Advanced Theory

More on Scales

Okay... here's where we go into a bit (or rather a lot) more detail about Scales. If you are perfectly contented with what you have already learned then you can skip this bit, but you may find some of the later lessons a little more taxing. It's probably worth reading this just so you get familiar with some of the terminology which may appear later even if you don't fully understand the theory...

So what is a Scale?

The standard tuning system that most people are familiar (the one you here on any piano) with is known as 'EQUAL TEMPERAMENT', and, according to this system of tuning, the distance between octaves is equally divided into twelve consecutive notes. In a technical definition, a Scale is simply a series of notes selected from these twelve (so theoretically there is an infinite number of possible Scales!). Each of these notes is known as a 'DEGREE'. Each Degree of a Scale has its own name but is often refered to by a Roman Numeral. For example, the standard Major Scale consists of the Degrees: I, II, III, IV, V, VI, and VII. These labels are merely used to define the relationship between the notes of a Scale, they are not set in stone by any means... For example (just to emphasize this point), the eighth note of a Major Scale is refered to as Degree I, this is because the eighth note is the same as the first except it is an octave higher. Because they are both the same note, they are both refered to as the same Degree of the Scale.

Any two Scales can be distinguished by: (1) The number of notes that they have in them (i.e. the number of Degrees they have), and (2) the distance between their Degrees. For example, you can build seven different Scales using just the seven natural notes (the white keys on a keyboard. Remember?), all you need to do is change the note that you start on for each Scale. Since there are seven different natural notes, there are seven different possible starting points, hence seven different possible Scales. The Major Scale has semi-tones separating Degrees III-IV and VII-I (remember that the eighth note of a Major Scale is refered to as I). The Third Gregorian mode (or 'Phrygian mode' - just to confuse you!) has semi-tones separating Degrees I-II and V-VI (but don't worry about that now...).

What are Relative Scales?

'RELATIVE SCALES' are two different Scales that share the same notes. For example, the Major Scale of C and the Minor Scale of A contain the same notes. They are both Relative Scales: C is the Relative Major of A, and A is the Relative Minor of C. The Relative Minor of a Major Scale is the same as the Degree VI of the Major Scale, and the Relative Major of a Minor Scale is the same as the Degree III of the Minor Scale.

More about the Minor Scale!

You may not like to hear this, but there are (in fact) THREE different types of Minor Scale. All three have different Degrees VI and VII:-

Oh no! Not more names!

'Fraid so. These are the names of the Degrees mentioned earlier:-

Degrees and their names
Degree Name
I Tonic
II Supertonic
III Mediant
IV Subdominant
V Dominant
VI Submediant or
Superdominant
VII Leading Tone

Gregorian Modes? Jazz Modes? What the...?

'GREGORIAN MODES' are a very old style of musical theory which eventually evolved into the Major and Minor Scales during the Renaissance. You don't really need to know anything about these, except that they were largely forgotten until they made a comeback in Classical music and Jazz music. Variants of Gregorian modes are used in modern Jazz, these include: 'DORIAN', 'PHRYGIAN', 'LYDIAN', 'MIXOLYDIAN', 'AEOLIAN', 'LOCRIAN', and 'IONIAN' modes. The Phrygian mode is still used strongly in Andalusian music (Spain). These terms will be expanded on when we cover 'HARMONICA POSITIONS', so don't panic just yet [;-)].