Where does musical meaning come from? All musical meaning emerges from relationships. In order to create relationships, we need a reference point. The tonic note is our starting place, or "center of gravity" within a major scale or key. While the notes of a scale will change if the tonic note changes, the distance between these notes and the tonic will always be the same. Each note of the major scale has an inherent meaning, or "archetype," based on its relationship to the to

Keith Jarrett on Saturday Night Live (1978) 1. Keith Jarrett – transcendent jazz Keith Jarrett is widely accepted as the greatest solo piano improviser of our time. His 1975 classic, The Köln Concert, is the top-selling piano album of all time. Jarrett was known for delivering fully-improvised, stream of consciousness solo piano concerts, many of which were published as records. Jarrett's music shifted through gospel, classical, jazz, and folk traditions, often in the same pe