MUSIC

Let's start by admitting that I'm not a musician.  I very much wish I were but I never had what it takes to learn to play an instrument - time, talent, ear, rhythm, left brain/right brain co-ordination, whatever.

All that aside, music theory interests me.  I don't know a lick about it but it does interest me.  You don't need to be talented to realize that some notes played on a piano, for instance, go well with some  and not at all with others.   Aha!  There must be a reason.

I've always been under the impression that notes are laid out in octaves:  C D E F G A B   Wait, that's only seven notes.  Octave means eight notes.  Is there an 'H' note?   No.  If you look at a piano, from C to shining C, there are twelve keys - seven white and five black.  That can't be it. 

Written music is placed on a scale.  Five lines on the major scale and four spaces.  That makes nine notes.  How about piano beginner's lines:  "Every Good Boy Does Fine"  and "FACE" - (you could learn those two even if you didn't play the piano).  That doesn't make it work. 

Wait another minute.  Guitars (most) only have six strings.  Where are they going to get eight notes.  Do combinations of strings make other notes?  I'll let you fret about that one for awhile.

I'm more confused now than when I started this diatribe.  I don't want to even think about trumpets with three valves and clarinets with many tone holes, keys and a reed.  I've almost lost my interest in music theory. 

Wait, I forgot to tell you what I had heard that brought this all to mind.  I saw a comment on social media that said if you played the following notes on a piano in any order or rhythm, it would sound like classical music.  They are C D E-flat F G A-flat B-flat .  Is it really that easy?  A long time ago, I had heard that if you want to play the "blues", all you have to do is play C E-flat F F-sharp G B-flat C in any order and you've got it.  Could music be that easy?

It's all way beyond me.  Please try to forget that I brought it up.