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That’s what I’m working on now, lol. You will often hear diatonic scales and variations of them such as the major/minor scale, minor/major scale. I hear the blues pentatonic more that I hear something like a regular pentatonic scale and you will hear lots of arpeggios.
That’s just the tip of the iceberg though.
A good place to start is to learn the 12 major scales and the 12 minor scales. By "learn" I mean:
Check back in with us tomorrow, let us know how you did with C Major, and we'll give you the next scale!
- You know the names of the notes in each scale.
- You know how many sharps or flats it has.
- You understand how the scale is constructed from whole steps and half steps.
- You can play the scale over the entire range of your instrument, on every string.
- You can sing the scale.
- You can identify the sound of the scale when you hear it used in a song.
Check back in with us tomorrow, let us know how you did with C Major, and we'll give you the next scale!
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A good place to start is to learn the 12 major scales and the 12 minor scales. By "learn" I mean:
If you are an absolute beginner then I recommend to spend a day learning the "C Major" scale. It uses the notes CDEFGABC (no sharps or flats) and its pattern of whole steps (W) and half steps (H) is: WWHWWWH.
- You know the names of the notes in each scale.
- You know how many sharps or flats it has.
- You understand how the scale is constructed from whole steps and half steps.
- You can play the scale over the entire range of your instrument, on every string.
- You can sing the scale.
- You can identify the sound of the scale when you hear it used in a song.
Check back in with us tomorrow, let us know how you did with C Major, and we'll give you the next scale!
Plus 1. The above is what knowing your scales REALLY means.
When you have learned and digested all the above...move swiftly onto CHORD TONES.
Chord Tones Are Primary | Bass Chord Patterns | StudyBass
Yeah I already studied that and thanks for your help and contributions.
Scales - Scales are the foundation to all our music. Begs the question how do we use scales.
We use the note arrangement that will give the sound we are looking for. For example I do not hear that much difference in the Major scale and Lydian so I add a b7 and that moves it away from the major scale. We then call it the Lydian Dominant scale, or more correctly the Lydian Dominant mode of the major scale. Small changes....
Chord tones. How do we use them?
Chord tones are made from the chord's root scale. We then use every other note in the root scale. Why? What we are looking for is harmony for the melody. We get harmony when the treble clef and the bass clef share some of the same numbers. If the melody was using the C, E, C, G notes in it's melody the C chord which has the C, E & G notes in it's makeup would be a good candidate to harmonize that melody.
Melody use scales.
Harmony use chord tones that share notes with the active melody.
Rhythm involves both.
Happy trails.
- We have major scales and normally use the major scale for up beat happy music.
- We have minor scales and normally use the minor scale for a minor sound, some say sad sound. I do not hear sad so much as just minor. It is different than the major scale. They use sad, I just say minor.
- We can add or change notes of either one to give different sounds. For example:
- Take the major scale and sharp the 4th and that will give us the Lydian mode of the major scale. Some say that is a day dreamy sound.
- Take the major scale and flat the 7th and you get the Mixolydian mode of the major scale. It is said to give a Latin sound. We use it a lot in the Blues, because of the Blues chords being dominant seven chords - in many cases.
- Then there is the Harmonic minor scale. Which takes the major scale and flats the 3 and the 6th. Any time we flat the 3 we get that minor sound.
- Dorian mode will take the major scale and flat the 3 and 7. This points out that the differences is slight, but, does effect the sound.
We use the note arrangement that will give the sound we are looking for. For example I do not hear that much difference in the Major scale and Lydian so I add a b7 and that moves it away from the major scale. We then call it the Lydian Dominant scale, or more correctly the Lydian Dominant mode of the major scale. Small changes....
Chord tones. How do we use them?
Chord tones are made from the chord's root scale. We then use every other note in the root scale. Why? What we are looking for is harmony for the melody. We get harmony when the treble clef and the bass clef share some of the same numbers. If the melody was using the C, E, C, G notes in it's melody the C chord which has the C, E & G notes in it's makeup would be a good candidate to harmonize that melody.
Melody use scales.
Harmony use chord tones that share notes with the active melody.
Rhythm involves both.
Happy trails.
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The chord's root identifies the scale we use to make that chord.
For example:
Chord's root is a C. IF that chord is the tonic chord our key is C.
Notes in the C major scale are; C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C
C major - take the scale and skip a note for C, E, G.
D minor. Take the same scale and skip a note for D, F, A. Why call it minor? Well D major scale will have a F# and our chord has a natural F. So we flatted the F# making it a b3. It having a b3 makes that chord minor.
I'm sure there is another name we could use, or a better explination. Which would you use?
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The term Root relates to chords. The term Scale relates to, well, scales. Scales do not have Roots any more than Roots define or spawn scales. Most terms and definitions used in music are well defined and clear in their meaning. I just think the blending, mixing and interchanging of terms and definitions causes a lot of confusion. None of it is confusing if we learn and understand recognised terms and definitions and stick to them...
In western Major and Minor scales (but not modes), the note of a Scale after which the scale is named is the Tonic. The note after which a Chord is named it it's Root. For example:
- The note 'A' is the Tonic of A Major and A Minor Keys and Scales.
- The note 'A' is also the Root of an Am chord, regardless of if it is used as Tonic chord in key of Am, Supertonic (ii) of G Major, Mediant (iii) of F Major, Subdominant (iv) in Em, Submediant (vi) of C Major etc.
- Most western 'chords' are built from stacked thirds taken from a given scale - these are the Diatonic chords. Chords made from notes other than those in the scale are Chromatic chords.
- The pitch order of notes is irrelevant to the name of the chord and any note can be at the bottom. The important part for this discussion is that the Root is determined by taking all notes and rearranging them such that they make a closed stack of thirds - the Root is the one that ends up at the bottom of the stack.
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Short answer: Major scale, minor harmonic and minor melodic for spice. The first two are the ones to play over a tonality center. Major scale over a major tonality and minor harmonic on most minor tonalities. Of course there are more but to cover the basics if you know those 3 scales and some of their modes and how to apply them, you can go a long way.
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