Beginner impro Can't read music Where can i find note names to

[jbtsax]

What on earth did the BAD boys at your school deserve?

 

[Tenor Viol]

What on earth did the BAD boys at your school deserve?

I went to a grammar school run by Jesuits... Actually, they were very good and trouble was rare.

 

[aldevis]

I went to a grammar school run by Jesuits... Actually, they were very good and trouble was rare.

 

[Tenor Viol]

Yes, but the J's were not the Inquisition - they were mostly secular albeit I think it was initiated by a Dominican.

 

[trimmy]

In the UK it's often Every Good Boy Deserves Food (etc).

'fudge'

 

[BigMartin]

Elephants Gobble Big Dinners Fast

 

[old git]

WS,
Reading pitch is not difficult, the "Every Good Boy Deserves Favours" recommended by many of the posters makes pitch reading easy. I suspect that time reading is more difficult, especially with our bloody silly system of calling different length notes by stupid names rather than the American system of fractions. Given a note and a half note, the relationship between the notes is easy, the Brit system continues because we are a bunch of fuddy duddies.

Try suggesting that we should adopt Jim Schmidt's perfectly logical keying system on the saxophone and you meet enormous resistance from those who forget that a number of woodwinds changed from the Simple, sometimes referred to as the Albert system (but nothing to do with a certain thing with which Prince Albert is associated) and they benefited from the change.

Always remember that if you are playing an instrument for your pleasure and amusement, then it is your choice that is important but that does not mean that seeking advice in adversity is ruled out.

Whatever, ENJOY!​™

 

[littleplum]

Elephants Go Belly Dancing Fridays.
Use your hand, you have 5 fingers and 4 Spaces, therefore the fingers are your lines and the spaces are, yes you have guessed it, your spaces.
My students find this quite an easy way to remember the names of the notes.
Writing letters underneath or just letters on a page, does not give you the rhythm. This is ok if you are playing solo and you are not too concerned with accuracy or you only play tunes you know, but anything else is going to require you to read rhythms.
my advice is to find a teacher to help you with this,

good luck

dave

 

[Tenor Viol]

I agree that rhythm notation is possibly a bit awkward, but the basis of the system is fairly simple, it's the names which can cause trouble.

Although the American naming convention has its advantages - it only works if your base time signature is based on the semi-breve being a "whole note" which makes the crotchet a quarter note. It doesn't work for a lot of earlier music which can be counting in semi-breves, breves, dotted semi-breves, dotted breves etc. For example, the unit of the beat in a 4/2 time signature is a minim (half-note) not a crotchet (quarter note).

The big weakness of our notation system is the handling triplet rhythms i.e. where the beat is divided into threes rather than twos (this could be solved by adopting the old system of time signature notation -but that's probably too hard for many).

 

[BigMartin]

I agree that rhythm notation is possibly a bit awkward, but the basis of the system is fairly simple, it's the names which can cause trouble.

But you don't need to think about the names when you're reading tthe music, only when your talking/writing about it to someone else.

Although the American naming convention has its advantages - it only works if your base time signature is based on the semi-breve being a "whole note" which makes the crotchet a quarter note. It doesn't work for a lot of earlier music which can be counting in semi-breves, breves, dotted semi-breves, dotted breves etc. For example, the unit of the beat in a 4/2 time signature is a minim (half-note) not a crotchet (quarter note).

It also seems a bit odd when you're in 3/4 or 9/8.

The big weakness of our notation system is the handling triplet rhythms i.e. where the beat is divided into threes rather than twos (this could be solved by adopting the old system of time signature notation -but that's probably too hard for many).

I don't understand what the weakness is here. It's not always easy to play, say, triplet crotchets accurately against an underlying quaver rhythm, but the notation seems pretty clear to me.

 

[aldevis]

I agree that rhythm notation is possibly a bit awkward, but the basis of the system is fairly simple, it's the names which can cause trouble.

I will never understand why in English you have no semi-minims.
BTW, original poster left long ago. I guess he didn't like the answers.

Maybe I should start subscribing other fora, about the most different subjects, posting one question, just to see what happens.
On subjects like "taxidermy", "barbed wire" or "oboe reeds"

 

[aldevis]

On a slightly more serious side.
second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, octave (intervals)

half, quarter, eighth (duration)

this is confusing!

 

[Targa]

Elephants Gyrate Before Dropping Faeces.

 

[aldevis]

Freaky Acronyms Cause Execration

 

[BigMartin]

On a slightly more serious side.
second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, octave (intervals)

I hate that! A third plus a third = a fifth. The mathematician in me finds that revolting.

half, quarter, eight (duration)

this is confusing!

 

[Tenor Viol]

In our current system, 'triplet rhythm' time signatures are indicated by the top number in the time signature being a multiple of three (e.g. 6/8 6/4, 9/8) which means that the underlying unit is a dotted crotchet or a dotted minim, for example.

So, what's a Latin 8/8 time signature then? it's a meter that has 2 and 2/3 of a 3 beat triple time: ya-da-da / ya-da-da / ya-da /

However, the system has evolved this way, so we're unlikely to invent either new symbols to indicate a dotted crotchet, or change to a mensuration system such as tempus perfectum which handles duple/triple in a neat way.

The current system works once you understand the theory behind it. Besides, I don't want to go back to ligatures - they do my head in!

Here's a wiki on the subject.

 

[kevgermany]

I hate that! A third plus a third = a fifth. The mathematician in me finds that revolting.

And the circle of fifths becoming a circle of fourths when you reverse.. I guess we don't need to comment on a fifth plus a third not being an octave -ooops, I just have.

What gets me the most is that a first = unison, no change... This should be a nullth.

But no matter how crotchety we get, we're stuck with it. Cos the maths don't work in any way over more than simple intervals.

Blame the mathematicians - Pythagorus, Helmholtz and a host more....

 

[Fraser Jarvis]

Wonder when he'll be back to acknowledge some of the suggestions?

 

[BigMartin]

And the circle of fifths becoming a circle of fourths when you reverse..

Should be fourths and thirds, of course. Because a fourth + a third would be a seventh (septave?) which is what an octave should be called. Unless you just do everything by semitones, so a perfect fifth would be a seventh, and a perfect fourth would be a fifth and an octave would be a 12th. Ain't going to happen though.

I guess we don't need to comment on a fifth plus a third not being an octave -ooops, I just have.

What gets me the most is that a first = unison, no change... This should be a nullth.

But no matter how crotchety we get, we're stuck with it. Cos the maths don't work in any way over more than simple intervals.

Blame the mathematicians - Pythagorus, Helmholtz and a host more....

I don't know what the history of this nomenclature is (TV?). Pythagoras was a bit of a weirdo, but I don't know if he's repsponsible. It was surely too late to fix it by Helmholtz' time.

 

[aldevis]

I hate that! A third plus a third = a fifth. The mathematician in me finds that revolting.

But NINE MINUS a third, gives you a sixth (its inversion), NINE MINUS a fourth = a fifth, NINE MINUS a 7th= a 2nd

Major becomes minor, augmented becomes diminished....

Somehow it works

So, what's a Latin 8/8 time signature then?

I think it is just a clumsy attempt to describe latin music using western notation system. same as trying to write swing.

Blue Rondo a la Turk's time signature is interesting: (2+2+2+3)/8