Regarding my last post, this article will touch on the new naming conventions for pitches and intervals, and what they look like on the seven-line stave that I've created.
The naming convention is quite simple. Instead of notes going from A to G with sharps, flats, and enharmonic equivalents, they just go from a to l. a is located where E would usually be and there is good reason for that when considering their location on guitar, piano, and the stave.
Take note that the pitches in MMT are written in lower-case letters to distinguish them from that of traditional theory.
Here's a little table that shows the equivalent pitches of Melbourne Music Theory in comparison to that of traditional music theory:
The reason I chose E to be referred to as "a" works for a few reasons:
- The lowest note on a guitar is E.
- The grand stave with its ledger lines in MMT fits exactly four octaves, the exact same range as a 24 fret guitar.
- The location of "a" on the grand stave occurs at the bottom and top ledger lines, and the exact middle of the stave.
- The grand stave in traditional notation with a similar amount of ledger lines (I'll get to that soon) fits a range of four octaves and a fifth, beginning at A and ending at E. So for piano, only a fifth's worth of tones are sacrificed in notation.
On to the stave. It is a seven-line stave that is aligned with the chromatic scale. This means that there are no key signatures or accidentals, every position on the stave is always the same pitch, and intervals always look the same.
Here is a diagram that show the grand stave with ledger lines, and the location of "a" across its range:
On to intervals. Instead of seeing intervals from the perspective as notes that are either diatonic or alterations of them (ie: Major 2nd or Major 2nd), each interval is just given a number from 1 (tonic) to 13 (octave). This table shows how the interval naming scheme in MMT relates to that of traditional music theory:
The interval's number in MMT looks the same as the number in traditional notation. For example, a 3rd interval in traditional notation looks like the next line/space in relation to the line or space that the root not is located respectively. A MMT interval of a 3 also looks like this, but its value is different (as shown on the table, a 3 interval is the equivalent of a Major 2nd).
This is uniform though, you don't have to mentally calculate if it's a minor or major 3rd in relation to key signature or position within the scale. A "3" interval is always two semitones no matter what. In fact, the number directly correlates to how many semitones there are from the root note to that interval. It's incredibly simple.
Here's a diagram that shows how the same "shape" on the stave always results in the same interval.
One last thing about the stave before I work on the upcoming article on the new rhythmic system is that instead of the prefix of a bar including a clef, key signature, and time signature, all that is needed is a Roman numeral that corresponds to what octave the stave is in. For example, a V (five) means that the "a" in the middle line of that stave is the equivalent of E5 or the E above middle C.
Therefore a grand stave that covers the entire range of the guitar would look like this:
To extend the range of the stave to reach the further octaves on the piano, one just simply has to write a new Roman numeral corresponding to the octave they desire on the stave.
I hope this stuff makes sense for everyone. And I look forward to writing the next article on how rhythm is organised.