Monthly Archives: October 2014

Olivier Messiaen’s seven dwarfs

Posted on October 30, 2014 by jazzpanflute

One of the fun things about playing wholetone panpipes is the way they make short scales – not just the whole tone scale – ridiculously easy. Short scales are my name for a large family of interval arrays that includes … Continue reading →

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Why kids give up

Posted on October 29, 2014 by jazzpanflute

“I did a bit of piano when I was little” How many times have you heard that? Do you even need to ask what went wrong? The piano keyboard, whose design dates back to before the discovery of equal temperament, … Continue reading →

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Making it intentional

Posted on October 20, 2014 by jazzpanflute

If there is one constant theme in everything I try to do in music, it is the idea of intentionality. I once read both John Cage’s books in praise of chance operations and ambient sounds, and found them highly entertaining, … Continue reading →

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Six Seconds Make a Seventh

Posted on October 2, 2014 by jazzpanflute

Originally posted on Intervallic Awareness for Improvisers:
Six seconds make a seventh? Is time expanding? How do they do that? Simple! The same way as two thirds make a fifth! Two fifths make a ninth, but three of them make…

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