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Similar to the English language, there is lots of element of music theory that don't really make sense. Features and practices that were when constructed for function however, either due to modifications in the music we make, or in changes to how we use theory in the first place, are now typically more complicated than they have to be. So today I'm going to pitch 6 ways that I would reform or fix music theory!
My video was inspired by this video by @AndyChamberlainMusic Examine it out!
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0:00 Introduction.
0:42 Clefs.
2:09 Is Middle C "C4" or "C3"?
4:30 Repeat indications.
6:14 Inversions in Roman Characters.
8:38 Minor Key Roman Characters.
10:36 Time Signatures.
15:20 Is It Worth Dealing with?
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Let me know what you would fix about music theory!
Also, you can check out my original music here: https://linktr.ee/davidbennettpiano Thank you so much for the support 🙏
I think all the suggestions are ambiguous. Unfortunately, one system will work better in one situation than in another. And so, for many years, we’ve stuck with what we have because it works just fine.
However! I would suggest, for example, remove transposition for wind and brass instruments, like clarinet or trumpet. It really confuses me that when I play middle C on them, it’s not written as middle C in a music notation! I really don’t get it…
@MrFutbolka167 But the whole point of transposing instruments is so the finger positions are always the same across the entire family of instruments. It allows a sax player for example to pick up an alto sax and use the exact same muscle memory as a tenor sax
@DavidBennettPiano Thank you for explaining that! I hadn’t thought about it from the player’s perspective. That makes a lot of sense
Feels like the last one doesn’t make sense, even without the bottom number, we still use notes of a specific length.
Really interesting topic and video!
4:30 You Rickrolled us!
Yeah, I saw the notation and I was like, “oh yeah, David just Rickrolled us all.”
@mistershaf9648 😅 yeah
@MrFutbolka167 How does this look? Eb F Ab F C C Bb
@mistershaf9648 “Never gonna give you up” but in the key of F minor (or Ab major)
Oh, no! I didn’t notice it. Great observation.
How about V (root position) V’ (first inversion) V” (second inversion)? Easy to type, easy to read.
I think this actually makes more sense. This would allow you to label a 3rd inversion major 7 chord on the tonic as IΔ7’’’ or Imaj7’’’ for example instead of Imaj7(3rd inv.) takes up less space on the page.
icl i rlly like this idea
This seems sensible!
As a math nerd, I love this!
Oooo I like!
Now you’re morally obligated to write a song which has a bar of music which repeats 83 times.
Hey Jude seems to get close
@zzzaphod8507 LOL
Techno!
It was just a rest in the repeat, so he can just tack it onto the end of another song.
@Joseph-w1m9t And after rehearsing a while with the other musicians, remind them of it by saying “you know the rest”
I think “1st inv”, “2nd inv” is to obvious as for music notation, i would suggest “Q” for 1st inversion and a batman symbol for 2nd
Good point!
🤣 Time to use emojis
4th inversion is the full cover art for the CD-ROM of Roller Coast Tycoon for Windows 98.
i can’t believe that it took until ‘batman symbol’ for me to realize you’re yanking my tail
@samanjj yea, we could use happy and sad emoji instead of writing “major/minor scale”
yes please. also get rid of the note H!
Some even use B instead of Bb and H instead of B.
So You have B in one system and B in the other system being a semitone apart, really confusing.
@anticapitalistclippy the fun thing is that the system makes a lot of sense if you deal with Renaissance or Early Baroque music.
NOOO then we won’t able to write BACH
Yes 🔥
@anticapitalistclippy That’s the German H system (H instead of B and B instead of Bb)
Absolutely confusing mess
Funny to realize that “does it start from 0 or from 1?” is not a plague exclusive to programming
my first thought exactly, it’s arrays numbering in pascal versus in C – or whatever languages YOU use these days… 😎
(hint: the numbers in my nick are my date of birth in ddmmyy-format, so my first programming course at uni was for FORTRAN, supposedly a modern language… – those were the days!)
In natural languages, we start from 1. There is no good reason to start from 0 in music theory (in programming, you can blame how they work).
In natural languages, we start from 1. There is no good reason to start from 0 in music theory (in programming, you can blame how they work).
This is why I explicitly give MIDI note _numbers_ (middle C = 60) instead of going down the C3 vs. C4 rabbit hole. This habit came in handy when I started using tunings with other than 12 notes to the octave.
@tuluppampam There is reason to speak of an interval of 0 semitones (unison), I think giving this interval the number 1 is illogical and only makes sense in a historical context. I think “prime” should mean what “second” actually means today, likewise all the other intervals would be one number smaller, and octaves would be heptaves—then heptave shifts would be 7va, 14va, 21va… not the current and confusing 8va, 15va, 22va…
I suspect this 0 vs 1 thing in music comes directly from programmers. Two of the three cited in the C3 group are DAWs. I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that Yamaha started using it in the digital age too.
Some suggestions are questionable, but the repeat sign overhault is actually great
music noob here, i assumed that’s how it works
The only disagreement I have is that the current system is not ambiguous if you put the “3x” at the _beginning_ of the repeated section (which I always do). This also means for situations like “D.C. and don’t play repeats” I can write “(1x on D.C.)” which essentially cancels out the repeat, turning it into a mere double bar line.
@mal2ksc It’s funny how many different ways I’ve seen it written in sheet music. I’ve even seen the last bar before the repeat having the |1. 2.| to denote 1st ending and 2nd ending being the same but then the 3rd ending missing completely because it was just there to convince the notation software to play the repeat twice (so that the section plays three times in total, lol).
yeah this one I would actually get behind. if we still wrote our music on paper instead of software I would start using the extra dot system tomorrow, maybe with 3x or 4x written above it for clarity as well. people would quickly pick it up
i always say to people i’m teaching theory that music theory is just a bunch of simple things over complicated
literally none of this is music theory and all of it is notation
What’s the difference?
@toby9999 it’s like the difference between mathematical concepts, and what symbols can be used to explain them
Great point
Absolutely. But then…no. Music theory is a language about how you hear/understand music and of course this understanding has implications on how you’ll notate music.
Whether or not we agree, it’s useful as a learning exercise to think about it and help us grasp these difficult concepts better.
I already say something is “in 7” if I listen to it, so done
There’s a pretty big difference between 7/4 like _Money_ or _Solsbury Hill,_ and 7/8 like _The Dreaming Tree._
@mal2ksc True. And it only really makes a difference if you’re (a) trying to transcribe and create a score, or (b) changing time signatures. Sometimes it’s hard to say until the time signatures changes…and you hear what the pulse is in 4/4, for example.
@DavidBennettPiano This video had the unintended effect of finally making compound time really make sense to me! Much appreciated!
Completely agree! And I love your proposal for time signatures. As a musician who doesn’t really know much music theory, I’m always frustrated by the “Well, it’s just kinda not the way you think it is because reasons and stuff” explanations that I tend to get when someone tells me that OF COURSE it’s not 5/4 but obviously 5/8 or whatever.
I personally never get confused by reading the two clefs in piano. The setup is ideal because the middle between the two clefs meets on middle C. In your setup, you would have more difficulty fitting in the A and B right before middle C.
Exactly. If you don’t read them as separate clefs but instead read the bass clef just as a lower extension of the treble (or the other way around) it’s easy
We should really completely separate “music theory” and “music notation” as completely different disciplines of music.
I fully agree.
THIS!!!
I likewise FULLY agree — the term “music theory” is much too broad and ambiguous.
Musical notation — staves/staff, clefs, note/rest values, accidentals, and other notation figures — crescendo/decrescendo, accents, articulation, measures/bar lines, fermatas — have nothing to do with “theory”.
Keys/key signatures, intervals, triad/chord construction, inversions, non-harmonic tones, harmonic progression, counterpoint — those require and benefit from the application of theory …
The problem is that is that you have to make some assumptions about the desired composition theory to make a shortened notation about it. We use note names instead of pitches in Hertz because western music theory considers different tuning systems to be up to the performance.
By simplifying the notes into 7 names we encode the importance of the semitone from western music theory.
You can’t leave out information that’s intended to be up to the performer while also not including so much information that people can sightread. You have to compromise somewhere
It’s like saying grammar and written language are the same thing. No, people who can’t read can still form proper sentences and vice versa
I personally don’t see many problems with the clefs, because they’re actually continuous and have a blank space for easy visual navigation. And if you would use 2 treble clefs can you imagine how hard would it be to read notes in the middle, especially if you’re playing them at the same time (you would have a good big overlap in notes which now isn’t here)
4:53 Did we just get Rick Rolled in music theory form?
what is nice about the clefs for piano is how they connect through middle c
Yes, and some times, both hands use the same clef. The numbers are not obvious enough to read.
Yeah I like the symmetry of the clefs
with the two treble clefs system I guess there would be two lines in between the clefs, a C line and an A line instead of just the C line
@deadlyshizzno Yeah especially when you add the alto (viola) clef and it lines up in the center on middle C. It’s just 👌
can’t say anything about changing something
but you pointing that things out and explaining them, helped me understand more music theory than i had before 🙂