Nothinggod:
As for how important the diatonic scale system is, I challenge anyone to explain to me how it is objectively more important than any other scale.
%$#@!
I can't believe it. I miss the forum for a busy gig, and rehearsal schedule and this twerp is banned before I can get a clean shot at him. Double drat. Kudos to those who challenged him on his own weird planet. Doubtless he is looking for another forum to invade.
I have found (please don't take me for one of these) that there are some people so bent on destroying what they perceive to be "conditioned" and "programmed" perceptions, that they lose the ability to distinguish between what is true western cultural bias and what is simply the nature of reality that has been revealed through an intensive study of real phenomena by persons born into western culture. The result is the worst kind of self-brainwashing where every standard of the "dominant culture" must be viewed as dogma. There isn't much to say to people who are out on that limb. Just saw it off. Nothinggod pretty much tells it all. This is the end result of that type of thinking, that there is no Truth, only subjective reality. Where are the Marxist materialists when you need them?
More to the original topic on modalities in Bluegrass: There are countless examples of shifts from Ionian to Aeolian and vice versa;- the most popular (to me anyway) is Blackberry Blossom. Misty Morning actually shifts scales while preserving the same tonic, which is another way of using modes (sort of). If you can find recordings of those (sorry, I don't have them), then you can hear the differences. In Blackberry Blossom the 1 that you play shifts when you change modes from G (Ionian) to E (Aeolian). In Misty Morning, only 3 chords are used in the first figure (lets call that part A) and it is Em, Am, BM. The second figure (we could call that B) is EM, AM, BM. What's useful is that the key switch follows the BM, which is common to both keys. So that is how you can use modes to
modulate key changes from an "A part" to a "B part" and back.
As far as establishing an objective physical mathematical basis for the diatonic scale and its' derivatives that has to do with harmonic consonance, I found this link which I think illustrates very well why and how the diatonic scale and its' notes have formed the basis for music in so many widely separated cultures. Within it is the idea that Eastern microtonal scales are just an extension of the same harmonic foundation embodied in the diatonic scale. It is the first time I have seen it in such an easily read table: [Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
It seems that if there is a bone to pick, it is with equal temperament. But I don't think people who play unfretted instruments play in equal temperament unless they are trying to play in tune with a piano, fretted guitar or something that is tuned in equal temperment. It just ain't natural, as they say.
