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HIGHLY_THEORETICAL_NOTES

                                              January 30, 2005

I was pacing around,
envisioning doing a         Which is a
lecture on music theory.    pretty funny
                            ambition on my      I am not precisely
                            part.               an idiot about such
                                                things, but I'm
                                                definitely a guy
                                                who learned his
                                                music theory on the
                                                street.


I was thinking about explaining
"counterpoint" by playing two C
major chords simlultaneously with          As I understand it, our
each hand, then playing the notes          definition of "keys"
individually, alternating between          and "chords" are
hands, playing one chord upward and        cultural artifacts.
the other down; and doing this one
time in synch, another time                   So, how do other
staggered alternating each hand.              cultures structure
                                              their musics?

A couple of points:

(1) the notes being played
are clearly harmonically
connected.                     You can probably
                               over do this, yes?   Best to take it easy
(2) When in sync, clearly                           on the sugar, use
you've got counterpoint:                            harmony (and rhyme)
two separate melodies                               cautiously, if not
overlayed, both                                     sparsely.
rhythmically and
harmonically connected.

     When played out of sync,
     is it two melodies in
     counter-point, or one
     angular melody?

          A matter of perspective.

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