Mel Bay's Creative Keyboard® Webzine | Gail Smith - CHINESE MUSIC : Relax and Enjoy

CHINESE MUSIC : Relax and Enjoy

Recently I enjoyed dinner at a lovely Chinese restaurant in Orlando, Florida called Ming Court. Two musicians, Rui Yang and Luo Wu, were performing on the Chinese Violin and Chinese Zither. The music was so relaxing and enjoyable. I don't know the recipe for Chinese food.but I know the recipe for Chinese music. You just play the five black keys on the piano, as will be explained at the end of this article.

Music in China has been known since antiquity. Their system of music is the oldest system that has been placed on record. The two main elements of Chinese music are melody and timbre. Harmony is replaced by a cloud of upper harmonics. In ancient times the Chinese had astronomical knowledge, the number of the planets was five; consequently there could be only five colors, five points on the compass, five elements, and five primitive sounds. Music was made the subject of many comparisons, as the seven days of the week and the seven stringed zither. The twelve moons represent the twelve sounds in the chromatic scale and a twelve stringed instrument called the P'ai-hsiao, which had a scale of twelve equally tempered semitones.

Chinese music is fundamentally pentatonic. Their legends declare that the five tones in the pentatonic scale represented the five main elements: Earth, Metal, Wood, Fire and Water. The mystical idea is strongly evident in their culture. The origin and development of Chinese music evolved from wind instruments to stone chimes and the great bells to stringed instruments. The number of stones in the Pien-ch'ing (stone chime) varied from fourteen to twenty-four depending on which dynasty ruled. The stone chime was always used in religious ceremonies. Its use was to give a single note at the end of each verse "to receive the sound." Usually sixteen stones of the same size were placed on a beautifully ornamented frame set in two rows; the difference in pitch is caused by the difference in thickness of each.

From the earliest times music held a high position in each dynasty. Accordingly it was believed that the function of music was to imitate and sustain harmony between heaven and earth. Absolute pitch was essential and the notion of standardized pitch dictated that in the first century an imperial office of music had been established to supervise the musical life of the empire. All instruments had to be in tune with the exact correct pitch. The foundation note was thought to have mystical powers and was the basis of the well-being of the
state. Great care was given by each dynasty to select their correct fundamental note. Their highly involved theory decreed that the music of the twelve months of the year should use modes based on each of the twelve tones (lu) in turn. The lu were generated by calculations based on the interval of the fourth and fifth, starting from a foundation note called the "yellow bell". The vibration frequencies of the lu were all powers of two and three, which in Chinese philosophy are the numerals of earth and heaven respectively.

Chinese music has an ethereal sound to it. Try playing the five black notes on the piano starting with the groups of two black keys then the three black keys. There are 120 different ways you can play these black keys. Starting on D flat, call D flat -1; E flat - 2; G flat -3; A flat -4; and B flat -5. Have your fingers correspond to these notes and then try playing with your hand on those notes the following order: 1-2-3-4-5; 5-3-4-2-1;
Hold the notes G flat and D flat in the bass clef down with your left hand and keep the pedal down also, then you may play pentatonic music. Try starting on any black key and enjoy the mystical cloud of sounds you can create.

Anyone can make up lovely pentatonic music playing one finger at a time on the five black keys. Have fun!

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