Re: What's this jazz about the modes?


"Matthew Fields" <spam@xxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:IXS_e.327$yb2.309@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

> 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),

This is absolutely not the case. Training counteracts this bias and gives
them a bias of scales and chords as the only thing used to create music.
Novices typically learn tonal music, or at least tonally derived music and
don't do much 12-tone thinking other than transposing something by adding X
frets to everything.

while keyboards and keyed wind instruments
> bias the novice towards diatonic thinking and preference for certain
> keys over others,

Guitarists are certainly biased towards a few keys - E, em, G, A, Am, C, D,
and Dm. Music in Ab is far outweighed by music in G, even in classical
guitar.

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.

Yes, but I don't know anyone who's biased towards microtonal music by
playing these instruments -not counting that they'll play out of tune as
novices - but they're typically learning (as a novice) to play tonally.

> 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.

Sorry Matt, but I'm going to have to give you a big "yawn" here.

In cordial disagreement,
Steve


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