[Dixielandjazz] Permutations

[Bill Gunter]

Hi Robert,

>If you compose four bars each consisting of four straight crotchets, then 
>there are 184884250000000000 possible tunes that can be written, so I think 
>it'll be some time before all tunes have been composed.

I'm not familiar with the term "crotchet" used in this context. Can you 
explain that a little.

Do your calculations also include the variations of a melody when you 
include rhythmic variations?

For example, the first two bars of "Jingle Bells" goes:

"da da dum / da da dum" (da=1 count, dum=2 counts)

what if you played:

"da dum da / da dum da"  or "da dum da/dum da da"

etc. etc. --- you get the point - are these different melodies?  Of course 
they are.

How would one go about counting the permutations when these variants are 
taken into consideration.  Then, start putting in rests of various values . 
. . sheesh!

Only 8 notes (and that ignores chromatic scales) . . . Hah!

I need a drink.

Respectfully submitted,

Bill "dum dum dum" Gunter
jazzboard at hotmail.com