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Alternative Key Worker

Around the World in 88 Keys

By Daniel BenistyPublished 3 years ago 3 min read
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"Alternative Key Worker" or "Pentatonic Pandemonium"

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

humanity
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About the Creator

Daniel Benisty

Musician, Poet, Translator, Singer, Comedian. The world is waiting.

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