Example lesson:

Here is an example lesson which begins to cover the theory of scales.
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Scales

When selections of notes are arranged into an ascending or descending order they are called scales. The notes used are degrees of the scale, the lowest being the first degree, the second lowest the second degree and so on.

The first degree will be the keynote or root note of the scale and establishes the key of the scale. The intervals between the notes used will determine the type of scale. The most common type of scale is a “major scale” made of intervals of tones and semitones and is formed using these intervals upwards from the root note:

 Tone    Tone    Semitone     Tone    Tone    Tone    Semitone

 Therefore if C is used as the root note the following notes are derived to give the notes of the scale of C major:

 intervals:           Root     T          T          S          T          T          T          S

 notes:                C           D         E           F          G         A           B          C

 Upon reaching the eighth note a full octave is covered. (oct meaning eight)

To continue ascending the same note names are used again in an upwardly direction. (i.e. C,D,E,F,G,A,B,C,D,E,F,G,A,B,C,D,E, and so on)

 To list the notes of the scale of G major the same formula is used with starting on the root note of G:

                         Root     T          T          S          T          T          T          S

            G         A         B          C         D         E          F#        G

 The F# can not be written as Gb, its enharmonic, because the G is already used as part of the scale and would create a gap in the note letters. Similarly the scale of D major uses the notes D, E, F#, G, A, B, and C#. The F# is not called Gb and the C# is not called Db because it would use the same note twice, once as a flat and once natural creating a gap and missing a letter.

Keys

When a piece of music uses the notes from a particular scale it is said to be in that key. For instance, if a song used the notes from the C major scale (shown above) it is said to be in the key of C major, or simply “in C major”.

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