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Peter (aka The Curmudgeon) has promised that he will be very kind about everything I write, for the next four posts, because I helped him move some boxes.

Okay, here goes.

Something weird happened at St. Patrick's College in 1966. Two classes, and their results in the entry test, got confused. In reality, 3P should have been 3G and 3G should have been 3P. Consequently, the brightest boys in that year level were made to study Bookkeeping and French. The dumb kids in the other class got to study Latin and Becoming a Priest. 

Very unfair, as I'm sure Peter will agree.

The real 3G in 1966.

Fortunately, Peter wasn't accepted into the priesthood, though he did try hard to get there. He spent most of his time at school distributing communion hosts.

It's great to see Peter showing such an interest in my violin practice. I thought I'd take this chance to pass on some music theory knowledge to him. Okay we have the major scale. It can start on any of the twelve notes used in Western Music - obviously they all sound the same, at different pitches.

Let's look at the C major scale.

It contains these notes - C D E F G A B C.

It is also called the Ionian Mode.

You can play the C major scale starting on any of the other six notes in the scale (D E F G A B). These give you different modes (really like scales, just from an older system).

Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian, Locrian.

These modes cover minor scales (Dorian, Phrygian, Aeolian) and the dominant 7th scale (Mixolydian) as well as other scales.

Really, apart from these scales, there are only three others that matter - Chromatic, Augmented and Diminished.

The harmonic and melodic minors come from small adjustments to the Aeolian Mode.

I hope you enjoyed that, Peter.

Okay, I'm off to do some violin practice soon. The new strings are on and are settling in.

I'm looking forward to Peter's very positive comments.

Ciao.