Scales, Chords, Progressions, Songs

That will be your rally until Jesus comes! In all seriousness this should be the way you approach learning to play by ear. It even helps your understanding when learning to read music or if you already read music. Today we will focus on scales.

Scales:
Everything in music is based on a scale, and there are many types of scales. The scale that we will concentrate on for now will be the major scale. These will be the foundation from which a melody is built. Then we harmonize the melody with other notes from the scale and make chords.

Why are these scales so important?

Because songs are based upon a scale plain and simple. A scale is a specific range of notes plugged into the formula for the major scale. We build chords based upon a scale. Those chords make progressions; from progressions come songs! So that is why it is so important to know all 12 of the scales and their scale degrees. The relationships between scales is also very tight and knowing this gives you insight and a heads up on where a song is going and could go if you wanted to do something different.

The formula for the Major scale is:

WWHWWWH

W=whole step

H=half step

Whole Steps always skip a key with one key in between

Half steps have no notes in between them.

* all notes must be named in a scale. You may not have a B and a Bb in the same scale!

Let’s start on C

C D E F G A B C all of the notes are named. Now let’s look at whether or not this fits the formula for a major scale. Look at a keyboard and then play these notes.

From C to D is a whole step

From D to E is a whole step

From E to F is a half step

From F to G is a whole step

From G to A is a whole step

From A to B is a whole step

From B back to C is a Half step

So this does fit the formula, and thus the C scale has no flats or sharps.

Now that you have C scale figured out, you can do the same thing for the other scales.

I have included a link to the major scales and their proper fingerings here however, it is wise to do this exercise yourself and compare it to the scales provided. This helps you understand and retain it much better.

Now that we have gone through the scales let’s number each scale degree.

C-1 I

D-2 ii

E-3 iii

F-4 IV

G-5 V

A-6 vi

B-7 vii dim

So you see all we did was to start on C and start counting to 7. It is that simple! So if I ask you to play me the 4 or IV in C what chord would you play? IF you said “F” Congratulations! you have just understood the basics of the number system! Now lets understand how to make this work for us.

The next step we now must take is to learn chords, but before that can happen you must have a grasp on “intervals” to understand how to build a chord.
We will visit intervals on next. For now learn your scales! Be able to say and play them forward and backward, learn one per week or two weeks it doesn’t matter just learn them. You will be so grateful that you did! DO NOT SKIP THIS BASIC STEP!!!!

Remember: Despise not the day of small beginnings. Let God help you as you grow spiritually and skillfully.