Questions tagged [scales]
For questions about playing, understanding, or studying scales.
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Does the same key have both major and minor pentatonic notes?
When guitarists (or musicians for that matter) talk about keys.
For example they say that they are in the key of A. Does it mean it could be either A major or A minor or both?
Another example: Some ...
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What comes after Locrian?
I've been playing around with octatonic and enneatonic (sp?) scales of 8 and 9 discrete notes (not including the octave, of course). For the modes, this leaves one or two missing terms for the 8th and ...
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D major in F major progression?
So i've started new in music theory and i'm guessing the chords to this neo oriental song and i've noticed that the chord progression goes like: Gm - F - Bb - D(hammer on G note (Dsus4))
and it seemed ...
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Completing a chord progression
I am looking to complete a chord progression of 3 chords that I try to identify first before continuing the progression. However having no theoretical background I am struggling if you could please ...
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Triads derived from the different types of minor scales
"The type of triad on each degree of a minor scale is the same for every harmonic and melodic minor scale" in TCL grade 6 theory. What is meant by this?
I guess the types of chords are major,...
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Why do some extended chords have three added notes?
As I understand it, a basic chord is built of three notes, which can be harmonized in different octaves. It's always the first, third, and fifth to make up a basic chord.
An extended chord then adds a ...
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What is the scale that contains Bm, B♭m, Gm chords?
I like band Emperor and their guitar riffs. They often use Bm, B♭m, Gm chords progression but I don't understand what scale is this. It looks like B harmonic minor but this scale doesn't have F note ...
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When transposing songs from major key to minor key, should it be natural minor or harmonic minor?
I noticed that people can transpose songs from major key to minor key vice versa, but I'm wondering that should a major key be transposed to natural minor or harmonic minor? I'm confused
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Are there any practical differences in the scales and arpeggios required by ABRSM for different instruments?
ABSRM separately publishes books of scales and arpeggios for each instrument.
See this for example
But surely the scales are the same no matter the instrument.
I couldn't find contents lists for the ...
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D Mixolydian key: is it possible?
About the song linked below, is it right to say that its key is D Mixolidyan?
Verse: D Am C G D
Chorus: D Am D Am C G D
The reason I'm asking this ...
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Soloing over modulation: a specific case
Consider the following chord progression:
G F#m G F#m G F# ...going on with G again...
1 measure each chord
The melody is in key of D (at least until F#)
Soloing over this progression requires me ...
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What are scale degrees?
I heard my band teacher talking about "scale degrees" and do not understand what he means.
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What determines which mode you're in? [duplicate]
I've learned all about modes, but there's something that confuses me.
The G major scale contains the exact same notes as the A Dorian scale. So what determines which of those two scales you are ...
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What is the difference between an augmented and diminished scale?
I understand little music theory, so I do not understand the difference between an augmented and diminished scale.
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Where do Zeitler's scale names come from?
On Ian Ring's music theory website, a massive number of scales (1490) have "Zeitler" names.
Some names are common (like Mixolydian) but others (like Dydyllic) I cannot find any reference to.
...
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Major Harmonic chords - Fourth degree, substitute for min/maj chord
Please see below for F#/Gb Major Harmonic four note chords which I made. You will notice the fourth degree shows as a min/major 7th chord (which doesn't sound too bad). But, what is considered a good ...
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How do you memorize the modes of the melodic minor scale on guitar?
I'm looking for ideas to memorize the 7 positions of the melodic minor on the guitar fretboard. Any suggestions? Is there a way to map each pattern to a chord shape? Or a way to quickly visualize the ...
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Can I skip learning minor scales if I learned major ones?
I learned the basics of the piano mostly from YouTube, intervals, various chords formulas including sevenths, diminished but I try to very closely follow the best practices. I learn inversions and ...
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Should I learn a new minor scale pattern, or "reframe" a major scale pattern?
I'm confident with the major scale pattern in the image. Now I'm looking to learn a minor scale pattern to use for soloing or playing in minor keys. It seems in my mind that I could simply "...
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Three different diminished scales?
I'm reading about some jazz stuff, and get told there are ony two whole tone scales, and three diminished scales. The whole tones are pretty obvious - once you get past the second semitone, you're ...
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Box shape for diminished scale on bass guitar
Does anyone have a box shape for a diminished scale so I can find it quicker on the fretboard?
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In the Lydian Chromatic Concept, how are the horizontal scales formed?
In George Russell's The Lydian Chromatic Concept of Tonal Organization, he introduces the notion of "horizontal scales":
They are horizontal because they include the fourth degree in their ...
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Outside of Equal Temperament, what decides the spelling of notes in a major scale?
I've been reading up on the history of temperament, and how enharmonic notes are more of a limitation of the modern piano (only one black key), and also mathematically they are the same if you use ...
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Ab dorian b2 = Bbb as second note, right?
As the title suggests.
When playing the Dorian flat 2 mode in Ab, the second note would be called a Bbb right?
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Why is there no "half/minor-third augmented" scale?
I don't have a lot of formal music training so this may well be a dumb question, but I've been looking at this off and on for a while and I can't figure out why this particular scale doesn't seem to ...
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Strange out-of-key chords in Blow by Beyonce?
Can someone explain to me what is going on tonally in Beyonce's song Blow? The bass notes deceptively seem to suggest the chords in the verse are G major and F major. But these chords do not sound ...
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Why does a B major scale work against an A major chord?
I can hear that soloing over an A major chord using a B major scale "works" but I am curious as to the musical theory why it works?
I know the C# and E contained in the B major acale are the ...
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Confused as to why one scale fits four different chords
I'm learning the bass guitar. I'm looking at a song called "Bling Thing" in the Rockschool Grade 4 book. On YouTube in the bass guitar backing track this part begins at 0:48.
...
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How to calculate the extra semitone in one circle of fifths
This is an extension to my previous question when I tried to do the math to prove the following statement:
going up 12 perfect fifths takes one up 7 octaves plus one-fourth
of a semitone extra
Going ...
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Why are the frequency ratios of notes in the Pythagorean scales 9/8 and 256/243?
In Pythagorean tuning, for every 7th semitones the frequency would increase by a factor of 3/2 (to get that harmonious perfect fifth). If the frequency of C4 is set to 256Hz, the frequency of G4 can ...
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What are some techniques for changing scale convincingly? [duplicate]
I am having trouble changing scales smoothly when composing, it always seems that the two parts are not connected and the change is sudden.
I want to know some techniques so I can do that convincingly ...
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Sweet child - scale and chord discrepancy
This is not about "identifiying a chord". The chord is already identified. This is about how a chord can be replaced with another, changing the flavor of a song.
I have played the rythm ...
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How does one analyze a song that moves primarily between two non-diatonic chords?
The score for 'The Simple Life' by Jerry Martin indicates three flats, which would typically mean either Eb major or C minor. However, almost the entire song just moves back and forth between Bb major ...
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How was mixolidian mode introduced in Northeastern Brazilian Music?
Northeastern region of Brazil has a great variety of traditional and folkloric music genres. The most well-known genre is forró, followed also by baião and xaxado.
These music genres are usually ...
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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 possible to distinguish if a melody is in C Dorian or in D Phrygian?
(This is my first post in this community, I tried to search an answer about that basic question but it's not easy, so sorry if it is a duplicate)
Since the C Dorian scale contains the following notes:
...
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Categorizing modes of scales other than major scale
Modes of major scale are often ordered such that each consecutive scale can be obtained by altering one step of the previous one:
lydian 1 2 3 #4 5 6 7
ionian 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
...
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What scale repeats by every fourth?
I've stumbled across this in my own compositions and I'm sure I've heard songs on the radio do this.
The simplest way to describe this is to take a regular piano and paint the keys so that there's ...
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Precise rule(s) for calling a note sharp or flat in a given scale
Is there a precise rule (or set of rules) by which I can determine if a note should called sharp or flat?
Consider the two scales below. In the first C#/Db is C#, and in the second it's Db. By which ...
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What scales can be augmented?
I am working on an app that generates scales & chords and recently began work specifically on augmented chords.
It appears to me as though augmented chords are derived from the Lydian augmented ...
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What scale does contain these notes?? E, F#,G,A,B,C,D [closed]
As I was going to compose a song I wanted to know what scale contains these notes?
E,F#,G,A,B,C,D.
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How to use sus2/sus4/add9 in minor key to stay within the key
I understand how to use sus2/sus4 and add9 inn major to keep all notes within the chosen major scale, but how can I use the same chords in a minor key and still stay in key?
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Best type/way of scale to start practicing and how to move on? [duplicate]
Learning for past 8 months.. chords are coming up well.. trying now to learn scales (after knowing those are the foundation)...
Started with E chromatic scale (2
octaves across first 4 frets) with ...
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Why are "scales" mentioned less to singers and more to guitar players?
Scales are still confusing to me.
When I sing I don't know anything about scales. Nobody suggests to me that I should sing in mixolydian, phrygian or anything like that.
But, when I play guitar, it is ...
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Comparing the same song sung in different key
I am not sure if my question makes sense to the most learned musicians, I still would like to get one simple thing clarified, and I must admit that I did search about this everywhere but there was no ...
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Usage of Melodic Minor instead of Harmonic Minor on Secondary Dominant
Recently I watched this video which discusses secondary dominants and specifically for the case of A II - V - I in the key of C.
They play a secondary dominant for the II chord, so they are playing an ...
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What characteristics of a piece contribute to defining its tonal centre?
I have been wondering since a long time that what exactly in a piece defines the scale and the tonal center. Even if we are given a chord progression that is followed through the entirety of the song, ...
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Does the 6 in minor come from dorian mode or from the melodic minor?
Lots of songs use both natural 6 degree and b6 in the same piece. Originally the raised 6th in minor was to close the gap between the 6 & 7 scale degrees in harmonic minor at a cadence but since ...
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Definition of a step in the (melodic) minor scale? (According to the definition in Kostka - Tonal Harmony and examples therein)
The short version of my question is:
Assuming the definition of the minor scale in Kostka's Tonal Harmony textbook (Eighth edition, chapter 4), which is that:
there is, in a sense, one minor scale ...
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Relative and absolute tones: does this really make the difference?
Often, in improvisation, you think of the notes of the scale not as the actual notes you are playing but as the notes of the C scale. The concept I'm talking about is that of the movable C, or ...
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