Re: More questions on scales

"LJS" <ljschenck@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> wrote in message 
news:eb33c6b0-518f-411a-b45a-c39eb04d3550@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Happy notes? Sad notes? Happy melodies and sad melodies? I am curious.
> What level student would go through this checklist and still think of
> melodies and notes as being happy and sad?

I was refraining from comment, but I suspect this must be aimed at 
5-year-olds.  (The reason I was refraining from comment is that in
scanning 
this exerpt, I just felt incredibly patronised that he thought I might 
benefit from it.)   Anyway the major=happy minor=sad thing is just silly.

I also not that it uses "scale" and "key" more or less interchangeably, 
indicating a poor understanding of both concepts.   Phrases such as "the 
normal minor", "the melodic minor",  "the harmonic minor", apparently 
describing a key a piece might be in, also betray a complete 
misunderstanding of what the minor mode is about, as these are just scales

(finger exercises)  and not different kinds of minor key.

And...

> By the way, Bobby Darin may have preceded Danny and the Jrs with Mack
> The Knife and 1/2 step modulations in the category of pop music. He
> certainly preceded  Barry Manilow by 20 years on this count. I don't,
> however, remember that either of the mentioned examples of the 1/2
> modulation were considered revolutionary and I believe that they were
> fairly common much earlier than you state.

....yes.   I've played lots of jazz charts with a modulation by a
semitone. 
Mostly ones older than Barry Manilow I suspect  :-)

> I am a bit puzzled by what age group this section of your book is
> actually aimed toward.

Indeed.

Dave
-- 
David Webber
Author of 'Mozart the Music Processor'
http://www.mozart.co.uk
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