harmonie des spheres.com

1st part: Introduction

 

Welcome on harmoniedesspheres.com, a site dedicated to all music lovers. Take a few minutes to discover one of the greatest inventions based on a new musical perception that rely on the chromatic scale and the diatonic scale by using number to indicate each degree (see Fig. 1). By looking at the numbers that correspond to the intervals that constitute a Perfect Major Chord, you can see the legendary Fibonacci sequence (the divine proportion). With the discovery of a “Musical Universal Key”, M. Lalonde, the inventor, demonstrates where this revolutionary easy approach method starts.

To understand this approach, we have to recognize scales on a 360 degree platform as shown on Fig. 1. We used to have a limited perception to see it as a whole, we have to look at the12 intervals of the chromatic scale of the tempered scale (12 sounds with 12 equal intervals); in fact, scales are only intervals that answer to harmonic established norms. The chromatic scale is the foundation on which these scales are leaning on.

 

12 sounds = 12 tones = 12 tonalities

 

Therefore by establishing the 12 sounds, we “eliminate” the alterations; in other words the alterations disappear or moreover they are transformed to become a sound (as a whole).

 

Let’s look at the same graphic on 360 degree. The use of black and white is used to represent the notes of a piano, to help understand this new perception.

 

If you don’t already have the revolutionary Musical Universal Key – Discs®, print and cut the two discs shown on Fig. 3, then cut down the 7 windows that correspond to the intervals on disc 1 (Item 32). Overlap disc 1 over the second disc (Item 30) and then position the 1st degree (“Tonic”) on C, you’ll get the “C-D-E-F-G-A-B” sequence.

 

Now move the “Tonic” on the “Fifth”, the G, this way you obtain the alterations that constitutes the key frame of our tonal system tonal and so on. We call this: The Circle of the Quints.

 

 

Ascendant

 

C-G-D-A-E-B-F#, C#, G#, D#, A#, F

 

 

Notice: Even if the end results tally with traditional music teaching, it doesn’t value the rules; the intention here is not to teach music but to change its perception. 

 

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2nd part: Understanding the playing system of music

 

“We cannot name the same note twice”

 

Example: Position the 1st degree (tonic) of your

« Musical Universal Key – Discs® »

on Do (C), you will get: C-D-E-F-G-A-B.

 

 

Now turn the disc clockwise half a tone, i.e. place the tonic of the disc on Do# (C#). Physically, there are only five possible alterations; we have to recognize nuances between theory and practice to understand this principal.

 

Theory teaches us that there are 7# (in C#):

C#-D#-E#-F#-G#-A#-B#.

 

But if you play the Do# (C#) scale on your musical instrument, you actually play:

C#-D#-F-F#-G#-A#-C.

 

 

Both sequences are good. The first respects musical rules (theory), the second is not, but it reflects reality. Play an E# or a B# on your instrument, you will play a F and C; or play a Cb or a Fb, in fact you play a B and an E, aren’t you?

 

 

In reality, in music we are only playing intervals, not notes.

Theory is so simple to understand if it’s well explain.

 

Refer to the Conversion Tonal Table (Fig. 4) and redo the exercise of the introduction by following the given order; you will see that the alterations are to follow one another in

 

The Circle of the Quints

 

(Ascendant = Sharp order = F#, C#, G#, D#, A#, E#, B#)

 

The Circle of the Quarts

 

(Descendant = Flat order = Bb, Eb, Ab, Db, Gb, Cb, Fb)

 

 

What is important here is that no matter the tone (tonal height) in which we play, the intervals will always be the same: either major (which constitute the key frame of our tonal system) or minor. 

 

 

More to come…