scales

[That_Guy]

The musical alphabet is a scale. You just don’t necessarily start at the beginning depending what key you are in. The key of C starts halfway through the scale which doesnt matter because the scale repeats when you get to the end.

A is the lowest note, g the highest, and then it repeats in octaves as far as the musical scale is concerned. Basically it just keeps repeating abcdefgabcdefgabcdefgabcdefg . As you go one way it repeats deeper and deeper, the othwr way it repeats higher and higher

The way a guitar is laid out the open chords highest D and the lowest E because tuned to the key of E half the noted are technically in one octave and half in the next. For example a G note should be higher pitch than an A note but the open g on the guitar is actually in the next octave lower so it ends up deeper.

Someone correct me if im worng but The open chords from highest pitch to lowest pitch (as arranged on guitar) areD, C,B,A G,E because the guitar is usually tuned to Concert Pitch EADGBe which makes it centered around the key of E

A piano on the other hand is centered on C and has a much simpler layout.

This is hard to understand and probably not even that important to know. In the end we just try to make pretty noise regardless of what the notes are called.

• This reply was modified 3 years, 6 months ago by  That_Guy.

[Bill_Brown]

Hi Ursula ( @campfire ), No there isn’t a C string, but there is at least one C note on every string. You’re currently working through the “Foundational Five” section of FW. If you go back to the beginning of that section, above the video box you will see a Lesson and a Materials tab. Click on the Materials tab, and when the screen changes you’ll see right below “to download materials click Here“. That’s where you’ll find the Foundational 5 Workbook. It’ll have some more detailed explanations and examples of key points, in writing, so you can look at it and perhaps understand things a little better. At the beginning of each major section of FW, you’ll find a Materials tab above the video box.

Hope this helps

BB

[campfire]

Thanks @Bill_Brown. I did print the workbook, twice in fact, because I had written all over Lessons 2 &3, front and back. But I will review it again. I have to keep telling myself there are C notes on every string, A notes on every string, etc.

[dr_dave]

Here are some important ideas. A scale is any collection of notes into which we divide a fundamental interval that we have come to call an “octave.” An octave interval is the difference where the higher pitch is exactly twice the frequency (cycles per second, or Hertz, abbreviated Hz) of the lower note.

In what we call “Western Music,” we divide that octave interval into 12 tones. Take a look at a piano or any other keyboard. There is a repeating pattern of white and black keys. All the white keys have letter names, A through G. There are seven white keys before the pattern repeats, starting the next octave. The black keys are the “in-between” tones that we designate with either sharps or flats, depending on the “key” of the music.

12 frets define an octave on a guitar. Pluck any open string, then play the same string fretted at the twelfth fret. The string will vibrate twice as fast and the nite will sound an octave higher. (It is not a coincidence that the twelfth fret is halfway between the nut and the saddle – that just physics of mechanical vibrations!) The musical difference in pitch between adjacent frets on a guitar corresponds to the pitch difference between adjacent keys on a piano.

“Key” is an important concept you will learn in Fretboard Wizard. It is the name of the note toward which the song pulls or “resolves,” and most songs end on the note that names the key. It gives a real sense of completion or arriving “home.” Songs that end on some note other than the key leave a sense of unfinished business or suspense, sort of like an unanswered question.

If we use all 12 piano keys or guitar frets in order, we call that a “chromatic scale.” But rarely does music use a full chromatic scale. Chromatic runs are sometimes used as an embellishment in parts of a melody, but most of a composition usually uses a smaller subset of pitches for the “scale” to which the music is set.

Two of the most common scales are the “major scale” and the “natural minor scale,” each consisting of seven of the 12 pitches. In FW, you will learn that the natural minor scale derives from the major scale, using the same tone but just using a different starting point for the “home” that defines the key center.

So if we select only seven if the 12 tones, how do we know which ones to pick? The intervals between adjacent tones in any major scale always have the same relationship, regardless what key we have.

Let us start by defining whole steps and half steps. The smallest interval on a piano is two adjacent keys. The smallest interval on a guitar is one fret. These have exactly the same significance. We define a whole step as a difference of two frets (or two keys on the piano), therefore a half step is just one fret.

Now, all major scales have the pattern W-W-H-W-W-W-H, where w = Whole and H = Half. Let’s think only about the white keys on a piano. If you you are not familiar with the names of the keys on a piano, browse that on the web. The major scale that uses only white keys is the key of C. The “relative” natural minor scale that uses the exact same keys is A minor, and it begins on the same note that is the sixth step of the C major scale, namely A. I’m going to wrap this up by saying that the pattern of notes for the natural minor scale is therefore W-H-W-W-H-W-W. Hopefully this diagram brings it home:

(Edited to add: Naturally my diagram is a failure because of the editing software. What you see when you compose is not what you get when it posts. I will illustrate the old -fashioned way and then post a photo. I just hope it will allow me to do that.)

C major: C D E F G A B (C)…

Interval: W H W W H W W W H

A minor: A B C D E F G (A)…

The pentatonic scales choose only five of the notes. (Pentagrams have 5 sides.). The A minor pentatonic uses A-C-D-E-G(-A), where the A in parentheses denotes the beginning of the next octave). The C major pentatonic uses C-D-E-G-A-(C). Again, these two scales use the same notes, simply with a different starting point that defines the key center or sense of “home.”

[campfire]

Thanks @dr_dave. So pentatonic is 5, not 12 notes. OK. I understood about the wwhwwwh for all major scales. Think I’ll go back and redo the lessons.

[dr_dave]

Here’s the diagram that I can’t type because the editor alters the spaces between characters.

• This reply was modified 3 years, 6 months ago by  dr_dave.

[That_Guy]

All of this can be very confusing and hard to understand. No one really learns all of it in order at once. Over time you will have aha moments of knowledge here and there that you will connect the dots over time.

Most of music theory doesnt even help to know. Does mario andretti need to know how pistons works in order to drive his car? No. But it is nice to learn.

The letters given to each note are nothing more than reference points to describe where the other notes in the song are in relation to the main note (the key or tonic note)

In the end scales are nothing more than preselected notes that simply sound good together. Play a scale wrong and you will instantly hear that you played the wrong note. The off scale note just doesnt jive with the other notes in the scale. Along time ago…Someone was smart enough to figure out what sounds good together and this was the best way to communicate it in a universal language regardless of instrument being played

[campfire]

Thanks @That_Guy. I understand about the race car driver. Makes me feel better, but I will practice the scales. I anxiously await the aha moments!

ursula

[Juhan]

Dear Ursula

I read through this whole thread and actually understood everything the guys referred to. 3 years ago I would not have had a clue. I am however very interested in how stuff works and why things are the way they are (bit of a nerd/geek)

I have studied theory initially out of pure curiosity. To be honest, it hasn’t help my technique one bit (for that you have to actually play your guitar) it has however given me a much better understanding of music and why what gets done when and where. But to get where I am now (not that I know everything 😆) took time, effort and patients.

So I do not have any words of wisdom or insight to add to what has been said about music theory already. What I do want to encourage you to do is to just keep on keeping on. Things will eventually fall in place. The FBW is a great starting point and you get enough info from it to have a good foundation to start you self study from.

So just keep on keeping on 😜

And remember to have fun

[Bill_Brown]

👍👍

[Marty73]

👍👍😎

[jumpinjeff]

👍👍🧙‍♂️

[campfire]

Hey thanks @Juhan!!! I’m gong to print this and put it in the front of my guitar binder. I print all of my wonderful responses when I have questions, etc. but I need to keep reminding myself to just play and have fun.