New answers tagged scales
2
Natural and harmonic minor refer to scale patterns occurring in a minor key; they are not keys in themselves. These describe how some scale steps are mutated (or not) in various contexts.
To change from major to minor, the simplest thing is just to change chords I, IV, and V to i, iv, and v or V (depending; to be addressed below). There are a few minor (hah!)...
7
Whichever suits your taste. (And don't forget the option of the Melodic Minor scale.)
It's a transformation more than a transposition. Do you like the astringent augmented 2nd interval between 6 and 7 of the Harmonic Minor? Or the smoother 'modal' feel of the Natural Minor? Do you want to keep the leading note, the 'sharpened' 7th, that's central to the ...
0
Any times I've 'transposed' from major to minor - for choirs - I've used harmonic minor as it seems to be more simple to sing thus.
1
Not a practical difference in exam requirements, per se, but a possible reason to buy multiple books for learning purposes: some instruments are notated in different clefs than others. For example, trumpet is typically written in treble clef, viola in alto clef, and cello in bass clef.
2
When you learn a scale on an instrument you learn (at least!) two skills.
One is a transferable skill - you learn the pitch relationships between the notes of the scale. So you could hear someone else performing the scale on a different instrument and be able to tell whether they're playing the right notes.
You also learn non-transferable skills - the ...
2
Consider elements like range of instrument. In the lower grades, there may well be little difference, but higher, a double bass, for example, won't be playing the same notes in scales as say, a flute. And, piano plays 3 octaves two hands, meaning a four octave span - way more than some instruments.
In higher piano grades, there are scales in thirds, etc. ...
1
Books of scales for different instruments can involve substantially different notes played notation-wise (i.e. in different octaves) or even different reading systems. It's hard to imagine a guitar book with no tabs or an organ book with no low notes for the pedalboard, for example.
Guitar Scales and Arpeggios, Grades 1-5 by ABRSM explicitly "Provides ...
7
Any mode or scale can be built on any tonic.
So, yes, you can have D mixolydian... or D flat mixolydian, C mixolydian, etc. etc.
If you have analyzed the song to have a D tonic and is mixolydian in mode, then you can say it's in D mixolydian. It's good that you analyzed for what is the tonic, then the mode. That's analyzing tonality. Simply seeing all the ...
-1
The song is not in mixolydian; it's D major.
The song makes use of "modal mixture", borrowing chords from D minor, which is how the C natural comes into play.
A song truly intended to be mixolydian would put much more emphasis on the sound qualities of that mode.
3
D Mixolydian is a mode of the parent key G major - both contain exactly the same 7 notes. The main difference, as you say, is that a piece in key G is recognised as that, due to the home note/chord being perceived as G. This has a home of D, thus will be in D Mixolydian - or the Mixolydian mode of G. It ought to have the key signature of one sharp (F♯).
0
Thinking in terms of scales may not be very useful here. Just let a Blues in C be in C major, with lots of 'blue' notes freely added - the ♭7, ♭5, the E♮/E♭ slide which is the nearest a keyboard can manage to the 'blue' 3rd degree, and any other chromatics that seem like a good idea at the time! 'Chord=scale' has its uses, but it's not the only way of ...
1
I have been playing the blues since the late 1960's (lead guitar) by ear and imitation, but only during 2020 (pandemic time on my hands) started thinking about why I use at least 10 out of 12 notes but only use some of them at certain times.
I think everyone agrees that the basic blues scale is pentatonic (1, 3, 4, 5 and b7). But what about that 3rd? Is it ...
Top 50 recent answers are included