News @ TheCipher.com         Chronology  April 17th 2005 The original early 1500s viola da braccio (4, 5, and 6 string lute-tuned fretted fiddles played on the arm) found and reclaimed as the Bowed Guitars they truly were ;’). These are now added to viola da gamba, of course. See page 3 of my viola da gamba section (very graphic heavy, let load.)    March 2005 Chromatic Isomorphic Symmetrical-Cross-Strung Whole-Tone Harp!  Dec 17th 2004 and finally, on 12-17-2004, The Cap-Stone plucked Viola Vihuela Guitar Viol! In a painted panel of the Gonesse organ of 1508, France, l'orgue de Abbey Eglise Saint Pierre et Saint Paul. This case is closed folks! It’s a done deal. Viols are guitars. ;’) See the entire Viola sine arculo section on page 2 of my viola da gamba section. Those pages a VERY graphic heavy now so be patient as the images load.             St. Cecilia must be watching over. ;’)  Dec 11th 2004 12-11-04, identified oldest known viola bodied vihuela guitar to date, 1300’s, Salamonca Spain.  Dec 4th 2004 on 12-4-2004, identified Raphael’s 1514 viol (in his painting: The Ecstasy of St. Cecilia) to be the key-most instrument of all for linking viola sine arculo with viola cum arculo (vihuela/viola with and without bow), meaning linking viols to guitars, at the same key critical moment in history, and in same key region, call it 1485 to 1515, Italy/Spain.    Dec 5th 2004 Plucked Viola sine arculo and the birth of 6 string viola da gambas, Bowed Guitars — as see through the iconography (old paintings) of the late 1400’s and early 1500s.  On 12-11-04, tracked down and added to the mix, the oldest viola-shaped vihuela guitar I’ve seen to date, the Salamanca viola, 1300’s Viols lap-held like guitars. And today, 12-5-2004, we are 50 years old!  ouch! ;’)  Feb 15th 2004 A few things: Open Position chords for 434 tuning (4 course or string) Open Position chords for 444 tuning p1, p2 (4 course or string) Open Position chords for 4434 tuning (5 course or string) Those three sets were inspired by the 7 string Gamba as gene-pool history lesson and connection making daze ;’) . . .  all of  those early guitars we need to remember, account for, acknowledge, recoupe, and even revive, including: Guitarra Latina 4 Rensaissance Guitar 4 Vihuela 4 Vihuela 5 Baroque Guitar 5 Guitarra de Golpe 5 (Mariachi) Also, made the 3 million hits mark last month ;’)    Dec 9th 2003 The Cipher for Viola da Gamba and Lute is largely done. Still need pages 3 and 4 of The Pattern of Unisons and Ocatves, plus some additional history (the histories of the entire and individual family members and their connections). Index of The Cipher for fretted Viola da Gamba: Front page of The Cipher for Viols and Lute 3 Minute Introduction for Viola da Gamba Commonsense String Numbers, Viola da Gamba Five Degree Calculation Line for Viola da Gamba Demonstrations for Viola da Gamba Number formula translation tables: intervals, scales, and chords Pattern of Unisons and Octaves for Viola da Gamba Beginners open position chords for Viola da Gamba (6 and 7 string in all tunings D, A, G, and an E Guitarists reference set) Triads on Viola da Gamba fretboard (two pages) Scales, Major and minor, parallel, Viola da Gamba or Lute fretboard, by string set Chord Progressions for Viola da Gamba and Lute (Triads of Major) Notes of Viola da Gamba and Lute fretboard spelled Free PDFs, Blank 6 and 7 string fretboard grid paper   Also, Basic Open Position chords for two more instruments are up: Open Position chords for 5 course Vihuela A D G B E, Baroque Guitar, and Guitarra de Golpe (marriachi) Open Position chords: for Baritone Ukulele D G B E, also applicable to any other 4th 3rd 4th instrument, e.g. 4 course Lute, Guitarra Latina, and Renaissance Guitar.    Nov 22nd 2003 Reuniting the family!  Nov 7th 2003 The Cipher for Viola da gamba and Lute is still growing See beginners chords for viola da gamba. Two tunings done so far, D, and E, the later is a guitarists reference. Index of The Cipher for fretted Viola da Gamba: Front page of The Cipher for Viols and Lute 3 Minute Introduction for Viola da Gamba Commonsense String Numbers, Viola da Gamba Five Degree Calculation Line for Viola da Gamba Demonstrations for Viola da Gamba Number formula translation tables: intervals, scales, and chords Pattern of Unisons and Octaves for Viola da Gamba Beginners open position chords for Viola da Gamba Triads on Viola da Gamba fretboard (two pages) Scales, Major and minor, in parallel, on the Viola da Gamba fretboard Chord Progressions for Viola da Gamba (Triads of Major) Notes of Viola da Gamba and Lute fretboard spelled Free PDFs, Blank 6 and 7 string fretboard grid paper  Nov 1st 2003 The Cipher for Viola da gamba and Lute is progressing: Index of The Cipher for fretted Viola da Gamba (to date): Front page of The Cipher for Viola da Gamba and Lute 3 Minute Introduction for Viola da Gamba Commonsense String Numbers, Viola da Gamba Five Degree Calculation Line for Viola da Gamba Demonstrations for Viola da Gamba  Oct 29th 2003 The Cipher for Viola da gamba and Lute is underway! I’ll be adding sections, nearly equivalent to the guitar coverage, in the next two weeks. This one feels special. It’s a not so secret mission and hope of mine to see the fretted viols revived and commonly available to all in the not too distant future.  October 26th 2003  Oct 20th 2003 Chromatic button accorion, CBA row-sets (tonic or root in top, middle, or bottom row of three adjactent rows) is up. B and C systems: scales, triads, and seventh chords.  Oct 6th 2003 Jazz seventh chords, four-string string-sets, a few plates up.  Sept 29th 2003 Basic Guitar Chords PDF for Lefty guitar is now available. The PDF is essentially identical to the righty version on the web site, just reversed for lefties. In the process of doing the Lefty version, I discovered some errors in fingering numbers of the barre chords in the Righty version and corrected them. Anyone who’s downloaded the Basic Guitar Chords PDF in the past should get a fresh copy.  Sept 14th 2003 Happy Birthday to TheCipher.com — 1 year old today.  July 22th 2003 Bass Guitar triads and scales are up: The four triads: View 1,  View 2 Inverted triads: View 1,  View 2 The four scales in parallel Updated Index of The Cipher for Bass Guitar: 3 Minute Introduction for Bass Commonsense String Numbers for Bass Five Degree Calculation Line for Bass Demonstrations for Bass Pattern of Unisons and Octaves for Bass Triads on Bass Guitar fretboard (four pages) Scales, Major and minor, in parallel, on the Bass Guitar fretboard Notes of the Bass fretboard spelled Blank 4 string fretboard grid paper in PDF Number-formula translation tables  July 20th 2003 Lefty Guitar progressions, triads of Major, is up: Updated Index of The Cipher for Lefty Guitar: 3 Minute Introduction for Leftys Commonsense String Numbers for Leftys Five Degree Calculation Line for Leftys Demonstrations 1 for Leftys Number formula translation tables: intervals, scales, and chords Pattern of Unisons and Octaves for Leftys Triads on Lefty Guitar fretboard (two pages) Scales, Major and minor, in parallel, on the Lefty Guitar fretboard Chord Progressions for Lefty Guitar (Triads of Major) Notes of Lefty guitar fretboard spelled Blank 6 string fretboard grid paper in PDF  July 19th 2003 More Lefty Guitar is up: Four scales in parallel Four triads, all string-sets View 1, View 2 Lefty chord progressions, triads of Major, is coming.  July 18th 2003  July 13th 2003 In the Isomorphic Chromatic Keyboards section, the basic suite of drawings plus blank grids PDF for Janko or Whole Tone keyboard is done. Plates: System Basics Speller, 2 octaves, one color Speller, 2 octaves, two color (C Major tones white) Scales Triads Seventh Chords Blank grids PDF —  6 row Whole Tone, Janko, 6-6 keyboard  July 9th 2003 “In for a dime, in for a dollar”. As if  I didn’t have enough on my plate already ;’) May as well do the Isomorphic Chromatic Keyboards right, give them they’re own section, both Chromatic Button Accordion (minor thirds isomorphically mapped chromatic keyboards) and Janko or Whole Tone keyboard (Major seconds  isomorphically mapped chromatic keyboard). These instruments are made for The Cipher (chromatic numbers), and visa versa.  July 4th 2003 Chromatic Button Accordion? Why not, will do! There’s a free PDF of blank CBA buttonboard grids too, 5 row models, assorted sizes of grids. Includes a speller for both C and B system (Bayan) CBA’s.  June 28 2003 The new icon based cross-referenced navigation system in the Core Cipher Components section is complete! See it here. Click around between instruments and topics. All 8 topic-icon links on any page will always be contextual, that is specific to the given instrument. If you want to compare different itterations of the same topic click on any of the different instrument icons in the header — you’ll remain in the same topic but for the new instrument — until you click a new topic icon. The Number Formula Translation Tables “instrument Editions” are all the same content but called from 6 different instrument-context cover pages. The tables are in Pop-up windows, 9 tables (all-in-one) in an inner-linked  Pop-up window. Here’s an example, click Chord Formula Table Two and you’ll launch a Pop-up. The Music Theory Elements Tutorials site-section is also now iconically linked through 8 topics. See it here. Some pages were moved in the hierarchy so that the “bread-crumb” directory struture read-out (white text-line just below the top site banner) reads correct now and can be followed backwards in the hierarchy — you can click any segment of the line to move back up the topic tree. There’s still  more  to do, but the basic navigation ease is taken care of now. This is as good as it gets navigationally. It took 30  new pages to get that core suite of instruments and topics to link up properly!  June 22 2003 Icon madness! It started with a few instrument peg-head icons on the home page last week. Now they’ll be everywhere across the entire site, an entirely new navigation system! Iconic navigation will include: Instrument selectors Topic and Sub-Topic selectors Cross-referenced navigation between instrument specific iterations of main topics will also be possible and easy now. It will take at least a week to complete this face-lift across 220 pages of web site.  Please bare with the half-baked appearance in the interim. You can still use the original top banner menus (4 drop-down list boxes) to navigate.  June 15 2003 New navigation icons implemented. So far, these are installed on the home page and on the individual 3 Minute Introduction pages. I’ll most likely do similar treatment across all instrument iterations of key topics. This allows easy comparison between instruments. L and R under the Guitar icon means Left or Right handed versions. These icons below are live, they take you to the different iterations of the 3 Minute Intro. R L  June 11 2003 An absolutely crazy week! I fell right into the trap, politics, and controversy surrounding the world of ”tapping fretboard string instruments” and related trademarked terminology. In the course of one week a 20 page site section went from being the Chapman Stick® section, to the Touchboard section, to the Touch-Style section, and finally back to Stick! While the Stick will recieve what amounts to highest billing and name usage (primarilly because is was the first, it is the most popular and well know instrument of it’s kind, it has the most recognized name, the one most people will be searching for first on the internet) that does not mean that I’m endorsing any particular company’s product over the other (nessesarily). I will try to be as fair to the other makers of similar instruments as I can, and have made a point to give those other companies, e.g. Warr Guitars® and Mobuis Megatar®, enough exposure to prove I’m serious. See the linked headings of the main index page of the Tapping Fretboard section and the links page section under Tapping Fretboard Instruments.    June 3rd 2003 The Chapman Stick section is done (for now). Index of The Cipher for Chapman Stick: 3 Minute Introduction for Chapman Stick Commonsense String Numbers for Chapman Stick Number formula translation tables: intervals, scales, and chords 5° and 7° Degree Calculation Line for Chapman Stick Cipher Demonstrations for Chapman Stick Pattern of Unisons and Octaves for Chapman Stick Notes of Chapman Stick fretboards spelled (and PDF) Blank Stick fretboard grid paper in PDF  May 29 2003 The Cipher for Chapman Stick is half done. The following topics are ready: 3 Minute Introduction for Chapman Stick Commonsense String Numbers for Chapman Stick 5° and 7° Degree Calculation Lines for Chapman Stick Spellers and blank grids PDF’s are on the Free page  May 18 2003 More Ukulele pages added: Triads on the Ukuklele fretboard (2 plates) Scales on the Ukulele fretboard (1 plate) Triad Progression materials of Major on Ukulele: main page, plus a 6 plate series.  April 30 2003 PDF of blank fretboard grids for 8 string Chapman Stick has been added to the Free page. The Stick grid PDF’s now include  8, 10, and 12 string Stick versions. Chapman Stick Fretboard note speller PDF’s have also been added to the Free page. The Stick speller PDF’s now include 8, 10, and 12 string Stick, and two tunings of each: standard and matched reciprocal tunings for 10 and 12 string Sticks and standard guitar and all-4ths tunings for 8 string Stick.  April 25 2003 Copies of the Summary Master Chart and Speller-Transposer are now included in the Cipher Formula PDF download on the Free page. PDF of blank fretboard grids for Chapman Stick are now available on the Free page. Versions are provided for 10 string and 12 string Grand Sticks.  April 08 2003 The Ukulele version of the Pattern of Unisons and Octaves section is complete (4 main pages plus 6 plate series). Updated (and completed) Index of The Cipher for Ukulele: 3 Minute Introduction for Ukulele Commonsense String Numbers for Ukulele Five Degree Calculation Line for Ukulele Demonstrations for Ukulele Pattern of Unisons and Octaves for Ukulele Number Formula Translation Tables Notes of the Ukulele fretboard spelled Blank 4 string fretboard grid paper in PDF We now have full parity of coverage (of the Core Cipher components) between: Guitar Lefty Guitar Bass Ukulele Mandolin/Tenor banjo  See the Table correlating Instruments and Topics. Viola de gamba and Chapman Stick coverage remain to be done.  March 30 2003 The Bass Guitar version of the Pattern of Unisons and Octaves section is complete (4 main pages plus 6 plate series). Updated (and completed) Index of The Cipher for Bass: 3 Minute Introduction for Bass Commonsense String Numbers for Bass Five Degree Calculation Line for Bass Number-formula translation tables Demonstrations for Bass Pattern of Unisons and Octaves for Bass Notes of the Bass fretboard spelled Blank 4 string fretboard grid paper in PDF We now have full parity of coverage (of the Core Cipher components) between: Guitar, Lefty Guitar, Bass, and Mandolin/Tenor banjo. See Table correlating Instruments and Topics. Ukulele Pattern of Unisons and Octaves remains to be done, plus all Viola de gamba and Chapman Stick coverage.  March 20 2003 The Bass Guitar version of the large Pattern of Unisons and Octaves section is under construction. Page One is complete. Pages 2, 3, and 4 will be ready in a few days.  March 15 2003 The Cipher for Bass Guitar has been enlarged. Full coverage of the bass’s Pattern of Unisons and Octaves remains to be done. Index of The Cipher for Bass: 3 Minute Introduction for Bass Commonsense String Numbers for Bass Five Degree Calculation Line for Bass Demonstrations for Bass Pattern of Unisons and Octaves for Bass Notes of the Bass fretboard spelled Blank 4 string fretboard grid paper in PDF Number-formula translation tables  March 12 2003 The Cipher for Ukulele has been greatly enlarged. Full coverage of the ukulele’s Pattern of Unisons and Octaves remains to be done. Updated Index of The Cipher for Ukulele: 3 Minute Introduction for Ukulele Commonsense String Numbers for Ukulele Five Degree Calculation Line for Ukulele Demonstrations for Ukulele Pattern of Unisons and Octaves for Ukulele Notes of the Ukulele fretboard spelled Blank 4 string fretboard grid paper in PDF  March 3 2003 The Cipher Formula are now available as a free download in high resolution PDF for printing. This is the PDF version of the full set of ten Musical Number Formula Translation Tables (standard and Cipher, diatonic and chromatic), found on this web site under Core Cipher Components / Number Formula. Tables are included for intervals, scales, and chords. I’ve also included one additional interval table from the Music Theory Elements section, this table. 700k download on the Free page.  February 28 2003 The Cipher.com wins Site of the Year award!  February 18 2003 Modified the PDF Fretboard Note Spellers for 5th tuned instruments on the Free Downloads page. Two separate PDF’s are available now, including: Dixieland Tenor Banjo C G D A Irish Tenor Banjo G D A E (combined within the Mandolin fretboard speller, both being G D A E tuned). Similar modifications and additions have been made to the Fifths tuned Other Instruments page.  February 13 2003 Added a page on Diatonic Seventh Chords of Major.  February 08 2003 Added a three page set of Basic Guitar Chords for beginners to the Cipher Guitar Chord Encyclopedia. These are the essential open position chords (chords in first three frets) plus the basic barre chords rooted on strings one and two. These pages of chords are also available as a free download in high resolution PDF for printing.  February 05 2003 More on the completed HTML text versions of  tables Mac Browsers can’t render CSS properly so I had to redo the (already completed) new text based Musical Number Formula Translation Tables with lots of bloat code, adding as much as 40k to the larger tables. IE5 Mac works now, but that’s the trade off.  January 31 2003 Subject; HTML text versions of tables Well,  my suspicions are confirmed. My site is being penalized somewhat (or not credited proportionally) by search engine robots because so much of my content is locked up in those pretty graphic illustrations (.gifs). So, I’ve decided to convert some of my hard gotten graphics into machine readable HTML text tables. Devo, lower tech. At minimum, I’ll do the  Musical Number Formula Translation Tables in the Core Cipher Components section: Intervals, scales, and chords. Intervals Table One and Two, and Chords Table One and Two are done. If I can keep the file sizes low enough (and page loads fast enough), I’ll keep both versions of these charts, gif and HTML text, on any given page. I just don’t trust HTML tables and fonts to render consistently across all user preference settings, browsers, and platforms. The HTML tables are pretty complex (each individual formula digit gets it’s own small cell, and if the font point size increases for any reason the layout can get mucked up with characters wrapping onto a second line). If it works well, the text versions could be considered detailed machine readable and searchable “alt tags” for the graphic versions. The best of both worlds? We’ll see. And so it goes ;’)  January 25 2003 Lots of cosmetic improvements, anchor repairs, and general tune-ups. And (last things last) the Links page has begun.  January 19 2003 My new in-house Search Engine is up. The Site Search Box is located at the bottom of most pages in the site — including this page (click here or scroll down to see it).  January 08 2003 Try our new Guest Book!  January 01 2003 . . . Happy New Year 2003 . . . Year-end summary (site launched 9-14-02, appox 3½ months ago): TheCipher.com is now 148 pages large (see Site Map). We now have full parity between Guitar and Mandolin in the two main sections of the site: the Core Cipher Components section and the Music Theory Elements section. Updated Index of The Cipher for Mandolin (or Tenor Banjo): 3 Minute Introduction for Mandolin Commonsense String Numbers for Mandolin Seven Degree Calculation Line for Mandolin Cipher Demonstrations for Mandolin Pattern of Unisons and Octaves for Mandolin Triads on the Mandolin fretboard (two pages) Scales, Major and minor, parallel, on Mandolin fretboard Chord Progressions for Mandolin (Triads of Major) Notes of Mandolin fretboard spelled Blank 4 string fretboard grid paper in PDF We also have parity across three iterations of the Core Cipher Fretboard Components: Right handed Guitar Left handed Guitar Mandolin (5ths tuned Tenor Banjo, Violin, etc.) Plus, concise coverage for Bass and Ukulele (both being guitar subsets) — includes all key drawings however.    December 28 2002 Mandolin Scales fretboard fingering chart is up. Four scales in parallel, Major and three minors.  December 27 2002 Mandolin Triads charts are up (two pages).  December 25 2002 Merry Christmas you all. The Mandolin version of the Triad Chord Progressions section is up. Getting close to parity between Guitar and Mandolin now in the “Music Theory Elements” section of the site. I still need to add a few mandolin oriented charts to the Triads and Scales pages. Happy holidays.  December 21 2002 The Mandolin version of the 4-page Pattern of Unisons and Octaves section is done. The Cipher for Mandolin (or Tenor Banjo and Violin) section now duplicates all of the guitar fretboard related material in the Core Cipher Components section but with all drawings being appropriate to the Mandolin fretboard (or any 4 string 5ths tuned instrument). Index of The Cipher for Mandolin (or Tenor Banjo): 3 Minute Introduction for Mandolin Commonsense String Numbers for Mandolin Seven Degree Calculation Line for Mandolin Cipher Demonstrations for Mandolin Pattern of Unisons and Octaves for Mandolin Notes of Mandolin fretboard spelled We now have full parity across three iterations of Core Cipher Fretboard Components: Right handed Guitar Left handed Guitar Mandolin (5ths tuned Tenor Banjo, Violin, etc.) Plus, concise coverage for Bass and Ukulele (both being guitar subsets) — includes all key drawings however.  December 15 2002 The Cipher for Ukulele is up — a one page brief, all with key drawings. Enough to start.  December 14 2002 The Cipher for Mandolin section is growing. (applicable to any 5ths tuned string instrument). 3 Minute Introduction for Mandolin Mandolin Cipher demonstrations All intervals on the mandolin fretboard and more Mandolin Pattern of Unisons and Octaves - one (of four) pages done   more coming soon . . . . .  November 29 2002 Now available on the Free Downloads page; Fretboard note spellers in PDF. Printable high-resolution PDFs showing the notes of various fretboards spelled (12 frets, one octave). 380k download per file. PC users right-click and “save target as”. Mac users, click-hold and select “download link to disk” from the pop-up menu. Guitar fretboard notes spelled Lefty Guitar fretboard notes spelled Bass Guitar fretboard notes spelled Mandolin, Violin, Tenor Banjo, Ukulele fretboard notes spelled  November 28 2002 Now available on the Free Downloads page: Blank grid paper for Bass guitar, Mandolin, Tenor Banjo, or Ukulele (any 4 string fretted instrument) grids paper. 6 pages, assorted sizes and layouts in Adobe Acrobat PDF format.  380k download. [PC users right-click and “save target as”. Mac users, click-hold and select “download link to disk”  from the pop-up menu.]  November 17 2002 The Lefty version of the 4-page Pattern of Unisons and Octaves section is done. The Cipher for Lefty Guitar section now duplicates all of the fretboard related material in the Core Cipher Components section with all drawings being the reverse of those found on their respective right-handed pages. Index of The Cipher for leftys (or lefties): 3 Minute Introduction for Leftys Commonsense String Numbers for Leftys Five Degree Calculation Line for Leftys Demonstrations 1 for Leftys Pattern of Unisons and Octaves for Leftys Notes of Lefty guitar fretboard spelled  November 14 2002 Lefty version of the large 4-page “Pattern of Unisons and Octaves” section is under construction. Pages 1 and 2 are up, pages 3 and 4 will be done in the next few days. Lefty version of “3 Minute Introduction” is done.  November 12 2002 Another new page is up — The Cipher for Bass Guitar.  September 29 2002 Week 2 The Descending Five Degree Calculation Line page is done and posted. The Cipher for Lefty Guitar section is still growing but many of the drawings are up. Two landmarks reached this week: The book manuscript has crossed that magical mark of 500 pages done. Yeah! TheCipher.com web site site is now 100 pages large.  September 21 2002 Week 1 By popular request I’ve reorganized the site so that everything hangs off of one of four main sections -- reflected in the main nav bar. Also added the “bread crumb” showing “where you are now” within the site structure below the nav bar. Many pages were renamed during the site sections shuffle, so most saved urls and links from the first week of operation will be broken. I’m in the midst of preparing a page on the “descending” Five Degree Calculation Line for guitar. Once that’s done, I do the  “for Leftys” versions.  September 14 2002 Saturday eve, 8:30pm. getting impatient . . . . Ready or not, here we come! Upload for testing. TheCipher.com is LIVE!  long live The Cipher . . .               Please sign my Guest Book, say hello.       Up to Top of page