Clown Piano notes

Clown Piano notes:

I have played piano for over 40 years and it was just this morning that I became aware that there were 52 white keys on the piano.

I was reading "The Book of Numbers" by Tim Glynne-Jones and came across the statement that there are 36 black keys on the piano.   Knowing that there are 88 keys total, I calculated there are 52 white keys.

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   This calls to mind a few correspondences:

52 weeks in a year

52 cards in a deck of playing cards

52 white keys on the piano

52 uppercase and lowercase letters in the English alphabet

52 years in a full cycle of the Mayan calendar

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The four suits of the playing cards can be mapped onto the four seasons of the calendar.

4 x 13 = 52

Each playing card can me mapped onto a week of the year.  The few extra intercalculary days can be mapped onto the Joker!   The intercalculary days are the days between "day 364" and the first "day 1" of the next year.  This is just one day in a normal year; or two days in a leap year.

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The 52 cards could be mapped onto the 52 white keys of the piano.  If so, the Ace of Spades might have to be the highest note on the piano because it is the card that trumps all other cards.  But maybe, the Ace of Spades would be the lowest note on the piano, because bass notes "rule" the other notes.

If you mapped 52 cards onto the white keys, you could form random chord arrangements by choosing cards from a deck of playing cards.   For example, each hand of five card stud would be a unique chord.

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There are 26 letters in the English alphabet.   If you count upper and lower case separately, there are 52 uppercase and lowercase letters in the English alphabet. 

26 x 2 = 52

Each letter could be mapped onto a white piano key.  If Capital "A" is the lowest key on the piano, then lowercase "z" is the hightest note on the piano.   Every unique sentence in English yields a unique melody.   Starting with a Bass note capital letter and then fully embellished with the lowercase melody line that follows.

To further expand the idea, numbers and punctuation could be mapped onto the black keys.  The tempo could be at a regular rate with each letter taking a beat and the space between words being a rest.

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There are 36 black keys on the piano.

6 x 6 = 36
6**2 = 36

also
9 x 4 = 36
or
3 x 3 x 2 x 2 = 36
3**2 x 2**2 = 36

There are 360 degrees in a circle.

Directions of a compass can be mapped onto the black keys.

Time on the clock can be mapped onto the black keys.

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There are 236 strings in a piano
There is only one string in my swimming trunks.

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copyright(c)2015

William Schaeffer