Music Theory,,,,For The Fun Of It All

[badfinger]

An observation:

All music "theory" (as used and understood as a lay term, rather than as scientific term) isn't - it's music fact!

[papatex]

Man! I thought my edgy one-liner would elicit at least a cyber-
chuckle or two. This is a hard room!!

[ricochet]

Oh, I chuckled. Just didn't type it.

"A cheerful heart is good medicine."

[doc williamson]

I guess I missed many of these posts while putting the store together. I'm resting today and I'm not as cranky as yesterday.

Music theory is a fact of music was very well said.

I didn't know all about Bach, thank you.

But, because of my lack of a musical education I don't know much about classical music. My feeling has always been, if you can't dance to it, it ain't music.

http://www.DocWilliamson.com

"I chose to sing the blues." Ray Charles

[badfinger]

"I didn't know all about Bach, thank you."

That's a great pity - you have my deepest sympathy.

Incidentally (and just for interest... and because pedantry is such fun....:

- Bach didn't write clasical music - he was baroque;

- also, as was the fashion, he wrote many "suites" or "partitas". The "suite" (3 or 5 pieces) was a set of dances (eg, an allemande, a minuet, a gigue...)

But there's so much music in the world, and so little time.

[ricochet]

The Baroque Bach Blues, anybody?

"A cheerful heart is good medicine."

[badfinger]

Whoa, you atrted something...

"Carry Me Bach To Partita" blues...

or,

"Them Fugueing Blues is Bach Again"

Enough

[ricochet]

That's really fugued up, man...

"A cheerful heart is good medicine."

[captainswing]

C# and Db are the same note on a piano. The difference is: In written music, if you're in, say, A major, your 3rd is going to be a C# as there is no Db in the scale of A major. If you're in Ab, your 4th would be Db as there is no C# in the sacale of Ab major. Where it makes a hands-on difference is with a fretless instrument. If the pianist hits a chord of A and the (say) bassist hits a C#, fine. If the bassist holds that C# while the pianist moves to a chord of Db, the bassist will have to make an adjustment to stay in tune. Awkward but true. The piano is in equal temperament but the fretless bass isn't. I take the point about "theory shmeory - let's just play the sucker" as most of the time I don't need to think theoretically. But never forget that these lofty-sounding conventions are ultimately there to make life easier. They might mean tramping off into the neural bracken to forge brand new pathways but where's the harm?
Incidentally, my piano is a 1908 Richard Lipp from Stuttgart. Not many about but they put some big names in the shade, oh yes.