User:Linda Lightbourne

Music Theory - African

The European music system uses the first seven letters of the alphabet: A B C D E F G. These are the white keys on the piano. More often than not, the European system starts on C and goes to the next C, which creates an octave. If you are playing in the key of C, you do not have to use any of the black keys. Your piece will sound right in the Key of C with no black keys used at all. Mozart wrote many of his pieces in the Key of C as did many of the other Classical writers. Many of the Classical pieces that most beginning students will play are in the Key of C because the popular thought says that it is “easier” to play in this key. As always, popular thought is not always right and in particular, this thought is not right. The “easiest” key to play in is in fact the Key of B with 5 sharps because this key arrangement is natural to the physiology of the hand. B is a white key, your thumb being the shorter of the fingers plays the white key. C# and D# are black keys, and your two longer fingers play those. Then, when you are playing a scale, the thumb goes very naturally under the middle finger to hit E, the white key. The three stronger and longer fingers play each of F#, G# and A#, the three black keys, and the pinky is right in place to hit the white key, B to complete the scale. It is the most comfortable scale to play because it is the most natural to the way our hands are designed. However, very few students will learn to play a scale in the key of B, because it has “too many black notes”.

Piano Geography

There are 88 keys on a full piano. Some of the more modern keyboards have just 76 and some synthesizers have just 61 keys. There are 7 white keys and 5 black keys in each octave. There are 7 octaves (7 X 12 =84) and four extra keys. In an 88 key piano, there is an extra A and B on the bottom most end of the piano and an extra B and C on the top end of the piano. That accounts for all the notes on the piano!

When one is first discovering the notes on the piano, the black keys are very important to help you find the white keys. You learn early on that “C is to the left of the 2 black keys” and “F is to the left of the three black keys”. You place you index finger and middle finger in the two black keys, and from that angle, the thumb naturally falls on C. If you are in the middle of the piano, and you put your index finger and your middle finger on the two black keys, then, your thumb falls naturally on middle C. From this angle, you can work out all the white keys up from “C” and “F” with the help of the black keys.

Diatonic Scale

European music uses the diatonic scale. The diatonic scale is figured from this formula. W-W-H W-W-W-H. W stands for WHOLE (step), and H stands for HALF (step). So that is a whole step, followed by a whole step followed by a half step. Then a whole step, followed by a whole step, followed by a whole step, ended with a half step. From C to D is a whole step, because there is a black key in the middle of those two. From D to E is a whole step, because there is a black key in the middle of those two. From E to F is a half step, because there is no black key between E and F. From F to G is a whole step, because there is a black key between the two. From G to A is a whole step, because there is a black key between the two. From A to B is a whole step because there is a black key between the two. From B to C is a half step, because there is no black key between the two. When you sing Do-Re-Mi-Fa-So-La-Ti-Do you are singing the diatonic scale. This formula goes back several hundred years. Before Bach, if you wanted to play the harpsichord, or clavichord in any key but the Key of C, you had to re-tune the whole instrument. This formula gives us all the different key signatures that we use. For example, if we are going to play in the key of F, in order for the W-W-H – W-W-W-H formula to work, one of the black notes must be used. Let me demonstrate. F to G is a whole step, because there is a black note between the two. G to A is a whole step because there is a black note between the two. The next step in the formula calls for a half step. The next white key would be a whole step, so in order to keep the formula correct, B flat (a black key) would have to be used. Then, from B flat to C is a whole step because there is a white key in between the two. Then we go back to C to D is a whole step because a black key is between the two. D to E is a whole step because there is a black key in the middle, and E to F is a half step because there is no black key in between those two. Let us do one more. Let us do a key that has one sharp in it. The key of G has one sharp. If we are in the Key of G, we are going to start on the home key of G. So, we start on G. G – A whole A – B whole B – C half C – D whole D – E whole E - F# makes the whole step F# - G makes the remaining half step

Pentatonic Scale

African music uses the pentatonic scale. They did not have the Do-re-mi European style of music. They had and still have their own distinct sound that uses the five black keys on the piano –only. So their whole music system is built on Db, Eb, Gb, Ab, and Bb. (The lower case “b” refers to a flat, i.e. usually a black key”. This system follows this formula. W – W+H – W – W. So Db to Eb is a whole step, because there is a white key between them. Eb to F is the whole step, then you add another half step making F# or Gb. Gb – Ab is a whole step and Ab to Bb is a whole step. Many songs that you would recognize immediately are played on the black keys only. For example, all the Negro Spirituals can and should be played on the black keys only. Here is a very short list of songs that can be played on just the black keys:

Wade in the Water

Swing Low, Sweet Chariot

Ain’t Gonna Study War No More

Sometimes I feel like a Motherless Child

Every Time I Feel the Spirit

This Train

I Will Follow Him

Follow the Drinking Gourd

Yes, Jesus Loves Me

.. and the list can and does go on and on and on.

There are some non-Negro Spiritual songs that follow this very important pattern also. Wintley Phipps, an amazing bass singer, introduced a song that was written by John Newton back in the seventeen hundreds. By trade, before his miraculous conversion to Christianity, he was a sailor. He was the captain on ships that sailed to Africa to bring ship loads of slaves back to Britain and Europe in the early to mid seventeen hundreds. Many thousands of slaves died on the journey. Many thousands of slaves kept their spirit up and survived the horrendous conditions and equally horrendous journey by humming and singing the songs that were familiar to them from their homes. After John Newton’s conversion to Christianity, he stopped sailing and started preaching. He wrote the words to the song “Amazing Grace” that we still sing today. However, the melody is labeled “unknown”. This song is one of the only European songs that is built on the pentatonic scale. It is said that the melody is one that Captain John Newton heard on the slave ships coming over on many occasions. The pentatonic melody with its rich and deep harmonies haunted John Newton and the melody stayed with him long after he gave up the slave trading business. He set the words of “Amazing Grace” to the melody from the slaves that haunted him. The song “Amazing Grace” can and should be played on the black keys only. Try it. You start on Db.

Rhythm

The rhythms of European music are based on the first beat and the third beat of music that is in 4/4 time. The music emphasizes 1 2 3 4. If you listen to Caucasian marching band, they make beautiful designs of many band members who will march in formation according the first and third beat of the music. If you listen to an African-American marching band, their twists and turns and their marching comes not on the first and third beat, but on the 2nd and 4th beat of the music. One is not better than the other, they are just different. To compare the two is the same as comparing apples and carrots. They are not to be compared. If you go to an African-American, or a Caribbean Church, a West Indian Church and listen to the music, you will hear the clapping beats, and swaying beats, and dancing beats are on the 2nd and 4th beats of the music. It lends itself to dynamic participatory worship amongst the worship leaders and the congregation. On the other hand, if you go to a Caucasian American Church, or a British Church, or a European Church, you will find the beats of the music rest on the 1st and the 3rd beats of 4/4 time. One is not better than the other, they are just different. One is not good and the other bad, they are just different. One is not deficient in comparison to the other. They are just different. Beats 1 and 3 in 4/4 time do not lend themselves to dynamic congregational participation.

Purpose of music

Essentially, there are three purposes of music. There are many variations to it, but they can all fit in three basic categories. Music can either be ceremonial, artistic, or for entertainment. Most Church music comes under ceremonial. It is participatory. Ceremonial would also include the national anthem and songs like the graduation song “Pomp and Circumstance” the Wedding March and many others come in this category. Artistic music would be opera music, or musicals, or music designed for soloists singing very difficult passages. It would not be participatory. It would be for listening and appreciating the artistic talents of the few who would spend hours and hours a day practicing and perfecting their talent. Songs for entertainment would include our entire pop and folk industry! Everybody would participate, whether they had singing skills or not.

Conversely, in the African tradition, music served different purposes. Again, it must be emphasized that one is not better than the other. They are just mutually exclusive, and so not comparable. In the African tradition, music served the purpose of passing down traditions from one generation to another. Music was designed to bring people together to give thanks, to celebrate, to entertain, to teach, to encourage, to uplift, to deliver secret messages, and to broadcast happenings, a call to come together at a certain time, events, good news and not so good news from one place to another. Talking drums delivered extremely accurate messages for many surrounding miles.

All these purposes for music in the African tradition call for dynamic participation. In the days of slavery, people very cleverly invented and sang songs that said “goodbye” to each other, or let the community know that someone would take them north that night towards freedom. “Follow the Drinking Gourd” was one such song. The drinking gourd is a constellation of stars, the Big Dipper. It was instructions on what to do to move north to freedom, if you will. A phrase from a song they would sing to each other “If I never more see you again, I’ll meet you in the Glory Land”, had a double meaning! This was their way of saying “goodbye”, letting other slaves know that they planned to escape that night. Another such song was “Steal Away to Jesus” “Steal Away, Steal Away, Steal Away to Jesus, Steal Away, Steal Away home, I ain’t got long to stay here.” This line would let others know who was planning to escape. Work songs and the Call and Response songs took their mind off the oppression they were experiencing from long hours of back-breaking work, regular beatings, burning hot sun, and other abuses. They sang in rich, multi-level harmonies and strong 2nd and 4th beat rhythms that were in many ways, soul-saving, spirit-lifting, mentally and emotionally therapeutic for all participants.

References

In keeping with the nature of traditions, music has been handed down from one generation to the other for many centuries, with immaculate accuracy. There is little written about the mechanics of African music. Even though Africans have settled in many different parts of the world, the strong sense of music, and the use of the pentatonic scale is a common denominator of wherever you find people of the African tradition. Whether you are in any of the Caribbean Islands, the Bahamas, North America, British Isles or Europe, as well as all the countries of the great continent of Africa, the music of the African tradition remains an untarnished constant.

Written references are relatively scarce. Unfortunately, there is a notion that if it is not documented, it cannot be studied, or worse, it does not exist, or still worse, it is of no value. The scarcity of references in the case of African music has nothing to do with any of the above mentioned. In the European tradition, everything is written. The main mode of preservation of music is documentation. This is a good way to preserve the past, however, it does have it drawbacks. Fewer people can read the music than the number of people who could read music back at the time of writing. However, documentation is not the only way to preserve the past. The African main mode of preservation is oral. It can be studied by taking the time to listen, which is what oral preservation is all about. It has much rich and diverse value, because even though the people were scattered to the four corners of the earth against their will, the oral tradition of their music went with them and continues to remain a constant. It is a constant horizontally across continents, and a constant, vertically across generations.