It's not. C is arbitrary. Tuning is to A=440, but there are orchestras and instruments that do not tune to that. An Alto flute may be tuned to 442, but you can yank out the tuning slide and change it. I know an old time jazz duo who play electric guitar and stand up bass and they asked me after 10 songs or so to sit in on the piano for one tune (Satin Doll Dm). They then needed to retune because they were both tuned a 1/2 tone down. After that they said it was a pain to include the piano because they just tuned to the upright bass.

There are studies (Schuman etc.) that peg colours and the earths resonance to certain frequencies. 560hz I think was the number, and aboriginals in Australia played that note as their fundamental. The multiplication of that note by some 40 times will yield the colour sky blue in the light spectrum.

I forget alot of what I was taught in this subject, but I'll ponder it some more. I do have notes somewhere but I'm revamping my studio/music/notes/books trying to get things more functional.

This subject leads to study of brainwaves, earth 'tones', and even planetary stuff and some of it seems quite off the wall. None the less, music has no actual key, ie C as a natural centre, it just happens to be the all white key scale, and thus easier to play on a piano.

Fiddle and fold players often use A for most of their stuff, it suits a beginner violin / fiddle player. Beginning guitar players want nothing in the key of F.

The C or soprano flute has C as the low note, but it's hard to have consistency as a new flute player and the don't want that low C in the music, but are not adverse to a D.

And horn players (B flat ones) can easily do a G at the low end, and can usually make 2 octaves then, but from G to high C you are looking at a more advanced player. Bear in mind that when I say G it really is an A because of the Bflat nature of the horn and it's fundamental, which when you whack the mouthpiece with your hand you hear a Bflat not a C. So when a piano and a bflat horn play the same note to your ear the horn is actually reading one note or 2 semi tones higher so an F on the piano is a read as a G on the horn.

I hope this gives some food for thought. I have actually registered to take this course at University this fall, and hope I get in. Somewhere the wife has a big book on the Physics and math of music, I have to review that and decide if I'm going to take that course, math was never my strong suit unless it's the accounting type.

John Conley
Musica est vita