4 ms·
The thing is though you can get to every note by stacking enough thirds - I don’t think it’s a particularly bad perspective
by klysm 2y ago
The thing is though you can get to every note by stacking enough thirds - I don’t think it’s a particularly bad perspective
- shermantanktop 2y agoYou can get to every note by stacking enough of literally anything but octaves. Such is the power of the modulus operator. Thirds appear to me to be pretty much the fundamental particle of western harmony.
- klysm 2y agoThat’s not true though, whole tones and tritones won’t cover the whole chromatic scale
- shermantanktop 2y agoGot me! You’re right. Ok, gotta remove multiples of factors of twelve, so 2 (whole), 3 (dim), 4 (aug), 6 (tritone), 8 and 9 are out. That leaves 1, 5, 7, 10, and 11, plus all the variants from adding n*12 (e.g. 13 or 25). So my bold assertion didn’t work out too well.
- klysm 2y agoThere’s some really interesting theory that stems from that relationship too. For example, there are only three distinct diminished “loops”. These each define tonal centers because each pair of tritones uniquely identifies a 5 chord. You can view a fully diminished chord as a “gateway” of sorts into 4 different keys, depending on what root note you slap on it.