Talk:Ladder of thirds

Very vague
All these "modal frame" related articles have the same problem: a non-definition followed by some suggestive language quoted from somewhere. If you already know what a ladder of thirds is, this might be helpful, but as it is, no.


 * 1) Consider the head, which should give some sort of definition. "A ladder of thirds...is similar to the circle of fifths, though a ladder of thirds differs in being composed of thirds" tells me something that it's similar to (but in what way?) but different from, and that it is "composed of" thirds (but what does "composed of" mean here? Is this a sequence of chords where the root moves by a third each time? Where the root of each chord is the third degree found in the previous chord? Something else? Or is it a chord composed of stacked thirds?
 * 2) What does it mean that triadic chords "may be considered as" part of a ladder of thirds? Considered in what way? How is a triad (a chord) the same as the ladder of thirds (presumably a sequence or set of chords, but maybe not--see 1)?
 * 3) Though a pentatonic type [of what?], the melodies come "into being through piling up thirds below and/or above a tonic or central note." What does this mean? How does it connect to the harmonic treatment above?

I don't mean to be harsh here, but: I'm fluent in music theory, and I doubt that these concepts are truly difficult to understand, but the way these articles are written they are so sketchy and impressionistic as to be incomprehensible.  &middot; rodii &middot;  20:23, 7 January 2013 (UTC)