Notes and Scales, Part 3 – Major and Minor Scales
If you are
familiar with basic music, you’ll notice that every song is performed based on
a particular KEY. Keys are basically relative pitches in which a song is being
performed. For a layman, listen carefully to two different person sing a same
song. You will notice that the tune of the song is the same but both of them
will be singing in a different pitch. This means that both the person is
singing in a different key.
Music can be in
any key as depicted under Part 1, and
as circled in Figure 2. This means
that a song can be performed in a total of 12 keys (C, C#/Db, D,D#/Eb, E, F,
F#/Gb, G, G#/Ab, A, A#/Bb, B).
Now, let’s look
at scales, what are scales and how do we apply it all keys. For understanding,
scales are basically a group of notes which makes a harmonious melody. The most
common scales are the ‘Major’ and ‘Minor’ scales.
Major Scale
For most people, the
Major Scale would be by far the most familiar. You will know this by the DO,
RE, MI, FA, SO, LA, TI, DO as
explained in Part 1, Figure 1. If
you look closer, the Major scale actually consists of notes taken from the
chromatic scale. We shall look at the C Scale (or ‘C’ Major Scale) once again,
in which it is in the key of ‘C’ Figure
4 below depicts a chromatic scale. Pay attention to the circled notes, and
you will notice that the notes circled are actually the notes in the C Scale as
explained in Figure 1.
Now, let’s take a
look at the intervals in the Major Scale. A whole note is an interval of 2
steps, while a half note is 1 step. You can see above in Figure 4 that the interval pattern for the Major Scale for each
octave is WWHWWWH from C1 to C2, and likewise from C2
to C3, in which the C notes are known as the Root (Underlined above). Figure 4 shows a C Scale. Let’s now look at a D Scale (or ‘D’
Major). The difference between ‘C’ and ‘D’ is known as a whole key up, in which
‘C’ Key is lower pitch compared to ‘D’ Key. Figure 5 below shows the notes in the D Major Scale as circled.
In a D Scale,
notice that all intervals are the same as a C Scale, WWHWWWH from D1
to D2, and likewise from D2 to D3 etc. In the D
Scale, there is C# and F# reason being a whole interval (2 steps) from ‘E’ is
‘F#’ and likewise a whole interval from ‘B’ to ‘C#’. And obviously, the D Scale
is in the key of ‘D’, and the root
is ‘D’. Similarly, if you want to get another scale, you’ll just need to take
the Major Intervals (WWHWWWH), apply
it to the chromatic scale and start counting from the root.
Minor Scale
Let’s look at
another common scale, the Minor Scale. In this section, the Minor Scale refers
to the Natural Minor Scale as it is most common. We shall not touch on the
Harmonic Minor and Melodic Minor Scale. The Minor Scale’s intervals are
WHWWHWW. Figure 6 shows an ‘Am’
(pronounced ‘A’ Minor) scale, in which its root is ‘A’.
Notice in Figure 6 above, the notes in the Am
scale (circled) are the same with C Major in Figure 4. The only difference is in the root. If you compare Figure 4 and Figure 6, if in the C Scale where ‘C’ note is the 1st
note (root) of the Major Scale, you will notice that the ‘A’ note falls on the
6th. Vice versa in the Am Scale, where the ‘A’ note is the 1st
note (root) of the Minor Scale, the ‘C’ note will fall on the 3rd. Figure 7 compares the intervals for 2
octaves between a major and minor scale. This should give you a clearer
picture.
Figure 8 is a Bm scale.
Applying the Minor Intervals on a Chromatic Scale (Figure 2), you would expect that Relative Major would be ‘D’. That
is exactly the case as illustrated below:
Referring to Figure 8, we can see that the 3rd
note (‘D’) from the root ('B’) is the Relative Major. Vice-versa, if you
refer to the D Scale in Figure 5¸you
will notice that the 6th note (‘B’) from the root is the
Relative Minor. If you were to check out the intervals between Figure 5 and Figure 8, you will see that it is related as in illustrated in Figure 7.
As a summary for Part 3, we learnt the difference
between the Major and Minor Scales and how the intervals are related. You can
take the Major or Minor Intervals and apply it to any starting note in the
Chromatic Scale. The starting note will determine your scale, depending on
whether you use the Major or the Minor Intervals. Also, each Major Scale will
have a 6th note being the Relative Minor, and vice-versa for each
Minor Scale, the 3rd note will be its Relative Major.
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