Talk:Mason Green's New Common Practice Notation

The standard notation with which I am familiar has the major scale designated as 1 2 3 4 5 6 7, so, I believe, the major seventh should be 7, not 7#, as this page currently (24 April 2019) has it. Maybe there is another sort of notation with which I'm unfamiliar, that looks similar to the notation taught in the USA, though.

Also, and I know this is a can of worms to open, but I have qualms with an EDO using any sort of notation that references a diminished octave or augmented unison. Unison is unison; either two tones have the same fundamental frequency or not. Saying "augmented unison" seems like a self-contradictory reference. In this case, wouldn't it be more appropriate to refer to a small interval as a diminished second? I think there is more wiggle room, logically with a "diminished octave," but again, there could be, in this particular tuning, an augmented seventh, which seems to make more sense. If you break down the major diatonic scale into components: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7, and you have three types of components:

1, which is your point of reference, where you define the scale as starting. 2 3 and 6 7, which are tonal components that can come in a wide variety of tonal flavours, including major, minor, augmented, and diminished (and some others, maybe, that don't have much relation to 19-EDO). 4 and 5, which have a narrower variety: either perfect, augmented, or diminished.

In 19-EDO, you satisfy a finite set of the tonal options (keeping in mind the spelling of the major diatonic scale is WWHWWWH). Define four step sizes (that's sufficient to cover every tone):

1. One quantum is a diminished step (XS) 2. Two quanta are a half step (S) 3. Three quanta are a whole step (L) 4. Four quanta are an augmented step (XL)

If you start with 1 as being defined as the starting point (again, that major diatonic scale is WWHWWWH or, in quantum notation 3 3 2 3 3 3 2):

bb2 = 1 + XS (diminished second) b2 = 1 + S (minor second) 2 = 1 + L (major second)

2 = 1 + XL (augmented second)

bb3 = 2 + XS = #2 (diminished third) b3 = 2 + S (minor third) 3 = 2 + L (major third)

3 = 2 + XL (augmented third)

b4 = 3 + XS = #3 (diminished fourth) 4 = 3 + S (perfect fourth)

4 = 3 + L (augmented fourth)

b5 = 4 + S (and so on...) 5 = 4 + L

5 = 4 + XL

bb6 = 5 + XS = #5 b6 = 5 + S 6 = 5 + L

6 = 5 + XL

bb7 = 6 + XS = #6 b7 = 6 + S 7 = 6 + L

7 = 6 + XL

8 = 7 + S (since the tuning references the octave, like I said above, there is no need to subdivide the octave into tonal varieties)

From those tones, you can spell any scale possible in western music theory. Major 1 2 3 4 5 6 7, natural minor 1 2 b3 4 5 b6 b7, phrigian ("saturated minor") 1 b2 b3 4 5 b6 b7, locrian ("half diminished") 1 b2 b3 4 b5 b6 b7, full diminished 1 b2 b3 b4 b5 b6 bb7, saturated diminished 1 bb2 bb3 b4 b5 bb6 bb7, augmented 1 2 3 #4 #5 6 7, saturated augmented 1 #2 #3 #4 #5 #6 #7, or any admixture you can dream up, with the only complication being that some augmented-to-diminished steps leave you with no interval change, so, for example, 1 #2 bb3 4 5 #6 bb7 doesn't make a whole lot of sense in this tuning, since you have #2 enharmonically equivalent to bb3, so the two are in unison; same goes for #6 and bb7.

Bozu.