There has been a great deal of discussion in the last few days on the Society for Music Theory listserv about the chanting of �Airball� at basketball games. It seems that the chants almost always arise in the key of F. Music theorists everywhere are trying to explain this phenomenon. Fortunately for you, the listserv is accessible by subscription only, so you need not feel obligated to keep abreast of these pressing academic developments.

Instead, I will summarize for you as follows:

In 1992, Cherrill Heaton, an English Professor at the University of North Florida published an article about this phenomenon in 1992 in the journal Popular Music and Society.

Dave Barry apparently found it and wrote a column about it.

A 1995 discussion shows you just how seriously music theorists take their sporting events. (By the way, I used to play pick-up Irish music with Greg Sandell).

As of 2 p.m. this afternoon, the latest theories as to why �Airball� is always begun on an F descending to a D on "-ball" are:

� American telephone dial tones are an F. We�ve all been brainwashed into a preference for the note since we started using the phone.

� The F and D do not actually indicate the key of F, but the dominant and third in the key of B-flat, which is the key in which the U.S. National Anthem is almost always sung at sporting events.

Earlier theories also credit the pitch of stadium lights, also almost always in B-flat.

Clearly I will need to spend more time at the United Center this winter in order to fully investigate this situation. And I will certainly keep you all posted of any important developments.

Meanwhile, here�s another guy who takes silly music very seriously.

And here is everything you ever wanted to know about the tuba.

0 people said it like they meant it