On Mon, Mar 14, 2011 at 11:06 AM, Francisco Vila <paconet....@gmail.com> wrote: > > 2011/3/14 David Kastrup <d...@gnu.org>: > > Francisco Vila <paconet....@gmail.com> writes: > >> Frets in a guitar are absolutely chromatic. I did not mention > >> fretless instruments. > > > > So please explain how you are would sort frets into a diatonic scale > > arrangement corresponding to white keys on a piano, with the frets > > corresponding to black keys put someplace else. > > I a sense, frets behave like buttons. > > > The frets in a guitar are not _deliberately_ designed around a chromatic > > scale, but because their positioning is dictated by physics. > > Still, frets behave somewhat like buttons. > > > Contrast that with a flute or a saxophone or anything else with a > > _deliberate_ design of controls. > > That's why I mentioned Stanley Jordan who percutes strings against the > fretboard only, thus allowing complex two-hand polyphony and making > frets look as if they were buttons :-)) > I'm not familiar with Stanley Jordan's music but a guitar tuned by fifths, like a cello or violin, has a very convenient relationship to diatonic scales because the first 3 modes (ionian, dorian, and phrygian) have symmetric tetrachords starting on the 1st and 5th degrees of each mode. See the diagram below.
HEAD --------------- . . . . . . c g d a e b . . . . f c d a e b . . . . f c g d e b . . . . f c g d a b So the major scale patterns are very easy to visualize. Of course you need to have huge hands or play high on the neck to execute them without shifting. _______________________________________________ lilypond-user mailing list lilypond-user@gnu.org http://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/lilypond-user