Special post: "Hit Me With Music" on Scales

Hey guys, how's everyone doing? Sulli here with a special post for you. Today, Uri and Anu from "Hit Me With Music" are going to post an article about scales. If you like this article then feel free to subscribe to the right by inputting your email or following me on social media (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and SoundCloud). Let us know what you think in the comments below or emailing me at the address above. Thanks for reading!

Hi, Adam Sullivan Music Theory Blog readers! We're Uri and Anu, and we're writing a really unique introduction to music for you over the next few months. Music textbooks try to teach you how to read clefs, whole notes, and quarter rests without telling you why they're important, and other pop music books dive into the neuroscience behind music with a limited crash course on how music works. There's no simple primer on music that teaches music through questions that people really care about, like "What makes music sound happy vs. sad?" and "What makes rock sound like rock?" So, we're writing a book to give you an easy-to-read intro to the concepts you've always wanted to understand, like chords, rhythm, and harmony, through answering questions you actually care about! First, let's start with a sample from our book:

To understand music, we must understand scales.

Our everyday lives are generally full of units of measurement, and many of those units are essentially arbitrary. If you’re driving down a quiet street and a cop pulls you over for doing 90 miles per hour, the thing he’s measuring (your speed) may be real and meaningful but the units he’s using (miles, hours, miles per hour) are essentially arbitrary, the products of a quirky set of historical accidents. There is nothing fundamental about the length of an hour that makes it an especially meaningful unit of time: if our Babylonian forerunners had done things differently we could easily be using a basic unit that was some other length. Equally, there is nothing fundamental about the length of a mile that makes it an especially meaningful unit of distance; for that reason, a lot of countries have in fact chosen a different (equally arbitrary) unit called “a kilometre” to do the same work.

By contrast, some of our common units have a deeper logic to them. The length of a day was not decided for us by some ancient civilization  “a day” is the non-arbitrary length of time that it takes the earth to spin once around its axis. This gives days some very useful and meaningful properties.

How about music? In the same way that time (on earth) is organised around these things called “days,” music is organised around things called scales: sets of musical notes lined up in order. But is the length of a scale arbitrary (like the length of a metre) or fundamental (like the length of a day)? Let’s find out."

You can read the rest of the sample segment we wrote here. If you like Julie Andrews and Judy Garland, we promise it'll be a fun read :).

The Kickstarter for our book runs through this Thursday, July 4. We've already reached our initial $1,000 goal, and are now reaching for a stretch goal of $1,500! If we raise $1,500, we commit to adding an online multimedia supplement to our book within three months of publication. Keep in mind that with any contribution $5 or above, you'll get a copy of the Hit Me With Music e-book as a perk!

We also want to hear your ideas and suggestions for the book and multimedia supplement! Write to us at hitmewithmusicbook@gmail.com.

Episode 8: Understanding Intervals Part 1

Hello and welcome back to those who are returning, and welcome aboard for those of you who are new to the series! Sorry this took me so long to post but I've been loaded down with stuff and I sort of forgot about this episode. So after I made the episode for last week I read over it and found out you were suppose to read this a few months ago... So, here we are! We need to start getting down towards the heart of music, and start learning about intervals and why they are important to music. If you like this post is great then please share this by clicking the Facebook, Twitter or Google+ buttons at the bottom!

First off you need to know what an interval is. An interval is the distance between two notes. There are 8 basic intervals: A Unison (same note or C to C), a 2nd (C to D),  3rd (C to E), 4th (C to F), 5th (C to G) 6th (C to A), 7th (C to B) and an octave or 8th (C to higher C). This distance will work between any series of notes but I was using those as an example. A to F is still a 6th just like a G to an A is a 2nd.

There are three main qualities of intervals: Major, Minor, and Perfect. The best way to see this is to separate the different qualities into their own section and learn them individually. First is the Perfects, which are only used to describe a perfect unison, perfect fourth, perfect 5th or perfect octave. As the perfect unison is the same note being repeated, and a perfect octave is the same note being played back to back but one is higher than the other. The perfect fourth and fifth are special because as it says, they are an important part of music. A perfect 4th is 5 half steps from the tonic note. The tonic is the note that starts the comparison or chords as we will get to later. If you need to review half steps and whole steps, please refer to episode 2 (click here). A perfect 5th is 7 half steps from the tonic note. Think about it from the layout of a keyboard. If we start on C, a perfect forth above would be an F (C#-D-D#-E-F) and C to G would be a G (C#-D-D#-E-F-F#-G). A forth above G would be a D (G#-A-A#-B-C-C#-D) and a forth above F would be a Bb (F#-G-G#-A-Bb).

Now major and minor intervals work in the same way. They include 2nd, 3rd, 6th, and 7th. A major 2nd is 2 half steps, which is a whole step, or another way to say it is from C to D. A minor 2nd is only a half step or from C to C#. A minor 3rd is 3 half steps or from C to Eb. A major 3rd is 4 half step or C to E. A minor 6th is a 8 half steps or a C to Ab and a major 6th is one half step higher, C to A. Finally A minor 7th is 10 half steps or C to Bb and a major 7th is one higher C to B.


For those who this is just too much information then, I have a chart to help you comprehend this a little better. The numbers is the number of half steps from tonic to the note.

       Minor         Major        Perfect
1                                                    0
2        1                 2
3        3                 4
4                                                    5
5                                                    7
6        8                 9
7        10              11
8                            12

If this interests you, then please share it by hitting the icons below! I am interested in seeing how many people read the blog regularly. If you want to stay up to date with the blog series or hopefully soon to come the Youtube series, follow me on Facebook, Twitter!

Episode 6: Simple and Compound Meter

Alfred 00-16643 Essential Dictionary of Music Theory - Music Book (Google Affiliate Ad)

Hello and welcome back to the Music Theory Blog! Today's long awaited episode is about the difference between Simple and Compound Meter. I am here to help you along with understanding the material better by showing examples of what I am explaining and we'll see if this makes it better to understand!

 Now first, for those who are new comers, you must understand what the time signature is. The Time Signature is the symbol that shows musicians how many notes are in a measure and what note value gets the beat. For Example, 4/4 time means there are 4 notes in a measure that a quarter note gets the beat. If you need more help with understanding this, refer back to episode 4.

In order to understand why the two types of time signatures are important, you must understand what they are. A Simple Meter is a meter that's time signature breaks down into two parts. For example, you can divide a whole note into two half notes, a half note into two quarter notes, and so on. This is what most music is written as, which are 4/4, 3/4, and 2/4. Any variation of the signature will work, for example you can say 2/8, 3/2, or 2.16 as long as the measure breaks down into two parts anything is possible. Here is an example of a piece that is in 4/4, "Prelude" from Bach's Cello Suite No. 1. Some other examples of music you might see with a simple meter is Common Time and Cut Time. Common time () is simply another way to write out 4/4 and Cut time () is a simpler way to write 2/2.

Now, the difference from a simple meter to a compound meter is a Compound Meter divides the beat into 3 parts rather than 2. For example a commonly seen compound meter you may rn into is 6/8. There are 6 beats in a measure but most of the time it is felt in two parts and is conducted the same. The most common types of compound meter are 6/8, 9/8 and 12/8 but changing the lower number would work the same. Here is an audible example of "Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring" which is written in 9/8.

If you like the new way I constructed the lessons, let me know by sending me an email, or message me on Twitter.

Episode Recap 1: Episodes 1-5 Part 1

Hello and welcome back! Now before I begin the recap let's go over a few things. 1st off, you may have noticed the button above me. Finances are really low, especially if you want more reviews so please donate anything you feel comfortable donating to me. I am wanting to do more reviews and if you want to see more, then any money is good money! With that said, I promise I WILL NOT go crazy with the button! The only time I will post it is on general recaps (like such), and reviews. I want to provide everyone with a few service to learn music theory, tricks from professionals, and reviews so you aren't wasting your money on pointless or terrible stuff for your instruments (and yes, I have used some terrible stuff, and amazing stuff so I know what's good and what's not).

With that out of the way, I bet you're wondering "What's an 'Episode Recap'?". I feel after so many episodes on all my topics, I will post one giant summery for you on what is in that section. For today, this episode recap is on episodes 1-5, which are:

-Episode 1: Musical Alphabet and Note Values

-Episode 2: Sharps and Flats

-Episode 3: Treble and Bass Clef

-Episode 4: Defining the Signatures

-Episode 5: Dynamic Contrast

Now how this is going to work is like a review over the selections, and explain some harder to explain things.

Episode 1:

This was a presentation-Only entry so most people didn't read this entry, so I will count this as the actual lesson. There are two main elements when reading music: a Note and a Tone. A note is the visual representation of a sound (♪). The actual sound that goes with it is the tone. We could say that the note is an A, or a C but we don't see that when we are watching a group play: We hear the tones of the chord(s) the person or people playing make but we don't see the (♪) in front of us unless you brought sheet music with you.

When you link them together in any pattern going up or down until you repeat the first note, you get a Scale. There is no simple number of notes in a scale, because there are so many different types of scales. However, there is a "Western" standard of scales, which has 8 tones in a repeating pattern. I will discuss this more later on in the episode review. 

Now we have to discuss the Musical Alphabet. This is the way musicians learn their notes, and it is always repeating: A, B, C, D, E, F, G. 

A standard Octave or simply the "Western" style of 8 note scales, is the repetition of one note. For example take a C scale. If we wrote it out we would have C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C. The bold C is an octave higher than the one we started on. This works out on the entire musical alphabet.

Now, we talk about basic note values. They work the same was as fractions, which is they break down and are seen as fractions, like for example ♪ is an eighth note while ♫ is two eighth notes or a quarter note. The way the notes flow is demonstrated in the following picture:

The top note is a whole note, and it breaks down into two half notes. each half note breaks down into two quarter notes and so on all the way down the line. This is the proper way to subdivide notes. Now we must figure out how this fits into a staff. A Staff is a bar with 5 lines and 4 spaces that fit together and are split to make Measures. This will be further explained in a later chapter.

Episode 2:

Going back to notes on a staff, you can have either Sharps, Flats, or Naturals. Naturals are notes that haven't been altered and these are the white keys on a piano. Then if you take that note and go up a half step (going from a white key UP to a black key) your going from a natural to a sharp. When you go down a half step (going from a white key DOWN to a black key) your going from a natural to a flat. *Editor's Note* I just realized there was a glitch in the episode, and I fixed it so it's legible.

Episode 3:

There are 2 major clefts to playing most instruments. You have Treble, or the G cleft, which is the higher side and you have the Bass, or the F cleft, uses the lower side. Back to the discussion on scales. The "western" or non-asian countries use a standard for scales which goes with the "standard" of 8 notes that repeat at the base note but at a distance of an octave. For example: C Major is C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C.

Episode 10: Scale Theory

Hello and welcome back!

Sorry I haven't posted in the actual episodes in a while, but college seems to keep me busy no matter which way I turn. But today, our lesson is to explain what a scale is and give you some to practice!

First off, we need to figure out how to define a scale. A scale is a series of notes in an ascending or descending pattern. For example, let's start with the note C. There are many different scale involving the letter C but they have to follow some kind of pattern. As I said before there are many different types of scales, but the over all feel is there are two basic scales: a major and a minor. Just like they sound, the major scale sounds brighter than the minor. The whole understanding of scales goes back to understanding intervals, which was the topic of the last two episodes (episode 8 episode 9).

The basic progression of a Major scale is W W H W W W H, where W is a whole step and H is a half step. Now let's apply this to a scale, and since the basis of all music is C let's develop a C major scale. It starts on C, then a whole step up would lead to a D (C#- D), followed by a whole step to an E (D#- E) but then we hit the half step in which we get an F. A whole step to G (F#- G), then an A (G#- A), followed by another whole step to B (A#- B) and then we have our last half step back to C. So a C major scale is C D E F G A B C. Now, let's do another example with F. Start with the note given, and follow the intervals above. So a whole step above would be G, another whole step to A but then we get to the half step which we use Bb. Now we need another whole step to C, another whole step to D a final whole step to E and then the half step back to F. So the scale is F G A Bb C D E F. Ok, let do one last example with G. Follow the guide and you should get G A B C D E F# G. The F# in this example and the Bb in the previous one are ways to indicate a key. F# is the only sharp and the rule of key signatures is take the last sharp and raise it a half step. The trick to flat key signatures is take the second to last flat and that is your key, however the key of F is the only key that doesn't follow this rule. So if we went up to the next flat in the order of sharps and flats, it would be Eb but the key would be Bb.

Now the trick to minor scales is moving the pattern above back two spots. For example, the natural minor of C is A minor, and is played like C but starting on A. The same is true for the other scale above; the natural minor of F is D minor and the natural minor of G is E minor. The pattern is W H W W H W W. A minor would be  A B C D E F G A, D minor would be D E F G A Bb C D, and finally E minor would be E F# G A B C D E.

If you liked this episode or want to add more to it, then join the Facebook Fan Page or follow me on Twitter. And don't forget to subscribe if you liked this and share!

Episode 3: Treble and Bass Clef

Hello everyone,

Today's lesson is on the different clefs, which are Treble Clef and Bass Clef. Treble clef or G clef as it is more commonly called, is the clef that is commonly used today within music. Many instruments use it, such as violin, flute, oboe, clarinet, xylophone, and guitar. There are times where lower instruments, such as cello, bass and trombone, must read this cleft as well but this isn't always true. Those instruments, and many others, use the Bass clef, or F clef as it is more commonly called, to read music naturally. There are more than simply these two clef, but in order to keep everything simple for the lesson we will stick to learning just these two today.

The reason for why treble clef is called G clef is because the loop on the clef is the note G and is the G above middle C. The lowest note on the picture above is middle C, and in this case, the picture is a C major scale. As discussed in the last episode, there are intervals between notes and a Scale is a series of these intervals. C major is C-D-E-F-G-A-B-C, or interval wise, where W is a whole step and H is half step, is W-W-H-W-W-W-H. This interval pattern will work on all major scales, for example G major is G-A-B-C-D-E-F#-G, or F major would be F-G-A-Bb-C-D-E-F. You can keep experimenting with any notes on the keyboard to find the scales.

Now, this is the Bass clef, also called an F clef. The reason it is called the F clef, like the G clef, is it circles around the note F. However, the same is not true about middle C, the top of the scale is considered middle C. This is also a C major scale, only an octave lower than the one shown before. An Octave is a set of notes that are played with two different places on the staff than the same one. For example, there is an octave jump from the low C to the high C in the picture above. Similarly, there is an octave jump from the lower C on the treble clef than the higher one. Also note the pattern for the scale is the same as with the treble clef, this being a C major scale.

I will expand of each staff specifically in a few days. Thanks for reading, and don't forget to subscribe and follow me on Twitter or Facebook for more information and suggestions for future ideas, like mini video series and contest!

Episode 0: Preface and Work Cited

I know, this sounds weird to many of you guys but the fact of the matter is people is the United States like to sue for copyright infringements. So, whenever I put up a post on here or put up a video on Youtube this will serve as my Work Cited page, and I will keep links to this post and/or will update it regularly. But without further to do, I introduce my first video!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZUkrHltLaZI&

*NEW* the power point of this lesson:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/87039762

WORK CITED:

Books:

Fleser, Jim. The Chord Wheel: The Ultimate Tool for All Musicians. Milwaukee: Hal Leonard, 2000. Print. 

Tagliarino, Barrett. Music Theory: A Pocket Reference Guide for All Musicians. Victoria,    Australia: Hal Leonard, 2008. Print.

Teacher, Matthew. The Musicians Notebook: Manuscript Paper for Inspiration & Compsition.  Philadelphia: Running, 1998. Print.

Websites:

Adams, Ricci. "Lessons." Ricci Adams' Music Theory.net. N.p., 2011. Web. 25 March 2012.  

          .

"Free Music Manuscript Staff Paper." Free Printable Staff Paper @ Blank Sheet Music .net. Web. 25 Mar. 2012. />.