Re: What's this jazz about the modes?

In article <D9S_e.5462$211.2717@trnddc08>,
Steve Latham <llatham@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
>"David Webber" <dave@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
>news:dhf70p$jc2$1$8300dec7@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
>
>>
>> He talked about patterns of notes in terms of tone and semitone intervals
>> and I could see them on his fingerboard. And all of a sudden I realised
>> it really did look the same wherever he did it.
>
>Yes, which is why we guitarists are so good with patterns. Our instruments
>are "multi-linear" whereas a piano is linear. A lot of wind instruments have
>very little linearity about them. You may be able to play DEFGABC on a
>Clarinet in an obvious pattern, but as you mention below, that linearity is
>destroyed if you start the same pattern on D#.

Which is to say that fretted strings bias the novice towards 12-tone
thinking (unless they're fretted unusually, e.g. in 19-equal or as on
Harry Partch's guitars), while keyboards and keyed wind instruments
bias the novice towards diatonic thinking and preference for certain
keys over others, and brass instruments can bias the novice towards
thinking in terms of approximations of overtone series. Fretless
strings and the human voice present their own challenges and biases.
Despite the lack of even frets to structure them, the biases are no
less severe. Overcoming the biases of your medium is part of reaching
the journeyman level of proficiency as a performer, no matter what
the medium is. Of course, as composers, we can often make things more
practical for players by making allotments for their instruments.


--
Matthew H. Fields http://www.umich.edu/~fields
Music: Splendor in Sound
To be great, do better and better. Don't wait for talent: no such thing.
Brights have a naturalistic world-view. http://www.the-brights.net/
.