However there are 3 row versions of these with the third row containing a random selection of black notes to enable other keys to be played in but the still limited range of keys means they are not chromatic. There are two basic setups, the 4th apart boxes eg the DG, Cf, Gc boxes which are mostly played in the aforementioned home keys. There are in fact several species of so called diatonic button boxes some of which are also chromatic! The term diatonic is used simply to denote that each row contains a diatonic scale i.e it has whatever sharps and flats to play in a specific key. I use both traditional staff music notation and the Galin-Paris-Chevé system of numbered music notation) (I'm pretty sure I already mentioned the delicious benefits of numbered music notation. One should also discuss the compability of the (traditional) music notation and it's imperfections. Reducing this topic only to the music instrument's layout is actually incomplete. If you talk about fingering on PA, then yes C major(ism) is the "natural" suitable key.īut if you change the traditional staff music notation system, and you use the numbered music notation system, you have a more clear vision on music notation and keys. The accordion has got no particular key when it comes to equal temperament. In fact, every music instrument could have it's own unique notation system (eg tablature systems for guitars, lutes). The historical development of tunings and temperaments also plays a major role.īut most of musicians continue to use the traditional staff notation, in combination with music instruments that have been created in a different area or time. It is the music staff notation thas also has some imperfections ( eg the complexity of sharps and flats, the accidentals, etc) because of the historical development. It developed in function of choir singing and vocal/singing education. Staff notation, in origin, was a system invented for singers, not for instrumentalists. Strangely few have a look at the traditional or standard music notation system: the staff notation. Many musicians question the music instruments imperfections when it comes to the subject music keys, transposition and modulation in music pieces. In short, even these distinctions are as much arbitrary as natural. The bassoon is mechanically an F instrument, but like the trombones and tuba, its music is written in concert pitch. (The notation came later, though - music for early woodwinds was all concert pitch, as far as I know.) Flute and saxophone are simple examples the clarinet, though, departs acoustically from the norm and sounds different notes for the same fingering, in the upper and lower registers, so though normally classified as a Bb instrument, it plays like an Eb alto saxophone in its lower register. The key determined in this way, comes from the lowest note on the early woodwinds, such as recorders - a recorder whose lowest note is C, has similar fingering to a C flute. A woodwinds natural key doesnt depend on its acoustics in that way, but rather on the conventional way its holes and mechanism are matched to the 10 fingers of the right and left hands. In most of the world, outside of the UK, music for the tuba, trombone and euphonium is in concert pitch, but their natural tonal key if you will is Bb (though the tuba may also be found in C, Eb and F.) So a euphonium for example might be playing the same part as the Bb cornet (but an octave lower), and operating the valves just the same, but one of them is in Bb and the other is in C, by this notation standard.īrass instruments have a clear natural key, corresponding to the length of the main branch of the tubing (not including valve tubing), but as they are nowadays all equipped with valves, they can play with equal facility in different keys. This can get more confusing if you look more closely, though.
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