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MMD > Archives > June 2001 > 2001.06.22 > 02Prev  Next


Nickelodeon G-roll Tracker Bar Scale
By Benjamin Haass

I will just say, well, the G roll information on the web site may not
be wrong, but something is funny about it.  If hole 4 is an A#, then
there is no way that 17 can be middle C and 26 be an A unless the
scale is not chromatic.  The numbers just don't add up correctly.
This isn't just transposition.  I don't think the music would sound
correctly that way.

4  A#
5  B
6  C
7  C#
8  D
9  D#
10 E
11 F
12 F#
13 G
14 G#
15 A
16 A#
17 B  <<<<< not C
18 C
19 C#
20 D
21 D#
22 E
23 F
24 F#
25 G
26 G# <<<< not A

Benjamin Haass

 [ At http://mmd.foxtail.com/Tech/Scales/Groll01.html the assignments
 [ for hole 28 and hole 33 are swapped.  I'll correct the error next
 [ week.  The G-roll bass section begins with hole 3 and has 24 notes
 [ (holes 3-26), as does the treble section (holes 40-63), for total
 [ of 48 playing notes.  When the first playing note (hole 3) is A#,
 [ the last playing note (hole 26) is A, and Middle C is hole 17.
 [ The list above doesn't show the lowest bass note on hole 3.
 [
 [ According to the history in Bowers' "Encyclopedia of Automatic
 [ Musical Instruments", page 598, Seeburg first sold coin pianos
 [ playing the type "A" roll (which is a derivative of the 58-note
 [ organ roll that plays from low C in the bass to high A).  The "G"
 [ roll instruments were introduced a few years later, but with ten
 [ less holes for playing notes.  I believe that they simply teed
 [ the low bass notes to the next higher octave, and so the highest
 [ playing note remained high A, as on the organ roll.  Thus the
 [ piano and its 58-note player action were the same as in the "A"
 [ roll pianos.  Maybe Don Teach can tell us more.  -- Robbie


(Message sent Fri 22 Jun 2001, 14:13:43 GMT, from time zone GMT-0600.)

Key Words in Subject:  Bar, G-roll, Nickelodeon, Scale, Tracker

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