(Reprinted from an email sent out during the summer of 2016).<\/p>\n
When I ask for a specific scale, how do you determine which notes are flat\/sharp? There are several options. I’ll explain three of them, and you can decide which one will work best for you.<\/p>\n
Circles<\/strong> I’ll use the Circle of 4ths to illustrate (because we don’t have strings so we like flats better):<\/p>\n C = 0 flats I can’t say that I’ve found this understanding of much use to me outside of my earliest theory classes when I was first learning about intervals and chord structures and learning to analyse music (i.e. identifying progressions and relationships – how one chord can precipitate a key change because it exists in different keys). It’s probably not going to be the most useful method, but it does exist. Also, knowing the order of flats\/sharps (so you know which 4 notes are flat in Ab) is important. I explain that in the next method.<\/p>\n Order of Sharps\/Flats<\/strong> Sharps<\/em><\/strong> Then, look at the order of sharps to figure out the key signature: Flats<\/em><\/strong> The order of flats is: This is the way I believe I figure it out most of the time (or I just have them memorised – I’m not sure which). There is a bit of memorisation involved – I think it happened a bit organically for me because I have to do so much transposing on the fly as a Horn player. I find this to be most effective for transposing purposes in the context of a piece or short exercise. It’s also, I think, a better option for a faster scale (i.e. in quarter notes or shorter).<\/p>\n Scale Structure<\/strong> All major scales are made up of tones (T – a whole step as in C to D) and semi-tones (ST – a half-step as in C to C#).<\/p>\n The pattern to memorise is: Here is how it applies – I’ll pick Ab Major (because it’s my favourite concert pitch chord):<\/p>\n Ab (+ T) The pattern is reversed on the way down.<\/p>\n This is probably the method with the LEAST amount of memorisation required. I think it’s a very solid method to use for long-tone scales, because it makes no one key harder than any other – you’ve got the time to plan your next note out as long as you know the placement of tones and semi-tones.<\/p>\n I hope this gives you a bit of insight into some strategies for approaching a whole note scale when I just call out a key!<\/p>\n Happy Playing!<\/p>\n Elizabeth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" (Reprinted from an email sent out during the summer of 2016). When I ask for a specific scale, how do you determine which notes are flat\/sharp? There are several options. I’ll explain three of them, and you can decide which one will work best for you. Circles Firstly, there are the two circles. The Circle … Continue reading “Notes on Music – Scales\/Key Signatures Edition”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mbmillenniumband.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mbmillenniumband.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mbmillenniumband.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mbmillenniumband.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mbmillenniumband.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=297"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.mbmillenniumband.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":300,"href":"http:\/\/www.mbmillenniumband.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/297\/revisions\/300"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mbmillenniumband.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mbmillenniumband.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mbmillenniumband.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nFirstly, there are the two circles. The Circle of 4th is for the flat keys, which the Circle of 5ths is for sharps. You do have to memorise that C Major has no flats or sharps, and C is always where you start with either circle.<\/p>\n
\n(up a P4)
\nF = 1 flat
\n(up a P4)
\nBb = 2 flats
\n(up a P4)
\nEb = 3 flats
\n(up a P4)
\nAb = 4 flats
\netc.<\/p>\n
\nA second way of determining your flats\/sharps is by using the order of flats and sharps.<\/p>\n
\nThe last sharp in the key signature is one half-step below the key name. Thus, the last sharp in G Major, is F#, the last sharp in B Major is A#, etc.<\/p>\n
\nFather
\nCharles
\nGoes
\nDown
\nAnd
\nEnds
\nBattle<\/p>\n
\nThe key name is the second-last flat in the key signature. Thus, Ab Major has B,E,A,D flats, while Dd Major has B,E,A,D,G.<\/p>\n
\nBattle
\nEnds
\nAnd
\nDown
\nGoes
\nCharles
\nFather<\/p>\n
\nFinally, there’s the major scale structure itself.<\/p>\n
\nT T ST T T T ST<\/p>\n
\nBb (+ T)
\nC (+ ST)
\nDb (+T)
\nEb (+ T)
\nF (+ T)
\nG (+ ST)
\nAb<\/p>\n