
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Let's also look at an actual waltz, just to establish the feeling in our ears. This is a
recording of the so-called "Minute Waltz" by Chopin. I include here just the opening
melody, after the four-bar introduction. But go ahead and listen to the entire piece (it
actually takes closer to two minutes to play expressively).
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6/8 time

6/8 time is a combination of a triple feeling with a duple pulse -- thus it is considered a
compound meter. If you look at the second measure, you'll notice the two groupings of
three eighth notes. This is the essence of 6/8 time. So too are the measures that
contain a quarter followed by an eighth. This long-short, long-short rhythm is also
indicative of 6/8 time and is reflected in many dances that use this time signature. This
chant is a perfect expression of the essence of this meter. After a number of
repetitions, you'll notice the women begin to sing in very "open" harmonies. The sound
of these open harmonies is something we will explore soon.

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Sometimes, however, 6/8 time can be given an assymetrical rhythm, usually associated
with folk or non-Western traditions. A famous variant of 6/8 time is to alternate
between feelings of 6/8 and 3/4, since both meters contain the same number of eighth
notes (6). Leonard Bernstein made this famous in the song America from the great
Broadway musical West Side Story (which was heavily influenced by salsa rhythms and
modal scales). Here, setting the phrase "I like to be in America", the "I like to be in A-"
is set to six eighth notes in 6/8 time, but the "-mer-i-ca" is set to three steady quarter
notes, as if it were 3/4 time. The meter doesn't change, the sheet music reads 6/8
throughout, but the shift to the 3/4 feeling is wonderfully infectious:
Here's the main chorus of the song:

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5/4 time

This time signature, while once considered rare and exotic, like an orchid amongs
daisies, has become more commonplace these days. It is best known by the jazz
standard "Take Five", which is in 5/4. The essence of 5/4 is the combination of 3/4 and
2/4 into one measure. Conceptually, we count it as 1-2-3 / 4-5. In this charming Libana
chant, (composed by one of their members, not a traditional tune), you can see the
grouping of three quarters followed by two quarters ("Under the // full moon"). This
tune is made more interesting by the syncopated feeling in the first part of bars 2, 3
and 4. Rather than three simple quarter notes, you get a pattern of quarter-eighth-
quarter, with the last quarter getting the dot to extend it out the full length of the three
quarter note pattern. This is followed in each instance by straight rhythms on the 4th
and 5th beats of the bar, either two quarters or two eights plus a quarter. Listen to this
tune until you get a strong sense of the feeling of 5/4. Hurray for assymmetrical
rhythms!
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Here's the main melody (the "head") of Paul Desmond's Take Five, to give you another
sense of this great assymmetric rhythm:

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9/8 and 12/8 time

9/8 time is very similar to 6/8, in that you have a triple division of the beat, but the
actual number of beats in the measure feels like a division of three (also a "compound
time"). Thus, 6/8 feels like 2/4 with each beat receiving a pulse of three eighth notes
(you could think of it as 2/dotted quarter time). Similarly, 9/8 time feels like 3/4, only
each beat is subdivided by three. The basic feeling is either three groups of three eighth
notes, or the lilting long-short rhythm:

12/8 time is just another extension of the same idea. We think of it as being four beats
to the measure, but every beat receives three eighth notes, as opposed to the 2 eighth
notes that would be expected in 4/4 time. One example of this meter is the opening of
the Pastoral interlude in Handel's Messiah, which depicts the shepherds in the fields.
This is a commonplace rhythm, when played at a stately tempo, for pastoral scenes.
The main melody runs something like:

I should also mention that sometimes 9/8 time can be grouped assymmetrically. This is
common in middle eastern music. Dave Brubeck created a famous example of this on
the late 50's jazz album Time Out (the same album that has Take Five.) Here, instead
of grouping 9/8 as 3+3+3, he groups it as 2+2+2+3. The basic right hand rhythm on
the piano looks like this:

The tune is called Blue Ronda ala Turk, after the Turkish influence on the rhythm. (It's
also a play on Mozart's Rondo ala Turk from the A major piano sonata). You'll notice
that every fourth bar switches back to the standard grouping of 3+3+3. The opening
section of the piece is a continuing variation on this four-bar rhythm. Check it out:

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7/8 and 7/4 time

The last metrical scheme to discuss is measures group in either 7 eighth notes or 7
quarter notes. I can't think of a standard that is in 7/8 time, but you could imagine
such a melody, grouped normally in a pattern of 4+ 3 or 3+4. Let's make one up that
has two measures grouped 4+3, followed by two measures groupd 3+4.
One famous rock song has an opening bass line and verse in 7/4: Pink Floyd's "Money."
It opens with the sounds of cash registers and clinking coins, moving into this great
bass riff:

Here's the opening:

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Rhythmic patterns of 7 are also rather common in Indian raga music, where the rhythm
continually cycles back to the beginning every 7 beats. Here is an excerpt from an
Indian raga. Can you hear the cycle of 7? It begins exactly at the moment when the
voice comes in strongly, starting on the syllable "Jai", and then cycle of seven beats
carry on for the duration of the track (the full performance is 9 minutes long.) You
might also be able to hear the tabla drum play strong accents every seven beats. The
singer sings a recurring 7-beat tune, in between which he is improvising within the
notes of the raga. We'll be learning a lot more about Indian music in the coming weeks.

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Triplets and Duplets

Of course, the existence of duple and triple meters does not preclude the use of the
triple feeling in duple time or the duple feeling in triple time. This is done by grouping
notes into triplets or duplets, depending on the context. Here's an invented phrase in
4/4 time that uses triplets, switching into a phrase in 6/8 that uses duplets. The main
idea here is that the beat does not change, all that switches is whether the beat gets
divided by 2 or by 3. This switching between duples and triples is of course an
important compositional device for rhythmic contrast and interest.

Cross rhythms (three against two)

Finally, it is not at all uncommon for different instruments in an ensemble to be playing

two different metrical feelings at the same time. Most often, this is a triplet against a
duplet. A very clear example of this is Debussy's Arabesque No. 1, where the left hand
keeps a steady eighth note pulse while the right hand plays triplets over it.
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Mixed Meters

Lastly, much great music, especially classical music composed in the 20th Century,
alternates sometimes wildly between various meters. The Russian composer Igor
Stravinsky made this technique quite famous, and genrally pioneered its use. In this
style you will often see time signatures such as 3/8 or 7/16 or 5/8 or other quick
divisions in fast moving tempi that continually give an assymmetrical feeling to the
music. Part of Stravinsky's inspiration for this approach to rhythm came from cubist
painting, with its (i.e. Picasso's) tendency to paint familiar forms, such as faces, in
assymetrical views. We will look at one of these pieces during class.
What's on this page
This page and the next are the concluding sections of Chapter 1. We will look at the
origins of melody and the worldwide ubiquity of the pentatonic scale.

The Children's Chant

Anthropologists and biologists have various theories concerning the origins of music,
going back to the most primitive utterances of homo sapien.

Such investigation, while fascinating, is beyond the scope of this course. As we begin to
explore melody, however, there is one place where we can begin, which is intimate with
our own experience. That is what we could think of as the Children's Chant.

If you think back to your own childhood, or if you observe the behavior of very young
children, such as a young sibling, you will observe a very basic melodic pattern, that of
the descending minor third. When children around the world vocalise, often in a manner
of taunting or speaking in a sing-song way to one another, they use a very similar
interval, that of the descending minor third.

Curt Sachs, as quoted by Peter Van der Merwe in Roots of the Classical, notes the
following:

"The earliest attempts of children less than three years old resulted in one-tone litanies
and in melodies of two notes a narrow minor third apart, the lower of which was
stressed and frequently repeated. At the age of three, children produced melodies of
two notes a second apart, and even three-tone melodies. Children three and a half
years old sang in descending tretrachords."

This phenomenon appears to be universal across cultures, as if embedded in our human

DNA. The basic melodic shape, if notated in the treble clef in the key of C, comprises a
core interval of a descending third (G down to E), with a slight hint of an additional note
above the center tone (the A):

I think of this as the mocking "nyah, nyah, nyah-nhay, nyah" chant that children sing to
each other as a method for taunting another child and showing superiority. It is also
sung to such charming words as "Johnny is a sis-sy" or "I can see your underwear!" Go
to another culture and language, and you'll get the same tune in the local vernacular.
It's really quite amazing! If you were lucky enough to have gone to a school that
offered Kodaly or Orff training in elementary school, you would have begun your
training by learning to sing and recognize, in a formalized way, this descending pattern.
Using the syllables of the solege (which we will study by and by), the syllables are "Sol-
mi La Sol-mi." Here's the tune if we were to transcribe it off the playground:

This then, is our basic tune, common to much of humanity. Even now, as a young
adult, you will find this the easiest phrase to sing and hear. From this childlike melody
comes a world of musical expression.

Pentatonic Scales
Pentatonic scales are 5 note patterns that seem universal among the majority of the
world's cultures. I am introducing a few pentatonic scales here, at the very beginning of
the course, in a way that may seem out of sequence. We will, in fact, be looking into
the origin of scales, intervals and tone relationships in great detail during the first third
or so of the course, and we will come to understand the history and philosophy of tone
relationship and modal patterns, including the structure of pentatonic scales..

However, pentatonic scales also transcend, or perhaps pre-date, theory. While many
explanations are made for the ubiquity of pentatonic scales, one explanation is very
compelling: that they perhaps grow out of the basic Children's chant. To whatever
extent this may be true, it could then be said that pentatonic scales are in some ways
natural to the human species. Certainly those pentatonic tunes that you may already
know. such as Amazing Grace or Swing Low, Sweet Chariot or Ol' Man River or Auld
Lang Syne, have a natural ease about them, a basic familiarity. If your come to
Earlham from another country, you may know different tunes, but it is likely that the
basic melodic shape have some similarity with the tunes just mentioned.

I take the following idea from The Roots of the Classical. It certainly seems to me that
Peter Van der Merwe has thought about this a great deal. Perhaps the pentatonic scale
is just a combination of two Children's Chants, the second one starting a tone below
where the other one leaves off. Thus we combine

with
 , which is the same tune moved down by four notest, and we get:

Once this note pattern has been established, we can also choose a different starting
note, and thus could create this pattern, using the same notes (A G E D C A), but start
them on C:

As you listen to the recordings of these, playing up and down the scale, and then with a
bit of improvisation thrown in, you will hear a fundamental difference in mood or tone.
The first scale, starting on A, is what we could call the minor pentatonic, and the
second one, starting on C, is the major pentatonic. These two basic forms (there are
many other variants of Pentatonic, as we will see) also form a fundamental duality or
polarity that we will explore throughout the semester—that of scales and ultimately
chords that have a minor third from the low tone to the next tone in the pentatonic
pattern (in this case from A to C), contrasted with scales that have a major third as the
lowest two notes in the pattern (in this case from C to E). This major-minor polarity is
of ultimate importance to the theory of music. If this not completely clear to you at this
moment, not to worry—it will take up a goodly portion of our work together over the
coming months.

Meanwhile, as an opening ear trainer, let's listen to and learn to sing some great
pentatonic tunes. We'll worry about the theory of it all soon enough!

Go on to: 1F Pentatonic Tunes

Examples of Pentatonic Tunes

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The final section in this introductory chapter will cover basic intervals in C major.

Next: 1G Basic Intervals

Understanding Musical Intervals

Introduction
In Chapter 3 we will be looking more deeply at how musical intervals are derived from
harmonic ratios.

For the moment, I just want to introduce the basic terms known to all practicing
musicians, so we have the vocabulary that will allow us to go more deeply into the
topic.
Beginning with the major pentatonic scale, which as you learned in the last section
could be derived from a basic human singing pattern, we can use middle C as a starting
note and label the intervals that are formed above it:

We can also begin on the high tone and look at the intervals below the high C:

Listen to the playback of these intervals and be certain you can match the shape to the
sound.

Notice that, when looking at the notes of the major pentatonic, the type of interval
switches between major and minor, depending on whether the interval is ascending or
descending. From C up to D is a major second, but from C down to D is a minor
seventh. From C up to E is a major third, but from C down to E is a minor sixth.

This brings us to the concept of perfect intervals, major intervals, minor intervals and
inversions.

Perfect Intervals and Inversions

Perfect intervals are those that have the musical ratios of 1:1, 2:1, 3:2 or 4:3. We will
learn more about the actual ratios in Chapter 3. For the moment, suffice it to say that
these intervals form the unison, octave, perfect fifth and perfect fourth, as you see
above.

We can then gather that:

1. A perfect fifth is formed from C up to G

2. A perfect fourth is formed from C down to G.
3. A perfect fifth plus a perfect fourth from the interval of an octave.
4. A perfect fifth is then the inversion of the perfect fourth.
5. A perfect fourth is then the inversion of the perfect fifth.
 We can therefore define the inversion of an interval as a change of position. To invert
the perfect fifth from C to G, keep the G as the lowest note and place the C above it.
This results in a shift of interval from perfect fifth to perfect fourth. The ratio changes
from 3:2 to 4:3. Similarly (and somewhat obviously), the perfect unison inverts to a
perfect octave. The ratio changes from 1:1 to 2:1:

Major/Minor Intervals and Inversions

Major and minor intervals are those that have the musical ratios of 5:4 and 6:5,
respectively. Again, we will explore these ratios more in Chapter 3. As we did with the
perfect intervals, we can draw the following conclusions with the major and minor
intervals:

 Major and minor intervals are found between the root note and the D, E and A of the
pentatonic scale.
 When we measure up from the bottom note, these intervals are considered to be
major.
 When we measure down from the top note, these intervals are considered to be minor.
 A major interval inverts to a minor interval.
 A minor interval inverts to a major interval.
 Thus a minor seventh is the inversion of a major second
 A minor sixth is the inversion of a major third.

Listen to the playback of the above intervals. You will be developing your ear to hear
these intervals using SonicFit as well as some ear training pages on this site.

The Full Major Scale and the Semitone (half step)

Up til now, we have only formally discussed the pentatonic scale. In chapter 3 we will
look more deeply at the historical genesis of the pentatonic and the full seven note
(septatonic) scale. For now, by way of orientation, let's add the other two notes to the
basic major pentatonic scale and look at what is created by this addition.
The reason I introduce the major pentatonic scale first, followed by the full major scale,
is to emphasize the intervals that are formed when the two additional notes, the F and
the B, are added to the pentatonic scale.

When F and B are added to the scale, we create semitones between E and F and
between B and C, and we also form the interval of the augmented fourth, (or
tritone) between F and B:

Whole-steps and Half-steps on the Piano Keyboard

It is helpful at this juncture to see this in terms of the piano keyboard. You can clearly
see that, since there is no black note between E and F and between B and C, that these
then form the half steps in the scale of C major.

You might also notice that, while C, D, E, F. and A, all raised by a half step, result in a
different note (C#, D#, F#, G# and A#), E raised by a half step is the same key on the
piano as the F, and B raised by a half-step is the same key on the piano as a C, since
there is no black note in between them. So E# = F and B# = C on the piano keyboard.
The inverse follows: B, A, G, E and D can be lowered by a half-step or semitone to
become Bb, Ab, Gb, Eb, and Db, but Cb = B on the keyboard, and Fb = E on the
keyboard, because there is no blacknote in between.

In terms of the C major scale, then, (and a fuller discussion of scales soon follows), we
can see that the order of the steps between each note are:

C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- A -- B -- C

W -- W -- H -- W -- W-- W-- H

This order will be true for all major scales, regardless of where you begin. More on that
soon.

Summary of the natural 2nds, 4ths and 5ths on the staff.

ALERT: It is incredibly important that you understand these two concepts, as all of
interval reading and musical literacy and notation is based on few simple facts:

1. The interval between any two adjacent notes is a second.

1. Major seconds, also known as whole tones or whole steps, are formed
between all natural notes, except...
2. ...except between the steps of E and F and between B and C. These are
the minor seconds, also known as semitones or half steps.
2. The interval between any two notes formed by two line notes with a line
between, or two space notes with a space between is fifth.
1. Perfect fifths are formed between all natural notes except...
2. ...except the fifth formed between B and F. This is considered
a diminished fifth, also known as a tritone. It is diminished because it a
semitone smaller than a perfect fifth. It is called a tritone because it can
be seen as comprising three whole steps.
3. The interval between any two notes formed by a third plus a step (line to space
with a skip or space to line with a skip) is a fourth.
1. Perfect fourths are formed between all natural notes except...
2. ...except the fourth between F and B. This is considered an augmented
fourth, and also forms the interval of the tritone.

Thus:
 Listen to the playback and try to hear the difference between the major/minor seconds
and between the perfect fourths/fifths and the tritone. You will practice this in your ear
training software.

Summarizing the Intervals and their Inversions

From the above information, we can now better define all the intervals of the natural
notes. These are also called the diatonic intervals.

First of all, let's complete the discussion of inversions.

 We've seen that the major second and the major third inverts to the minor seventh and
the minor sixth.
 We've seen that the perfect fourth inverts to the perfect fifth, and vice versa.
 It follows then that the minor second will invert to the major seventh
 It also follows, since both the augmented fourth and the diminished fifth are considered
to be a tritone (three whole tones), and that they are same pitches, that the diminished
fifth inverts to the augmented fourth, and the augmented fourth inverts to the
diminished fifth. Note that this is the only inteval where the inversion is the same
interval, with the same number of steps.
 With all our diatonic intervals defined, we can draw the following conclusions:

Seconds:

 A major second is considered the basic whole tone, which exists between the majority
of intervals. (See above)
 A minor second occurs less frequently in natural scales. It does not exist at all in
pentatonic scales. In normal diatonic scales, such as the scale of C major, it occurs
twice. (See above).

Thirds:

 A major third is a combination of two whole tones, for example C to E is a combination

of C to D and D to E.
 A minor third is a combination of a whole tone and a half tone, for example C down to A
is a semitone from C to B and a whole tone from B to A.




 The succession of major and minor thirds along the diatonic scale are as follows. Notice
that the third formed above the notes C, F and G are major thirds, and the third above
the notes D, E, C and B are minor thirds. This is essential information!



 Fourths and Fifths:

 A perfect fourth is a major third plus a semitone.

 A perfect fifth is a major third plus a minor third.






 A tritone (diminished fifth or augmented fourth) is a combination of three whole tones

(F to G, G to A, A to B). To find the three whole tones from B to F (the diminished fifth),
you need to use chromatic notes:


The perfect fourths and fifths along the diatonic scale are in the graphic above.

Sixths:

 A major sixth is a perfect fifth plus a whole tone, for example C up to G, then G to A.
 A minor sixth is a perfect fifth plus a semitone, for example C down to F, then a
semitone to E.

Sevenths

 A major seventh is perfect fifth plus a major third, for example C up to G, then G up to
B.
 A minor seventh is a perfect fifth plus a minor third, fo rexample C down to F, then F
down to D.


You can also think of the Major seventh as an octave minus a semitone (C down to B is
a semitone).

You can also think of a minor seventh as an octave minus a wholetone (C up to D is a

wholetone).

Knowing these rules will allow you to form and also to recognize any interval above or
below a given note.

ALL INVERSIONS:

As to inversions, we can now state the essential rules:

 All major intervals invert to minor intervals.

 All minor intervals invert to major intervals.
 All perfect intervals invert to perfect intervals.
 All diminished intervals invert to augmented intervals. All augmented intervals invert to
diminished intervals.
o Thus, the tritone, the diminished fifth/augmented fourth, inverts to itself.

NOTE WELL: As to the interval number, it is very easy. The two intervals should add up
to the number 9:

 Seconds invert to sevenths (2+7 = 9)

 Thirds invert to sixths (3+6 = 9)
 Fourths invert to fifths (4+5 = 9)
 Fifths invert to fourths (5 + 4 = 9)
 Sixths invert to thirds (6 + 3 = 9)
 Sevenths invert to seconds (7+2 = 9)

Even though arithmetically intervals add up to the number 9, musically these are
actually harmonic ratios, and thus the interval plus its inversion actually always equals
an octave, i.e., the ratio of 2:1. This is very important to remember! We'll be looking at
the math of harmonic ratios in chapter 3, so don't sweat it right now.

Chromatic Intervals
The final step in interval recognition is an extension of all the above materials. Once the
existence of the minor second between E and F and between B and C is clear in your
mind, you can use the above rules to determine intervals involving chromatic tones.
For seconds: major seconds equal two minor seconds. Thus major seconds will include
a sharp note to a sharp note or a flat note to a flat note except when they involve in E-
F or a B-C combination.

For thirds: major and minor thirds can be determined by the formula of combining two
whole steps (= major third) or a whole step plus a half step (= minor third).

For fourths: Most fourths are perfect -- they combine a major third with a half step.
They are augmented if they combine a major third plus a whole step.

For fifths: Most fifths are perfect -- they combine a major third with a minor third (or
you can think of it as a perfect fourth plus a whole step). Fifths are diminished if they
combine two minor thirds or they combine a perfect fourth plus a minor second.

For sixths: find the perfect fifth interval from the lowest note, then determine whether
the interval above the fifth is minor second (= minor sixth) or a major second (=
major sixth).

For sevenths: find the perfect fifth interval from the lowest note, then determine
whether the interval above the fifth is minor third (= minor seventh) or a major third
(= major seventh).

For sevenths: conversely, you can recognize the seventh, then find its quality be
determining if the upper note is a semitone less than an octave (= major seventh, as in
C to B) or a wholetone less than an octave (= minor seventh, as in C to Bb).

Study the following chart and recognize these patterns of intervals. Be clear why they
express the interval in question.
If you feel you need any more review concerning intervals, there are some good
explanations on the Sonitfit webpage. You'll be doing some Sonicfit exercises as part of
your assignment.

Key Signatures and the Circle of Fifths

This page presents the basic information on Key Signatures and the Circle of Fifths. We
will explore deeper aspects of this in the next few weeks, especially as regards
intonation and equal temperament. For the moment, simply memorize this practical
concept known to all trained musicians.

Western theory organizes tonal centers in a cycle of perfect fifths, with the notes
associated with the sharp keys going around to the right, and the notes associated with
the flat keys going around to the left. They meet in the middle around the enharmonic
equivalence Gb and F#. (Notice that this is directly across from C and is also a tritone
(augmented fourth / diminished fifth) away from C.

Your goal here is simple: memorize the cycle of fifths. If you are near an instrument,
play these notes on your instrument while you study the pattern.
The notes on the outside of the circle represent the major keys, and the notes on the
inside of the circle represent the minor keys. Notice that in each case, the minor keys
are a minor third below the major keys. If in your imagination you could turn the dial of
the inner circle three turns to the right, you'd notice that letter names line up exactly.

While we'll have a lot more to discuss about major and minor keys soon, at this
moment in the course, simple memorize the inner and outer circle. The outer circle is
the most important. The inner circle, the relative minors, you can memorize as simply a
minor third downin pitch from the outer circle. As we will soon see, these pairs of major
and minor keys are related because they share the same key signature.

Key signatures around the sharp side of the Circle

Notice that as we go up by fifths around the outer circle to the right, creating in each
case a scale of seven notes beginning on the tonic, we must continually raise the
leading tone to produce the proper major scale, which is a series of whole (W) and half
(H) steps in the following order (expressed in the key of C):

As we go first around the right side of the circle, that is, up a perfect fifth, we discover
that the pattern of natural notes is the same, except for the last two steps. In order for
the pattern to match, we must raise the seventh note (what is called the leading tone
of the scale). This simultaneously creates the whole step between La and Ti, and the
half step between Ti and Do.
As you go around the cycle, this pattern emerges: the sharp from the previous key is
retained, and then the seventh step, which is natural, is raised to produced the raised
leading tone.

This results in the following sharp key scales, beginning on each step of the cycle:

Notice how in each case the previous sharped notes are carried into the next key, and
the seventh step of the scale is raised one half step. That is: the seventh step receives
a brand new sharp, not prepresented in the previous iterations of the scale.
From Sharp Key Scales to Key Signatures

Clearly, if we are reading or writing a piece of music using the scale of, say, B major, it
would be very tedious to have to read, or to write in, the sharp in every instance.
Fortunately, for as long as Western notated music has existed, it has been the
convention to place the sharps at the beginning of each staff, thus indicating that in
every instance (and not only on that one line or space), that note is sharp.

We call this the Key Signature. The key "signs its name" at the beginning of the music,
and that music is then said to be "in the key" of D major, or B major, or what have you.

There is then the following pattern of sharp key signatures, which must be written in
exactly the order prescribed by convention:

Notice how the last sharp, the farthest sharp to the right, corresponds to the leading
tone or seventh note of the scale. Thus, when given a key signature, the rule to find the
major key is clear:

TAKE THE LAST SHARP TO THE RIGHT AND GO UP BY ONE STEP TO FIND THE MAJOR
KEY.

When writing out the key signature, you only need to have the cycle of fifths in mind,
because (and when you think about it, it makes sense) you are adding the leading tone
of each key as you go up by fifths, so it follows that the sharps themselves will be
written in a cycle of fifths (F-C-G-D-A-E).

Since it would be impossible to actually write these in ascending fifths (you'd soon be
up in a statosphere of ledger lines), the convention is to alternate the sharps by going
down a fourth from the initial F#, then up a fifth in alternating order (because as you
now know, up a fifth is the same as down a fourth, since fouths and fifths are
inversions of each other).

Key signatures around the flat side of the Circle

With this in mind, the journey around the left side of the circle follows a similar logic,
albeit a different pattern. Notice that as we go around the left side of the circle, we are
now descending by perfect fifths. This takes us into the flat keys.

In my way of thinking, the sharp side and the flat side of the circle of fifths are
reciprocals of each other, since, as we'll see, up a fifth is the ratio of 3/2, whereas down
a fifth is the ratio of 2/3. Thus the sharp side and the flat side lie in reciprocal
relationship to each other. More on that in the chapter on musical math!

As as we go around the left side of the circle, a pattern emerges. We want to produce
this same series of whole and half steps expressed again in the key of C:

Going down a fifth and creating the scale from F to F, we can observe that, unlike in G,
the leading tone (the seventh step of the scale) is OK: we have a half step from E to F,
so the leading tone needs no alteration. However, we observe that scale step from 3 to
4 (A to B) is a whole step and the scale step from 4 to 5 (B to C) is a half step. It needs
to be the reverse to create a major scale pattern. By flatting the fourth step (in this
case, flatting the B), the correct pattern emerges. Mi to Fa becomes and half step, and
simultaneously Fa to Sol becomes a whole step:
As we go around the cycle of fifths along the flat side, we follow the same pattern. We
keep the flat from the previous key and add the new, flatted, lowered fourth, just like
how on the sharp side we kept the previous sharp and raised the seventh. The resulting
pattern is:
Notice how in flat keys, the leading tone is always a natural note, leading up to the flat
note that forms the root of the key. Notice also that, except for F, all the keys on the
left side of the circle begin on a flat note. Another way to say this is that the tonic note
for the keys on the left side of the circle is a flatted note, not a natural note.

Like the sharp keys, the order of the flats in the key signature are a convention that
must be memorized. The order also alternates by ascending fifths and descending
fourths.

Notice that in identifying the flat keys, you would need to look at the last flat and go
down by four to find the tonic, since that was how the scales were created above
(keeping the previous flats and flatting the fourth step to get the correct major scale).
A side result of this process is that the key also happens to corresond to the second to
the last flat from the right, since going down by four will, logically, bring you to the
previous flat that you entered.

Again, notice how the fourth step of the key is lowered by the last flat in the key
signature in every instance. Thus the rule for finding the key when provided with a key
signature is:

TAKE THE LAST FLAT AND GO DOWN BE FOUR, SINCE THE LAST FLAT LOWERS THE
FOURTH STEP OF THE SCALE.

Complete Circle of Fifths with Key Signatures

Here then is the complete circle of fifths, as above, but with the key signatures added.
Study this, memorize it, and be able to write it out as quickly as possible.


Again, the basic rule for identifying these signatures is:

1. For sharps: take the last sharp to the right and go up one.
2. --
3. For flats: take the last flat to the right and go down by four. This happens to correspond to the
second to the last flat in the key signature (except of course for F, with only one flat).
4. --
5. For the relative minor: once you find the major key, go down three scale steps, which is the same as
going down a minor third. or going down to La from Do.
6.
NOTE: I didn't list the relative minor of C# (which would be A# minor) or F# (which
would be D# minor) because they are almost never used by composers. Composers
almost always switch to the easier-to-read enharmonic keys of Bb minor (5 flats, not
seven sharps) and Eb minor (somehow, 6 flats are easier to read than 6 sharps). I also
didn't list the key of 7 flats, which would be Cb major! It does exist, but it's rare: it's
much easier and more common to write such a piece or passage in B major (5 sharps
instead of 7 flats).

The Six Classic (and modern) Modes

In the previous chapter, we derived the circle of fifths from the standpoint of the major
scale. We noticed that key signatures define a key by providing the accidentals
necessary to produce the major scale that begins on the tonic note of that key. The
result is 12 major keys, along with their 12 relative minor keys.

In this chapter, we'll look at the major scale within a larger context, seeing it as one of
actually 6 possible scales that have traditionally been used in the creation of Western
music. The major scale that instrumenatalists are univerally taught to first learn on
their instrument is a subset of the 6 modes, and it is to these modes that we now turn
our attention.

Are Modes and Scales different?

There is not a crystal clear delineation between "scale" and "mode." However, in
common usage, we can think of the difference as follows:

Definition of SCALE

A scale is an ordered set of intervals that derives its name from a starting note and its
quality by the number of discreet notes within the octave. So a pentatonic scale has a
five notes, a heptatonic scale has six, a septatonic scale, such as the major scale, has
seven, and the octatonic scale has eight.

There is a sense, though, that a scale is affectively neutral. It simply provides a pitch
set from which to compose music. True, the major scale is deemed to be "happier," and
the minor scale is deemed to be "sadder," but it is certainly possible to make sad music
in a major key and happy, dance-like music in a minor key.

Scale, then is simply the ordered set of pitches employed for musical purposes.

Definition of MODE

In contrast, "mode" has a more affective, emotional quality to it. A piece is said to have
"a Dorian feel," or a "Lydian flavor." When we say a certain pop song uses the
Mixolydian mode, musicians have a sense of it being somewhat spacious and relaxed.
(A lot of Irish music and folk music is in the Mixolydian mode, for example).
The idea of "mode" as corresponding to "mood", is very ancient, going all the way back
to early Greek music (the music at the time of Plato). In other cultures, as for example
traditional Arabic music and traditional Indian classical music, this is still the case. The
mode ("raga" in Indian music) that a piece of music is in has much to do with what it is
trying to convey, emotionally.

So how is a mode different from a scale? A scale is a collection of pitches; a mode is a

collection of pitches that carry also an emotional or expressive quality. And since, as we
will see, the major scale is also a mode, the major scale gets to have it both ways!

The Six Ancient/Modern Modes of Western Music

I call these the ancient/modern modes because these six modes formed the backbone
of the earliest centuries of composed music in the Western world (from Gregorian chant
through to the high Renaissance), became reduced to the major-minor modes during
the common practice period of European music, but returned in the music of Debussy
and then were commonly employed by jazz musicians and well as folk and rock
musicians in the 20th and 21st centuries.

So I feel it is essential information to learn the six modes, to be able to recognize them
through hearing, and most importantly, to be able to compose music using them.

It is rare for these modes to be introduced at the beginning of one's study of music.
You could go find 20 textbooks on music theory and not see these in the opening
chapters. But I personally believe that learning them at the outset helps open your ears
to the sonic possibilites of modal composition.

The modes on the natural notes

There are two ways to think of the modes. Traditionally, and originally, they contained
only the natural notes, and were differentiated by each other based on which note was
conceived as the tonic, or starting pitch. Thus, using only the natural notes, (the white
notes of the piano), we can think of the modes as follows:
 You will notice that the mode beginning on B has been skipped. This is because this
mode, the Locrian:

has a tritone between the root and the fifth (B to F, as is now very familiar to you). So
central is the solidity of the perfect fifth between the root and fifth of any mode, that a
scale lacking this becomes difficult to ground in a harmonic context. So for now, we will
ignore this mode.

Categorizing the Modes

Modes can be organized based on their major or minor quality. This is defined
specifically according to whether the third of the scale is a major or minor third above
the tonic or starting note. Thus, we can think of the modes as

 Minor modes: Phrygian, Dorian, Aeolian

 Major modes: Lydian, Mixolydian, Ionian

In addition, it can be helpful to think of the modes in relationship to the scale that we
are all most used to, the major scale. Thus:

Lydian is like a major scale with a sharp fourth degree.

Ionian is the major scale itself.

Mixolydian is a major scale with a lowered seventh, or a major scale without the leading
tone.

Dorian is a minor scale, but with a major sixth.

Aeolian is our natural minor scale, the relative minor scale of the major scale.

Phrygian is the least used scale in the Western system, but very common in certain
Middle Eastern and South Asian cultures. It is heard by us to be a natural minor scale
with a lowered second degree.

The modes starting on the same pitch

We can also view these same modes from the context of them all starting on the same
pitch. Let's look at them all starting on C. This allows to more easily view their
differences in terms of half-steps and whole steps, and how they contrast with the
Ionian mode, the standard major scale.
Oops, this player doesn't have the mixolydian mode. Will change later!

00:00 / 00:00
The player above will play through these. Play it many times, maybe even sing along,
until the sound and "flavor" of these modes is clear to your ear.

You see here that I've made an attempt to suggest each mode's affective quality. This
is of course purely subjective; the modes can't be simpified in this way, but does
suggest something about their affective difference.

The Major-Minor System

In the previous chapter, we looked at the major scale, the Ionian mode, as a subset of
six modes which have formed the backbone of Western music composition for
centuries, from Gregorian Chant to Miles Davis' "Kind of Blue" and beyond.

In this chapter, we look at the more traditional description of Western harmony as a

being a system based around just two modes: the Ionian mode, which is also the Major
scale, and a variant of the Aeolian mode, which is the Minor scale.

These two scales, and their usage, formed the basis of the art of Western classical
composition from the late Renaissance, through the high periods of the music of Bach
(1685 - 1750), Mozart and Beethoven (who died in 1827), the entire world of 19th
century music, as well as a great deal of the popular music of the 20th Century, and
right up through the early 21st Century to the present day.

So in the traditional explanation of Western music theory, we look at only two scales,
the major and the minor.

The Names of the Scale Degrees in major

The major scale does indeed form the backbone of traditional Western harmony and
theory. Expressed in the key of C, the degrees of the Major scale are as follows:

It is instructive to look at the term "subdominant." In this case, "subdominant" does not
mean "a step below the dominant," but it means "a fifth below the dominant." Indeed,
it is actually more instructive to look at the scale as centered around C, and stretching
above and below the central tonic thusly:
We can more clearly see here that C is the tonic note at the center of the system, the
the dominant and the subdominant stretching in fifths on either side of the central
tonic.

The Names of the Scale Degrees in minor

Every major key has its relative minor, and thus every major scale has a related minor
scale. In C major, the relative minor is A minor. When referring to a minor scale, we
keep the same designations, shifting the tonic from C to A and keeping all the other
scale terms in equal relationship with the minor. Here are the terms in minor, with A in
the bass:

The leading tone in minor

This brings us to a final and central topic. Hey, this is really really important, so
read carefully! It has to do with the leading tone in minor. You will notice above that
the leading tone has been raised in A minor, to create a G#, a half-step away from the
tonic. The background for this is as follows:

The major scale became the central scale in tonal music for a variety or reasons, but
two primary reasons are:

1. It is the only scale (among the six modes) which can form a major triad on the
tonic, dominant and subdominant notes.
2. It is the only scale that has a half step between the seventh and eighth steps of
the scale while also having the subdominant as a perfect fifth below tonic. It is
the only scale, we can say, in which the leading tone is a half step away from the
tonic while the subdominant is a perfect fifth below the tonic. (Lydian also has a
half-step leading tone, but its subdominant is a tritone away from the tonic, not
a perfect fifth below/perfect fourth above).
 We see that in the natural minor (the aeolian mode), we revert to the "modal" situation
which has the seventh step a whole tone away from the tonic. To better define tonality
and take advantage of the strength of the major mode, with its half-step leading to
tone to tonic, we simply use musica ficta ( as we did when we raised the leading tone in
our modal counterpoint practice) and artifically create a leading tone betwen the
seventh and eighth degrees of the scale. We raise the leading tone in minor.

Here is an example of notes moving around the minor mode. You'll notice that when
there is a passage descending from A past G, or a passage that reaches upwards but
does not try to reach the tonic A, the G is a natural note. But when there is a strong
motion of the G leading back up to the tonic note, the G is raised a half step to G# in
order to create the strong half-step leading tone to the tonic.

Notice how this has been written: The natural minor scale, the Aeolian mode, can move
up and down from A to A using the natural notes, but it can also employ an artifically
raised leading tone.

 The G natural is used most often when the scale or melody is descending
 The G# is used most often when the scale or melodic is leading back to the tonic. Thus,
an artificially raised leading tone is used in minor when the melody is meant to resolve
back to the tonic note.
The reason for this artificially raised leading tone is to create this strong sense of
resolution to the tonic. Here are some examples of folk melodies, paired in major and
minor, in which the sense of leading tone in major going to the tonic is strong, and in
which the same sense of leading tone in minor is strong by virtue of its raised leading
tone.

<some more musical examples will come here>

Singing with Solfege

History of the Solfege System
Solmization is the overall term for any system that uses distinct syllables to identify
the various notes of a scale.

Solfege is a time-honored tradition that dates back to the eleventh century. The
theorist and composer Guido of Arezzo introduced a set of syllables corresponding to
the pattern of tones and semitones C-D-E-F-G-A. He noted that the phrases of the
following chant begin on successive steps of the scale, and used the syllables that begin
each phrase to indicate the pitch. This chant is atrributed to the monk Paulus Diaconus
(Paul the Deacon) in the 8th Century.
It has also been posited that this system was highly influenced by the Muslim (Arabic)
musical system that was current during the same time period. Known as the "Separated
Pearls", the system used the following notes to identify the scale: dal, ra, mim, fa, sad,
lam, sin. Since the system was actually based around the Phrygian mode, the order of
syllables, corresponding to letters in the Arabic alphabet, were:

Arabic letters ‫ ﻡ‬mīm ‫ ﻑ‬fāʼ ‫ ﺹ‬ṣād ‫ ﻝ‬lām ‫ ﺱ‬sīn ‫ﺩ‬- dāl ‫ ﺭ‬rāʼ
Musical Notes ---mi ---fa ----sol---la -----si ----do ---re

It is highly unlikely that these two systems could have evolved independently of each
other, given that each syllable begins with identical consonant sounds. Also, the Hymn
of St. John does not contain the seventh step of the scale, the "Si", whereas the Arabic
system does. (This makes sense, since the Arabic system is Phrygian, and thus would
absolutely have the note B if we consider E to be tonic).

What is uncertain is which system influenced the other. It is known that Guido of
Arezzo was aware of Arabic music theories, and there was a great deal of intellectual
dialogue occuring between Arabic and Western cultures at this time. My personal
prejudice is that the system originated in Muslim countries and made its way to Europe
through the Arabic influence on the intellectual awakening in Euope after the dark ages.
I tend to favor theories that bring to light what has tended to be surpressed until
 recently, that being the profound influence of Eastern ways of thinking on so-called
Western systems of philosophy and thought. But I have no way of proving this one way
or the other. There is a clear correspondance between the two systems; perhaps
scholars will continue to unravel the various influences between the two.

Regardless of origin, the result of Guido's theory was the original hexachord system of
six tones:

At some point, the ut was changed to do — probably to avoid the awkward ending
syllable,and the seventh step of the scale was added, using the syllable si (again,
possibly due to Arabic influence). In the 19th century, the "si" was changed to "ti" in
English speaking countries, as it was prefered to have a different consonant for the
beginning of each syllable when the system was used for sight singing. Thus resulted in
the familiar major scale:

DO RE MI FA SOL LA TI DO

that many of us learned as children and features prominantly in many popular songs,
such as "Do a Deer" from the Sound of Music. Far from being a system only for
children, however, most major conservatories in the North America and Europe use the
solfege system for training young professional musicians. It is the common tongue of all
musicians educated in the Western system, and as we have seen, has many
corresponances with non-Western systems as well.

Thus, learning solmization is a basic training for all musicians.

We can relate the solfege now to the scale steps as follows:

 Do is Tonic
 Sol is Dominant
 Fa is Subdominant
 Mi is Mediant
 La is Submediant
 Re is the Supertonic
 Ti is the leading tone.

Placed as a major scale, we have:

Solfege and the Chromatic tones

The solfege system began as a purely diatonic system, useful for the singing of modal
melodies based around a fixed tonic. As music became increasingly chromatic, the
additional notes of the chromatic scale (think of the black notes of the piano) were
added by changing the vowel of the diatonic syllable. Thus all "AH' sounds were
changed to "AY" sounds (using the Romance language pronunciation of the letter "E")
when lowered, and changed to "EE" sounds (using the Romance language pronunciation
of the letter "I") when raised. This resulted in the following ascending and descending
chromatic scale.

Movable Do.
For purposes of sight singing, the most common approach is to use the system of
movable Do. In this system, the note for Do corresponds with the tonic of whatever key
a particular composition or melody is placed. Thus in the Key of G major, G becomes
Do, and in the Key of F major, F becomes Do. Here is the same folk melody, first in C,
and then in G and F. Notice that while the pitch changes, the syllables do not.
Working with Solfege in Major
Learning to sight sing using solfege syllables is a tradition that dates back many
hundreds of years and is still very much in use today. Anyone truly wishing to become a
trained musician should gain some experience singing with solfege syllables. There are
numerous exercises in Practica Musica which will help you in developing your skills for
sight singing using solfege syllables.

Working with Solfege in Minor

There are two methods for learning to sing in minor keys using solfege.

Using the chromatic tones, with Do as tonic.

In this system, when we switch from a melody in C major to one in C minor, for
example, C remains Do and we use "Me" for the lowered third, "Le" for the owered sixth
and "Te" for the lowered seventh. The advantage to this system is that it preserves the
sense of Do as Tonic, Fa as Subdominant, Sol as Dominant and Ti as leading tone, since
the seventh is most often raised in the minor key. Here is a melody that begins in C
major and moves into C minor, with the corresponding shift in syllables.

Using La as tonic

The other system considers any minor key as being the relative minor of a
corresponding major key. Thus, we keep the Do of the major key, and use "La" as the
tonic note in minor. This has its advantages for melodies that quickly modulate to the
relative major, as do many classical melodies. But to me this system is more limited as
it does not allow the sight-singer to appreciate the minor mode on an equal basis with
the major. For our purposes, we will keep Do as tonic and learn to use "Me, Le, and Te"
for the lowered scale degrees.

A Solfege Example
Here is an example of sight singing in solfege. The melody begins in C major, then
modulates to C minor. Notice the shift in syllables when the flattened tones appear. For
clarity, I notate the C minor section using accidentals, rather than with a key signature.
Use this as a way to practice singing solfege—you will need to do this as part of the
final exam.
1L The Legend of Pythagoras
Brief Background

Pythagoras is a figure of legend. He was roughly contemporaneous with three equally

legendary teachers: Lao-Tse in China, Gautama Buddha in India and possibly Zoroaster
in Chaldea/Persia (present-day Iraq). There is little question that all four of these
figures were historical, and the spiritual traditions that sprang from their teachings
(Hellenist philosophy, Taoism, Buddhism and Zoroastrianism, respectively) continue to
resonate in the contemporary world.

At the same time it is no longer completely feasible to separate what these great
teachers may or may not have said in their day, and who they actually were as human
beings, from what tradition now assigns to them.

Did Lao-Tse really write the Tao te Ching, or does the Tao te Ching represent a long
tradition of Chinese philosophical thinking that came to be associated with Lao Tse?

Did Buddha teach the full range of spiritual teachings that have flowered into the many
forms of Buddhism present in the world today, or did his teachings change and evolve
as they mingled with other cultures and later philosophical and spiritual disciplines?
Were Zoroaster’s teachings about the duality of the universe in terms of light/dark
original to him or were they expressions of older traditions?

Similarly, did Pythagoras actually invent the system of thought now associated with his
name, or does he represent a long process of assimilation of both musical and spiritual
teachings that drew from Egyptian, Persian, Indian and Chinese sources?

However much the Pythagorean tradition is original with Pythagoras, it is nevertheless

the case that musical theorists and philosophers, from Plato in the 5th Century B.C.E.
to Boethius in the 6th Century C.E. and through to the Renaissance, were deeply
steeped in what they believed to be “Pythagorean thought.”

Even the more rational theorists of the 18th and 19th Centuries remained aware of his
historical legacy, and there is a tradition in 19th Century France that reflected a revival
of the so-called “occult” aspects of Pythagorean thought, a tradition that was not lost
on the minds of such seminal figures as Claude Debussy and Eric Satie. Two of the
central books of 19th and early 20th century music theory — Helmholz’s On the
Sensations of Musical Tone(discussed later) and Schenker’s Harmony, assume a
Pythagorean stance.

And there is a renewed fascination with his teachings among musicians today. Allaudin
Mathieu's work Harmonic Experience, mentioned in the introduction to this book, is
deeply influenced by its investigation of Pythagorean principles. As I consider Mathieu
to by my "music theory guru," I too feel a deep connection to the Pythagorean
tradition.

Thus, we begin our study of music theory with the man who stands at the source of
Western musical thought, and who absorbed and codified a prior music theory that was
in play for millennia before him throughout the near and far East.

Basic Introduction of Pythagorean thought

Like Zoroastrianism and Taosim, Pythagorean philosophy is based on the concept of

dualism – the ordering of the universe into opposing (but mutually inextinguishable)
forces: light/dark, limited/unlimited, full/empty, life/death and so forth—all of which are
born from and related to the one, the monad, the unity.

To the Pythagoreans, this primordial harmony and order of the universe is expressed
through number.

The numbers 1 through 4 were the basis for the entire philosophy. 4 can be used to
construct the pyramid, and it forms the Tetractys:

X
XX
XXX
XXXX
 Pythagoras’ teachings led to, or codified, a system of harmonic relationships based on
the numbers 1, 2, 3 and 4. This was based on the concept that out of unity comes
diversity and in itself shows affinity with other ancient philosophies, such as the Tao te
Ching in China (“From the one, two, from the two, all created things”).

These primary numbers were correlated with geometric forms:

 1 is the point, but also the monad, the oneness of all things
 2 is the line
 3 is the triangle
 4 is the pyramid or solid

There is an enormous amount of teachings contained in the simple diagram of

the tetractys, but in this early stage, it sufficient to observe the following:

1 also represents the interval of the unison

2 in relationship to 1 represents the interval of the octave

3 in relationship to 2 represents the interval of the perfect fifth

4 in relationship to 3 represents the interval of the perfect fourth

The Legend of the Blacksmith Shop and the Creation of the Monochord

A central tale of Pythagoras, told throughout the Millennia throughout European culture
and still relevant today as a "teaching story," is the legend of Pythagoras and the
Blacksmith Shop.

The tale of the "Harmonious Blackmith" represents the truth of

the tetractys, manifested in the physical image of a set of blacksmith's hammers and
the relationship between their weights. This tale taught the fundamental ratios that
become the foundation of all musical theory.

Here is a basic summary of the blacksmith tale, borrowed from the website on Handel's
The Harmonious Blacksmith:
Iamblichus, the fourth-century scholar
who wrote nine books about the
Pythagorean sect, describes how
Pythagoras came to discover the
underlying principles of musical
harmony:

"Once he was engrossed in the thought

of whether he could devise a mechanical
aid for the sense of hearing which would
prove both certain and ingenious. Such
an aid would be similar to the
compasses, rules and optical instruments
designed for the sense of sight. Likewise
the sense of touch had scales and the
concepts of weights and measures. By
some divine stroke of luck he happened
to walk past the forge of a blacksmith
and listened to the hammers pounding
iron and producing a variegated harmony
of reverberations between them, except
for one combination of sounds."

According to Iamblichus, Pythagoras

immediately ran into the forge to
investigate the harmony of the hammers.
He noticed that most of the hammers
could be struck simultaneously to
generate a harmonious sound, whereas
any combination containing one
particular hammer always generated an
unpleasant noise. He analyzed the
hammers and realized that those that
were harmonious with each other had a
simple mathematical relationship--their
masses were simple ratios or fractions of
each other. That is to say that hammers
half, two-thirds, or three-quarters the
weight of a particular hammer would all
generate harmonious sounds. On the
other hand, the hammer that was
generating disharmony when struck
along with any of the other hammers had
a weight that bore no simple relationship
to the other weights.

The tale of the blacksmith shop is completely legendary. Indeed, the father of Galileo
Galilei actually disproved that this could have occurred in the real world – given the
inharmonic nature of vibrating metal objects. Nevertheless, it is a beautiful teaching
story that has lasted the ages!
The legend continues that, as seen in the plates above, Pythagoras (good scientist, he)
went on to experiment with volumes of liquid in glass, with the length of various pipes,
and, most importantly, with the length of strings as measured on a monochord (a
stringed instrument, said to be of Pythagoras' invention, where a movable bridge
allowed for the precise measurement of musical ratios).

Through these experiments, Pythagoras determined what much of antiquity had long
understood: tones based on low-integer relationships produce harmonious soundsthat
are easy on the ear and pleasant to the soul.

Pythagoras thought of himself primarily as a healer and he used music as a remedy for
all manner of sickness, mental and spiritual as well as physical.

We will now look at musical ratios in relationship to Pythagoras' discoveries.

(in development)

Book 1 Chapter 1M
Music Math: Ratios, part 1

Why Music Math?

This course will touch on areas of "Music Math," which adds a different perspective to
the traditional conversation about music theory. I think it is very helpful from time to
time to look at musical principles from a mathematical perspective, and it helps to link
music theory to other areas of the Earlham curriculum.

Musical Ratio and Musical Proportion

Ratio as Relationship

What is a ratio in mathematics? Accordingto the excellent website Mathpage, "A Ratio is
the spoken language of arithmetic. It is the language with which we relate quantities of
the same kind." A ratio is, therefore, a relationship between two quantities. If you have
$10, and I only have $5, the fact that you have two times more dollars than me is the
ratio 2:1. If a kind friend gives each of us $5, you are still richer than me, but
the relationship, i.e. the ratio, of our money has changed. You now have $15, I have
$10, thus you now have three dollars for every two of my dollars, which is the ratio
3:2.
If we invest our money and we each increase our sum tenfold, we are both happier
people, but our relationship has not changed. Your $150 and my $100 remains in the
relationship, in the ratio, of 3:2.

Proportion is related to ratio, and simple shows that two ratios are the same. No matter
how much our money increases (or decreases), if the ratios remain the same, their
proportions remain identical. This matters of course for music, since two notes an
octave apart may have different frequencies, but as long as they remain octaves, they
are in direct proportion to one another.

I know that all this is likely obvious and trivial, but it's worth stating this clearly before
we move on to the musical application of ratio.

Simple Musical Ratios

A musical interval is a mathematical ratio. As we saw in the legend of Pythagoras and

the Blacksmith Shop on the previous page, the simplest ratios, when measured on the
monochord, produce musical intervals that are most pleasing to the ear. When
Pythagoras measured the hammers from the blacksmith shop, he discovered them to
be in exact low-integer relationship to each other. When he then created the
monochord and moved the bridge along the string, measuring the relationship of the
two distances on both sides of the bridge, he took note of the ratios between the two
sides of the bridge and discovered them also to be in precise low-integer relationships
with each other.

This straightforward image is worth holding in your mind as you think of simple musical
ratios. Here, we'll derive these ratios a little bit more mathematically.

The simple ratios that I want you to know at this point are

Octave as 2:1.

Perfect Fifth as 3:2.

Perfect Fourth as 4:3.

Pythagorean whole tone as 9:8.

Let's see how these ratios are derived.

Octave as 2:1 (or in Pythagorean terms, 12:6)

The octave, 2:1, is of course the most basic ratio, or relationship, in music. It occurs
naturally when women and men, or men and children, sing together. It is
fundamentally the relationship of one thing vibrating twice as much as another thing.
There are a number of ways to think of this:
If you play a string, then stop the string at half its length, it will sound exactly an
octave higher. If you play a string, then play another string that is exactly twice its
length, it will sound an octave lower. Ignoring the physics of physical tension and string
construction, this is how a harp is designed. A string twice as long sounds an octave
lower. The piano, in this sense, is just a harp with hammers.

If you play a tube closed at one end, and play a similar tube that is twice its length, the
second tube will sound an octave lower.

If you measure the tension on a tuned drum head, and then precisely double that
tension, it will sound an octave higher.

Regardless of how you think of it physically, 2:1 is a fundamental principle of harmonic

relationship. If a string or tube vibrates at frequency ƒ, then 2f will sound an octave
higher, and
f/2 will sound an octave lower. This results in an exponential curve as regards
frequency, but in a linear curve as regards our perception of octave relationship.

As the frequency of a pitch doubles in value, the musical relationship remains that of an
octave. Thus for any given frequency, rising octaves can be expressed by the formula: f
* 2^x, where x is a whole number.

So for a frequency of 27.5 (the lowest A on the piano):

An octave higher is 27.5 * 2^1 = A 55. An octave above that is 27.5 * 2^2 (two
squared) or 27.5 * 4 = A 110. An octave above that is 27.5 * 2^3 (two cubed) or 27.5
* 8 = 220, and the octave above that is 27.5 * 2^4 or 27.5 * 16 = 440, which is the
standard tuning note for the orchestra.

Thus octaves rise exponentially as 27.5, 55, 110, 220, 440, 880, 1760 and 3520, the
fundamental frequency of the highest A on the piano. Every octave is twice the
frequency of the previous octave.

For the Pythagoreans, they calculated the octave as being a ratio of 12:6, which is a
proportion of the fundamental octave 2:1. This allowed for the remaining intervals to be
calculated using only positive integers. Let's look at how that worked.

What we will discover is that the arithmetic mean between the octave is 3/2, and the
harmonic mean between the octave is 4/3. These are the intervals of the perfect fourth
and the perfect fifth, respectively. When adding intervals together, you multiply their
ratios, thus:

4/3 * 3/2 = 12/6 = 2, which is the octave.

This explains why, when adding intervals together that are inversions of each other,
they result in the perfect octave, even though arithmetically, 4 + 5 = 9!.
Perfect Fifth as 3:2, from the Arithmetic Mean between the Octave

What I find useful and interesting is that for the earliest music theorists, the perfect
fifth and the perfect fourth were both considered to be the mean tone, or the mid-point,
between the octave. They were each derived, however, by two different mathematical
calculations. The importance of this is to stress the centrality of the perfect fourth and
the perfect fifth in all subsequent theories of music, and to demonstrate,
mathematically, why they exist as reciprocal inversions of each other.

Taking 12:6 as the fundamental expression of the octave proportion, the Pythagoreans
defined the perfect fifth as resulting from calculating the Arithmetic Mean.

The arithmetic mean, or midpoint, between two numbers is the what we normally mean
when we say "take the average." This can expressed algebraically as (a + b)/2. (For
example, the arithmetic mean between 4 and 6 is 5, which is obvious, but can be
expressed in a formula as (4 + 6) / 2 = 5).)

This is how the Pythagoreans derived the interval of the perfect fifth:

Divide the string of the monochord into 12 equal parts.

Take the octave to be 12:6
Take the perfect fifth to be the arithmetic mean between 12 and 6.

This results in the simple calculation (12 + 6) / 2 = 18/2 = 9.

Thus the ratio of the octave to the fifth is 9 : 6, which can reduced to 3 : 2 (by of
course dividing each side of the ratio by 3).

Perfect Fourth as 4:3, from the Harmonic Mean between the Octave

The main point in discussing these musical means is that the Perfect Fourth was also
derived from finding the mean, or midpoint between the octave, but instead of using
the arithmetic mean, it made use of the harmonic mean.

What is the harmonic mean? Well, in a series, the difference between the first and
second terms in the series is related to the difference between the second and third as
the first term is related to the third. Algebraically, we could say:

a:c = (a-b) : (b-c) or, put another way--

b = 2ac/(a + c)

Since in the example above, the arithmetic mean between 4 and 6 was 5, the harmonic
mean would be 2 * 24 / 10 = 4.8.

While a visit over to the Wikipedia page on the harmonic mean shows its complexity,
(as does the page on the Pythagorean means in general), for the purposes of this
specific discussion, we need only use this formula to find the harmonic mean between
the 12 : 6 octave --

Using the formula b = 2ac/(a + c), we get:

2 * (12 * 6) / (12 + 6) = 144 / 18 = 8.

Thus the ratio of the perfect fourth is 8 : 6, which can be reduced down to 4:3 (by of
course dividing each side by 2).

For millennia, this has been diagrammed in the following way:

We see here the octave as 12:6, reduced to 2:1

We see the perfect fifth as either 9:6 or 12:8, which can both be reduced to 3:2
We see the perfect fourth as either 8:6 or 12: 9, which can both be reduced to 4:3.

We can see, too, that the perfect fifth and the perfect fourth are in a reciprocal
relationship with one another:

Up a fifth is the same as down a fourth

Up a fourth is the same as down a fifth.

Thus are derived the fundamental intervals of the perfect fourth and perfect fifth as the
arithmetic and harmonic means, respectively, between the octave.

(As an aside, and about which we'll have more to say later, the third Pythagorean
mean, the Geometric mean, results in the diminished fifth, which is the irrational
number √2 -- the Devil in Music, indeed!)
Pythagorean Whole Tone as 9:8, or the space bewteen the two Means

Finally, we can discover the final, essential Pythagorean interval, which is the
Pythagorean whole tone.

From the diagram above, we can see the space between the overlapping fourths and
fifths. It is expressed here as the ratio of 9:8. This is the fundamental Pythagrean
whole tone.

This Pythagorean whole tone can also be derived mathematically as the difference
between the results of the arithmetic and harmonic means:

To find the difference between ratios, they must be divided.

3/2 divided by 4/3 is the same as 3/2 multiplied by 3/4 (to divide fractions, take the
recipropcal of one fraction and multiply).

3/2 * 3/4 = 9/8, the Pythagorean whole tone.

It is also worth discovering this same Pythagorean whole tone if we add two fifths
together, and then divide by an octave. Here's the the math on that:

Two perfect fifths added together is calculated by multiplying their ratios.

3/2 * 3/2 = 9/4.

(If we use our modern language and think in the key of C major, then this would be C
up to G, and then G up to the D, the octave and a fifth above the C).

To bring that 9/4 ratio down an octave, we must divide by 2, or multiply by 1/2.

9/4 * 1/2 = 9/8, our Pythagorean whole tone (C up to D in a major scale).

The Pythagorean Circle of Fifths

Since the Fifth was considered the perfect ratio (as was its reciprocal, the perfect
fourth), by means of its being derived by the simplest of mathematical ratios, the
Pythagoreans concluded that musical scales could, and indeed should!, be constructed
solely through using Perfect Fifths and reducing them down by octaves.

If we start on a low C and go up by fifths, we would end up with the five notes of our
basic C major pentatonic scale:
This stack of perfect fifths, all derived from 3:2 ratios (C, G, D, A, E), could be brought
into a single octave, resulting in the pitches C, D, E, G and A.

Theoretically, this stacking of perfect fifths could be carried on until one reached B#.
On the piano, and on other equal tempered instruments, B# = C, but in actuality, the
math doesn't quite work out. This results in the Pythagorean Comma, the subject of the
following page.

Book 1 Chapter 1N
The Pythagorean Comma and the Cycle of
Fifths

The Circle of Fifths and the

Pythagorean Comma
Having seen that the Pythagoreans derived scales by building up stacks of perfect fifths
and then octave reducing, there would seem to be a natural connection between this
"fifth building" and our contemporary diagram of the circle of fifths:
We have learned to look at this neat and seemingly perfect diagram and appreciate that
musical relationships seems to move in a circle and that you can go around the circle
and end up back at the starting place: begin at C, move forward by perfect fifths 12
times, and end up back at C.

How wonderful!

Except for one problem: it's a lie! The numbers don't actually work out. Let's see why.

The Pythagorean Comma

According to Pythagorean principles, one could continue to go up by fifths and derive a
series of discreet pitches through continuing this process as far as possible.

On the modern piano keyboard, if we start on the lowest C and go up, labeling all of
these as sharps, we'd end up on the highest note of the piano, calling it a B#:
We could also start on middle C and go outwards in both directions, ending up at the
higher end of the keyboard on an F#, and at the lower part of the keyboard on a Gb.

In modern equal temperament, we think of these notes as enharmonic equivalents, but

when we actually do the math on these, using only perfect fifths, we discover that:

B# does not equal C and

Gb does not equal F#!

This is called the Pythagorean Comma.

The Pythagorean Comma is most easily expressed by stating that no power of two
can equal any power of 3.

If take a very low tone, represented by the lowest C on the piano and assign that the
value of 1, and go up to the top C on the piano, we encompass 7 octaves, and since
octaves are expressed as the ratio of 2:1, we find ourselves with the number 128,
which is 2 to the seventh. If we go back to that low C and play up by perfect fifths on
the keyboard, we of course go up the Cycle of Fifths...

...which for the purposes of Pythagorean thought should be notated as all sharp notes,
ending on B#. In equal temperament, of course, the B# becomes the enharmonic
equivalent of C natural, but in Pythagorean tuning we need to think in all perfect fifths.
Thus, we must go up in perfect fifths 12 times. This would be 3/2 raised to the 12
power (1.5 to the 12th). This results in the number 129.74632.

This ratio, 129.75632 : 128 is the Pythagorean comma. 12 perfect fifths do not equal
up to 7 perfect octaves:

(3/2)^12 ≠ (2/1)^7 or you could say (3/2)^12 / (2/1)^7 ≠ 1.

As Gareth Loy says in his great book Musicathics: "Contrary to the wishes of scale
builders and musicians from antiquity to the present, the powers of the integer ratios
3/2 and 2/1 do not form a closed system."

This is the basic process in tuning a piano in equal temperament, where each fifth is
reduced by a twelve of a semitone, thereby distributing out the comma equally among
the twelve pitches of the chromatic scale.

Book 1 Chapter 1N
The Pythagorean Comma and the Cycle of
Fifths

The Circle of Fifths and the

Pythagorean Comma
Having seen that the Pythagoreans derived scales by building up stacks of perfect fifths
and then octave reducing, there would seem to be a natural connection between this
"fifth building" and our contemporary diagram of the circle of fifths:
We have learned to look at this neat and seemingly perfect diagram and appreciate that
musical relationships seems to move in a circle and that you can go around the circle
and end up back at the starting place: begin at C, move forward by perfect fifths 12
times, and end up back at C.

How wonderful!

Except for one problem: it's a lie! The numbers don't actually work out. Let's see why.

The Pythagorean Comma

According to Pythagorean principles, one could continue to go up by fifths and derive a
series of discreet pitches through continuing this process as far as possible.

On the modern piano keyboard, if we start on the lowest C and go up, labeling all of
these as sharps, we'd end up on the highest note of the piano, calling it a B#:
We could also start on middle C and go outwards in both directions, ending up at the
higher end of the keyboard on an F#, and at the lower part of the keyboard on a Gb.

In modern equal temperament, we think of these notes as enharmonic equivalents, but

when we actually do the math on these, using only perfect fifths, we discover that:

B# does not equal C and

Gb does not equal F#!

This is called the Pythagorean Comma.

The Pythagorean Comma is most easily expressed by stating that no power of two
can equal any power of 3.

If take a very low tone, represented by the lowest C on the piano and assign that the
value of 1, and go up to the top C on the piano, we encompass 7 octaves, and since
octaves are expressed as the ratio of 2:1, we find ourselves with the number 128,
which is 2 to the seventh. If we go back to that low C and play up by perfect fifths on
the keyboard, we of course go up the Cycle of Fifths...

...which for the purposes of Pythagorean thought should be notated as all sharp notes,
ending on B#. In equal temperament, of course, the B# becomes the enharmonic
equivalent of C natural, but in Pythagorean tuning we need to think in all perfect fifths.
Thus, we must go up in perfect fifths 12 times. This would be 3/2 raised to the 12
power (1.5 to the 12th). This results in the number 129.74632.

This ratio, 129.75632 : 128 is the Pythagorean comma. 12 perfect fifths do not equal
up to 7 perfect octaves:

(3/2)^12 ≠ (2/1)^7 or you could say (3/2)^12 / (2/1)^7 ≠ 1.

As Gareth Loy says in his great book Musicathics: "Contrary to the wishes of scale
builders and musicians from antiquity to the present, the powers of the integer ratios
3/2 and 2/1 do not form a closed system."

This is the basic process in tuning a piano in equal temperament, where each fifth is
reduced by a twelve of a semitone, thereby distributing out the comma equally among
the twelve pitches of the chromatic scale.

Book 1 Chapter 1N
The Pythagorean Comma and the Cycle of
Fifths

The Circle of Fifths and the

Pythagorean Comma
Having seen that the Pythagoreans derived scales by building up stacks of perfect fifths
and then octave reducing, there would seem to be a natural connection between this
"fifth building" and our contemporary diagram of the circle of fifths:
We have learned to look at this neat and seemingly perfect diagram and appreciate that
musical relationships seems to move in a circle and that you can go around the circle
and end up back at the starting place: begin at C, move forward by perfect fifths 12
times, and end up back at C.

How wonderful!

Except for one problem: it's a lie! The numbers don't actually work out. Let's see why.

The Pythagorean Comma

According to Pythagorean principles, one could continue to go up by fifths and derive a
series of discreet pitches through continuing this process as far as possible.

On the modern piano keyboard, if we start on the lowest C and go up, labeling all of
these as sharps, we'd end up on the highest note of the piano, calling it a B#:
We could also start on middle C and go outwards in both directions, ending up at the
higher end of the keyboard on an F#, and at the lower part of the keyboard on a Gb.

In modern equal temperament, we think of these notes as enharmonic equivalents, but

when we actually do the math on these, using only perfect fifths, we discover that:

B# does not equal C and

Gb does not equal F#!

This is called the Pythagorean Comma.

The Pythagorean Comma is most easily expressed by stating that no power of two
can equal any power of 3.

If take a very low tone, represented by the lowest C on the piano and assign that the
value of 1, and go up to the top C on the piano, we encompass 7 octaves, and since
octaves are expressed as the ratio of 2:1, we find ourselves with the number 128,
which is 2 to the seventh. If we go back to that low C and play up by perfect fifths on
the keyboard, we of course go up the Cycle of Fifths...

...which for the purposes of Pythagorean thought should be notated as all sharp notes,
ending on B#. In equal temperament, of course, the B# becomes the enharmonic
equivalent of C natural, but in Pythagorean tuning we need to think in all perfect fifths.
Thus, we must go up in perfect fifths 12 times. This would be 3/2 raised to the 12
power (1.5 to the 12th). This results in the number 129.74632.

This ratio, 129.75632 : 128 is the Pythagorean comma. 12 perfect fifths do not equal
up to 7 perfect octaves:

(3/2)^12 ≠ (2/1)^7 or you could say (3/2)^12 / (2/1)^7 ≠ 1.

As Gareth Loy says in his great book Musicathics: "Contrary to the wishes of scale
builders and musicians from antiquity to the present, the powers of the integer ratios
3/2 and 2/1 do not form a closed system."

This is the basic process in tuning a piano in equal temperament, where each fifth is
reduced by a twelve of a semitone, thereby distributing out the comma equally among
the twelve pitches of the chromatic scale.

Book 1 Chapter 1N
The Pythagorean Comma and the Cycle of
Fifths

The Circle of Fifths and the

Pythagorean Comma
Having seen that the Pythagoreans derived scales by building up stacks of perfect fifths
and then octave reducing, there would seem to be a natural connection between this
"fifth building" and our contemporary diagram of the circle of fifths:
We have learned to look at this neat and seemingly perfect diagram and appreciate that
musical relationships seems to move in a circle and that you can go around the circle
and end up back at the starting place: begin at C, move forward by perfect fifths 12
times, and end up back at C.

How wonderful!

Except for one problem: it's a lie! The numbers don't actually work out. Let's see why.

The Pythagorean Comma

According to Pythagorean principles, one could continue to go up by fifths and derive a
series of discreet pitches through continuing this process as far as possible.

On the modern piano keyboard, if we start on the lowest C and go up, labeling all of
these as sharps, we'd end up on the highest note of the piano, calling it a B#:
We could also start on middle C and go outwards in both directions, ending up at the
higher end of the keyboard on an F#, and at the lower part of the keyboard on a Gb.

In modern equal temperament, we think of these notes as enharmonic equivalents, but

when we actually do the math on these, using only perfect fifths, we discover that:

B# does not equal C and

Gb does not equal F#!

This is called the Pythagorean Comma.

The Pythagorean Comma is most easily expressed by stating that no power of two
can equal any power of 3.

If take a very low tone, represented by the lowest C on the piano and assign that the
value of 1, and go up to the top C on the piano, we encompass 7 octaves, and since
octaves are expressed as the ratio of 2:1, we find ourselves with the number 128,
which is 2 to the seventh. If we go back to that low C and play up by perfect fifths on
the keyboard, we of course go up the Cycle of Fifths...

...which for the purposes of Pythagorean thought should be notated as all sharp notes,
ending on B#. In equal temperament, of course, the B# becomes the enharmonic
equivalent of C natural, but in Pythagorean tuning we need to think in all perfect fifths.
Thus, we must go up in perfect fifths 12 times. This would be 3/2 raised to the 12
power (1.5 to the 12th). This results in the number 129.74632.

This ratio, 129.75632 : 128 is the Pythagorean comma. 12 perfect fifths do not equal
up to 7 perfect octaves:

(3/2)^12 ≠ (2/1)^7 or you could say (3/2)^12 / (2/1)^7 ≠ 1.

As Gareth Loy says in his great book Musicathics: "Contrary to the wishes of scale
builders and musicians from antiquity to the present, the powers of the integer ratios
3/2 and 2/1 do not form a closed system."

This is the basic process in tuning a piano in equal temperament, where each fifth is
reduced by a twelve of a semitone, thereby distributing out the comma equally among
the twelve pitches of the chromatic scale.

Book 1 Chapter 1N
The Pythagorean Comma and the Cycle of
Fifths

The Circle of Fifths and the

Pythagorean Comma
Having seen that the Pythagoreans derived scales by building up stacks of perfect fifths
and then octave reducing, there would seem to be a natural connection between this
"fifth building" and our contemporary diagram of the circle of fifths:
We have learned to look at this neat and seemingly perfect diagram and appreciate that
musical relationships seems to move in a circle and that you can go around the circle
and end up back at the starting place: begin at C, move forward by perfect fifths 12
times, and end up back at C.

How wonderful!

Except for one problem: it's a lie! The numbers don't actually work out. Let's see why.

The Pythagorean Comma

According to Pythagorean principles, one could continue to go up by fifths and derive a
series of discreet pitches through continuing this process as far as possible.

On the modern piano keyboard, if we start on the lowest C and go up, labeling all of
these as sharps, we'd end up on the highest note of the piano, calling it a B#:
We could also start on middle C and go outwards in both directions, ending up at the
higher end of the keyboard on an F#, and at the lower part of the keyboard on a Gb.

In modern equal temperament, we think of these notes as enharmonic equivalents, but

when we actually do the math on these, using only perfect fifths, we discover that:

B# does not equal C and

Gb does not equal F#!

This is called the Pythagorean Comma.

The Pythagorean Comma is most easily expressed by stating that no power of two
can equal any power of 3.

If take a very low tone, represented by the lowest C on the piano and assign that the
value of 1, and go up to the top C on the piano, we encompass 7 octaves, and since
octaves are expressed as the ratio of 2:1, we find ourselves with the number 128,
which is 2 to the seventh. If we go back to that low C and play up by perfect fifths on
the keyboard, we of course go up the Cycle of Fifths...

...which for the purposes of Pythagorean thought should be notated as all sharp notes,
ending on B#. In equal temperament, of course, the B# becomes the enharmonic
equivalent of C natural, but in Pythagorean tuning we need to think in all perfect fifths.
Thus, we must go up in perfect fifths 12 times. This would be 3/2 raised to the 12
power (1.5 to the 12th). This results in the number 129.74632.

This ratio, 129.75632 : 128 is the Pythagorean comma. 12 perfect fifths do not equal
up to 7 perfect octaves:

(3/2)^12 ≠ (2/1)^7 or you could say (3/2)^12 / (2/1)^7 ≠ 1.

As Gareth Loy says in his great book Musicathics: "Contrary to the wishes of scale
builders and musicians from antiquity to the present, the powers of the integer ratios
3/2 and 2/1 do not form a closed system."

This is the basic process in tuning a piano in equal temperament, where each fifth is
reduced by a twelve of a semitone, thereby distributing out the comma equally among
the twelve pitches of the chromatic scale.