Subject: Re: On the Grammar of Music From: Tom Brennan <g_brennantg(at)TITAN.SFASU.EDU> Date: Thu, 26 Apr 2001 20:48:26 -0500Stephen, I have to agree with you on this one. Anyone who composes, teaches music, seriously plays a musical instrument, tunes pianos etc., or other related areas will be familiar with at least some of the music theory rules governing various types of music. Just as there are those outside the mainstream of languages such as englisn (ebonics comes to mind) there are those who break musical rules but they must definitely exist from the basic 1-4-5 progression to setting tempered (equal or not) scales to deciding which musical scaling one wishes to use for a particular task. If music had no rules, complsition would be far more difficult and much of what was composed would "sound wrong" to the listener until we became used to what would not fit our current constraints on what is and is not music. These rules are both the reason that music lessons can be taught in any way but just teaching to specific songs and why just anyone cannot pick up an instrument and produce what others perceive as "music" with no training or practice. Tom These musical rules are also the reason that I know how to tune a piano and if someone should want a different scaling or have a special purpose in how they are using the instrument that I can change that tuning for special uses. Tom Tom Brennan, CCC-A/SLP, RHD web page http://titan.sfasu.edu/~g_brennantg/sonicpage.html web master http://titan.sfasu.edu/~f_freemanfj/speechscience.html web master http://titan.sfasu.edu/~f_freemanfj/fluency.html