The germ of the idea...
So... on an autumn evening in 2008, I was sat in my studio, waiting to give a guitar lesson. Luckily for me, my student was 5 minutes
late, and my mind was free to wander. I idly wondered about the word “Octave”. In music, that is the difference or interval between the
start and finish of; Do Re Mi Fa So La Ti Do... As you probably already know, the word Octave, comes from the Greek word for 8 -
as in Octopus :-)... I wondered, well, if I get to the octave on the 12th fret of my guitar – NOT the 8th - doesn’t that mean that its a
misnomer (incorrect name)?!
Since I was sat in front of my computer, I decided to google – “counting in 12s”. To my surprise, yes there is counting in 12s.
It’s called Duodecimal or dozenal. Not just that though, there is a whole online community of people who think its even better than
counting in 10s! There is a Dozenal society of great Britain, and a Dozenal society of America.
Hhmm very interesting I thought to myself. That would be much closer to what actually happens in music – excellent...
Then another thought came to me – the octave is the start again point of a new cycle, isn’t that similar to the “0” in “10”?!
Well, yes it’s very similar isn’t it?! And guess what? The same thing of 1 and 0 happens in Duodecimal!
In other words, if you count in Duodecimal, it is absolutely perfectly in step with what happens in music theory. Unlike an 8 based
system – which ignores some notes when counting, and it does it whilst counting in 10 base! Mad stuff! Finally I had seen the light!
After all the years of being first a student – and then later a teacher – I could see why music theory had always felt so... off to me :-).
I had to conceal my exitement then – and get back to “normal” teaching – my student had arrived.
But the fire had been lit inside me – to explore this strange and wonderful new world that I had stumbled upon – of a new,
and (IMHO) far superiour version of music theory.
For days I was on google. Every question answered, seemed to raise another one. I started wondering about the relationship
to things like the clock and the months of the year. Next up I was studying the origin of degrees, and then the history of measurement.
After some months, I felt that I could see a pattern beginning to emerge from all the different subjects I had looked at.
All triggered by an idle thought about the word “Octave”! I have learned a lot from the whole process.
So, many years later, after repeatedly giving up on the idea, then coming back to it – I’m delighted to present version 10 of this
website! Thanks for joining me – hope you enjoy it! Cheers Fon.