Quote from Forum Archives on October 22, 2003, 5:19 pm

Posted by: erinanne <erinanne@...>

Hi, All!

I'm going to begin with a forwarded message from my teacher:

"The only difficulty with the system is when the chords go outside the
original key--then you have to resort to things like bVll9 , #lm7 and
it becomes a bit harder to see how the chords are related (whether they
are ii vs or cycle of fifths or whatever--sometimes you just have to
play them blind as it were and then realize what the relationship of
the chords was by how they sounded--at least that is my experience --

"For my own practice in twelve keys I have written out stella by
starlight in that way--here it is:

#lVm7b5 /  Vll7 / llm7 / V7 / Vm7 / l7 / lV / bVll7 /

 l / #lVm7b5  Vll7 / lllm7 / lm7 lV7 / VMaj7 / #lVo7 / vllm7b5 / lll7 /

 Vl7#5 /     / llm7 /      /   lVm7 /       /  l  /    /  #lV7b5 / Vll7
/ lllm7b5 / Vl7 / llm7b5 / V7b5 / l /    //"

*******

This is the conundrum that my teacher and I have discussed about the
numbering system many times, and so I was quite hopeful when I saw it
come up on the list as a subject. However, I fell into the trap of
first thinking that the additional notation of the key centre at the
start of the bar the new key centre begins in would solve that
problem... except that in the key of C a shift to Eb or whatever is
easy enough, but as soon as you decide you want to play it all in a
totally different key the little letter hints at the start of a key
centre become meaningless - having Eb noted where the song shifts to
that key centre doesn't help if you decide to play it in the basic or
core key of, say, F.

So, what is the "proper" way to manage this problem?

(BTW, whether one uses arabic or roman numerals is of little
consequence and isn't, IMHO, worth arguing over - it falls into the
category of personal taste, and while one is widely could be called the
"generally accepted principle" and is used across many western music
forms in many countries and is easier for one person to read because it
is easier to see the difference between what's telling you about the
degree of the chord and what's telling you about the quality of the
chord doesn't matter to the other person who happens to prefer the
other because that's how it's done in that person's "world" or whatever
other reason.... It's like arguing over whether the colour of grass is
"green" or "vert" or "grün". Use what works where you are. If it's
important learn multiple ways. Whatever. The concept is the same.
And so is spelling "centre" the Canadian way or TROT(e)W's way of
"center" (my spell checker always gets me on that one... )

So, any takers?

🙂

Thanks guys and gals!

e/

PS - Remember the worst draught on record we had here in BC this
summer, and all those thousand or so simultaneous forest fires we had
going on that burned down hundreds of homes? Well, um, they're out. I
don't think one could *make* a fire start these days: we've had 1/5th
of our normal annual rainfall come down in two days this past week!
Guess BC weather systems figured they needed to restore their
reputation! Thanks for praying for the rain to come for us. You can
stop now! 🙂