This is similar to my previous post on chords. However, the emphasis will be more on playing scales and chords on a piano/keyboard rather than a guitar. Leave your comments at the end. Don't forget to click on the links for the key words. They will open the links in new windows for a detailed explanation about the concepts from different sites. There are scales in music which comprise of a sequence of notes. For instance, one may have heard the song from the famous Broadway Musical Sound of Music. 'Doe a dear, Ray a drop of golden sun, Me a name I call myself….' Maria is actually teaching the Von Tropp kids ‘do-re-mi-fa-so-la-ti-do’, the major scale in music. In the sequence, each one, Do, Re, Mi… is a musical note. In English we can replace these by ‘C-D-E-F-G-A-B-C’. So each scale starts with a note and ends with the same note. The scale mentioned here is C-Major Scale as it starts with C and ends with C. Actually you can also see that the letters used here for the seven notes are A – B – C – D – E – F – G. When you are talking about the C Major Scale, you start from C and move upto G and again go to A followed by B and the Higher C, D, E etc. The seven notes repeat themselves as basic notes for music in general. Please note that these are not the only notes between the two Cs or As or any two same notes mentioned here. There are eleven notes in between the middle C and the higher C. This can be explained with a picture of the keys in a piano or keyboard. Notes are played by pressing down the white and black keys on a piano/keyboard :) In the picture we see the following notes on the keys: C – C♯ – D – D♯ – E – F – F♯ – G – G♯ – A – A♯ – B – C. Altogether there are 13 notes from a C to the next C or between any key to the same key in the next octavos. You can note that the black keys do not have a name of their own like C, D, E etc. Rather they have a derivative/relative name like C♯, D♯ and F♯ etc. The sign ♯ shows that they are a black keys which are half step away from the previous ‘independant’ white key. One must just remember that it is not called as ‘Hash’ as it is called in a computer keyboard. It is called a sharp. The characters are actually different. The hash is # and the musical notation ♯. You can make out the difference, can’t you? # is U+0023 and ♯ is U+266F in the Unicode chart. Therefore, a note C♯ should actually be pronounced as ‘See Sharp’. We also said that the ‘sharp names’ are ‘relative names’. An ‘A♯’ note is named ‘A Sharp’ because we see it as a note following ‘A’. But if we see it as a note preceding the B note then its (relative) name would be ‘B flat’ and it will be marked as ‘B♭’. Notice again that the symbol used here ‘♭’ is not the English alphabet ‘b’. You would also notice that the Keys E and B have only a white key following them. Since there are no black keys, they can be said as notes that do not have a ‘Sharp’ derivative. Now the question is that if there are 13 notes from ‘middle C’ to the ‘higher c’, how did we pick the 8 that we have in Do, Re, Me…., I mean, the C Major Scale mentioned in the above paragraphs as C-D-E-F-G-A-B-C. There is a method, rather, a formula. It is called a Major Scale Formula. S – S – HS – S – S – S – HS. Looks like a sign board on a doctor’s clinic asking us to shut our mouths, isn't it? Well, the formula can be written in more than one ways but I have done this for you to easily relate it to the concept of ‘Half Step’ that we introduced a little while ago. The same can be called as 'Half Tone' and the formula can be written as T - T - HT - T - T- T - HT also. Just to refresh our memories, a ‘Half Step’, lets say the distance between one key to the next key on a piano/keyboard is ‘Half Step’. The keys here may either the white key or the black key, it does not matter but it is the next key. If the two keys next to each other are in a ‘Half Step’ distance, then the next key, the after the second key is two half steps away from the first key. Let us illustrate this. If C – C♯ – D – D♯ – E – F – F♯ – G – G♯ – A – A♯ – B – C are all the keys on a piano or keyboard, then the note C and C♯ are ‘Half Step’ away from each other. If we move another ‘Half Step’ then we will be on the note D. We are saying that D is 2 Half Steps away from the note C. If a note is two ‘Half Steps’ away from another, then it may be called as one ‘Full Step’ or lets call it a ‘Step’ away from the first. So lets take the sequence of 13 notes on the Piano or Keyboard and apply our formula where ‘S’ represents a ‘Step’ and ‘HS’ is a ‘Half Step’. Notes on the instrument: C – C♯ – D – D♯ – E – F – F♯ – G – G♯ – A – A♯ – B – C Major Scale Formula: S – S – HS – S – S – S – HS. Lets take the note C. If we move a STEP (two HALF STEPS, C to C♯ and C♯ to D) away from it, then we will be in D. So we have got two notes, C and D, as the first and second notes of the Major Scale. Lets delete the first S in the formula as we have crossed it. We are then left with the following: S – S – HS – S – S – S – HS (The red color indicates that we have used that move). Since next move is also ‘STEP’, we move from D to E (two HALF STEPS distance). We have got total three notes, C – D – E and are left with the following moves on the formula: S – S – HS – S – S – S – HS The next move is a HS – HALF STEP. Since we are at E, if we move a HALF STEP, then we will arrive at the note F. Remember we saw that there is no black keys following the notes E and B. They have no sharp derivatives. (in some advanced level theory, F and C can be called as E# and B#, but they are irrelevant for us at the time being. Now we have four notes with us C – D – E – F. The remaining moves in the formula are: S – S – HS – S – S – S – HS If we complete all the moves, then we end up getting the following notes for the scale: C – D – E – F – G – A – B – C This is our C Major Scale because it start from C. Follows the intervals according to the Major Scale formula and ends up with the higher C. If we start with D and move according to the formula then we would arrive at D – E – F♯ – G – A – B – C♯ – D. This is D-Major Scale. If you start from C♯, then you’ll get C♯ – D♯ – F – F♯ – G♯ – A♯ – C – C♯ From whichever note you start, there will be eight, if you include the ending note of the sequence, individual notes that are played in a sequence. This is much like what we do in Carnatic or Hindustani music, Sa, Re, Ga, Ma, Pa, Dha, Ni, Sa. Hope this was not too heavy with you. All you have to do is to write down the Major Scales of each note like C or C# etc and practice them on your Piano/Keyboard. After sometime, you’ll realize that you are identifying C Major Scale, for instance, as a scale without any ‘Sharps’ and F Major Scale and G Major Scale as ‘Single Sharp Scales’ etc. The more you practice the scales, the better the musician you will become. You’ll find it easier to play the melody/tune of any song or identify the scale in which the song is composed etc. You will also find it easy to learn about chords which will be our next lesson.
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S WINSTON CRUZA Christian born of water and spirit in Jesus Christ, I play rhythm guitar in the worship team of my church, a linguist by training, hooked to translation management through profession and live with my dear wife and sweet daughters in Mysuru. ArchivesCategories |