What are Musical Scales? A scale is a sequence of musical notes in an ascending or a descending order. They are organised into categories such as diatonic, major, minor, and others, with a specific group of notes thus being described as a C-major scale, D-minor scale. Scales are typically listed from low to high. For instance, the increasing C major scale is C-D-E-F- G-A-B-[C], with the bracket indicating that the last note is an octave higher than the first note. Scales may be described according to the intervals they contain: for example: diatonic, chromatic, whole tone or they may be described according by the number of different pitch classes they contain: - Ditonic, tritonic, tetratonic scales having two, three or four tones - used in prehistoric music. Pentatonic, hexatonic, heptatonic scales, having five, six, and seven tones - are most common. Octatonic or eight tones - used in jazz and modern classical music. One or more scales may be used in a composition, such as in Claude Debussy's composition L'Isle Joyeuse. Scales in traditional Western music generally consist of seven notes and repeat at the octave. Notes in the commonly used scales are separated by whole and half step intervals of tones and semitones. Scales through History 1100–1600 Western music in the Medieval and Renaissance periods tends used the white-note diatonic scale C- D-E-F-G-A-B. 1600–1900 Music of this period used three types of scale: * The diatonic scale (seven notes) * The melodic and harmonic minor scales (seven notes) These scales are used in all of their transpositions. The music of this period introduces modulation, which involves systematic changes from one scale to another. Modulation occurs in relatively conventionalised ways. For example, major-mode pieces typically begin in a "tonic" diatonic scale and modulate to the "dominant" scale a fifth above. 1900 Onwards In the nineteenth and twentieth century, additional types of scales were explored: * The chromatic scale (twelve notes) * The whole tone scale (six notes) * The pentatonic scale (five notes) * The octatonic or diminished scales (eight notes) 16 What is a Major Scale? The major scale is the first of the diatonic scales. Another name for the major scale is the Ionian Mode. A major scale has 7 notes. The first and simplest major scale is the C major scale: C Major Scale The C major scale is the only major scale that doesn't have sharps (#) or flats (b). If you play the C major scale on the piano, only white notes are used (all the white notes). In solfege, the notes of the major scale are named like this: Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Ti, Do Another notation that is used is the following: - C D E F G A B C Do Re Mi Fa Sol La Ti Do All major scales have a typical structure. This is the C major scale: C D E F G A B C The C at the end of the scale is one octave higher (12 half tones) compared to the first C. Here are the intervals between the notes of the C major scale. An interval is the distance between two notes. * C-D: D is 2 half steps higher than C * D-E: 2 half steps * E-F: 1 half step * F-G: 2 half steps * G-A: 2 half steps * A-B: 2 half steps * B-C: 1 half step Every note in the C major scale is 2 notes higher than the previous note, except for the F and the C. C D E F G A B C 2 2 1 2 2 2 1 Major Scale Formula: 2 - 2 - 1 - 2 - 2 - 2 - 1 We can use this formula to construct other major scales: - e.g. D Major Scale D E F# G A B C# D 2 2 1 2 2 2 1 * # the sharp sign makes a note a half step higher. * b the flat sign makes a note a half step lower. List of all the Major Scales: C Major Scale: C D E F G A B 17 D Major Scale: D E F# G A B C# E Major Scale: E F# G# A B C# D# F Major Scale: F G A Bb C D E G Major Scale: G A B C D E F# A Major Scale: A B C# D E F# G# B Major Scale: B C# D# E F# G# A# C# Major Scale: C# D# E# F# G# A# B# Eb Major Scale: Eb F G Ab Bb C D F# Major Scale: F# G# A# B C# D# E# Ab Major Scale: Ab Bb C Db Eb F G Bb Major Scale: Bb C D Eb F G A Minor Scales The notes on a major scale sound bright and cheerful while the notes of the minor scale sound solemn and sad. List of all the Minor Scales: C = C - D - Eb - F - G - Ab - Bb - C D = D - E - F - G - A - Bb - C - D E = E - F# - G - A - B - C - D - E F = F - G - Ab - Bb - C - Db - Eb - F G = G - A - Bb - C - D - Eb - F - G A = A - B - C - D - E - F - G - A B = B - C# - D - E - F# - G - A - B C# = C# - D# - E - F# - G# - A - B - C# Eb = Eb - F - Gb - Ab - Bb - Cb - Db - Eb F# = F# - G# - A - B - C# - D - E - F# G# = G# - A# - B - C# - D# - E - F# - G# Bb = Bb - C - Db - Eb - F - Gb - Ab - Bb The formula to create a minor scale is: – whole step - half step - whole step - whole step - half step - whole step - whole step w - h - w - w - h - w - w. 2 -1 - 2 - 2 - 1 - 2 – 2 Pentatonic Scale The word "pentatonic" comes from the Greek word ‘pente’ meaning five and ‘tonic’ meaning tone. The pentatonic scale consists of five notes within one octave. The pentatonic scale is a very ancient scale. Pentatonic scales are very common and are found all over the world. They are found in Celtic folk music, Hungarian folk music, West African music, African-American spirituals, American folk music, Jazz, American blues music and rock music, Sami joik singing, children's songs and in the music of ancient Greece. Pentatonic scales are also found in the music of Indonesia, the Philippines, Korea, Malaysia, Japan, China, India and Vietnam. The pentatonic scale is also found in Andean music, Afro-Caribbean music in the Great Highland Bagpipe. Western Classical composers such as the French composer Claude Debussy also used this scale. 18 Pentatonic scales are either hemitonic or anhemitonic. Hemitonic scales contain one or more semitones and anhemitonic scales do not contain semitones. The two basic forms of pentatonic scales are: Major Pentatonic Scale - Consists of the 1st - 2nd - 3rd - 5th - 6th notes of a major scale. Minor Pentatonic Scale - Consists of the same 5 notes of a major pentatonic scale but its tonic (first note of the scale} is 3 semitones below the tonic of the major pentatonic scale. For example, the C major pentatonic (C - D - E - G – A) has the same notes as the A minor pentatonic (A - C - D - E – G) but arranged differently. The first note or tonic of the A minor pentatonic scale is 3 semitones (half steps) lower than the first note of the C major pentatonic scale. It uses the 1st - minor 3rd - 4th - 5th - minor 7th notes of a scale. Major Pentatonic Scale Anhemitonic pentatonic scales can be constructed in many ways. One construction takes five consecutive pitches from the circle of fifths; starting on C, these are C, G, D, A, and E. Transposing the pitches to fit into one octave rearranges the pitches into the major pentatonic scale: C, D, E, G, A, C. This common scale is found in the opening bars of "My Girl" by The Temptations. Another construction works backward: It omits two pitches from a diatonic scale. If we were to begin with a C major scale, for example, we might omit the fourth and the seventh notes of the scale F and B. The remaining notes, C, D, E, G, and A are transpositionally equivalent to the black keys on a piano keyboard: G-flat, A-flat, B-flat, D-flat and E-flat. Omitting the third (E) and seventh note (B) of the C major scale obtains the notes for another anhemitonic pentatonic scale: (F,G,A,C,D). Omitting the first and fourth notes of the C major scale gives a third an hemitonic pentatonic scale: (G,A,B,D,E). Minor Pentatonic Scale Although various hemitonic pentatonic scales might be called minor, the term is most commonly applied to the relative minor pentatonic scale derived from the major pentatonic, using scale tones 1, 3, 4, 5, and 7 of the natural minor scale. The C minor pentatonic would be C, E-flat, F, G, B-flat. The A minor pentatonic, the relative minor of C, would be the same tones as C major pentatonic, starting on A, giving A, C, D, E, G. This minor pentatonic contains all three tones of an A minor triad. The major pentatonic scale is the basic scale of the music of China and the music of Mongolia. The fundamental tones rendered by the 5 holes of the Japanese shakuhachi flute play a minor pentatonic scale. The minor pentatonic scale can be heard as the first notes of the verse of Don McLean's hit song ‘Vincent’ (Starry, Starry Night).