Questions tagged [scales]
For questions about playing, understanding, or studying scales.
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Is the CAGED system the main way for learning the guitar's fretboard?
Just curious if there's alternatives to the CAGED system? I've googled but most alternatives aren't nearly as popular, 3NPS is one of them. So is CAGED the main way to go about learning fretboard ...
user34288
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Can any song in a major key be performed in C major?
Let's say we have a song in a major key. My understanding is that performing different songs in different major keys just makes the song either higher or lower in pitch. And that's just about the only ...
user34288
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Why is the third triad dominant?
I'm working through "Guide to the Practical Study of Harmony" by Tchaikovsky and I had a question about this section on triads (he's working with a C Major scale):
The whole mass of major and minor ...
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Chord progressions in Harmonic Minor
I'm a noob at music theory, so I want to stick to basics and stay inside the lines (for example, stay diatonic for a given scale) until my knowledge is more advanced.
I've seen a chart all over the ...
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What are the patterns of the minor scales
I understand that there are 3 types of minor scales
Melodic
Natural
Harmonic
But I always mix these up, and I don't know the patterns of them.
I would like to know
The basic pattern
Some theory ...
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Can someone please tell me why there are 5 different patterns to Penatonic scales
I mean if you can move them, why do you need more than one? All are movable up and down the fretboard? Right? So why does each need 5 patterns and how do you know which one to use? This has really ...
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What scales can you get modes from?
I know the modes from the major scale pretty well, and I've come to know that other scales like the melodic minor scales also has modes. So my question is, what other scales can modes be based off of ...
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Finding out which scales contain a specific chord
Notation note: scales will be notated as C Major, D minor, etc. and chords as Am, F, etc.
Once you know a scale, yo know which chords it contains, for example the C Major scale contains the chords:
...
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Sharps vs Flats - Formula to determine correct sharp and flat notes in a scale
I am trying to figure out how to know if a note in a scale is a sharp or a flat.
So my starting point/input are the intervals of any scale. E.g. here are the Minor pentatonic intervals
Interval: 1, ...
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How to determine the names of the notes in any given scale
Are there any rules for naming the notes in a scale that can apply to any given scale? I know it's straightforward for diatonic. You just use each of the first 7 letters of the alphabet and [double]...
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What are Guitar Scale Patterns?
I am trying to understand, what is a guitar scale pattern ? For example, following shows "C Major Scale Pattern."
What exactly is the purpose of a scale pattern ?
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Efficient exercises to Learn Scales
I'm 66 years old, have some health problems so I don't know how long I'll be around, I've been learning music theory for some film-making projects. I have a MIDI keyboard attached to a DAW and I use ...
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How to recognize chords while listening
I will focus on chords, when I listen to a song I.e. 4x4 while listening i play it, what it bothers me. I can't recognize chords like if 3 or 4 chords is in a row (i.e. Eb D Gm) or chords witch don't ...
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Are the formulae for Minor scale and Major scales related?
I'm looking at the formulae used to create the Major and Minor scales, with 'W' meaning whole step and 'H' meaning half step.
Major scale: W-W-H-W-W-W-H
Minor scale: W-H-W-W-H-W-W
Is there a ...
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Using F major chord on a song in the key of G
So I was looking at the chords of a simple song in G major scale. The only 3 chords it's using are G, C and F, all major.
i don't understand from where you get the Fmaj? if it was F#min, that makes ...
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Why isn't D the "most central" note?
When laying out the notes in the two-dimensional Wicki-Hayden layout, which is the most symmetrical layout I know of, it is visually clear that D is the "most central" note.
Why, then, doesn't D play ...
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Why does the melodic minor scale turn into natural minor when descending?
I understand the construction of the scales; natural minor, harmonic minor (raises the 7th) and melodic minor (raises both 6&7 when ascending).
What I don't understand is why, when I play melodic ...
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Guide-lines for creating a simple chord-progression?
I am working on a computer program that generates a simple melody, based on a simple chord progression of four chords taken from the 7 triads of the C Major scale. The program is also supposed to ...
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Do all chords in a progression usually fit within a scale
I am wondering if when writing a chord progression, all the notes fit within a single scale.
If not, what is the logic behind chord progressions?
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What are modes in the real world?
For months, I have been trying to understand modes.
Even though I have memorized all the names, what notes they start from and so on, I do not understand their meaning in the real world of music ...
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How to know if it's a mode or scale?
How do I differentiate between modes?
Suppose a person is playing "D Dorian". How do I know that it's "D Dorian" and not "C Major/Ionian" or "E Phrygian" and so on, and in fact "A natural minor" ...
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How to figure out what key a piece is in?
I am trying to write a guitar accompaniment to the piece "Fair and Tender Ladies", but I have no clue what I need to do to figure out what key that piece is in.
Also, the instrument playing the piece ...
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Different modes of pentatonic scale
Just as there are seven modes of the diatonic scale, I would expect five modes of the pentatonic scale.
Have these been classified?
Here they are, in the form of {semitone interval gaps} (Notes for ...
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How to make songs with chords that don't belong in a scale?
I've always wondered how come there can be a chord progression with some chord that doesn't belong in the particular scale... Moreover, how can it be possible that this progression is in any key at ...
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Super Ultra Hyper Mega Meta Scales
If you are as obsessed with Jacob Collier as I am, you probably know what I'm talking about. If not, it is essentially a scale that continually modulates, taking you through multiple keys. Jacob ...
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Musical systems with more than 12 notes
From what I remember of music theory, all music (at least Western music) boils down to scales that revolve around the 12 notes (circle of fourths/fifths). I know there are scales in different regions ...
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What is the historic origin of the terms & textbook definitions of the natural minor, harmonic minor, & melodic minor scales?
EDIT
I edited my question title to better reflect what I am asking.
I am specifically asking about pedagogical sources that present these three forms of minor scales, like this...
My Piston Harmony ...
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Why wasn't the actual "semitone" taken as the unit and therefore called "a tone"?
A more practical formulation of the question is "Why do we count by tones, instead of semitones?", but its meaning could be misinterpreted; the target of the question is actually on the concept of "1 ...
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Logical way to learn movable scales on guitar?
After learning the CAGED 'open string' scales, what scales to do next? In what order or what way? When I learn a new scale, it seems to have the effect of displacing my ability to play other scales ...
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Roman numeral chord notation in minor scale?
I need help to understand chord intervals (not single note intervals) explains what the numbers I, IV, vi, III+ usually stand for in major chord theory.
But what's it like with a minor scale? What ...
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guitar scales: where to start
I am learning guitar for a month. I like to learn and practice scales a lot (as I hear they are the building blocks of lead guitar and I want to play lead eventually), but there being a million videos ...
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What are the interval patterns for the modes?
I came across this on this site:
C Ionian is C D E F G A B, whereas C Dorian is C D E♭ F G A B♭
The WWHWWWH is for Ionian.
What is the equivalent for the other modes?
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Is it necessary to use only notes and chords that belong in a specific scale?
I used to think it is necessary to at least follow the chords of a scale until I came across the Nirvana song "Lithium" and I realized the notes and chords he used in the song don't fit in any scale! ...
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What is the strict definition of any chord in the world?
I tried to look for something clear and unambiguous but I can't find it, or I'm missing something simple.
The questions is:
What do all chords have in common, and is there a set of rules allowing to ...
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How to break out of playing scales up and down when improvising
I play piano, and when I am playing a gospel or a blues song, I always improvise with my right hand. I have been practicing major scales and pentatonic scales for a while now, and when I play, i ...
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Comfortable notes in a key
I've been playing guitar for some time, and often when i do improvisation exercises, I hit notes which sound too tense to finish a run/lick/riff on. Kind of like having a sentence which no full stop.
...
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What is a good solo to learn in the Dorian mode?
I understand that Dorian is a commonly used mode in rock. I am starting to play / improvise in the mode and would like to learn some guitar solos that are good examples of this scale so that I see how ...
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Giant Steps - Coltrane and Slonimsky
I've read several times that John Coltrane practiced extensively from the Slonimsky
Thesaurus of scales and melodic patterns and that Coltrane's Giant Steps is strongly influenced by or is even a ...
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What's the value of modes?
Let's say we have a progression where all of the chords fit within traditional diatonic harmony. Maybe something like this:
| E♭Maj♯11 | Cmin7 | F7 | B♭Maj |
All of these chords fit ...
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What are the Klezmer modes?
I stumbled across an article by Josh Horowitz about Klezmer modes. The article gives tantalizing hints about the Klezmer modes and sub-modes but fails to fully articulate them.
Ahava Rabboh (...
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What is the difference between C major and C Ionian?
To my understanding, C major is the same as C Ionian, because both consist of the notes C, D, E, F, G, A, B, (C) in this order.
Contrast this with D Dorian, which consists of the same notes, but in ...
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How do you exactly notate in 31-TET?
So I always wanted to compose a song in 31-TET inspired by a song I heard on musescore some months ago, the thing is that I didnt know how to notate in 31-TET, so obviously i want to learn.
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Is it acceptable to move hand position while practicing scales on guitar?
I was reading through the answers posted here, and I liked the idea of playing with the "finger per fret" method, but it's not always applicable. For instance I was practicing the Fmaj scale last ...
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Relative minor: What notes do I actually play?
I am confused on the difference on the actual notes between a relative minor and major key - Are the notes (as in the accidentals of the key signature that tell us which notes are sharp or flat) the ...
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Two kinds of blues scales?
I sometimes read about the major and minor blues scales.
Now, this makes me a bit confused. Are there really two kinds of blues scales?
I was told that in a 12 bar blues you play the I chord for 4 ...
user20754
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How do you compose using the chromatic scale?
Writting a piece of music using the chromatic scale would be interesting, but I can't think of a way to start it? What kind of structure would a piece have? Is it all subjective and up to the composer ...
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What are the chords in the harmonic and melodic minor scales?
I want to know what the chords are in the harmonic and the melodic minor scales.
Like if we take C major scale, then the chords are
C Dm Em F G Am Bm(♭5) C
If we take C natural minor scale, then ...
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What are the full set of chords allowed in a Double Harmonic scale?
I have recently discovered Double Harmonic scales and love them. Particularly the major.
I'm having a lot of fun improvising melodies but I can't seem to make any chord progressions that work. It ...
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Pentatonic Scales Question
I'm learning the notes on the fret board and I just wanted to ask something about the pentatonic scales you see, A minor pentatonic is A C D E G on the 5th fret, but when I play it on the 2nd fret its ...
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What's the logic behind chords building patterns that are in key?
I've found multiple resources on the internet that give you this pattern for building chords in a key, i.e. for the Major Scale:
1st Major, 2nd minor, 3rd minor, 4th Major, 5th Major, 6th minor, 7th ...
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