Why exists no black note between B and C or between E and F? Well, this is a basic sounding question with a not very simple answer. You'll need to be staying up in your seat for this one!
My video on Microtonality:
My video on 12-tone Equal Character:
This video is a revised re-upload. I originally published this video in April 2022, however quickly realised from the response in the remarks that I had actually skimmed over a lot of information when it came to the significant scale and the tones and semitones. This was causing confusion for numerous viewers so I've now chosen to change that video with this brand-new, upgraded variation. I'm much happier with the explaination in this video. Sorry once again for any confusion brought on by the original edition. You can still view the initial variation if you like here:
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📌This video is a revised re-upload. I originally uploaded this video in April 2022, but soon realised from the reaction in the comments that I had skimmed over a lot of detail when it came to the major scale and the tones and semitones. This was causing confusion for many viewers so I’ve now decided to replace that video with this new, updated version. I’m much happier with the explaination in this video. Sorry again for any confusion caused by the original edition. You can still view the original version if you like here: https://youtu.be/r7aQQQsvxho
You are an angel. You are aq good teacher who has helped me enormously. Bless you.
Thank David!!!
Imagine how confusing the piano would be if the black and white keys were evenly distributed. The black key that was once an F# in one octave, would now be the G# key in the next octave
I don’t know if I’m losing it but I’m pretty sure I saw this video this morning?
This is a re-upload:3
This is a revised reupload of an older video 😊
1:46 perhaps you should have specified *natural* major scales?
What do you mean? What’s a “natural” major scale?
@David Bennett Piano maybe it’s because my brain’s all jumbled up still (have a seizure disorder) but I just got tripped up for a second with the phrasing because I thought a major scale technically referred to any scale whose third had a major quality
The black notes are also the pentatonic scale
Thanks for revising the video. Still not clear why the white notes on the piano are the C major scale rather than calling it the A major scale, as A is the first letter of the alphabet?
That is actually the topic of an upcoming video 😊
Was thinking the same thing. Good thing I hit that bell icon 😉
@David Bennett Piano I’m guessing it’s due to A Minor random quirk of history that doesn’t have any logic to it, but got passed down as a tradition.
@ZZZaphod what does A minor have to do with this?
That was brilliant, thank you.
Thank you 😊
That explains everything – thank you! Even the Simpson’s joke I never got…
Hehe, there’s all kinds of micro tonality going on in music with the stringed and wind instruments, Dave, Especially in soloing. You can’t get away with it on the piano, unless it’s an electric keyboard, but you hear it on stringed and wind instruments all the time lol
Also, I actually find it annoying when I’m sitting around playing along with a variety of “guitar” music and there’s a lot of variance from A=440.
I tend to use source playback machines that can control pitch bc I get tired of the inefficiency and the inconvenience of having to retune the guitar so much to play along.
Please give us the follow up to the strings orchestration video 🙏🙏
It’s coming first week of July hopefully 😊
@David Bennett Piano 🤩
I love your videos, you’ve helped me to understand music theory and also inspired me to want to know more, thank you.
imagine if there’s no gap in the keys. it’s so hard to play a piano because there’s no mark in the keys.
The great thing is, there is an E#, in certain keys.
Thanks for that image of black keys between every white key. Now I’m gonna have nightmares showing up to a performance and the piano looks like that 😭
It’s strange because if you follow the harmonic series (which is our sense of harmony is largely based off of), you encounter a note very close to a minor 7th (Bb in C) at the 7th harmonic, but don’t encounter the major 7th (B in C) until the 15th harmonic, so it seems weird that the major scale would have been established as the defacto scale to start with. Why not mixolydian?
Just had a thought: at the time the letters were being assigned, obviously aeolian was more prominent, and I have read that ionian (major) was one of the rarer modes back in the day, so perhaps mixolydian was a more common major mode originally, but would have been G (sticking to main notes). But then why add Bb if you can just transpose to G to avoid tritone?
very good. as always. DANKE!
to my utter frustration still the question remains: why is it that our westerner ears hear the distance between e&f and b&c as semitones?
Interesting enough, with the first two black notes added, so A# and D# you have the C Blues scale: C, D, D#, E, F, G, A, A# & B. That is to say, the III is still E and the B still VI in that.
And sheet music is just akward considering naming of notes. I just use C#, D#, F#, G# and A# and be done with it. No dual names for me. Pianoroll & tab. Done.
Also nice noting that besides having the major scale in the white notes, a cool side effect is having the pentatonic scale in the black ones, which makes them even easier for simple melodies
Best cheat code in the piano
15:07 Huh, I didn’t know that! I thought only the key signature applies to the entire thing, and then every accidental just applies to tht one note. Learned something new!