![]() The five-note pentatonic major scale has the same notes as the seven-note septatonic major scale but the half steps are removed so the scale is missing the 4th and 7th scale degree. This scale is called the PENTATONIC SCALE - “penta” meaning 5 because it only has five notes. However, there is a “simpler” scale that is used in much of the Classical and popular music canon as well as in many folk and world music traditions. Most melodies in Western Classical and popular music are comprised of notes from the septatonic major scale (1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1) as described above. If you don’t understand why I circled the cluster of sharps at the beginning and labeled it A Major, that is called a key signature (and we will learn about it next unit). Since we know the piece is in A Major, we can identify the notes with scale degrees which helps us to understand patterns, movement, and harmony within the piece. Andantino, of Joseph Bologne Chevalier de Saint-Georges’ Violin Sonata No. Knowing scale degrees is important for things like: memorizing scale patterns, knowing the difference between scales, understanding melodies, harmonies, and chords, and transposing melodic and harmonic content from one key/scale to another.Ĭheck out the second movement, II. This won’t be the case for non-major scales (as we will see in the next unit). In major, the set scale degrees are always 1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - 5 - 6 - 7 - 1. While the note “G” serves as the 4th scale degree in D Major, it is the 7th scale degree in Ab Major. So while “D” is the 1st scale degree in the D Major Scale above, “Ab” is the first scale degree in the Ab Major Scale. The degree remains constant even if you choose a different scale root. A SCALE DEGREE is the fixed role/position a note occupies in a given scale. When we look at any scale (we’ll use the major scale for these examples), we can label each note’s position on the scale by its scale degree. You probably recognize that pattern from several pop cultural references including the “Do Re Mi” song in The Sound of Music which is a song written to help learn solfege. In solfege, the major scale moves like this: Another way to move through this pattern is with SOLFEGE, the musical syllable language we have been using to practice sight-singing. *We could call the top octave “8” instead of “1” but “8” and “1” are the same pitch, so its easier just to call it “1” again unless you want to make a distinction that the top note is an octave above the bottom note. This scale begins on its ROOT (first note), which we could call “1” and moves through the notes in this pattern: The MAJOR SCALE is a septatonic (seven-note) scale that conveys a positive mood like happiness, energy, love, hope, etc. While the Chromatic Scale is the most basic/easy to understand scale, it is not the most commonly used in Western Classical Music Theory. So, too, do composers select musical scales to paint scenes with notes - like using a major scale to compose a song with a happy mood versus a minor scale to write something that sounds sad. Dark blues, greens, and white would convey an ocean scene better than pinks, yellows, and light greens which would be better used for flowers. ![]() This is similar to how a visual artist would select different color palettes to convey different scenes. Pieces of music are composed using different scales to convey different moods. All world cultures use scales but for the purposes of this class, we will continue to look at the scales most used in the Western Classical Music canon since these are the scales we can play on the piano keyboard. A musical SCALE is an established pattern of notes - usually between an octave - that is utilized in composing melodies and harmonies. Now that we know about the most foundational relationship between two notes (whether close notes are a half step or whole step apart and how to determine a generic interval between notes of any distance apart), we can use these basic tools to start building scales.
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