Well put, Laurie. I'm also a fiddle player (and cittern,
mandolin, guitar) and I don't think in terms of black and
white keys either.
A number of people have suggested changes to the
way key/mode specifications are made. These seem
to be grouped in two broad categories:
1. "It doesn't quite do what _I_ want, let's extend
it by doing thus and so"
or
2. "It's totally broken and we need to fix it quick while
there's still an opportunity"
I think you'll find that those people who take approach
[1] stimulate productive discussion, while those who
take approach [2] (yes Bryan, I do mean you) find
that people dig in their heels. There is an implicit
assumption that anybody who implements or uses
a 'totally broken' feature is serving some sort of
evil empire. Start by understanding where we are
coming from, and our experience with abc (for example,
I was the first person to notate a strathspey, before
broken rhythms existed)
I think it is important and valuable
that abc has information that is not present in the
dots and lines: it makes it easier to analyse and group
tunes, find related tunes and so on. As a computer
professional, however, I try to think in use cases, and
address the most common ones first - in other words,
make the common things easy and the uncommon things
at least possible.
For me, as a user, it is common to
- hear a tune in a session
- play along enough to know the tonic and mode
- perhaps get the name.
Then if I want to learn the tune, I might look it up in
the wwabc index. Failing that, I will notate as much as
I can from memory, and send a copy to the Fiddle-L
mailing list and see if anybody can tell me the name.
At no point in that process will I consciously sit down and
figure out where the sharps and flats should go.
So _FOR ME_ the tonic and mode are very important.
I work from the usecases I know about. _FOR SOMEONE
ELSE_ it may be different. I admit I understood about one
word in four of Bruce's previous post - I gather his
usecases have more to do with analysis and less to do
with notating tunes for performance or swapping.
Laurie Griffiths wrote:
> >What we have for the situation key sig/tonic/scoring mode is
> >practically trivial algebra. [Simple minded Gramm-Schmidt
> >procedure to get an orthonormal set of basis vectors that span
> >the space.]
>
> I bet that there are some [virtually] present who would regard
> Gramm-Schmidt as very highly advanced algebra indeed!
>
> To paraphrase Mark Twain: the difference between the right
> syntax and nearly the right syntax is like the difference between
> being hit by lightning and being nearly hit by lightning.
>
> There are lots of analogies about coordinate systems. For
> instance, if you wanted to drive to this place I could give
> you the latitude and longitude. For an American who
> wanted to know where I live it would probably be very
> good, but to get here you need to know that you head out
> of the city and turn left immediately after the footbridge.
>
> A coordinate system which is right for one purpose can be
> wrong for another, even if they are trivially related.
>
> To me as a musician knowing the mode tells me a lot about
> the character of the tune. (I play a fiddle mainly and it
> doesn't have any black or white notes). The next thing
> I want to know is the tonic. If the guitarist is struggling
> to find where I am, I don't shout to him "one sharp!"
> which would be completely silly and send him off
> in the direction of {G, D7, C, Em}, I shout "I'm in A
> Dorian" which tells him {Am, G}.
>
> > K:<tonic><[scoring] mode><key sig.> puts top priority last
>
> It's a case of horses for courses. To me the priorities are
> 1. Mode, 2. Tonic, 3. Any corrections/adjustments
>
> This is not to say that your priorites are wrong, it's a case
> of relativity. I am not in your frame of reference.
>
> Laurie
>
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--
Wil Macaulay email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
voice: +1-(905)-886-7818 xt2253 FAX: +1-(905)-886-7824
Syndesis Ltd. 28 Fulton Way Richmond Hill, Ont Canada L4B 1J5
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