octave – Page 2 – Shawn David Anderson

octave

THE MAJOR SCALE

Free Online Guitar Lessons

We are about to learn THE most important scale in all of music:

THE MAJOR SCALE

Why is this scale so important? Well, because the vast majority of music you hear comes directly from it. And when musicians talk about other scales, they still use the Major scale for comparison.

Like all scales, The Major scale has a formula. In other words, it has a specific pattern that it must adhere to. You can measure the Major scale or any scale’s formula by measuring from note to note to note, etc. In music we measure these using half-steps (1 fret) and whole-steps (2 frets). (Later on we’ll experiment with others).

The Major scale uses 7 different notes to produce a “happy” sound. The eighth note is the same as the first, and in traditional theory you should start and end a scale on the same note.

The formula for ALL Major scales is:

This means that you play a note on any given fret. We’ll call this number (1), then go up a whole step to land on number (2). Count up another whole step and you end up on number (3). Next count a half-step to reach number (4). Another whole step to find number (5), and another to get to (6). A final whole step will take you to (7). Count up one more half-step to find your octave.

Here is the Major scale formula on your guitar neck:

You can start this formula on any fret or string and play a Major scale. Try a few (make sure to stick with the formula!). Does it sound happy yet? If not try again…it should start sounding like the “Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Ti/Si, (Do)” that we all remember from childhood.

We just learned the Major scale up one string. It works fine, but the linear shape requires a lot of movement up and down the neck. But NO WORRIES!!! One of the coolest things about the guitar is the fact that you always have the option to play something with a different fingering. Let’s try a more condensed version of this scale:

VARIATIONS ON THE MINOR PENTATONIC

Free Online Guitar Lessons

VARIATIONS ON THE MINOR PENTATONIC

In the last lesson we likened 5 note Pentatonic scales to “skeletons” of the original 7 note scales.

This guy represents a 7 note Minor scale. (His name is the Natural Minor Scale– we’ll learn all about him later.)

Here is his 5 note Pentatonic “skeleton”. It’s still the same guy/scale-there’s just less of him.

Let’s say the guy (Natural Minor scale) contains the notes: A B C D E F G (A)

His skeleton uses 5 notes to give the basic form of the scale: A C D E G (A)

SO… Anytime we can use a full 7 note scale, we can always substitute the 5 note pentatonic skeleton.

But what if we tried to go all mad scientist on this poor guy’s skeleton??? What if we added another bone (note) or two? It wouldn’t be too much different from the Pentatonic skeleton, but it would be vastly different from the original guy/ scale…

Minor Pentatonic is interchangeable with Natural Minor. All the notes agree. But when we add in foreign notes, they aren’t found in the original body scale. These oddball additions are referred to as passing tones. Because they aren’t technically correct, they sometimes have a “brash“ effect. Listeners are quick to pick up on these deviations because they vary from the overall scale and “feel” of a song.

Many styles of music use passing tones. We’ll also learn about other scales incorporating passing tones to create new and unique sounds.

Probably the most commonly used scale that contains passing tones is the “Blues Scale“. The Blues Scale is essentially the Minor Pentatonic with one passing note added per octave. I’ve marked the passing tones with an “X”. Remember to play these! It’s no longer a pentatonic scale because it has more than five notes. Here is the pattern (remember to use the four finger block!):

Here is the Blues Scale in the Key of X:

What if we try to attach even more bones/notes? We can add notes to the Blues Scale and come up with a scale that doesn’t really have a name. I call it the BWPT (Blues with passing tones):

It’s not as difficult as it first appears. There are only two fingerings to play this scale- index, ring & pinky or index middle and ring. Guitarists like this shape because of it’s symmetry. It is easier to play across the strings if the pattern stays the same. Try this simple exercise using the first three strings: