Music theory is hard. But we make it harder by holding on to naming and notational conventions that are hundreds of years old, and that were designed to describe very different music than what we’re playing now. Here are some fantasies for how note naming might be improved.
Right now, the “default setting” for western diatonic harmony is the C major scale. It’s the One True Scale, from which all else is derived by adding sharps and flats. Why do we use the C major scale for this purpose? Why not the A major scale? Wouldn’t it make more sense if harmonic ground zero for our whole harmonic system was the sequence ABCDEFG? I know there are historical reasons why the unmodified first seven letters of the alphabet denote the natural minor scale, but so what? How is a person supposed to make sense of the fact that scale degree one falls on the third letter of the alphabet?
Furthermore, I question whether the major scale really is the one we should consider to be the most basic. I’d prefer that we use mixolydian instead. The crucial pitches in mixo are close to the natural overtone series, for one thing. For another, Americans hear flat seven as being as “natural” as natural seven, if not more so. While the leading tone is common inside chords, it’s rare to hear it in a popular melody. Flat seven is ubiquitous in the music most of us listen to, and in plenty of other world cultures besides.
So, if I had infinite power over time and space, here’s how I’d like note naming to work. The basic scale, the one with no sharps or flats in it, would be A mixolydian, and would comprise the notes ABCDEFG. If you wanted A major, you’d just sharp the seventh, G. The full chromatic scale from A to A would go like so:
- A
- A♯/B♭
- B
- B♯/C♭
- C
- D
- D♯/E♭
- E
- E♯/F♭
- F
- G
- G♯/A♭
- A
Thinking in other keys would get a heck of a lot easier. If you wanted to go a major third up from A, you’d just hop on up to C, the third letter in the alphabet. If you wanted to go up a minor third, you’d flat the major third to get C♭. If you wanted to up a sixth, you’d go to the sixth letter of the alphabet, F, and if you needed a flat sixth, you’d go to F♭. Relating chromatic pitches to letters in the alphabet would still take some mental arithmetic, but at least the pitch classes would wrap around in a more intuitive way.
I’m not expecting this to ever actually happen, any more than I’m expecting us to be rid of the Electoral College or daylight savings time. But wouldn’t it be nice?
I love ‘Outsider’ music ideas. I use my own music theories and all my keys are rooted in the natural overtone series, so for me C Major is G Chavu (Chavu is a structural name, I don’t expect it to catch on but it was useful to name all the structures) Starting from G gives the Mixolydian mode (of C major), which to my ear sounds sweeter.
The easiest way to achieve your approach for naming notes would be just to rename G as ‘A’ instead, then you wouldn’t need to alter instruments. The establishment will never accept this heresy and transposing parts for saxophone etc would not be easy.
The best thing about using the Mixolydian mode is that it makes changing to non major keys much easier (Assuming that they too are rooted in the natural overtone series). I use a system with 7 ‘Non Chromatic’ scales and of these only the Hap Beat (Wholetone) keys are problematic, but then I don’t tend to use them often.
For me (an Outsider) my music theories make more sense and I have been using them for over 30 years, but as you point out; such things are fantasies because the Music Establishment has put all it’s eggs in the basket of Tradition and Convention.
By the way, Thank You for the challenging nature of this Blog
If you’re proposing to re-name the existing tones and/or keys on the piano – why not get rid of the whole “sharp/flat” thing altogether? Something like A B C D E F G H I J K L perhaps. Using any scale other than the chromatic would always be an arbitrary base point, which is considered the “natural” scale, from which all others are derived.
The reality, as you pointed out, is that music notation has many redundant, and sometimes confusing terminology. A minor third = 3 half steps (up) = a sharp 2nd = 1 and a half steps, and I’m sure there are more! I teach piano to beginners, and I just try to make sure they understand that there are often multiple terms for the same thing, and that they will just have to learn them all.
This is actually a brilliant idea! I also propose changing the staff to 7 lines and using geometric shapes to denote the pitch instead of adding additional staff lines to the high and low notes. Also get rid of the clefs – the notes should be the same for every instrument! I never understood how piano players handled this so well but this would make things a lot easier from the get go. Chalk it up to technology just like penmanship will one day be fully replaced by the keyboard as it is already in many ways.
To the future and beyond!
Here in Scotland, I believe the great highland bagpipe is notionally tuned to A mixolydian, and bagpipe music is written with the “♯” omitted from F♯ and C♯, because they’re always assumed sharp. I say “notionally” because it’s actually tuned to A = 480 Hz, which is somewhere north of B♭ in concert pitch.
Interesting. In some ways your system makes sense and could be easier to learn. On the other hand, it would create some problems too, especially with the design of the piano. For example, how would you play A minor on the piano. The white key C would be C#, and B is needed for the second note of the A mixolydian scale. We would need a redesigned keyboard with a black key between the white keys of B and C# so that C natural could be played, and between the white keys E and F# so that F natural could be played, and with the present black keys of C# and G# removed, because those would now be white keys.
Yes, that’s right. Exactly why I’m not expecting anything like this to happen.
Electoral college lol. Yeah, it’ll never happen. Good call, though, on both counts. I remember Yusef Lateef being clear with beginning improvisers that the mixolydian scale was the “basic” scale to learn first and best.