Hi, my name is Herb Hutchinson and welcome to this and another series of
Finally the Basics. Today we're going to be teaching Harmony, Scales and Modes. If
you're a keyboardist, bass player, if you're a guitar player, you've selected
the right tape. This is going to be an in-depth study on a subject that has
not been touched yet by any of the video companies that are out on the market
today. No one wants to take the challenge I guess, but we're going to and we're
going to teach you some of the mysteries of these three great subjects because
all of this together will give you a foundation and your music training that
you have never understood before. Now if you're intermediate or if you're
advanced, this is right where you should be and we hope that you have been
following along with all of our tape series, whether you're a bass player,
guitarist, whatever. This is going to filter all of the right information in
to you so that you can continue with your instrument in a great and new
refreshing way. In my years of training and teaching, these subjects are so very
valuable. So we want you to get ready today. We have hundreds of students that
come through Hutchinson Sound of Music every year and they come in and full of
questions and they read many magazines and song books and they they buy
different how-to manuals, see many different videotapes and they hear
teachers and musicians talking about diatonic scales, pentatonic scales. They
hear terms like Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian, Mixolydian and of course these subjects
will leave an awful lot of a lot to be desired if you don't understand them. Yet
they're such a valuable part of your training. You cannot really embark on the
depths of music without the understanding of these harmony scales
and modes. Now if you're a musician and you've been playing for many years and
you are probably playing a lot of these things but you're not quite sure where
to go next. It seems like the door is closed. I've heard this so many times and
it's true that you can only go so far by yourself and it's time to get some fresh
knowledge and some good understanding on these subjects. So today here at
Hutchinson Sound and Music I hope to unlock some of the mysteries of harmony
scales and modes for you. So let's go into the studios of Hutchinson Sound and
Music and we're going to begin. Thank you very much.
What we mean about the musical alphabet so that you can get a clear
understanding is in our language we have an alphabet and we use our alphabet for
our everyday spelling of words and reading. In music this is the foundation
for understanding this new concept for you in harmony. The alphabet however is
not as extensive as the alphabet in our language. We have seven
letters that are used A B C D E F and G. Now from this alphabet we are going to
draw from this the individual notes, the names of chords, the names of scales, the
names of our modes are going to come from these letters of the alphabet. Now
we're going to be discussing chords, intervals, the complete understanding of
modal concept. So to understand that the musical alphabet is the foundation for
this is very important and that between these letters A and B, B and C and D and
E and so forth there are distances that are found on your musical instruments.
The musical alphabet is a worldwide alphabet. If you went to other countries
and you studied music you will find that you will have the same approach. It's not
different. So we can say that the language of music is in general the same
wherever we go. Alright the musical alphabet has distances between the
letters according to the instrument you play. If you play piano or bass or
guitar, fretted instruments or keyboard or if you're playing a woodwind
instrument or a trumpet you know how to obtain that distance from A to B or a
whole step and half step. Well understanding that's going to be
important here today and that's what I want to train you in. A to B has a
distance of a whole step. B to C is a half, C to D is a whole, D to E is a
whole, E to F is a half, F to G is a whole and G back to A is a whole step. Now
between the letters A and B there is a whole step. Between those letters you're
going to find this tone an A sharp or a B flat. Between C and D you have a C
sharp or a D flat. Between D and E there's a D sharp and E flat. F and G, F
sharp, G flat. G and A there's a G sharp and an A flat. I want to clear up
something else today also. Even though there's a half step between B and C and
E and F there is such a note or a letter musically called a B sharp or a C flat.
If we come over to E and F which is the other natural half step there is an E
sharp and there's an F flat. Now as we continue with the teaching through this
series that'll become clear to you. Now what we have here with A sharp and B
flat and these others a very important name that you need to learn and it's
called enharmonic. Whatever is enharmonic that is one note, one chord, one scale
that has two names. So that when you see A sharp or B flat those two notes are
the same but there are times when you call the A sharp as opposed to calling
it a B flat. There are times when G you're going to call G sharp rather than
A flat. Now I want to make sure that that's totally clear because these are
foundations that are very very important. Now the musical alphabet is going to
produce chord names, scale names, modal names, and individual notes. Now it's
important also to note that the word note or another term called tone are
synonymous. So as you hear me speak about note or tone these are synonymous. For
example A note or the A tone I'm saying the same thing. If I talk about a B flat
note I can also say a B flat tone. Again E note or E tone they're synonymous and
very important to understand.
There are terms that in music that are used that are sometimes not needed but I
want to talk to you about diatonic an extremely important word because it
creates a system in music called the diatonic system. Out of the diatonic
system we find that which is major and that which is minor. Two different
qualities but they fall under or beneath this term called diatonic. Diatonic is a
three-part word and it has the definition of by a tone. Now remember I
told you that anytime that we talk about tone I could also be saying note. So if I
put the word note here it's a synonymous term means the same thing. By a tone or
by a note. Let's think about the alphabet that we talked about previously that was
from A to G. Those letters are going to be the letters that we're going to use
that are going to become the tones that we're talking about. Diatonic means by a
tone. By what tone? What does that mean? By a tone. By any tone that you choose.
Tones such as A, B flat, B, C, D, etc. Those are the tones taken from the musical
alphabet that will be used to create this diatonic system by a tone. By the
tone that we choose. Now diatonic is normally followed by major scale.
Diatonic major scale or diatonic minor scale. Just a brief description of major
and minor and it's very brief and it's one that needs some light. If you looked
at the color red it's obviously red and how do you know it? Well you were trained
and told that when you see that color you will call it red. If you see blue you
look at it and you know this blue. So it's an automatic with you. Let me help
you say and think this way about major and minor. Consider these as colors that
affect you. Now there's only one way that major and minor is going to get inside
of you and that's through the ear gate. When you look at color red, blue, green
you get those colors through your eye gate and then you put a word or a name
color to that specific color. Now with major and minor these have colors that
are heard through your ear. They create a specific feeling. There's a
sensation that's created. Then when you hear that feeling you get that sensation
then you then you can say okay well that's major and this is minor. Well it's
a very simple process and through this tape I think I'm going to be able to
help you understand the whole concept of major and minor. So music has a lot to do
with feeling but it has an awful lot to do with knowledge and what we have to do
is get the two to dovetail together to where you understand them. Alright so
then I want you to understand that diatonic is a system by which you're
going to learn major scales and minor scales that fall under the heading of
diatonic. Remember it means by tone.
Diatonic major scales are our subject here and I want to explain to you the
term scale before we continue. Getting all these terms in order I think is very
important. A scale and a very brief definition and there's going to be many
definitions but this is the first one. A scale will be eight notes in alphabetical
order. So here we go we go back to our musical alphabet that we talked about in
order to create our scale. Now the importance here lies on that there are
eight notes. If you look at the musical alphabet there are seven individual
letters A B C D E F and G and then we have A which is a repeat or puts us back
to the beginning again. Alright in order to then have a scale we need eight notes
in alphabetical order. Now remember that the term diatonic is by a tone by a note.
Where do we get that tone or note? Well we get it from the musical alphabet so
that means then that we can go to the musical alphabet and select A B C D E
F or G or if you remember any of the letters that we found in between the A
flat or the B flat those notes we can also use those tones alright. Alright so
a scale is eight notes in alphabetical order and let's do this to start. We're
going to select C and that's going to be our by a tone by or through that
particular tone. So I'm going to put C on the board. Remember what we're going to
create is we're going to create a diatonic major scale but before we can
have a finished product we have to have something to start with. So our starting
point is C eight notes in alphabetical order so we go to our musical alphabet
and the letters will be alphabetically in order this way C D E F G A B C. Now we
have eight tones one two three four five six seven eight. Now I'm using these
numbers and these numbers are called Arabic numbers now that's not a musical
term that's just the name of those particular types of numbers. The reason
I'm using these numbers and calling them Arabic because we're going to use
another type of number as well called Roman numbers. So I'm going to put those
down and we're going to go right on through to number eight. So now we have
our Arabic numbers indicating the notes and we have our Roman numbers which are
going to indicate for us eventually the chords. So let's look at that. Arabic
numbers will talk about our notes of the scale. The Roman numbers will talk about
the chords of a scale. So there we have an introduction that kind of gives us a
real skeleton of what the scale is going to be about using our numbers. Alright so
we have our diatonic scale which is C through C are eight individual tones or
notes. Now if we look at the term diatonic the word tonic becomes very
very important now to us and remember that it was by a tone. Alright it is by
or through this tone that we were able to create the scale. So that means then
that the very first tone C will be called tonic. A very important name that
we need to establish. Then the first note of a diatonic major scale will always be
called tonic because our name is diatonic and it's by or through this that
we have our scale. Now I have used the term major scale at this point. Remember
we talked about diatonic being major or minor. We are talking about the major
side of this system now that which is major. Now to get a greater understanding
of that we are going to then focus on the distances in just a moment between
these letters C D E F G A B C. I think it's very important at this time to
think about the sound of a diatonic major scale. There's a sound that you have
heard all your life and if you're involved in music in any capacity you've
certainly heard of do re mi fa sol la ti do. Vowel sounds that singers throughout
the years have used to practice singing the scale. So when you hear do re mi fa
sol la ti do that is a very common sound to your ear. So there if you will is
something then that you can relate to musically that makes sense. It's kind of
like looking at red and you know that it's red because you know. Alright when
you then think about a major scale the sound of do re mi fa sol la ti do is
something you can relate to and this called the diatonic major scale.
Now that we have our diatonic major scale understanding we're going to
diagram it and we're going to go into the next section and you'll notice that
I've placed the scale here with a group of whole steps and half steps. Well we
know that between C and D there's a whole step and between D and A is a
whole and E and F is a half and so on. This is what we find from the musical
alphabet. What I've done is I've taken the major scale and I've put brackets
around each group of four tones. Musically the term is called tetrachords.
Now there are four types of tetrachords. There's a major tetrachord, a minor
tetrachord, a natural tetrachord and a harmonic tetrachord. It's the combinations
of whole steps and half steps that create the interval distances between
these letters or these notes that create the sound that we so hear and we
understand and we can then listen to and say I understand what that's saying. No
different than saying well that's red or that's blue. Do you see the
relationship? I'm going to continue to say this over and over to you because
you have to be able to relate in some way and I think this is the best. Alright
so we see our major scale with the whole steps and half steps. Notice that
between C and D, D and E and E and F we find that there are these steps, whole,
whole, half. There's a whole step dividing these two groups, whole step and then if
we look at the next group you have whole, whole and half. These are known as major
tetrachords and a major tetrachord is this. Four tones in alphabetical order
with a whole, a whole and a half. It is this grouping of tones in whole steps
and half steps that give us the sound of do re mi fa sol la ti do which is called
then the diatonic major scale and that's what we're dealing with here. Alright so
we have at the beginning of our diatonic major scale C which is tonic and I want
to go to the other end of the scale and we have obviously the same letter at the
end because the scale is do through do. C then reappears at the end and this is
octave. This is the tone that's an octave or eight notes or eight tones higher
than our beginning letter. So we have tonic and octave, the bookends if you
will for our major scale. Remember once again that you're going to be
dealing with tetrachords that create these different scales for us. You have a
major, a minor, a natural and a harmonic tetrachord. Now I don't want you to be
confused here when we're talking about tetrachords. This is not an A minor chord
we're not talking about a G seventh chord. These tetrachords are four tone
scales made up of these individual whole steps and half steps. We're going to
start with some other major scales now. I noticed that I've placed the G here and
I've placed an F so that these will become the tonics or the tones that we
start with to create some other scales. Now what I want you to notice is that
between G and A there's a whole step, A to B as a whole, B to C as a half. Well
let's think about what we just discussed in tetrachords. That gives us a major
tetrachord, whole whole half. Next remember what we need is a whole step
between the two tetrachords. C to D is a whole step, that's correct. All right, D
to E is a whole step, E to F is a half and F to G is a whole. Now we have a
problem here. Remember the order for a major tetrachord, which a major scale
is supposed to have two tetrachords, whole step, whole step, half step. Notice
that we have a whole, a half and a whole. We have the correct steps but they're in
the wrong order. So if we were to play these eight tones you would find that
this scale would not sound like Do Re Mi Fa Sol La Ti Do and that's what we're
trying to do. So we need to make a correction here. Now the symbols
that we use to create corrections are sharps and flats. Remember that a sharp
raises a note a half step and a flat lowers a note a half step. I guess we
could say that the sharps and flats are kind of like band-aids, they do the
repair for us that we need. Then we need to create a whole step between the E and
F. Well what we need to do is take the F and move it further away. We certainly
can't take the E and move it closer to D if we did that. We would have then a half
step here. We want to maintain the whole step between D and E. So E to F needs to
be a whole. So what we have to do is make F a sharp which creates the whole step.
Now F sharp is closer to G which creates the half step. So what we have now is a
major tetrachord. Let's go down and look at the F scale that we've laid out here.
F is the beginning. F to G is a whole step. G to A is a whole step. A to B is a
whole step. Well again we have a problem already because remember we need between
this third and fourth tone of the scale we need a half step. So there's only one
thing we can do is we're going to have to take the B and move it closer to A. So
what's our symbol going to be? It's going to be the flat. We put the flat. Now this
automatically pushes the B closer to A creating then what? A major tetrachord.
Alright B flat to C gives us the whole step in between. Now C to D is a whole. D
to E is a whole and E to F is a half giving us then the major tetrachord we
need. Two major tetrachords then creating a diatonic major scale.
Now that we learned how to diagram our scales and make our tetrachords all work
out for our scales and get our correct whole steps and half steps we now can go
on to the next phase of the scale and to a very important thing when you open up
a piece of music how do you know what a key is? What is a key signature? I'd like
to take a little time and explain to you about keys. This is an analogy that I use
all the time but it really works. Today there are modern apartment buildings
that have many floors and if you walk into an apartment building and you go
up level by level one two three four and so on you will find many of these
apartments that the the carpeting the wallpaper the paint the type of
doorknobs the hinges the brass the windows everything is the same which
means that if you didn't see the number on the door or someone didn't tell you
what floor you're on there would be no way of going through the building and
saying okay well I can remember every floor because there's a different color
on the floor there's a different type of carpeting or there's different type of
brass being used there would be no way of you with your eye to be able to look
and say well I know what form one because every floor is the same so it is
with music when you have a major scale remember that you have two tetrachords
whole step whole step half step and a whole step whole step half step which
says then that when you play a major scale they're all going to sound alike
well what's the difference some scales are higher than others some are lower
than others well why do we need that why can't we just have one major scale and
not have all the confusion of the rest well think about the singers that are
in your groups suppose they want to learn a new song and they they begin to
sing and they tell you I can't sing in that particular scale or we could say
key now the term key is very important because it is very very much closely
related to a scale for you see you cannot have a key unless you have a
scale here I have written the G scale and in the G scale I have my tonic which
is G and my octave which is G so that helps me to know that I'm in G but
remember there's something even more important than the fact that there's a
G on either end it's the fact that in this scale there's an F sharp so it's
the whole steps and half steps have been created the F sharp that's been created
in order to create that whole scenario of major tetrachords that gives us the
major scale which in turn then gives us the major key so if you don't have a
major scale you can't say that you're playing in a key so it's very important
then to know back to basics that the diatonic major scale is the structure
and the backbone of a key all right as we're looking at the G major scale now
if we look at it the most important note in this scale is going to be the F sharp
for it's the F sharp that tells us that we are in the key of G all right it's
the F sharp that tells us we're in the key of G now you go to your music and
you open up a songbook and the first thing that you need to do is look at the
key signature well where's the key signature well let's take a look here I
have placed at the beginning of this staff a G clef then I've placed a time
signature key signatures always go right between the G clef and the time
signature now you could have in time signatures remember we talked on on our
other tapes about four four three four two four you can have many kinds of time
signatures but the key signature gets placed in between the two all right so
what I would do is place the F sharp right there between those two signs
stating to me when I open to my music without looking at anything else this is
going to tell me that the song I'm about to play is in the key of G because of
one sharp which is F sharp important to note also you will not find any other
major scales that have one sharp being F sharp there's only one scale with one
sharp and that is the the key of G now we have the F scale we talked about the
F scale has a B flat well if we were in the key of B flat what we would look for
is a one flat placed in the key signature and the one flat would tell us
that we are going to be in the key of F because in the key of F we have one flat
now suppose we looked here and we found there was no sharps or flats well
remember the very first scale we talked about C the letters were C D E F G A B
C were there any sharps or flats oh of course not so in the music at the
beginning you would find your G clef your time signature and you would find
nothing here saying that you are in the key of C the mystery of modes what are
they all about what are modes what's Ionian Dorian Phrygian what do they
mean to the musician especially the musician who's trying to learn and trying
to understand how to apply all these principles to music and what is what is
the understanding of this and why is it meant for you I want to try and clear
that up for you today many books have been written there have been many tapes
that have been made and trying to explain this subject is it a real big
mystery not really not when we unveil it the way we're going to today see you've
had a good basic foundation now of what the diatonic system is all about and
it's being unveiled to you slowly but surely so everything that you're
learning right now is coming under the banner if you will of the diatonic
system it's like a funnel of terms and information that's just flowing here for
you all right let's go to the board and see if we can't unravel the mystery now
I'm going to put our G clef up on our staff and time signature and I'm going
to put an F sharp well remember that's a key signature what does the F sharp tell
you we just learned that F sharp is found in the key of G what's the key of
G well you have to have the G major scale first of all so if we look at our
song we can say yes I know that this song is in the key G because that F sharp
sits there here is the first thing I want to explain to you when you play the
G scale the importance is not on what note you start on it's in the fact that
you play an F sharp notice that I have written the letters G A B C D E and F
sharp no this is not the A scale this is not the B scale C scale D scale if you'll
look as through each one of these scales you'll notice that there's one thing in
common with every one they all have an F sharp so what have I done I've taken the
G scale and I've started each section with or each scale with a new letter
from that scale so if I start the G scale with a and M with a do I call this
the A scale no what's the reason I don't because there's an F sharp and remember
if there's one F sharp you must be in the key of G all right obviously if you go
and you start to do the whole steps and half steps you will find that these
whole steps and half steps are not in a format of major tetrachords that only
has to occur one time that's when we start with G our biotone remember
diatonic biotone start with G and with G and then put our whole steps and half
steps and make them correct well what's the reason for that we're trying to get
the sound of do re mi fa so la ti do we accomplished it so that we know then at
the key of G has an F sharp now we are used to hearing because lack of
understanding lack of knowledge we are used to hearing the scale only played
one way we're used to hearing do re mi fa so la ti do and yet we can play the
scale six other ways all we have to do is start with one of the other letters
make sure we maintain that correct key signature and we're going to get
different sounds contemporary music for years has been accomplished through what
are known as modes now the modes were originally back in the early centuries
were called the Greek modes or church modes because the early church took the
modes took the scales and they use them to write their music and they were used
initially in church and for all their specific hymns and songs that they wrote
now the modes are very common today guitar players keyboard players bass
players use these modes to create all of the different color that you hear all
the different styles of music that we know today if you listen to many of the
different styles some have a different sound some have them a different feeling
well how's it being created it's being created through modes keyboard players
who improvise a lot they do a lot of their improvisation via modes guitar
players use modes bass players use modes to create these different feels that
they're trying to get across to you the listener and now you the musician are
going to be able to do the same thing but we've got to get the knowledge in
first then we can go to our instrument and apply it and understand it all right
if you'll follow me now these terms Ionian Dorian Phrygian Lydian Mixolydian
Aeolian Locrian are not musical terms they didn't start as musical terms but
they have been adopted to music to then create the different modes so that you
know which one is which so it's important then to memorize them and know
how to apply them and what number of the scale they start with all right then
these are Greek names and they're really names of cities and important
sites in Greece all right whenever you play a major scale starting with the
tonic now remember G is our tonic here whenever you start with tonic this is
called then the Ionian mode now notice if we start with a where's the tonic well
the tonic is over here now is that tonic or is a tonic no the G is still the
tonic because that's the scale we're in so if we start with a and then with a
keep our key signature knowing the G's are tonic this is called Dorian all
right Dorian has a very unique sound as you play it and practice it you're going
to hear that sound all right we come down to the next G scale starting with B
is this in the key of G it sure is because there's the F sharp this is
called the Phrygian mode and we come over to the Lydian the mixolydian the
aeolian and finally the Locrian what we can say then is from one to one creates
Ionian from two to two creates Dorian three to three creates Phrygian four to
four Lydian five to five mixolydian six to six aeolian and seven to seven
creates Locrian now in our Western music there are a few modes here that we'll
talk about later that really are the backbone to the styles of music that we
play think about the styles of music that we've had just over the past 35 40
years from country music to blues to rock to fusion to all types of jazz to
classical music which has always been with us and also there's folk music
think of all the styles well some one out there you may not like some of the
styles I said but others do well these modes will help you to create those
different styles if you're if you're interested in improvisation you can't
improvise really if you don't understand the modes so I hope you've gotten a real
clear understanding now of what the modes are and how they're made out of the
diatonic major scale
our next subject is chords chords are like words if we think about our
language and we go back to the beginning of this tape when we started remember I
said the alphabet how it parallels the language you'll find that in music we
always have this parallel with the language it's a good way of
understanding the direction in which we're going because you can think about
something you really know an awful lot about to then draw from that to bring
clarity to that which you're not really sure about you understand I'm saying so
that the musical alphabet and our alphabet they're running in the same
direction obviously we don't have as many letters but we draw all of our
information the same way from the alphabet now there's a little change that
occurs here when we talk about the subject of chords a chord is like a
word it's a spelling process now we get our letters for words from our alphabet
but for spelling chords we get our letters from the major scale the
diatonic system so it's not just from the alphabet itself we go back and
remember that we're building a foundation a total foundation of music
so we can understand the total concept so that chords are coming from then the
major scale all right now if we think about the words that we use every day
the simple words like and and off there are three letter words well a and D is
something you can relate to th does something you can relate to however CEG
or ACE or GBD they don't mean anything to you CEG is C major ACE is a minor
that doesn't mean anything to you right now but if you can understand the
parallel it really helps to bring clarity okay so we can say then chords
and the smallest chord that we can construct is going to be a chord made up
of three individual notes now where are we going to get these notes from well
the notes are drawn from the major scale if we're in the key of C we can come and
draw notes from the C major scale to construct the chords we can go to the G
scale the F scale the A E whatever scale we're dealing with we can then go to the
scale to get those tones in order to then construct the individual chords now
three notes that construct a chord has a musical there's a musical term and the
musical term is triad all right so that's a word that you may have heard
before but it's an important one some of these are terms you should have as part
of your knowledge so that you can understand the terminology okay now if
you had two notes being played together yes you can have two notes that are in
harmony or that go together sound good together but not necessarily can we call
them chords that's only a fragmented chord at that point we are interested in
a full chord and the smallest one would be that which is a triad or a three note
chord now let's go and construct some of these chords and see how they come
together taken from the major scale the process is in every other note process
if we start with C which is the first note of the C scale the next note that
we can use to construct this chord would be E so what are we doing we are skipping
D now if we start from the E and skip F we will then have the next letter which
constructs what we now know as the number one chord now to some of you
thinking about the court is having a number rather the name might seem
strange but actually in studios today and some of the the larger shows TV
shows and record dates the numbering system is a very very popular way of
understanding and relating all the different keys together musicians talk in
this way an awful lot the one chord to two chord the three chord to four chord
remember the Arabic numbers were talking about the notes the one note the four
note the two note or the one chord to two chord the three chord then that you
get the difference there let's go on to the next chord which would start with D
and we skip E and play F skip G and put a and this process continues E G B F A C
and so on now you're probably wondering well why are you stacking the letters in
this fashion think about music and have you ever seen notes that are stacked
together like this what are those notes stacked together well these are chords
and this is the way the chords are written they're stacked so whenever you
see that you know we're talking about chords whenever you see individual notes
running across the the staff we're creating a melodic line or melody so as
musicians we need to know about melodic structure and also we need to know about
harmonic structure for when we put notes together in such a way and stack them we
are talking about harmony let's continue our study on chords by understanding now
what harmony is we've seen how to construct the chords from the scale but
now it's time to be able to name the chords that we've constructed the chords
that we have used so far have utilized three notes remember it's been in every
other note process to give us three I want to bring your attention to the term
basic harmony remember we said that the chords that were using were triads and
basic harmony is the heading if you will for what we're studying on these chords
three notes per chord which is a triad gives us what is known as basic harmony
now the definition of a chord would be this three notes constructed in
intervals or by intervals called thirds so there's a lot said there and we need
to kind of back into this in the other direction all right three notes
constructed by intervals called thirds so in order to understand what the
harmony is all about we first need to understand the term intervals so that we
can understand harmony which then gives us the chords in its full definition now
I'm going to use an analogy here if I can if let's suppose we were going to
measure the surface of this white board here if we were going to measure it we
would take a device called a roller tape measure something we use in our everyday
life in order to measure with musically we need to have some sort of tool to
measure and find intervals let me explain if we measured this board the
distance from this edge to this edge you we would find by measuring what the
interval distance was between let's say point a and point B of the board now
that's not a term we use every day we don't say let's measure the interval
between of the board the interval distance between those points on the
board but we would say let's simply measure the board to see what size it is
in music and determining the distance from one note to another then the term
interval is very very important so the process of doing that would be by once
again going back to our musical alphabet ABC D E F and G all right let's say we
have here our imaginary ruler for measuring instead of having numbers and
inches we're going to have letters now the definition for intervals would be
this the distance and pitch between two notes all right so we could then choose
any two notes that we wanted let's say if we chose the note C and we chose the
note F okay now we want to know the interval distance between those two
letters or those two notes what we would do is go to our musical alphabet and
determine the distance by how many letters are involved if we start with C
and we count the F you would notice that you would have a total of four letters
counting the C counting the F and counting everything in between well what
would you do if you measure this board you would measure from this point to
this point you would measure from the outside you wouldn't measure from the
inside not including that so again we're going to measure from C to F which would
give us four letters C D E F which would be four now the proper way to name the
interval between C and F is by a singular measurement so we wouldn't say
C to F is a four we would say that from C to F simply is a fourth all right let's
continue and try some others a to G all right so we want to determine the
interval distance from a to G we count the a we count the G and everything in
between 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 so that we can say that the interval distance between a to
G is a seventh the smallest interval in music would be between a and B or F and
G or B and C that any of those would be the smallest interval because there's
only two involved so a to B would be called a second or B to C would be a
second F to G would be a second they're all intervals of two but yet it's a
singular measurement so that's what an interval is now going back to our
definition of a chord three notes constructed by intervals called thirds
gives us what is known as harmony okay so the important interval then that
we're interested in is that interval which is called a third all right then
we would say that a to C is a third or B to D is a third and E to G or D to F any
of those intervals are called thirds so that if we take our scale musically
let's take the C scale C D E F G A B C now remember the process that we did
just a little while ago when we measured every other note the C the E and the G
gave us our number one chord but now in the correct way of determining the
intervals that construct this would be notes three notes grouped together by
intervals called thirds C to E is a third and E to G is a third so that's
the process that we go by in order to create harmony chords are notes
harmonized by intervals called thirds our next process is to learn how to name
the chords that we've just spelled by the every other note process called thirds
and this is a formula for naming those chords I want you to notice that when we
lay out our major scale and we have our tetra chords laid out correctly and we
have our key signature established and in the key of C obviously no sharps or
flats if we were in G remember we'd have one sharp or F we'd have one flat if we
look at the distance between C and D interval E speaking that is called a
second because there are two letters involved but if we look at the distance
between E and F notice that there's only a half step but yet E to F is a second
let's look further A to B is a second G to A is a second F to G is a second and
they're all whole steps but if we look at B to C that's a second also however
that is only a half step so that means then if we're going to call B to C a
second and G to A a second that means that there must be some difference and
we need to find out what that is there are types of intervals and they are
called either major or minor intervals now normally the the sign used for a
major interval will be a large M and if it's the minor interval we would use
just a small M to show and using our letters the types of intervals that they
are now you're not going to find this the the large M and the small M when you
look at music I don't want you to get confused when you see an A minor or if
you see a G major or a G major seventh the the M that we're using here the
large and the small is not to be confused with that we are talking about
strictly now the formula for naming these chords and how it's done all right
so these types of intervals are going to be called either a major or a minor
interval now talking about major minor chords so that C to D then would be
called a major second why because there's a whole step D to E would be a
major second because there's a whole step E to F would be a minor second then
because there's a half step now the smallest interval remember we said was
a second which we've talked about but when it comes to the distances between
them it's the half step that creates the smallest interval a minor second all
right now you have an understanding of how this works let's move on to a
greater interval the next one called a third because that is the interval we're
interested in C to E notice has two whole steps that is called a major third
C to E is called a major third now if we look from D to F notice that that's a
third but there's a step and a half so D to F which is a step and a half is going
to be called a minor third remember C to E was a whole step that's a major third
all right if we look at our alphabet E to G is a step and a half that's a minor
third F to A is a major third because of the two whole steps you see how that
works okay so we're only concerned at this point with the major third and the
minor third all right if we were going to harmonize then the number one chord
the number one chord which would consist of C E and G let's see what we would
have C to E is a major third E to G E to G notice is a step and a half so that is
a minor third now the formula that I'm going to give you so that you know what
this chord is actually called is this when you take a major third plus a minor
third that equals a major chord kind of sounds like a mathematic class with it
with these formulas but this is the process in which we learn how to name
chords a major third plus a minor third gives us a major chord well let's move
on and see what the number two chord would give us D to F notice that it's a
step and a half all right what is a step and a half that is a minor third F to A
F to A is a major third all right so what do we have is we have a reversal of
this formula so we have a minor third plus a major third equals a minor chord
a major third or a minor third plus a major third equals a minor chord all
right let's move on to the three chord now remember this is number one this is
number two let's just move on and do number three number three E G B E to G
is a minor third G to B is a major third so what do we have that means that we
have a minor chord all right F AC is number four F to A is a major third a
to C is a minor third remember our formula major third plus a minor third
equals a major chord okay moving on G B now always remember when you're going
to the next letter just imagine this C is being this C so every other note
process is going to be G B D okay G to B is a major third and B to D which is a
minor third so that means that the number five chord is going to be a major chord
moving along A to C is a minor third and C to E is a major third all right then
what do we have a minor third plus a major third equals then number six is
going to be then a minor chord now we come to one chord in the major scale
that has a very unusual sound and it's important to note in all that we're
doing in naming the chords that's the scale that's producing this we're not
doing anything we just have the process of putting a formula so that we can
understand what the chords are B to D notice that there's between B and D we
have a step and a half there's a half plus a whole step and a half D to F is
another step and a half well what's that that is a minor third plus a minor third
when you have two minor thirds you have a chord called a diminished you have a
chord called a diminished chord so let's see what the scale has now produced for
us number one CEG is C major DFA is D minor EGB is E minor FAC is F major GBD
is G major ACE is a minor and BDF spells B diminished and that is the formula
through the process of major thirds and minor thirds and they're being inverted
that gives us the names of these chords
the process for naming chords continues no matter what key or again what scale
that we're working from if we're in a key of G the only thing we have to do is
make sure that anytime we see an F we have to call the F a sharp if we're in
the key of F we have to make sure that we call the the B a flat all right so
that's very important we can say then through our process that when we have
the again the major third a minor third that's called a major chord now what I
want you to know and note here that when you're looking at music and you see
chords written if you see it the letter C with no letters following it that is
called a C major chord the letter the large M is only used in a collegiate
setting if you were studying music with me in college then that's something you
would use as a symbol but in the real world of playing music and buying sheet
music and songbooks and workbooks you'll never see the word MAJ written out after
the letter C that comes later when we start adding some extensions to the
chord so to find and name a chord such as C you're going to say C major don't
get in the habit of just saying a C chord you need to say C major which is
in this case the number one chord number two number three and number six all have
the M following now again this M normally you'll see it written like so
this is not talking about these M's here the major third and a minor third that's
just an M stating the first letter in the word for minor so the M stands for
minor D minor the E minor and the A minor so the two three and the six chords of a
major scale no matter what scale you're in will always be named minors number
four is a major chord no letter following it number five is a major
chord so that you notice no letter following it and when we move over to
the diminished chord there's a couple ways that you'll see this written the
most common would be a little zero which is the symbol meaning diminished or you
could see DIM which also stands for diminished all right process then for
memorizing these chords here's what you need to do you should memorize the
number one chord is going to be major the number two chord is going to be
minor the number three chord is going to be minor the number four chord is going
to be major the number five is going to be major the number six is going to be a
minor and the number 7 is going to be a diminished chord major minor minor
major major minor diminished and obviously the last chord is going to be
major the same as number one major minor minor major major minor diminished
Memorize that and that will be a great value to you as you continue with your studying of harmony scales and modes.
And also to remember, when we talk about this type of harmony, three notes per chord is called basic harmony.
That's what you have.
Now, there have probably been more great songs, thousands upon thousands of songs, that have been written in basic harmony.
The term basic does not mean strictly beginner or fundamental.
It's just basic harmony because it's speaking of three notes per chord, the smallest.
But yet some of the greatest compositions that have ever been written, from classical to contemporary and everything in between,
have been written using just what the scale produces in basic harmony.
There are two procedures in naming chords.
The first procedure is the one we just did called intervallic spelling.
Intervallic meaning interval spelling, major thirds and minor thirds.
The other process, which we want to talk about now, is called numerical spelling.
The numerical spelling is probably the way that you as a musician will be able to relate with other musicians in the greatest fashion.
We cannot do without the intervallic spelling because that's where the real fundamental understanding of how these letters or notes placed together do form these chords.
And let's not get away from the fact that this is a spelling process.
One thing that we can say, if you think about words like the, T-H-E spells the, you now know that C-E-G spells C major.
D-F-A spells D minor. E-G-B spells E minor. You see how the process continues.
It is a very easy process, in fact, if you will not only memorize the major, minor, minor, major, major, minor, diminished, major, but also memorize C-E-G, D-F-A, E-G-B, F-A-C, G-B-D, A-C-E, B-D-F.
Those seven chords, or those seven spellings never leave.
C-E-G will always be together as a chord.
In other scales, the E may be flat, or if we take E-G-B in other scales, the G may be sharp, or the B may be flat, or the E may be flat, depending on the scale you're in.
However, the E-G and B never part. They never part company.
So if you remember those seven spellings, you will have the trick, if you will, to help remember what notes go together to create chords,
known as C major, D major, or D minor, or D diminished, or E major, or E minor, whatever, so the spelling never changes, if you understand that.
Now, to go on to our next type of spelling, which is called numerical spelling, we first of all need to start with the letter or the note that starts off each chord.
So in this case, C would be the first note of the chord.
In the spelling of D minor, D is the first note.
In the spelling of E minor, E is the first note.
So we can say that each one of these notes will be called the root.
Now, a root is the note that names a chord.
Tonic is the note that names the scale.
Root names the chord, tonic names the scale.
So that every chord is going to have a root, and it will be the very first note that you start with.
In numerical spelling, then, root is going to be given a number, and it's going to be given the number one.
So that if we're spelling the C major chord, C, E, G, C is number one, which is the first in our identifying with numbers to spell.
In spelling D minor, D is going to be number one.
Spelling E minor, E is going to be number one.
Why? Because it is the root of the chord.
Now, in our numerical spelling, if we go then to E, counting from C to E is going to be, remember, a major third.
The number is going to be three.
If we go over then to DFA, F will be a three as well, because it's three from D.
Counting from E, E to G is going to be three as well.
So the E to the G is going to be three.
Now, let's go back, and if we count from the C, which is number one, all the way to G, one, two, three, four, five,
G is going to be five from C, so that we could say that one, three, and five, or major third and minor third is going to equal a major chord.
All right, then we could say that a major chord is spelled numerically, one, three, five.
Let's put that down.
Major is one, three, five.
That's how you would numerically spell a major chord.
Look at the process if we come over to F, which we know is an F major.
F, A, C.
F to A is a major third, and A to C is a minor third.
Major third and a minor third equal a major chord.
F would be one of the chord, A would be three of the chord, and C would be five of the chord.
One, three, five, giving us a major chord.
Remember that in the intervallic spelling would be major third plus a minor third.
Now, I realize these are fine details, but these are the details that once you get a hold of them,
you will be able to really understand this, and it will be such a great help in your music.
Now, let's go and talk about this minor chord, because if you think about it, we said D was one, F was three, and A was five.
Well, if we did that, that would mean that that's one, three, and five, which is a major.
Alright, so how are we going to handle the numerical spelling here?
D to F is a smaller third.
Remember it's a minor third.
Remember that a minor third plus a major third is going to equal a minor chord.
So, let's begin with D, which is going to be number one.
From D to F is certainly a third, but it's smaller.
So what we can say then is that the third is a lowered third.
Now, the way that you numerically would say lowered third would be to say it's a flat three.
Let's put it down. A flat three.
D to A would be still one, two, three, four, five, which is a fifth or a five.
So we could say that the numerical spelling for a minor chord is going to be one, flat third, five.
The major chord is one, three, five.
Notice if we go to the minor chord, it starts with E.
E, G, B. E to G, this would be one.
G is a step and a half or a minor third, and a minor third would say that the third is lowered a half a step.
This would be then one, flat third, five.
Now as we continue, let's talk about the distance from root or number one to five.
If we look from C to G, which happens to be one, two, two and a half, three and a half, three and a half steps.
Three and a half steps equals what is known in music as a fifth, and sometimes called a perfect fifth.
Now if we look from D to A, which we know D, F, A gives us a minor chord, which is a one, flat third, flat five.
We have still from the D to the A, we have three and a half steps, which again is still that fifth or perfect fifth.
So that in all of the chords, whether they're major or minor, you're going to have something that's consistent always.
You're going to have the one and the five that's never changing.
The only thing that then changes the quality of a chord from major to minor is the lowering of the third.
Alright, so in every case, the root is one, you have the three or the flat three, which makes it either major or minor, and the five, which is the same.
Now let's go on and talk about the number seven chord.
Remember B, D, and F, B to D was a minor third, and D to F was a minor third.
A minor third and a minor third creates a diminished chord.
Alright, B we know because it's the root is going to be given number one.
From B to D, we have a half plus a whole, which is a step and a half.
If it's a step and a half, then that's going to be a flat three.
Now from B to F, B to C is a half step, to the D is a step and a half, to E is two and a half steps, to F is a half, which gives us three steps.
Alright then, notice that the fifth from root to five is a little different when we get over to the diminished chord.
There's only three whole steps, which is called a diminished fifth.
Or another way of saying a diminished fifth would be to say a flat five.
Okay, so then that B to D is a one, a minor third, one to a flat three.
From B to F is going to be a flat five.
So then the diminished chord, which is a minor third plus a minor third, equals one, flat three, flat five,
giving us then our numerical spelling for a major chord, so in a minor chord and diminished chord.
In a major scale, we have three major chords, number one, number four, and number five, one, three, five.
We have number two, number three, and number six, which are minors, one, flat third, five.
We have number seven, which is a diminished chord, one, flat third, flat five, giving us our numerical spelling for major, minor, and diminished.
Our next process is extended harmony.
Extended harmony will be four notes per chord.
With the major diatonic scale and also the minor diatonic scale, we can extend the notes out to greater numbers,
creating more notes to create greater color, to create then greater suspense or tension to the chords that we play.
The more basic or smaller the chords, the tighter the sound, the styles are different.
As soon as you start to extend outward, you create this very unusual atmosphere that would get you into something that would be much more contemporary or jazz oriented.
This is a very popular thing. Extended harmony is being used probably today in its greatest form more than any other time.
Extended harmony will be four notes per chord, again using our C major scale.
If we extend, we're going to go from the C to the E, E to the G, G to the B,
giving us four notes, creating then a chord that has one more note and it would stack and look like this.
C, E, G, B. Coming over to D, it would be D, F, A, C.
Alright, so what we're doing is we're adding then this extra letter onto it.
G, B, D, F, and coming over to B, D, F, and A.
Now, these particular chords that I've added here for you in the extended harmony are going to give us chords that have sevenths on them.
They're called major sevenths, minor seventh chords.
We can go through the same process with our intervallic spelling.
What we're doing is we're adding then an additional third onto the already existing basic triad
and extending our one, three, and five out to another number called a seventh.
So we're going to do two things at once here. We're going to talk about the intervallic spelling and also the numerical spelling together.
Remember our whole steps and our half steps in our major scale. They're always the same. They never change.
C to E is a major third. E to G is a minor third. And from our G to B is another major third.
So our spelling then would be major third, minor third, major third.
It's a major quality chord with an additional third added to it, which the chord is now called major seven.
The way that that is shown on a chord chart is MAJ7.
Now, in college you would see a little symbol like this, but that's not very normal to find that in song books or sheet music when you buy it.
You're going to see the MAJ7. Numerically spelling this chord, C is root. Root always gets one.
From then the one to the three, all right, that's a major third, to our five, which is G, up to B.
Now the distance from C to B, which is as far as we can go within one octave, C to E, E to G, G to B, within one octave,
that's going to give us then a seventh added to this chord.
Now we need to look at the numbers of whole steps and half steps here.
So from C out to B we have one, two, three, four, five and a half.
Five and a half steps equal what is known as a seventh, musically.
All right, so a major seven chord will always be one, three, five, seven.
Moving along to D minor in our basic harmony, D, F, A.
Remember that this was a minor third, F to A was a major third.
Now we have A to C. A to C is a step and a half, so that's in another minor third.
All right, so that a minor chord with an additional minor third on it will be called a minor seventh.
All right, then from D to C we have one, two, three, four, and the two half steps equal five.
Five steps giving us a seventh and when we have a seventh,
remember the same thing was with a third or a five that's lowered, you call that a flat seven.
All right, then the minor seventh, intervallic spelling will be minor third, major third, minor third,
or we'll have one, flat three, which makes it minor, a five, and then we have a flat seven.
All right, a major seven chord is one, three, five, seven.
The minor seventh chord is one, flat three, five, flat seven.
Learn these, memorize these numbers, you'll find them to be very, very, very important.
Minor seventh, and associate the numbers one, flat third, five, flat seven.
All right, now E, which was also a minor quality chord in basic, will be the same as the number two chord.
This is going to be a minor seventh chord as well.
Number four, F-A-C-E is going to be the same as number one.
That's going to be a major seventh chord so that the spellings remain the same.
Now we move on to number five and a very interesting thing happens here because you remember that the major chord,
E-B-D, is the same as C-E-G or F-A-C. It's major in quality.
We have one, three, five, but if we look at the G to the F, G to F, which we have one, two, two and a half,
three and a half, four and a half, and the extra half step gives us five,
we have the same thing we had over on the minor seventh.
Now it's important to understand something here that the term minor seventh,
the reason why this chord was called minor seventh because it was a minor quality to begin with.
We have the same distance between G to F when you get to the five as you had over here on the D.
D-F-A-C, you had that same distance which is going to be a flat seven.
But this chord is not called a minor seventh because it's major in quality.
You have a one, three, five, which is a major chord with a flat seven.
This chord is called a seventh chord.
So a seventh chord is a one, three, five, flat seven.
Very important that we note the difference there.
We go then to number six. Number six is a minor chord with an additional third,
which is also going to be a minor seventh, the same as two and the same as three.
Moving on to number seven, and number seven we find B-D-F-A.
Okay, we go back to our basic harmony. Basic harmony, the B-D-F was a diminished chord.
Now let's remember what the diminished chord was. It was a one, flat three, flat five.
We had a minor third plus a minor third.
Now let's take a look what happens when we add the A on top of the B.
B to C is a half step. Then you have a whole step between C and D, step and a half, two and a half.
There's three. Here we have four and we have five.
So when we have five half steps or five full steps, we have what is known then as a flat seven.
So look at what we have. We have a one, flat three, flat five, flat seven.
And from the F to the A, that is a major third. You can see it because there's two whole steps.
Alright, what do we have here? A minor third, a minor third, and a major third.
Intervalically, spelling is going to give us this chord. Now what are we going to call this?
Are we going to call this a diminished seven? No.
You will, as you study and continue with your studying, you will find that the chord diminished seventh
is the chord that's found over in what is known as harmonic minor.
But here we are in a diatonic major scale and we're extending.
So what we can say is we have a minor chord here, a minor seventh chord.
Look, one, flat three, we have a flat seven. That's the same as the minor seven, but it has a flat five.
Now, a very contemporary, very important chord. This is called a minor seven, flat five.
Minor seven, flat five now is the name of this chord, minor seven, flat five, which is one, flat three, flat five, flat seven.
And there we have extended now our diatonic major scale and found that the scale produces for us major seven, minor seven, minor seven, major seven, seventh, minor seventh, minor seven, flat five, and then going back to the major seventh again.
Remember, it's very important to memorize this.
You should go through and start to take your scales, the C scale, the G scale.
You need to do the D scale, the A scale, the E scale, the F, the B flat, the E flat, the A flat, the G flat.
Those principal keys, write them out, get your key signatures, your sharps and your flats, and also then begin to spell.
And you'll find that every one of those keys are going to produce the same chords in basic and extended harmony.
Remember, we discussed Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian, Mixolydian, the modes.
Now we've talked about the chords as well, the majors in basic and the minors and the diminished and also the extended chords.
I want to talk about the modes and how they play against the chords that we've learned.
When you start to go into the theory or the understanding of modes, there's quite a few levels that you'll go through, depending on the style of music.
I think for the majority of most of us, for the styles of music that we like and the contemporary music,
the levels that I want to discuss with you today will probably meet your needs.
And then later I have plans even to doing a tape that would even get us further along.
But to discuss those levels now, I don't think would really be apropos.
But what we want to speak about now is the fundamentals and the basics of the chords we've learned in the modes.
Now, if you remember that the number one chord in the major scale, the diatonic scale, would be major,
if we extend, we got a major seventh by adding the additional third.
The mode that would play against major or major seventh, playing, in other words, if we're in the C scale,
which would be C, D, E, F, G, A, B, and C, from one to one would be Ionian.
Remember, we discussed that before, one to one is Ionian.
So if you were to play these notes using C, then as your tone center.
Now, we know the key signature is C because not only is it a tonic, but we found that we have our two major tetrachords.
You can start on any note, but C happens to be tonic.
So if you're playing the Ionian mode, the tone center, the tonality that you will play around or move to back and forth from will be C.
That then would play against the major chord or major seventh, either one.
If you're playing the number two chord, which would either be D minor in basic or D minor seventh,
if you played from two to two, you would be then playing the Dorian mode or focusing in on the tone center D of the C major scale.
So that from D to D is going to give you a minor sound or this minor seventh sound.
The quality of the chord is really best explained from basic harmony.
The extension is giving us that seventh sound or giving us a greater intensity or a greater color,
focusing more, if you will, giving it another side, if you will, of the chord.
So from two to two or from D to D, where you're using D as your tone center,
then Dorian mode is going to give you a very minor sound that really is an excellent sound.
And Dorian mode is used an awful lot today in our contemporary music.
All right, if we move to number three, which is minor or minor seventh, we come up with Phrygian, which is playing from three to three.
Phrygian is an unusual sound, but it's very minor.
And when you play then using E as your centering tone,
you're going to be able to get that minor sound that plays real well over your minor or minor seventh.
OK, moving along to number four, we have major or major seventh.
We have the Lydian mode, which is four to four.
All right, that's F to F to give us that another shape or another dimension of a major sound.
We have major for Ionian, but when we talk about Lydian, it's another type of major sound.
Again, we can go further into modes, but that's not our intent on this particular tape.
All right, we're coming to number five, which is major and then moves over to seventh and extended.
The seventh chord is a very strong sound.
In fact, in naming of the individual tones of a scale, five, which produces the seventh chord is called dominant.
Remember, we have tonic is number one, octave is number eight.
We have dominant, which is number five.
Dominant is a very, very strong sound. In fact, our blues music is a very dominant sounding type of music.
So the mixolydian mode plays really well and is very strong.
G to G, but still being in C, the tone center becomes the G.
Number six is minor or minor seventh, which creates for us the Aeolian mode when we play the mode from six to six.
And that is another minor sound. And probably of all of the modes of minor,
this would be the one we are most drawn to because it creates relative minor, which we're going to speak about in just a few moments.
Moving to number seven, we have the diminished or the minor seven flat five.
The mode is Locrian moving from seven to seven.
And there you have a basic overlay of how the modes play against chords.
And you need to try this for yourself to hear the characteristic sounds of the modes played against these chords.
As we continue talking about the diatonic system, we're going to discuss now the minor side of the system
and how we get the minor scales that give us the other quality, the other side of music.
The diatonic minor scales create for us the dark side, if you will, the music, where the major scales create the bright side.
It's interesting as I teach my students, I always ask them in their ear training, how does major sound to you?
What does it make you feel like? And the common thing would be it's very bright, it's very happy.
Well, how does minor sound to you? It's very dark, it's very moody, it's very mellow.
So there's this distinction inside of us all that ways to express what the majors and minors do.
Important to note that in your understanding of major scales and minor scales, both have major and minor chords.
It's how the scales are constructed that create the minor sound.
So we're going to talk now about the relative minor to the major scale that we've been talking about.
The relative minor scale that is relative to the major scale is named by the sixth tone of the major scale.
Alright, if we were in the key of C, the sixth tone of C is A.
If we're in the key of G, E is the sixth tone. If we're in the key of F, D is the sixth tone.
So you always go to the sixth tone of the scale.
Now, once you have established a key signature with the major scale, that doesn't change when you go to minor.
That means that you just have another side of the system to work with.
The key signature doesn't change.
The key of C has no sharps or flats, therefore the relative minor, which is A minor, will also have no sharps or flats that occur in the signature itself.
So what you do is you take the sixth tone of the scale and you place it first.
Now, when you place it first, that means that A now is going to become number one. It's no longer six.
It's only six when it remains in the major scale.
When it becomes the tonic of minor, remember tonic always means number one, tonic then is going to be one which is A.
And then our numerical system as far as numbering the tones of the scale or the scale degrees will still be one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, and eight.
Remember we can call eight one as well. It's the same tone, just an octave higher.
Alright then, the relative minor scale to C would be A minor. Key signature stays the same.
Why does it have a minor sound? Well, let's take a look at the whole steps and half steps because it's this arrangement that creates that.
If you remember back at the beginning of the tape when we talked about tetrachords, there are four types of tetrachords.
Major, minor, natural, and harmonic. And a tetrachord is a four tone scale made up or created by these different arrangements of whole steps and half steps.
If it's a major tetrachord, it's whole step, whole step, half step.
Let's look at the diagram of the relative minor, A minor to C major.
Notice that A to B is a whole, B to C is a half, and C to D is a whole.
Whole half whole is a minor tetrachord.
Now a minor scale in order for it to have that minor sound is going to always lead us off.
The first tetrachord is going to have that minor tetrachord. Not a major tetrachord, but a minor one.
The whole step is going to remain the same between the two tetrachords.
The last tetrachord, E, F, G, A, is a half whole whole.
The half whole whole is called a natural tetrachord.
So that we can say that the relative minor scale to C major has a minor tetrachord and a natural tetrachord that make up this minor sounding scale.
The minor scales come in three forms, three formats.
One is pure, one is harmonic, and the other is melodic.
There are three different ways that the same scale can be played by making a few changes or adjustments.
The reason for this, again, styles of music.
If we go back into the early century writings, music based in minor, depending on the area that the music was created,
would determine, in many cases, how or what kind of minor scales would be used.
The first form then is pure minor.
Pure minor is simply when we take the sixth tone of the scale, make it tonic, and play through it coming up with our minor tetrachord, our natural tetrachord, which creates just pure minor.
Our rock and roll music for the past 30, 35 years, that music which is minor, this is used all the time, the pure minor scale.
Alright, the next would be harmonic minor.
A little change takes place in order to create harmonic minor.
The seventh tone of the scale is raised a half step.
So if we raise then the seventh tone, the seventh tone goes to G sharp.
When we raise the F or the G to a G sharp, we are creating then a step and a half between F and G sharp, and we are then pushing the G sharp closer to A, creating a half step.
This is called a harmonic tetrachord.
Now, you will normally find this type of scale in a lot of classical music.
It is a very Spanish sounding type of scale as well.
So it has a specific flavor to it.
What then makes up a harmonic minor would be then a minor tetrachord and a harmonic tetrachord.
Those two together create then the harmonic minor.
Seventh tone raised a half a step.
The next thing would be to create the melodic minor and you take the sixth and the seventh and you raise them both a half a step.
So that what you would have here would be an F sharp and a G sharp, which would then create E to F sharp is going to be a whole step, F sharp to G sharp would be a whole step, and then you have a half step.
And look what we have when we play the melodic minor.
You have a minor tetrachord as your first and you have a major tetrachord as your second.
So that when you play then the second half of a melodic minor scale, the second half sounds very major.
So it sounds as though you've gone from A minor to this almost feeling of going into E.
If you were to look further and really study it out you would find that this gets to be very characteristic of an E scale.
Alright, so there are the three ways that your minor, relative minor scale can be played.
Pure, harmonic, and melodic.
But now to one step further with melodic, the complete full definition so that you have it for a melodic minor scale would be that ascending, going from A, B, C, D, E, F sharp, G sharp, A, ascending through the scale sixth and seventh raised a half a step.
Descending or going back, it just reverts to a pure minor scale.
So that is the correct textbook way of explaining then what melodic minor scale is all about.
Obviously then if you think about the pure minor which is going to give us through the process of harmony chords,
the same chords that are produced in the major will be produced in pure minor because nothing's changed.
When you get into the harmonic structure where you have the seventh raised, that seventh raised is going to create some new chords for you.
Alright, also when you get into melodic with the sixth and seventh that's going to create some new chords.
Now the one thing we're not going to have time to do on this tape because obviously studying harmony scales and modes is we could take up quite a few tapes.
That's my intent to at least give you the basics here today as we discuss this whole involvement of the diatonic system.
So then again we have the relative minor named by the sixth tone of the scale giving us pure harmonic and melodic made up of these different tetrachords.
And one other thing I want to leave you with is this, that when something is harmonic or melodic,
these chromatics that change those scales are not found in the key signature.
The key signature remains the same. If you're playing in the key of C or you go to A minor, the signatures are the same.
If you're in G major and it goes into relative minor which is E, the key signature remains the same.
And so is how this whole system works of relative minor.
Have you ever wondered where the ninth chord, eleventh chord or thirteenth chord was and where it came from?
We're going to discuss that now by talking about simple intervals and compound intervals.
The C major scale, the F major scale, the G major scale, it doesn't matter what scale we use, we're going to find all of these chords available to us.
The process of harmony again is when we construct intervals by thirds.
C to E is harmonized together by a third, E to G and G to B.
These have been brought together in the first octave.
Notice that two, four and six have been skipped.
The only way that these can be brought into harmony would be the continuation of the thirds.
If we continue and go into the second octave, we touch D, then F, then A, so that all of the seven notes or at this we could say eight notes because we're concluding C,
have been touched the one, three, five, seven, nine, eleven and thirteen.
Now the numbers nine, eleven, thirteen get used because they are in the second octave.
So we can say then that eight and one, nine and two, eleven and four, thirteen and six are the same.
These are all the same tones.
The eight and the one, the nine and the two, the eleven and the four, and the thirteen and the six.
So that in construction in harmony to create these extended chords, the nine, eleven, thirteen get used.
Now because nine, eleven and thirteen are used here and they are harmonized,
this means that we can then bring in the two, the four and the six to create additional chords because they are obviously a part of harmony.
Now there are chords like major with an add two or a suspended four or a six chord.
That's how these numbers get used by the introduction now of simple intervals and compound intervals.
In the past thirty years rock and roll, country music, blues has really come to the forefront.
And the reason why it is such a great sound and people gravitate to it is because of the type of scale that's used in creating the sound.
And this scale is called pentatonic.
Pentatonic is a five tone scale.
Penta meaning five and tonic meaning the tone or the note that we have chosen to create the scale.
So if we look at the C diatonic scale which starts with C which is the tonic,
we then can take that same tonic and create then a pentatonic scale.
Now a pentatonic scale is created by eliminating four and eliminating seven.
And when we eliminate four and seven, we have eliminated the tones where the half steps occur.
In other words between E and F we have a half step and between B and C we have another half step.
So if we eliminate that tone and this tone, four and seven, we come up with a scale that only has five tones.
Now these tones can also be played modally as well.
C to A creating Ionian.
Starting with D, playing from D on to C creates Dorian.
E to D is Phrygian.
G to E is Mixolydian.
And A to G is Aeolian.
Now we have five ways because there are five tones in playing the pentatonic system.
The pentatonic system is fun, it's exciting.
And the music that we really know best and probably the styles that you are drawn to,
the reason why they're used so much is because they create that airy open sound.
This does not mean however when you're using the pentatonic system that the fourth tone or the seventh tone that creates these chords,
it doesn't mean that we don't have an F chord any longer or that we don't have a B diminished chord any longer.
That's not what that's saying.
These scales are normally used to create tones that play over these chords.
That's where you'll probably find some of the best usage for it.
So that the blues, the country, the sounds that create those types of music come from this system which is called pentatonic,
which is a five-tone scale.
I've really enjoyed teaching this tape today on harmony scales and modes.
You can't learn enough about the technical aspect of music and these subjects just bring fresh light to music and the understanding of it.
Getting this kind of knowledge is very, very valuable and I'm sure it's going to help you in your future
as you continue on your bass or guitar, your keyboard, whatever your instrument may be.
Good practice habits are very, very important.
You need to put the hours into your instrument.
Not only the mechanics of playing your instrument but also that which you put inside so that you can bring clarity to those things that you're playing.
So harmony scales and modes, this is just a tremendous thing to study.
Listen to the tape over and over again.
Don't stop listening to it and you'll find that it will bring not only months but I believe years of good, fresh information.
You'll always pick up new ideas and pointers that will just bring clarity again to your music.
Thanks for being with us here at Hutchinson Sound and Music today.
My name is Herb Hutchinson and I've enjoyed teaching this class on fine other basics.
And keep an eye out for future tapes.
Thank you very much.
Thank you.