Random thoughts while looking at "On a Wonderful Day
		Like Today", with it's key change from F to "one natural and
		six sharps".  Then at "Hush", key change from F to six flats.
		(They're both up a half step!)

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	=== How Do You Sing Music Written In Umpteen Sharps (Or Umpteen Flats)? ===
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			(aka: "Singing on the Black Keys")

    1)	First, determine the key of the song.  (That's another subject, involving such
techniques as memorizing the circle of fifths (not all that difficult), looking at the
bass's last note, asking your neighbor, or being told directly by your director.
A quick set of "rules":
		No sharps or flats = C.
		One flat = F.
		More flats: the key is the next-to-last flat.
		Any sharps: the key is a half tone above the last sharp.)

    2)	Find, or just know, where on your favorite staff that note sits.  That is "one"
(or if you prefer "do", pronounced doe or dough).

    3)	Next, and this is the critical step,
	PLACE YOUR THUMB OVER THE KEY SIGNATURE.
	Cover up all those sharps or flats.

    4)	Now just sing as if they didn't exist.  The basic scale,
the ladder of steps if you will, is the same wherever you place "one".  Half steps between
three and four, and between one and seven.

	That's it.  Simple.

	"Wait a minute," someone asks, "you'd be playing the wrong notes."
	We're talking about singing, not finding notes on a mechanical instrument.  One is
whatever is tooted on the pitch pipe.

	"What about accidentals?"
	Glad you asked.  (Actually, those are "intentionals".  Another subject.)

	If you come to a sharp, it is still a sharp.  The note is raised a half tone from
where it would sound in the "basic" scale.
	A flat is still a flat, lowering a half tone.
	Double sharps, those little x's in front of some notes, raise the note a half step.
Usually.  Not two half steps.  One.  "No", you say.  Yes, I say, they are used to compensate
for sharps already in the key signature, hidden and forgotten under your thumb.  The tone is
up a half step.  The same principle applies for double flats, written with the symbol, uh,
two flats.  Down one half step, not two.  There are exceptions, of course, but they are as
rare as finding a minor/major seventh chord in barbershop.  True barbershop (another subject).

	"Ah, but what about naturals?  Gotcha!"
	Not really.  The meaning of a natural depends on context (doesn't everything?).  The
context is under your thumb.  Peek under your thumb, and if you see a bunch of sharps, then
every natural is treated as a flat.  If you see a bunch of flats, then every natural is
treated as a sharp.  (If you see only a bunch of naturals, you just made a key change to C,
and you're home free.)

	If it helps, mark your music, crossing out the key-signature sharps or flats (in the
shape of a thumb), and changing naturals in the music itself to flats or sharps as appropriate.
In pencil, please.  Then write the intended key near the front, with a circle around it.

	Does this work if you don't have umpteen?  Absolutely.  Singing in two flats (Bb) is
just as easy as singing in ten sharps (A#), and sounds the same if you begin with the same "one".

	Once you learn to hear/sing the relative intervals of the scale using the numbers
(with 1 being the "key" note), and learn where the numbers are located (count up from one, or
down from eight), then you are basically singing "by ear" while looking at the dots for guidance.

=//= Bob "smudged thumb" Dickman

		-30-