You should know the few fundamentals about the guitar, and the first step in is the understanding of notes that is the basis of music. The next step is to have knowledge about musical scales. The problem is that when some individuals are presented with musical scales for the first time, and they are being asked to play variations of these musical scales, it can become a discouraging undertaking. In this article we are going to explore some of the reasons for the existence of musical scales, and why we focus on them so greatly.
what are Musical Scales? A Technical View
We can make music out of 12 possible notes because we have only 12 possible notes. Western music has produced such rules which describe how and when you can apply these tones together. Although this is just convention, but by applying these rules you will instantly notice that something is wrong or different instead of hearing the several common musical scales you hear usually when you do not utilize these rules. No proper information is written in stone about the way these things are planned, but we are all so used to hearing music from an early age that contains these rules that we don't even think about the alternatives until we start to study musical theory in depth.
If you want to play western style music and be a great guitarist, you are in need to understand these principles. A noteworthy part of these rules and conventions is the musical scales we use.
What is a scale? It is basically a sequence of tones, picked out from the 12 available, that work together to give an effect to the music. You can describe individual scales in a better way as a list of gaps between the notes. Half notes or Whole notes are denoted by the term Tone or Semitone which give the rule of using their basic letters, T and S.
Some people utilise Half and Whole (W, H) to denote the gaps, and other manner is to list the number of semitones (1 or 2). Either way is taken, these three are same or all impart the gaps for the leading scale:
1. T T S T T T S 2. W W H W W W H 3. 2 2 1 2 2 2 1
Let us see, how this acts. Pick up a scale at random - G# major. This step states 2 things. First, our root note is G#. Second, we will be utilizing the Major scale formula to work out the notes.
So, we start up with our G# note, and add the first step of the formula which is a T, meaning a Tone. Thus, starting with G # and moving up a tone or two half notes puts us onto A#:
G# + T = A#
Next, we start with A#, and look at the next alphabetic character in the rule - its a Tone once again, so we add 2 half notes to A#, to give us a C:
A# + T = C
Next, we start with a C and find out the formula - now it is a semitone, which takes us to C#:
C + S = C#
If we carry on with this we get the following:
C# + T = D# D# + T = F (remember nothing is like an E#) F + T = G G + S = G#
Thus, we have built our scale of G# major according to our major scale formula to get the notes:
G# A# C C# D# F G
Mostly, the scales we use have 7 notes in them but that is not an important rule. For example, the minor pentatonic scale only has 5 notes in it (its formula is 3 2 2 3 2 - I used numbers here instead of T and S because it has a couple of Tone and a half leaps, which is 3 half notes, and that is more easily written down as a 3 instead of something like "T + 1/2", but it all signifies the same thing). Some scales have more notes, for example the chromatic musical scale has all 12 notes in it.
Thus in this way the scales act! The formula depicts them and we pick whichever root note we desire to construct. The next step is to convert these notes into a formula so that we can play it.
what are Musical Scales? A Technical View
We can make music out of 12 possible notes because we have only 12 possible notes. Western music has produced such rules which describe how and when you can apply these tones together. Although this is just convention, but by applying these rules you will instantly notice that something is wrong or different instead of hearing the several common musical scales you hear usually when you do not utilize these rules. No proper information is written in stone about the way these things are planned, but we are all so used to hearing music from an early age that contains these rules that we don't even think about the alternatives until we start to study musical theory in depth.
If you want to play western style music and be a great guitarist, you are in need to understand these principles. A noteworthy part of these rules and conventions is the musical scales we use.
What is a scale? It is basically a sequence of tones, picked out from the 12 available, that work together to give an effect to the music. You can describe individual scales in a better way as a list of gaps between the notes. Half notes or Whole notes are denoted by the term Tone or Semitone which give the rule of using their basic letters, T and S.
Some people utilise Half and Whole (W, H) to denote the gaps, and other manner is to list the number of semitones (1 or 2). Either way is taken, these three are same or all impart the gaps for the leading scale:
1. T T S T T T S 2. W W H W W W H 3. 2 2 1 2 2 2 1
Let us see, how this acts. Pick up a scale at random - G# major. This step states 2 things. First, our root note is G#. Second, we will be utilizing the Major scale formula to work out the notes.
So, we start up with our G# note, and add the first step of the formula which is a T, meaning a Tone. Thus, starting with G # and moving up a tone or two half notes puts us onto A#:
G# + T = A#
Next, we start with A#, and look at the next alphabetic character in the rule - its a Tone once again, so we add 2 half notes to A#, to give us a C:
A# + T = C
Next, we start with a C and find out the formula - now it is a semitone, which takes us to C#:
C + S = C#
If we carry on with this we get the following:
C# + T = D# D# + T = F (remember nothing is like an E#) F + T = G G + S = G#
Thus, we have built our scale of G# major according to our major scale formula to get the notes:
G# A# C C# D# F G
Mostly, the scales we use have 7 notes in them but that is not an important rule. For example, the minor pentatonic scale only has 5 notes in it (its formula is 3 2 2 3 2 - I used numbers here instead of T and S because it has a couple of Tone and a half leaps, which is 3 half notes, and that is more easily written down as a 3 instead of something like "T + 1/2", but it all signifies the same thing). Some scales have more notes, for example the chromatic musical scale has all 12 notes in it.
Thus in this way the scales act! The formula depicts them and we pick whichever root note we desire to construct. The next step is to convert these notes into a formula so that we can play it.
About the Author:
E Walker is contributes regular to guitar publications worldwide. He is the founder of Planet of Rock. See how guitar backing tracks makes guitar practice more enjoyable! Jam to over 1000 professional tracks including 100s of backing tracks
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