Figure 7-1: The C major scale, like all major scales, follows the WWHWWWH pattern.
Chapter 7
Mastering the Major and Minor Scales
Understanding major and minor scale patterns
Playing the scales on piano and guitar
Listening to all the major and minor scales
To put it simply, a scale is any group of consecutive notes that provides the material for part or all of a piece of music. We could write an entire encyclopedia on the different types of scales used in music from around the world, but because this book is primarily concerned with the Western tradition of music, we confine our discussion to the two most frequently used scales: the major and the minor.
It’s impossible to overemphasize just how important knowing your scales is to playing music. And it isn’t enough to be able to play the scales back and forth and up and down, either. In order to successfully improvise or compose, you need to know how to jump around on your instrument and still land on all the right notes within the scale.
Say you’re jamming with a group of musicians. If you know what key the rest of the band is playing in, and you know all the notes that are within that key (scales are determined by keys — you can read a lot more about keys and key signatures in Chapter 8), it’s impossible to mess up so long as you stick to those notes. In fact, you can noodle all day in the proper key and sound like a regular Carlos Santana or Louis Armstrong.
Following Major Scale Patterns
Even though every major scale contains a different set of notes, each scale is put together exactly the same way. The specific major-scale pattern of intervals is what makes them major scales.
Major scales follow the interval pattern of WWHWWWH, which means Whole step Whole step Half step Whole step Whole step Whole step Half step. We discuss half steps and whole steps at length in Chapter 6, but here’s a quick refresher:
Half step: Moving one piano key to the left or the right, or one guitar fret up or down.
Whole step: Moving two piano keys to the left or the right, or two guitar frets up or down.
Pitchwise, a half-step is exactly 1/12 of an octave, or 1 semitone. A whole step is exactly 1/6 of an octave, or 2 semitones.
Each of the eight notes in a major scale is assigned a scale degree according to the order it appears in the scale:
1st note: Tonic
2nd note: Supertonic
3rd note: Mediant
4th note: Subdominant
5th note: Dominant
6th note: Submediant
7th note: Leading tone (or leading note)
8th note: Tonic
The 1st and 8th notes, the tonics, determine the name of the scale. (Scales that share the same starting notes are called parallel scales. For example, C major and C minor are parallel scales, because they both start on the same note: C.) Relative to the tonic note, the rest of the notes in the scale are usually attached to the numbers 2 through 7 (because 1 and 8 are already taken by the tonic). Each of these numbers represents a scale degree, and their pattern of whole steps and half steps determine the key of the scale.
The 1st and the 8th notes have the same name here because they’re the exact same note — at the 8th note, the scale repeats itself. You won’t hear a musician talk about the 8th degree of a scale — instead, she’ll refer to the 1st note as the tonic.
So, for example, if you’re playing a piece of music in the key of C major, which sequentially has the notes C, D, E, F, G, A, B, and C in it, and someone asks you to play the 4th and 2nd notes in the scales, you play an F and a D. And you do the same thing if that person asks you to play the subdominant and the supertonic.
Mastering scales is all about recognizing patterns on an instrument. If you look at a piano keyboard or the neck of a guitar, can you see where the 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 of each scale go? If you’re given a scale and asked to play the sequence 5-3-2-1-6-4-5-8, do you know what notes you would play? Eventually, you want to be able to answer yes to these questions for all 12 major scales. Here’s how:
Picture each scale in your head and where it’s located on your instrument.
Know the letter name and number of each note in each scale.
Be able to play sequences of notes when given the key and number.
Only when you can do all three things for the 12 major scales can you stop practicing your scales.
The major scale, or the diatonic scale, is the most popular scale and the one that’s the easiest to recognize when played. Songs like “Happy Birthday” and “Mary Had a Little Lamb” are composed in the major/diatonic scale.
Working with major scales on piano and guitar
If someone were to ask you to play the scale for C major on the piano, you would put it together like the one in Figure 7-1.
Notice the arrow pointing to the steps in the figure — every single major scale you work with follows this pattern, using different combinations of black and white keys on the piano, depending on the scale.
To play each major scale on the piano, begin with the piano key that is the name of the scale. For the A major scale, for example, you begin with the A. (If you haven’t memorized the notes of the piano keyboard, refer to Chapter 6.) Then play the major scale pattern: WWHWWWH. The scale ends on the same note it began with, only an octave higher.
To see the major scale for every key, refer to Chapter 8, which illustrates key signatures by showing the scale on the staff for each key. To hear all the major scales, listen to the tracks listed in the upcoming section “Listening to the major scales.”
Playing scales on the guitar is even simpler than playing them on the piano. Guitarists think of the guitar neck as being broken up into blocks of four frets, and, depending on what key you want to play in, your hand is positioned over that block of four frets. Each four-fret block contains two octaves’ worth of every pitch within that scale.
Major scales on the guitar follow the pattern shown in Figure 7-2, playing the notes in the number order they appear. Remember: The 8th note (tonic) of the first octave serves as the 1st note (tonic) of the second octave.
Figure 7-2: This major scale pattern works up and down the guitar neck.
To play each scale on the guitar, begin with the correct fret on the first string (the top string as you hold the guitar, the low E string) to play the E major scale:
Open string: E
1st fret: F
2nd fret: Fs/Gf
3rd fret: G
4th fret: Gs/Af
5th fret: A
6th fret: As/Bf
7th fret: B
8th fret: C
9th fret: Cs/Df
10th fret: D
11th fret: Ds/E2f
12th fret: E
13th fret: F
To play major scales on the guitar, you just move that pattern along the neck to build whatever major scale you’d like. You determine the key by the first and last notes of the scale, so if someone asks you to play a C major scale, you simply start the scale on the 8th fret. No black keys or white keys to fool with here — just the same pattern repeated along the neck, over and over. (To see the notes on the frets of a guitar, check out Chapter 6.)
The actual pitch of the guitar is one octave (12 half steps) lower than the written pitch. This discrepancy occurs simply because most sheet music is written for piano, so the notes would fall below the staff if they were accurately written for guitar. On the piano, the middle octave is the most frequently used and is therefore centered on the grand staff. If composers had to write guitar parts at their actual sounding pitch, they would have to use too many ledger lines and the part would be confusing.
Listening to the major scales
Listen to Tracks 1 through 15 to hear each of the major scales played on the piano and guitar. Note that F sharp and G flat, D flat and C sharp, and B and C flat are all enharmonic scales.
|
Track |
Scale |
|
1 |
A major |
|
2 |
A flat major |
|
3 |
B major |
|
4 |
B flat major |
|
5 |
C major |
|
6 |
C flat major |
|
7 |
C sharp major |
|
8 |
D major |
|
9 |
D flat major |
|
10 |
E major |
|
11 |
E flat major |
|
12 |
F major |
|
13 |
F sharp major |
|
14 |
G major |
|
15 |
G flat major |
Discovering All Minor Scale Patterns Have to Offer
When you hear the term minor scales, you may be led to believe that this set of scales is much less important than the grand collection of major scales. Or you may think the minor scales are only for sad, sappy songs. But the truth is that the arrangements and tones (or note sounds) available in the minor scales — divided, according to composition, into the natural, harmonic, and melodic minor scales — can be much more flexible for a composer to use than the major scales alone.
Even though every type of minor scale contains a different set of notes, each type of scale is put together in a specific way. These specific patterns of intervals are what put the minor scales into their little niche. The scale degrees in minor all have the same names as the ones in major, except 7, which is called the subtonic.
Each of the eight notes in a minor scale has a name:
1st note: Tonic
2nd note: Supertonic
3rd note: Mediant
4th note: Subdominant
5th note: Dominant
6th note: Submediant
7th note: Subtonic
8th note: Tonic
In the harmonic and melodic minor scales, the 7th degree is called the leading tone. In the melodic minor scale, the 6th degree is called the submediant. (You can read more about degrees earlier in the chapter.)
In the following sections, we discuss the natural, harmonic, and melodic minor scales and how to play them on the piano and guitar.
Playing natural minor scales on piano and guitar
Natural minor scales follow the interval pattern of WHWWHWW, which translates into Whole step Half step Whole step Whole step Half step Whole step Whole step. The first note (and last) in the scale determines the scale name.
A natural minor scale is taken from the major scale of the same name, but with the 3rd, 6th, and 7th degrees lowered by one half step. So, for instance, if someone asks you to play the scale for A natural minor on the piano, you put it together as shown in Figure 7-3.
Figure 7-3: The A natural minor scale on the piano.
The same pattern also applies for each note up and down the guitar neck. Natural minor scales on the guitar follow the pattern shown in Figure 7-4. Play the notes in the number order shown in the figure. Your first note is indicated by the 1 shown on the first E string.
Figure 7-4: Playing the minor scale on the guitar.
Just as with major scales, to play natural minor scales on the guitar, you simply move the Figure 7-4 pattern along the neck of the guitar to build whatever minor scale you’d like. Whatever note you start with on the top (low E) string is the tonic and therefore names the scale. If someone asks you to play an A minor scale on the guitar, for example, you play the pattern shown in Figure 7-5.
Figure 7-5: The A natural minor scale on the guitar.
Having fun with harmonic minor scales on piano and guitar
The harmonic minor scale is a variation of the natural minor scale (which we discuss in the preceding section). It occurs when the 7th note of the natural minor scale is raised by a half step. The step is not raised in the key signature; instead, it’s raised through the use of accidentals (sharps, double sharps, or naturals). You can read about accidentals in Chapter 6. This sometimes means that you will mix sharps and flats in the same scale, which is okay.
To play the scale for A harmonic minor on the piano, you put the scale together as shown in Figure 7-6.
Figure 7-6: Notice how the piano scale changes when you add a half step to the 7th scale degree.
When you’re writing music and you want to use a harmonic scale, write it out using the natural minor key first, and then go back and add the accidental that raises the 7th degree up a half step.
Playing harmonic minor scales on the guitar is simple. You just position the pattern shown in Figure 7-7 over the root (tonic) position that you want to play in. Move it around to a different root to play the scale for that note.
Figure 7-7: Notice how the guitar pattern changes when you add a half step to the 7th scale degree.
As always, the key is determined by the first and last notes of the scale, so if someone asks you to play an A harmonic minor scale on the guitar, you play what’s shown in Figure 7-8.
Figure 7-8: An A harmonic minor scale on the guitar.
Making great music with melodic minor scales on piano and guitar
The melodic minor scale is derived from the natural minor scale (see the earlier section “Playing natural minor scales on piano and guitar” for details). In the melodic minor scale, the 6th and 7th notes of the natural minor scale are each raised by one half step when going up the scale. However, keep in mind that they return to the natural minor when going down the scale.
This scale is a tricky one, so we’re going to reiterate: While you’re going up in pitch when playing a piece, you raise the 6th and 7th degrees of the natural minor scale a half step, but during parts of the same piece where the pitch goes down, you play the notes according to the natural minor scale. Scales in which the 6th and 7th degrees are flat in natural minor will require naturals to raise those two degrees.
To play an A melodic minor scale ascending (going up) the piano, you play what’s shown in Figure 7-9.
Figure 7-9: Notice how the piano scale changes when you add a half step to both the 6th and 7th degrees.
When writing music in the melodic minor scale, composers write out the song using the natural minor pattern, and then they add the accidentals that modify any ascending 6th and 7th notes afterward.
The wonderful thing about the guitar is that you only have to memorize one pattern for each type of scale and you’re set. To play the ascending A melodic minor scale on guitar, play the pattern as shown in Figure 7-10. To play an A melodic minor scale ascending on the guitar, you play it as shown in Figure 7-11.
And, of course, for the descending notes on both the piano and guitar you revert to A natural minor.
Figure 7-10: Notice how the piano pattern changes when you add a half step to the 6th and 7th degrees of the scale.
Figure 7-11: An A melodic minor ascending scale on the guitar.
Listening to the minor scales
Listen to Tracks 16 through 60 to hear each of the minor scales played on piano and guitar.
|
Track |
Scale |
|
16 |
A natural minor |
|
17 |
A harmonic minor |
|
18 |
A melodic minor |
|
19 |
A flat natural minor |
|
20 |
A flat harmonic minor |
|
21 |
A flat melodic minor |
|
22 |
A sharp natural minor |
|
23 |
A sharp harmonic minor |
|
24 |
A sharp melodic minor |
|
25 |
B natural minor |
|
26 |
B harmonic minor |
|
27 |
B melodic minor |
|
28 |
B flat natural minor |
|
29 |
B flat harmonic minor |
|
30 |
B flat melodic minor |
|
31 |
C natural minor |
|
32 |
C harmonic minor |
|
33 |
C melodic minor |
|
34 |
C sharp natural minor |
|
35 |
C sharp harmonic minor |
|
36 |
C sharp melodic minor |
|
37 |
D natural minor |
|
38 |
D harmonic minor |
|
39 |
D melodic minor |
|
40 |
D sharp natural minor |
|
41 |
D sharp harmonic minor |
|
42 |
D sharp melodic minor |
|
43 |
E natural minor |
|
44 |
E harmonic minor |
|
45 |
E melodic minor |
|
46 |
E flat natural minor |
|
47 |
E flat harmonic minor |
|
48 |
E flat melodic minor |
|
49 |
F natural minor |
|
50 |
F harmonic minor |
|
51 |
F melodic minor |
|
52 |
F sharp natural minor |
|
53 |
F sharp harmonic minor |
|
54 |
F sharp melodic minor |
|
55 |
G natural minor |
|
56 |
G harmonic minor |
|
57 |
G melodic minor |
|
58 |
G sharp natural minor |
|
59 |
G sharp harmonic minor |
|
60 |
G sharp melodic minor |