Blackjack lattice method

I have a "new" way of thinking about the Blackjack lattice. Actually,
I used it on my last Blackjack piece, and I'm continuing to use it.

Initially, when Paul and I were thinking about sonorities of the
Blackjack scale, we made "lists" of sonorities and classified them
according to "consonance" or "dissonance." They were, essentially,
classified according to *parallel* chord patterns on the Halberstadt
keyboard.

Then, I slavishly plotted common-tone harmonies from the Blackjack
lattice. I think I managed to get some music out of this, but in the
same vein as making serial 12-tone music: the method was a
little "contrived..." and forced me into a very "harmonic
progression" way of working.

My "new" way of thinking, if we can call it thinking, is to think of
the Blackjack lattice as viewed from a kind of camera. There's
a "zoom" element to it. In other words, pitches for chords that are
outside the most integral "resolution" or the just paths described by
the lattice, are, of course, usable: they are just further from the
main "focus..." (And, of course, their relationships would be more
complex and "remote" than the linked lattice pitches.) The "focus" is
the pure, virtually unbeating small ratio elements of the lattice.

Rather than *plotting* lattice pitches, or finding sounds through
contrived parallel keyboard patterns (the worst idea), I'm going
strictly by *ear*, which is what I should have been doing in the
first place!

Then, I consult the lattice and see how the pitches fit into
the "grander" scheme of things. Frequently, I'll have to "adjust"
pitches when I find that I've chosen a "wrong" note that doesn't fit
into a simpler lattice scheme. That is, of course, provided that the
resulting sound is *perferential* to the "error..." In some musical
cases, of course, an "error" could be preferred...

I imagine the whole idea of approaching the lattice with different
Blackjack pitches insofar as they relate progressively to the
simplest, small ratio joined just lattice pitches could be described
by some mathematical construct, not that I could or would want to try
that. It seems, in a way, a bit like Harmonic Entropy in the sense
that one is examining a larger "field" and then narrowing it down
(Paul most probably will contest this former statement...)

Anyway, this seems the most "musical" and "intuitive" way of working
with the Blackjack lattice so far, using it as a "reference" tool,
but not being it's abject slave...

J. Pehrson