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sugarlabs / musicblocks

Music Blocks -- A musical microworld
https://musicblocks.sugarlabs.org/
GNU Affero General Public License v3.0
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variable modes #1738

Closed walterbender closed 1 year ago

walterbender commented 5 years ago

Once I fix movable modes for all mode types, it would be interesting to add variable modes, which differ depending upon whether one is going up or down the scale, e.g., "sharpening" and "flattening".

pikurasa commented 5 years ago

Please keep in mind that how one plays these scales outside a musical context differs from a didactic context.

To keep the musical integrity one should work with a piece as a case. Bach's music makes good (and sophisticated) use of these types of scales.

pikurasa commented 3 years ago

The way that these motions typically work, you get two different placements of a single Letter Class.

I need to do a bit more research before I can say this "authoritatively", but I think that these motions typically (only?) happen in the 2nd, 3rd, 6th, and 7th scale degree spots.

For example: A Melodic Minor -- A, B, C, D, E, F#, G#, A, G, F, E, D, C, B, and A. (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6#, 7#, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1). The 6th and 7th scale degrees are the ones that are variable. E Major/Myxolydian (e.g. DaMilano) -- E, F#, G#, A, B, C#, D#, E, D, C#, B, A, G#, F#, and E. (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 7b, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1). The 7th scale degree is variable. Blues -- Blues scales typically go from the minor 3rd to the major 3rd. Some blues scales have a sharp 4th (between the natural 4th and natural 5th), but I hesitate to call it "variable". It's function is more like a "chromatic passing tone", which I feel behaves differently.

So, as we continue to examine this, I think it is important to keep the scale degrees in mind. Since 2nd, 3rd, 6th, and 7th seem to be the only positions with a "variable" property, I think we have something important that we can potentially work with.