Alternative Key Worker
Around the World in 88 Keys
Alternative Key Worker
or
Pentatonic Pandemonium
or
Around the World in 88 Keys
or
The Piano Teacher's Song
I am an Alternative Key Worker and tho I work in major and minor.
I can ply my musical trade from Brazil all the way to China
I feel most natural in minor, either harmonic or melodic
But if you wanna be universal, try and play the Pentatonic
Please let me take your time as I play a few of the world scales
Altho the human race is one, we all tell a different tale.
There are hundreds more scales than just major or minor, all the way from Greece to Peru.
So if you want to learn the piano, let me take a look with you:
In Ukraine their Dorian is the same as the Romanian minor
In Spain the Flamenco will make you move so much you'll forget why you bought a recliner.
The Hungarian or Gypsy minor was purpose built for travelling,
And the Neapolitan will make you sing so hard your heart will be unravelling
Go further to Asia, where the scales are more exotic.
Like the Japanese Hirajoshi which sounds like the Simpsons comic
Or to India where they have sa re ga ma pa dha ni
And mix it up with some spicy Bhairav and delicious Purvi.
I am an Alternative Key Worker and tho I work in major and minor.
I can ply my musical trade from Brazil all the way to China
I feel most natural in minor, either harmonic or melodic
But if you wanna be universal, try and play the Pentatonic
You may feel we're superfluous, just bonus and unnecessary
But our work gives hope to millions who are tired, lost and weary
Our work is only just beginning, in the play of all things to come
We are all essential in this story, in the dream of life and fun
Now lets speak of a people who like the Gypsies and Jews have travelled
But in their case forcibly taken over oceans then mishandled
In their depth they found the beauty of Blues then Jazz then Swing
And in searching even harder they invented a bebop kind of thing.
I once asked a Brazilian musician what if South America had never been
What if the continent just slipped into the ocean and there had been no Samba scene
He said, the harmonies are from Europe and the rhythms were all from Africa.
The music just comes from the human soul and mimics the sound of nature.
And, he continued that the music came from Portugal and Spain, from across the Iberian Peninsula
It came from Arabic notation and Double Harmonic Raga
The Byzantine scale, the Hijaz Kar and not forgetting the Gypsy Major
All in their turn gave the music of Brazil its universal flavour.
Finally the Jewish mode, just right for the eternal wanderer
The Phrygian dominant scale with a mood so tragic and sombre.
But the Jews in their turn wrote music and songs in the local styles where they went
Trying to unify the human journey, both in comedy and in torment
I am an Alternative Key Worker and tho I work in major and minor
I can ply my musical trade from Brazil all the way to China
I feel most natural in minor, either harmonic or melodic
But if you wanna be universal, try to play the pentatonic
The pentatonic is still today the ultimate human mystery,
The greatest Evidence of unity between our common ancestry
As played on 43,000 year old bone flutes, excavated from South Western Germany.
To a scale that crosses boundaries from Africa to the Andes
About the Creator
Daniel Benisty
Musician, Poet, Translator, Singer, Comedian. The world is waiting.
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