--- On Sat, 8/29/09, Graham Percival <gra...@percival-music.ca> wrote:
> From: Graham Percival <gra...@percival-music.ca> > Subject: Re: Accidentals: Unwanted naturals > To: "Jonathan Wilkes" <jancs...@yahoo.com> > Cc: lilypond-user@gnu.org > Date: Saturday, August 29, 2009, 7:10 AM > On Fri, Aug 28, 2009 at 12:01:05PM > -0700, Jonathan Wilkes wrote: > > > If the above seems confusing, consider this: if > you were > > > playing a > > > piano, which key would you hit? If you would > press a black > > > key, > > > then you must add -is or -es to the note name! > > > > The hint at the end about black keys doesn't work for > b- and e-sharp, nor > > c- and f-flat, nor double-sharps and flats. > > Yes, but most novices with no knowledge of lilypond or > music > theory won't be writing in 5 sharps or flats, double-sharps > or > flats, or b/c e/f sharp/flats. These accidentals are common. B-sharp crops up in jazz tunes, even in c major, as a lower chromatic neighbor to c-sharp in a little tinkling over an A7 chord. If it's repeated within a measure, you don't have to know any music theory at all to realize that b-sharp to c-sharp is a lot easier to read than alternating natural- and sharp-signs in front of what looks like a stationary note. Using the black key/white key dichotomy makes other sharps/flats seem more exotic than they are, which leads to poor notation when unnecessarily avoiding them. > > > > What about something like this: > > > If the above seems confusing, imagine someone asks you > for the first > > four notes of Beethoven's fifth. If you say, "g, > g, g, e-flat," you > > are correct. However, if you say "g, g, g, e," > you are wrong and > > will be corrected by any theory teacher within a > fifty-foot radius as > > follows: > > "That's an e-flat, not an e. Have a look at the > key signature." > > > > Unlike the theory teacher above, Lilypond doesn't know > the answers ahead > > of time and assumes you know what you're doing. > The way you say > > note-names out loud at sounding pitch corresponds > directly to the > > way you enter pitches into a Lilypond score. That > means no matter what key > > signature you put in front of it, Beethoven's fifth > always starts with > > g g g ees when input into a Lilypond score. > > Too verbose. It also relies on knowledge of > Beethoven's fifth > [symphony]. Do people in China know classical Western > music that > well? What about a banjo players who's only done > fiddle tunes? > > It's true that the piano example won't be understood by > somebody > who's never seen a piano before, but at a certain point > there's > nothing we can do other than pointing people at a music > theory > website or whatever. Yes, I agree with the points you make. I would just add that there is a big discrepancy between GUI notation programs and Lilypond regarding this issue. In a GUI program if you're in d-major and you enter a note on the top line of the treble clef, it's an f-sharp by default. But after re-reading the LM I think it's pretty clear on these issues, so that someone "making the switch" need only read and reflect. -Jonathan > > Cheers, > - Graham > _______________________________________________ lilypond-user mailing list lilypond-user@gnu.org http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/lilypond-user
