Lesson 7

Here's Lesson 7, on interval nomenclature (kind, quality, degree, naming, and abbreviation).


The main file for this lesson includes over 2,000 lines of code, for a 10-minute lesson (200 lines/lesson-minute). That's more code than I would have expected. There must be an easier/faster way to generate these lessons.

Wiktionary defines "nomenclature" as "a name; a set of names or terms; [and/or] a set of rules used for forming the names or terms in a particular field of arts or sciences." While I've tried to keep the nomenclature of JiMS iGetIt! Music System (JiMS) as consistent with Western music's traditional nomenclature as possible, there are some cases in which improvements can recoup the cost of incompatiblity, with interest.

An example occurs in this lesson. In traditional Western musical nomenclature, intervals are assigned to the "perfect" or "imperfect" categories ("kinds") for no good reason that I can identify.

In JiMS, on the other hand, the differentiation between perfect and imperfect "kinds" of intervals is logical and meaningful: if an interval (of a given degree) occurs in the diatonic scale in one and only one size, it's perfect; if it occurs in two or more sizes, it's imperfect. Hence, the unison and octave are perfect, while all other diatonic intervals are imperfect...including the intervals traditionally named the "perfect fifth" and "perfect fourth."

This nomenclature is simple and logical. It also sets the stage for diatonic set theory, by making Myhill's property much easier to see, understand, and apply.

Is it reasonable for JiMS to use non-traditional names for these intervals? Well..."The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man." (George Bernard Shaw, 1903, Maxims for Revolutionists)