Tsahraf wrote:
Thank you! That makes more sense, but do you also know what the difference between the black and white keys is? Why are they separated? Is it just so there is a pattern so that people can distinguish different keys?
In the key of C major, the white keys are the notes that are in the scale, and the black keys are the notes (that the Western, human, system can account for) between the notes that are in the scale. A major scale consists of the tonic note (in C, that's C) and the notes a major second (D), a major third (E), a perfect fourth (F), a perfect fifth (G), a major sixth (A), and a major seventh (B) above it. There are notes not in the scale in between C and D, D and E, F and G, G and A, and A and B, but not between E and F and B and C. All this goes back to the Ancient Greeks ... but I don't know the story of that beyond a few fragmentary half-recollected ideas.
Having a repeating pattern so you always know what a note is based on its surroundings in the pattern is a definite side benefit, though.
Tsahraf wrote:
Also, a related question, are there any other kinds of key boards that use different patterns of keys?
I don't think so---but there are other related instruments that do things differently. For example, my dad plays the hammered dulcimer, which has a "stacked diatonic" arrangement, with (on the main bridge) the notes arranged something like this:
Code:
C | F
B | E
A | D
G | C
F# | B
E | A
D | G
C# | F#
B | E
A | D
Tsahraf wrote:
And who chose and named the different notes?
That, I don't know; it goes back to medieval plain-chants at least, but I wouldn't be surprised if it goes back to the ancient Greeks (where it would be "alpha", "beta", and so on instead). After all, in the West using something other than letters to represent
numbers is a comparatively recent development.
Tsahraf wrote:
Are there fractional notes, such as C 1/2 or C 1/3?
"C 1/2" would be the same thing as C# ("C sharp"), which is
approximately the same thing as Db ("D flat"). Something like "C 1/3" isn't possible in Western music (except as a C or C# that's out of tune), but some non-Western music contains notes that are impossible in Western music.
(I
really didn't pay enough attention in my music theory class in college, and it's been
far too long ...)
unofficial) use. It's a hollow tube that they whistle over, that makes their whistling sound strange - almost like some sort of Celtic instrument or something. 
I call it the Tvit'tuait.
How do they make different notes? Is it sort of like a recorder or something?
) over it. It just changes the sound of your whistling.
I love whistling, so this is right up me alley 
