Now that you have understood how major scales are constructed, you may have notice by now that you are confronted with having so many flats and sharps when you are constructing other major scales such as the B Major scale or the D Flat Major scale.














Let us take for example the construction of the C sharp Major Scale, by applying the formula for the major scale we get;










Now, you will notice that there are too many sharps and that would really scare most the music students away. Of course, not to mention that this is one of the most difficult scales to play.

The point there is, it would be more convenient if we could write this scale in some other way that is more pleasing to the eye and mushc easier to read.

Key Signatures

- it is the arrangement of the necessary flats and sharps of a scale and appears at the beginning of a staff within a composition after the clef.
































You have seen above the different major scales but written in their proper key signatures and is now more convenient to look at.

Here are a list of the different key signatures and how they are written.




Now that we have shown that there is one flat note in the key of F, we write its key signature this way
















Notice that the flat sign is written on the third line. This means that all B's written in this key signature is to be played flat instead of a natural B note. Unless you will see a natural sign canceling the flat sign beside a note head.

To write the next key signature, we recall the our mnemonic Fat Boys Eat Apple During Good Climate. We then know that the key signature with 2 flats would be the key of Bb. To prove that, by applying our Major Scale formula we get Bb C D Eb F G A Bb.

On the keyboard notice how many black keys are played.



Now this how we write the key signature of Bb.



We count 4 steps up from the third line as our first count, we end up on the 4 space. This key signature tells us to play every B note and E note in this key as Bb and Eb.

To continue writing on the key signatures involving flat, just remember the rule, Count up by 4 steps then go down by 5 steps.

Thus, if we continue to the next key signature, a fourth from Bb, we get to Eb and we write it this way, this time on both G clef and F clef.



Here are the rest of the key signatures in flats, notice how the given rule on how to write applies.


























How to write key signatures involving sharps?

Remember that the successive tonics of major scales involving flats are a fourth above the previous scale. As for the successive tonics of Major Scales involving sharps, they are a fifth above the previous tonic.

Remember our mnemonic for memorizing key signatures on sharps? Go Down And Eat Banana Fe Cruz.
From the key of C where there are no sharps or flats, we get the first key signature on sharps which is a fifth above C and that is the key of G.


Applying the rule on constructing major scales, we get,  G A B C D E F# G

Notice there is only one black key being played on the key of G



The rule on writing key signatures involving sharps varies a little bit unlike the flats which is very stable. What I mean by this is upon reaching the 5th sharp on this key signature, the rule is a little bit different compare to first four sharps.

Count up by five go down by 4. This rule applies up to the key of E which has 4 sharps


















After the fourth sharp, instead of going up by 5, you go down again by 4 and then resume to going up by five and going down by 4.

 If you have anymore questions on this topic please feel free to comment below.

What on earth is a scale?

I have many musicians who asks me what is a scale. What are scales for? What are the different types of scales? How do you use them?

I could go on and on recalling those questions and it led me to one conclusion. These musicians are so blinded they were literally living and groping in the darkness of their so called music.

I am writing these topic to help everyone who are interested to understand scales. My objective is to somehow enlightened them with the basic concept of scales and then take the next step into creating music out these concepts.



 
Performers practice scales to develop their technique. The recurring patterns and notes in scales help performers a lot in their technical aspect of music and even in their creation of musical compositions.

Scale
- is a collection of pitches or notes in ascending or descending order.


Here is an example of a C major scale










Listen to a piano playing the C major Scale


Listen to an overdrive guitar playing the scale



Diatonic Scale

- this literally means "across the tone". A scale of mix half and whole steps and sometimes a step and a half where each individual tones plays an important role.


Scale Degrees


- each degree of a seven tone diatonic scale has its own function listed below.






















- the first degree of a scale is called the tonic and it is the tonal center of a scale, also the final resolution of a scale.
- the 2nd degree is called supertonic it is one step above the tonic.
- the 3rd degree is called the mediant and is halfway between the first degree and the fifth degree
- the 4th degree is called subdominant it is referred as the lower dominant because it is the fifth tone down from the tonic.
- the 5th degree is called the dominant because it is the second next important tone after the tonic.
- the 6th degree is called the submediant and is halfway between the tonic and lower dominant
- the 7th degree is called the subtonic and is use only to designate the 7th degree of a natural minor scale.


Major Scale

 - is a scale of 7 different pitches with whole steps seperating adjacent tones except for the third and fourth degreee and the seventh and eight degree.

We have a very simple formula in constructing a major scale.















This is how we build a major scale on C Major by using the formula above.
























Transposition

- the formula for constructing a major scale can be done on any given pitch, rewriting it on another pitch aside from the given example above is called transposition.

Here is where the major scale formula is applied and transpose on the scale of G major.












Now that you have understood how to construct a major scale, there is no stopping you now from creating any major scale. Just practice constructing and playing them. Have fun!

You have made it into another chapter of an incredible journey into the vast world of music. I'm sure you have learned something from parts 1 and 2 and you are more than ready to dig deeper into this chapter. Welcome to part 3 of this series and I hope that you will come out of this chapter with excitement knowing that you are seeing new horizons in your music.

















Music is a higher revelation than all wisdom and philosophy.
Ludwig van Beethoven







Dynamic Markings

- this was mentioned in the topic basic elements of music but let us discuss it here in more details.

- these markings indicate the general volume or amplitude of a sound. Although it is not precise, it denotes the approximately level of intensity.

If you haven't check Music Notation Made Simple Part 1 I suggest you check that out before having any plans on reading this section. Of course there is always an exemption, if you happen to already have some knowledge on the basics of music notation, you are more than welcome to read this chapter.

Have Fun!






After years of teaching music, I found a technique of learning how to read music in a simple way. It works for me, it doesn't mean it's the only way. Haha too much ways to say there, I would be more than happy to share how I teach music in my own way!



We have already discussed about the letter names in a previous chapter, so we are now ready to take the next step in using them.

Letter names have equivalent singing names or the solfa syllables which is use more often in singing lessons than on this one. For uniformity purposes we will be using letter names (C D E F G A B) instead of singing names (Do Re Mi...).

READING NOTES ON THE G STAFF

For notes on lines of a treble clef  just remember the words Every Good Boy Does Fine. Taking only every first letter of each word would give us the notes on the lines of a G staff.












As for the notes on the spaces of a G staff, we just remember the letters that form the word FACE.














Moving on to the F staff, remember the words, Good Boys Do Fine Always for the notes on the lines of a F staff 











and remember ACEG (you can give any meaning for this one) for notes on the spaces of a F staff.












That wasn't so hard I'm sure. The moment you determine a note on the staff, it is then very easy to identify the notes below or above that note. It is one step of identifying the notes on a staff.


Note: The higher the position of a note on a staff, the higher its pitch is. The lower its position on the staff, the lower its pitch is.


 



















Ledger Lines


- are lines located above and below the staff. Its purpose is to guide you when reading notes that are above or below the staff. Without these lines it would be very hard to distinguish notes above or below the staff.

Notes extending above and below the G staff

Notes extending above and below the F staff

Exercise


Try to answer this exercise to test what you have learned so far. For more exercises, you can go to exercise page of this blog.
 





































The Grand Staff

- when you  connect the G staff and the F staff you get what we call the Grand Staff.




















In piano music, the treble staff is played by the right hand while the bass staff is played by the left hand 

Watch the video of a piano excerpt of Bach's Courante from French Suite No.2






This is an example of a Grand Staff use for Four Part Chorale Writing
In four part chorale writing, the treble staff is use for the Sopranos and the Altos while the bass staff is use for the Tenors and the Basses.








Octave Identification

- the word octave means a series of eight (8) notes, 7 of which are unique and 1 is a repetition of the first

- if you think I lost you there, then this image might help you understand what an octave is








- because the pitch spectrum is so wide, one must be able to identify a specific note by the octave in which it appears.



Now let us view the whole spectrum of pitches in different octaves and identify where our middle C is located.


























As you can see base on the figure above, each tone has a certain octave, specific to itself, although you may find C a lot of times, but each C is a different and unique C. That is true to all pitches on the spectrum. This octave identification is approved by the International Acoustical Society. You may want to google the Helmholtz  System, this is a derivation of that famous acoustic system.






Accidentals

- are symbols that you place to the left of the note head, that is before the note head, to indicate the raising or lowering of a pitch.


Sharp sign raises the pitch of a note a half step and looks like this

















Flat sign lowers the pitch of a note and looks like this




















Double sharp sign raises the pitch of a note a whole step and a Double flat lowers the pitch of a note a whole step. Both of these are shown below














This is how you use these accidentals when you write music







Click play to hear the image


Interval

- is the relationship between two tones or the distance between two distinct pitches. In western music, the smallest interval is a half step, in  the keyboard, it will be two adjacent keys.




Listen how these half steps sound like



Enharmonic Equivalents

- are tones that have the same pitch but spelled differently or have different letter names