Members moorehed Posted November 19, 2002 Members Share Posted November 19, 2002 Could someone please explain to me technically why B/C and E/F are only 1 step appart, but everything else is 2? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members 555 Posted November 19, 2002 Members Share Posted November 19, 2002 It's just the way our western major scale is constructed. Look at a piano keyboard. There's no black key between B/C and E/F because that's where the half steps in our scale fall. Intervals are the musical "distance" between notes. The intervals for the major scale go: (first note) whole step, whole step, half step, whole step, whole step, whole step, half step. All of our chords are derived from those intevals, and the half steps give us the minor, dimished, major seventh, etc. chord tones. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members moorehed Posted November 19, 2002 Author Members Share Posted November 19, 2002 is there a scientific reason? like how do you get a note? it has something to do with vibration speed or something right? i coudl be off... and are the vibration speeds b/w those notes closer or something? i dont know any of the technical stuff... so i thought id ask... there has to be a better answer than "that's how our scales are constructed..." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Auggie Doggie Posted November 19, 2002 Members Share Posted November 19, 2002 Originally posted by moorehed is there a scientific reason?like how do you get a note? it has something to do with vibration speed or something right? i coudl be off... and are the vibration speeds b/w those notes closer or something? i dont know any of the technical stuff... so i thought id ask...there has to be a better answer than "that's how our scales are constructed..." The names for notes are essentially arbitrary. There is no such thing as a "C" note-there are several frequencies that we happen to call "C". It would be possible, albeit sloppy as hell, to simply rename all the notes A B C D E F G H I J K L. There would be no sharps, no flats, just plain letter names. For notation purposes that would present a nightmare. Logically, since we have settled upon a 7 note (8 if you wish to count the octave as a separate note) scale, so it only makes sense to use exactly 7 letter names for them. Keep in mind, however, that there is NO DIFFERENCE in value or imprtance between a natural note and a sharp (or flat) one. You are wonder why there is nothing in between B-C and E-F, but you didn't ask why there is nothing between A#-B or D-Eb. They are essentially the same question. It's just a matter of nomenclature; there is no scientific reason to call a pitch vibrating at 440 cycles per second an "A" outside of setting up an agreed upon standard upon which everything else can revolve. Think of it this way: are there really 24 hours in a day? Are there even "days" at all? How old are you?----you would answer in terms of years. But years are an arbitrary measurement based upon OTHER arbitrary (although convenient) concepts. Modern society functions much better if we all agree on a time schedule. Music is much the same way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members moorehed Posted November 19, 2002 Author Members Share Posted November 19, 2002 i understand that... that it's just notation.... that they just chose it... whoever this they is that chooses these things. however... why did they decide to leave out B#/Cb and E#/Fb? why not just have a scale from A-F? seems to make more sence. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Auggie Doggie Posted November 19, 2002 Members Share Posted November 19, 2002 Originally posted by moorehed i understand that... that it's just notation.... that they just chose it... whoever this they is that chooses these things.however... why did they decide to leave out B#/Cb and E#/Fb? why not just have a scale from A-F? seems to make more sence. A-F would only give you 6 notes, one short of the 7 distinct pitches in our major scale system. How would you then name that 7th note? You might wish to look up (and read up on) what music notation and naming was like before the chromatic scale became equally tempered. "Just" tuning uses the actual pitches from the overtone series, and at THAT time, the interval from one note to the next was not a constant. As a result, fixed-pitch instruments were quite limited in terms of the keys in which they could play. Modulations were limited as well. All of these things (and more) played a part in the development of our modern system. I don't have any links that would take you to such information, but surely you can use a search engine as well (if not better) than I can. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members WattsUrizen Posted November 19, 2002 Members Share Posted November 19, 2002 The diatonic scale can be explained geometrically, and it can be shown that the scale arises very naturally from acoustics. I believe that the reason why we introduced the extra 'letter' G is because of the above. Certain note relationships were regarded as more important, and so the scale and nomenclature was adjusted to fulfil this requirement. Sorry if that's a little too vague, since my knowledge of this isn't too great. But I'm quite sure that the scale exists in the form that we know because of physics. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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