Wil Macaulay said - >Yes, it would be 'better and less misleading' for the abc user community that >understands: > 1. 2 sharps
Good. > 2. they are in the 'standard' place Not sure what you mean. > 3. E Dorian means E is the tonic. Of course it does but does K:D mean D is the tonic or just that the writer wanted two sharps? >Me, personally, just speaking for myself, I can play in (for example) G Dorian >without having to remember which flats are there, but I have to puzzle it out >if I see a tune written out with one flat and try to figure out which of the possible >tonics I should be thinking about. So, presumably, you never use books of conventional music notation which (apart from a few baroque pieces I've come across) never tell you the tonic. Very few of them give the mode either, certainly none of the collections of English traditional music that I have and not many of the Irish collections (Krassen's edition of O'Neill for instance). Those that do give the mode give it AS WELL AS not INSTEAD OF the key signature. If you have trouble working out the tonic from the notes of the tune does that mean we shouldn't rely on the accuracy of any tune you post? Of course, a lot of people know less than you do about modes so their postings will be even less reliable. >So therefore my, personal >speaking for myself selfish little opinion clearly shouldn't count. Everybody's opinion counts but it would always be nice to know the reasons behind that opinion and that that opinion was open to modification in the face or a reasoned argument. >A a positive comment, I don't have any objection to a notation that allows >the number of flats or sharps to be explicitly notated without tonic information, Thank you. That's all I've ever asked for. (In this context.) >I just have an objection to the statement or implication that that is somehow >wrong or misleading to the entire abc user community to allow tonic and modes to be >specified as a a first order definition. I wasn't aware that anybody had made such a statement. There are those (fortunately a diminishing number) who do not wish to allow the use of an explicit key signature and feel that the use of the tonic should be "compulsory". I have an objection to that. >Skink allows Dmaj or Dion as synonyms for D, if you like. You are assuming D means D major which in the case of K:D % E dorian it clearly did not. Bryan Creer To subscribe/unsubscribe, point your browser to: http://www.tullochgorm.com/lists.html
