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[daize_]

When in doubt, put things in terms of music

Comments

The perfect troll

[anonymous]

Like my obesrvation that the seventh in every major scale is allways Bb. :)

Surely that's a bit like your observation that "the unit in any Galois field is always 3" or whatever your algebra troll of James was. Anybody who can talk about the seventh in a major scale (and I realise that that's Grade 1 music theory, but even so, Grade 1 is a lot further than most people get in school, and I say this as someone who made it about Grade 3...) is already showing that they know a little bit too much about music to really believe that B flat is the seventh in all major scales.

The "6 is prime" thing is so perfect because it's pitched exactly right -- 90% of people who know the definition of prime know better, but you can just believe that you're in the 10%...

Maybe I am simply too optimistic about the human condition.

-Mary

[daize_]

Far too optimisitc. I've had this troll with science students, who would invariably have to have done at least 12 junior units of maths. Sure, they didn't have to touch number theory in that time, but it still really really strange

[certifiedwaif]

I wondered why BbMaj7 chords sounded so boring. It's because the seventh is the same as the root note! Thanks MoS!!!

[daize_]

But when you talk about sevenths in chords, you flatten the seventh. The seventh of BbMaj7 is B natural.

That is, offcourse, if you are using the major tonic of Bb. If you are using the minor, then you have to flatten the third, and the tonic.