Most countries don't use ABCDEFG for note names



How sensible!

Hugh

Must disagree Hugh. Completely out of context with reference to keyboard playing. It is so obvious this was invented to aid singing in mediaeval times when the majority were illiterate and uneducated. Julie Andrews used this for her well known song in the movie The Sound of Music. Reading conventional music is a prerequisite in being able to perform most music today whether classical or modern.

Ron

Ron,

The reason why I said "How sensible" was because if you learn a song using the "Letters" you can only play it in that one key, playing the notes that are written. If you learn a song using tonic sol-fa (what Julie Andrews was doing to teach the children to sing in The Sound Of Music) you can then play the melody in any key .. so long as you know your do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, ti, do starting on the root note of that key. I used to sing bass in a choir, and when we were singing we were certainly not singing the 'letters' from the music score. What we sang was based on the tonic sol-fa system so it didn't really matter what key the organist was actually playing it in.

I long time ago I ordered the sheet music for Petite Fleur (by Sidney Bechet) and certainly wasn't expecting to find that all the chords written on the sheet music were in tonic sol-fa. But then by playing the melody 'by ear' and reading those tonic sol-fa chords off the sheet music in front of me I could play it in any key .. and yes, I do know my (Major) scales starting on any note. It's a case of only having to remember one set of chords, and not having to 'transpose' all the letters and remember a different set of chord letters if playing it in another key. How sensible!



How much music theory did The Beatles know?



Hugh

As is obvious from your comments Hugh, you agree that sol-fa system is used by non reading singers. I feel sure that opera singers will not do so. However, as I already stated modern musicians are taught to read conventional musical notation.

Regarding the Beatles, they were musical morons at the start. To this day I remain unconvinced that they never used a ghost composer, eg George Martin, to arrange their melodies.

Ron