NOTES AND SCALES

music is simply a sequence of notes that pleases our ear in many different
ways lets take a look at these notes now.
A A# -B C C# - D D# - E F F# - G G#
this is every note in music that's right there are only twelve of them, but
when they are played in this order it doesn't sound very musical at all. This
is because this sequence is played in semitones, which basically means
every note played one after another in alphabetical order until it reaches
the G# note then the pattern simply repeats. This is called the chromatic
scale lets look at this scale in a more visual way so we can see how it
works.

Here is our
A note

This is where
the scale
repeats its self
starting on a
higher A note

If we start our scale on the A note and play every single note all the way up
to the red note we have just played a chromatic scale, when you start on a
note and finish on a higher version of the same note this is known as an
octave. This chromatic scale can begin on any note whether it be a C# note
or an E note as long as every note between the start point and end point is
played it will be a chromatic scale. No matter where this scale starts it
doesn't sound totally pleasant to our ear this is why the notes have to be
formed into what we call a major scale.

MAJOR SCALES
A major scale is a much more pleasant sounding scale that sounds a lot
different to the chromatic scale. This is because the chromatic scale is built
on semitones.

A TO A# = 1 SEMITONE
A# TO B = 1 SEMITONE
every note in the chromatic scale moves to the next note in this way, a
major scale involves using a mixture of semitones and tones. What is a
tone ? Lets take a look
A to A# = 1 semitone
A to B = 1 tone
its very simple a semitone means you move up one note from the note your
on, a tone on the other hand moves one semitone further and skips to the
next note. An easy way to remember this is to think of a tone as 2
semitones up from your start note.
A TO A# = 1 SEMITONE
A TO B = 2 SEMITONES/TONE

allow me to make these note movements visual to help you understand

them a bit more clearly.

If we play the blue

note then the red note
we are moving up a
semitone

This time if we play the

blue note then the red note
we are now moving up a
tone

Lets now take a look at the C major scale.

C D E F G A B C
this scale looks a lot more clear than the chromatic scale but how is it
built ? We can figure it out by looking at the notes.
C TO D = 1 TONE
D TO E = 1 TONE
E TO F = 1 SEMITONE
F TO G = 1 TONE
G TO A = 1 TONE
A TO B = 1 TONE
B TO C = 1 SEMITONE
just by looking at the note movements from each note we have now worked
out how each note moves to the next note in a major scale lets look at this
scale on a piano.

This is our C major scale on a piano it is basically all the white keys from
one C note to the next C on the piano. By understanding this you take a
major step in understanding how music theory works, as we now know the
basic formula to every major scale in the world. That's right if you apply
this tone formula to every note in the chromatic scale you will build a new
major scale.

KEY POINTS AND IMPORTANT NOTES

the most important feature of this lesson is to understand the tone
formula used to build major scales. Take time to memorize the
formula as it is vital to moving any further with music theory.

TONE TONE SEMITONE TONE TONE TONE SEMITONE

memorize this pattern as much but take your time start by memorizing
the first 3 movements then add more until you can say it out loud
without thinking about it. also trying writing it down from memory as
much as possible.
KEY WORDS

SEMITONE the distance from one note to its adjacent note (also
known as a half step or half tone)

TONE The distance between 2 semitones (this is also known as a

whole step)

CHROMATIC move through notes using only semitone movements

OCTAVE the distance between the same note with a higher or lower
pitch ( e.g. a low C note to a high C note )