Arrangement of The Array System
The notes are arranged according to the array system, developed by musicologist, performer, and author Bill Wesley. The Array system of organizing the notes is similar to the Wicki-Hayden note layout, while offering the advantage of being able to play multiple octaves of the same note with one finger.
The Array system is a specific pattern of arranging musical tones. It is both isomorphic and unimorphic (meaning that harmonious notes are grouped adjacently, excluding dissonant notes). There is only one unimorphic planar (as opposed to linear) system available on a lead instrument at this time, and that is the system used for organizing the Array mbira.
Because the Array system is isomorphic, any given chord, scale, or song, no matter how complex, can be played in any one of the 12 keys immediately after the player learns to play it in one key. Because it is unimorphic, common chords tend to fall close together. In the key of C, for example, the F and G major chords can be played by moving the C major chord shape one octave group to the left or right. The same applies to Em, Am, and Dm. The minor chord shape is easier to play with the left hand, while major chords are easier to play with the right hand.
There is a row for every possible musical interval, not just fifths, fourths, and octaves but also whole tones, minor thirds, etc. The Array system can be thought of not only as being based on the circle of fifths, but as being based on rows of whole tones. Each whole-tone row is separated by a fifth/fourth.
Read more about this topic: Array Mbira
Famous quotes containing the words arrangement, array and/or system:
“The work of Henry James has always seemed divisible by a simple dynastic arrangement into three reigns: James I, James II, and the Old Pretender.”
—Philip Guedalla (1889–1944)
“Any one who knows what the worth of family affection is among the lower classes, and who has seen the array of little portraits stuck over a labourer’s fireplace ... will perhaps feel with me that in counteracting the tendencies, social and industrial, which every day are sapping the healthier family affections, the sixpenny photograph is doing more for the poor than all the philanthropists in the world.”
—Macmillan’s Magazine (London, September 1871)
“Delight at having understood a very abstract and obscure system leads most people to believe in the truth of what it demonstrates.”
—G.C. (Georg Christoph)