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      Info Palette
More info about the Fret Note
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The Guitar Palette displays its notes◊
graphically.  Nice, but often you may
want to know the name of a note on
the guitar string at a particular fret.
The Info Window displays this tidbit,
plus a few more useful properties of
the Fret Note.

• Sound
   This is the name of the General MIDI sound as selected in the Instrument
   Settings dialog.  If you are running FretPet without QuickTime the
   instrument will be FretPet Acoustical Hiss.

• Tuning
   The Tuning corresponds to the setting you have selected to display in the
   Guitar Palette.

• Fret Note
   This is the note at the Fret Cursor, as its name appears in the Current Scale.

• Primary Function
   This corresponds to the note's position in the Major Scale, expressed as an
   interval from the root.  Some music theorists prefer to call the third tone
   of any scale the "Third."  The naming convention I've chosen is for the sake
   of internal consistency.

• Secondary Function
   This is the note's function in the octave above the root note.  This name
   exists as a "holdover" from piano music.  In certain playing styles -
   especially Classical and Jazz - notes above the octave can retain these
   functions on the guitar.

• Sol-Fa Name
   Part of early musical training involves singing tones aloud to become
   intuitively familiar with their character.  By consistently singing tones
   using the same names a student is able to make music an orderly part of her
   sense of intuition, and begin to observe the relationships among notes.
   Without these names we would be less able to think about musical ideas.
   These are included for reference.

• Fret Note to Scale Note Interval
   This is the interval between the Fret Note and the Scale Note.

• Scale Note to Fret Note Interval
   This is the interval between the Scale Note and the Fret Note.


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The Reciprocal Relationship Of Intervals
An interval can be expressed in two different directions.  There is such a thing as "up a 3rd," and 
"down a 3rd."  Likewise, every "up" interval corresponds to a "down" interval and vice-versa.  
These reciprocals are represented in the FretStuff::Transpose menu.

Although going up a 4th, for example, is considered the same as going down a 5th, this is obviously 
not the exact case.  The same tone name may be arrived at in both cases, but one is an octave lower 
and the other is an octave higher.  They won't sound the same at all!

So they won't sound identical, but they do have a similar character.  You can go to a note an octave 
higher as readily as one an octave lower and the music won't offend you.  That's the always-available 
decision in music.  You can do the same thing in many ways, and you can call it whatever you want.

In melody, every tone has two strong notes that follow it.  One of these is the tone pointed at by the 
lead-line, which can be called the obvious tone.  The other is the tone lying up a 5th (especially in 
the case of an ascending run) or down a 4th.  These are sometimes called neutral tones, because they 
tend to simply continue the melody line.

By listening carefully to melodies as you play, try to anticipate what the next note "should" be, 
according to where the melody "wants" to go.  Identify this note and strike it.  It should be obvious.  
Then try the same melody while striking tones that lie at different Intervals above and below the 
obvious note.

Once you learn to think about music in terms of Intervals you will begin to see the ways in which 
melodies play upon our sense of apprehension and anticipation, and by rewarding or denying it create 
tension and emotion.

[sl]