What came 1st - the (C) major scale or the piano keyboard ?

digitalkettle

guitarjack66 said:

KDS said:

didn't Bach sort this issue out?

Bach to the future?

Axe_meister

Question is what came first? the C-Major scale or the A-Minor scale.
I'd say the A minor scale i.e. A to A without any sharps/flats.
Only when music started to become more major orientated did somebody decide
we should count from C to C

viz

Axe_meister said:

Question is what came first? the C-Major scale or the A-Minor scale.
I'd say the A minor scale i.e. A to A without any sharps/flats.
Only when music started to become more major orientated did somebody decide
we should count from C to C

Lydian and its sister Dorian came first, along with Mixolydian and Phrygian. Then came the hypomodes, Ionian being hypolydian; Aeolian being hypodorian. (And then hypophrygian which was locrian. Hypomixolydian didn’t exist because it was just dorian again). 

Basically major and minor arrived on the scene at the same time. 

TheOtherDennis

For a clear and entertaining explanation of how all of this comes together, I can recommend Howard Goodall (he of the Blackadder and QI theme tunes, amongst lots and lots else), who did a series and book called The Story of Music in which he touched on how this stuff came about.

I won't try to summarise it, because I'll get it as hideously wrong as the Pythagorean Comma, which is the big problem of natural harmonics and dynamics that we have solved uniquely using maths.

It's well worth reading, by the way. Howard isn't just an engaging and interesting presenter, he can write, too. (And he's a lovely bloke, by all accounts.)

Oh, and if anyone was wondering who invented the piano (ie specifically the piano, and not any old keyboard instrument, which have been around for hundreds of years before that) it was an Italian chap called Bartolemeo Cristoferi. And yes, I did get that nugget from Howard's books.

DuploLicks

I did enjoy this video which has probably done the rounds here previously

I like and similarly terrified of having to not only tune the guitar but position the frets before playing!
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=AjK4GVR1EcE