If you don't wind the string around the tuning pegs properly it won't hold tuning very well.
How would I tell if it's done properly?
edit: It did hold its tune overnight. The only thing I did differently this time aside from the oiling was loosening them up before tightening. I guess that makes a difference.
There are a few different ways. I learned from a teacher, but I later realized that his method had come from Dan Erlewine's The Guitar Player's Repair Guide. You could probably find some how-to videos on youtube. The thing about guitar is while there aren't that many people who know how to play on the internet there seems to be no shortage of people who know how to work on their instrument.
Has anyone here used the Amplitube 2 VST plug-in? And if so, how is the harmonizer? I'm about to sell my Digitech DHP-33 harmonizer since I don't use it live anymore but would like to have some sort of back up for at least studio use if I decide in the future I want some guitar harmonizing effects.
Okay, quick question relating to guitar strings. I see some guitarists leave long pieces of it dangling from the pegs... is there any reason that they do that? It just seems distracting and I can't see any good reason to leave them uncut after the strings are nice and set.
I used to string one of my guitars so the ball end was at the pegs. Very nice and neat looking.
oldsak on
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Podlyyou unzipped me! it's all coming back! i don't like it!Registered Userregular
Okay, quick question relating to guitar strings. I see some guitarists leave long pieces of it dangling from the pegs... is there any reason that they do that? It just seems distracting and I can't see any good reason to leave them uncut after the strings are nice and set.
I used to string one of my guitars so the ball end was at the pegs. Very nice and neat looking.
I made this (PDF), printed it out, and picked out a random note (C in this case) and played five of them. After about two minutes of playing them I could find them instantly.
It's not committed to long term memory just yet, but I could see this being a great way to study for anyone having trouble memorizing the fretboard (like me).
I made this (PDF), printed it out, and picked out a random note (C in this case) and played five of them. After about two minutes of playing them I could find them instantly.
It's not committed to long term memory just yet, but I could see this being a great way to study for anyone having trouble memorizing the fretboard (like me).
Using tab to learn scales and notes is pretty standard, so it's good that you're getting into it early. Beyond simple notes, you should look into scales as well. Learning scales will have you passing through notes in various locations AND teach you how notes related to each other. Plus it'll get you beyond the C scale, adding all those lovely accidentals ;D
edit: the real bonus of learning the major scales is that it's used so much that everyone knows it, so you can go through major scales in 3 octaves on guitar and always hear when you get a note wrong. I go through the circle of fifths doing two octave scales every time i start practicing, doing different things -- pizz, bowing, two notes to a bow, pizzing alternate fingers, etc. It's fantastic practice.
I made this (PDF), printed it out, and picked out a random note (C in this case) and played five of them. After about two minutes of playing them I could find them instantly.
It's not committed to long term memory just yet, but I could see this being a great way to study for anyone having trouble memorizing the fretboard (like me).
Using tab to learn scales and notes is pretty standard, so it's good that you're getting into it early. Beyond simple notes, you should look into scales as well. Learning scales will have you passing through notes in various locations AND teach you how notes related to each other. Plus it'll get you beyond the C scale, adding all those lovely accidentals ;D
edit: the real bonus of learning the major scales is that it's used so much that everyone knows it, so you can go through major scales in 3 octaves on guitar and always hear when you get a note wrong. I go through the circle of fifths doing two octave scales every time i start practicing, doing different things -- pizz, bowing, two notes to a bow, pizzing alternate fingers, etc. It's fantastic practice.
I'm having a rough time finding solid information on scales. I find a lot of "here are the scales," but nothing on how they work, or even how to play them.
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Podlyyou unzipped me! it's all coming back! i don't like it!Registered Userregular
edited December 2009
Anyone know of a good plugin harmonizer fo free 99 that's both VST and AU?
I'm having a rough time finding solid information on scales. I find a lot of "here are the scales," but nothing on how they work, or even how to play them.
Khavall's written up this stuff in the past, and I've hit it too, but here's the basics. The major scale, in C, is C D E F G A B C. A whole step is 2 semitones, a half step is 1 semitone (including the "black keys" on a piano), and on a guitar it's even easier -- each fret is a semitone, or half-step. So it's "whole whole half whole whole whole half." Or WWHWWWH. Easy, right?
So if you start on G, everything is the same -- except the F is sharp. And then when you go to D, the F is still sharp and also the C is now sharp. But for your purposes, that's not important. Because you'll notice that they all "sound" the same going through the scale, regardless of which notes are flat or sharp. Start on C and play a major scale straight through -- C D E F G A B C. Then do 2 more octaves -- keep going up to another C and then finally one last C. Then back down. You'll hit all the notes, and probably start getting a feel for where your fingers need to be when you're playing that scale.
Now start on a different note. Figure out the notes by ear, or by counting off the frets. Some will be harder than others, of course.
That's the basics for the major scale. The other scales are all, essentially, based on the major scale -- just some notes are sharp or flat to change how the scale feels. But if you know your major scales, learning those other scales is trivial -- you just think "Oh, this is just one note different from the scales I know by heart -- that's easy!"
Doing these exercises are doubly important on my instrument of choice because I don't have any frets, so these exercises teach my ear and my fingers where to be exactly. But they're important to do on any instrument, IMO, so you know where you are. I personally tell my teacher that I don't mind the technical exercises because I want to be a "double bass player," not just "someone who can play double bass."
re: pitch pipes. They're OK in a pinch. Given how cheap they are if you think you're going to be somewhere where you won't have electricity or your battery dies, you can pick one up. Personally I have one for my mandolin, but my electric tuner has great battery life so I don't use it much.
I would say that pitch pipes are better for you in the long run because you have to actually listen and tune yourself up by ear (because playing music is all about listening) instead of just tuning by what the display said EXCEPT that electronic tuners can usually also play different pitches. So you're fine.
Also Eggytoast is talking about single notes. Figuring out major scales in 12 keys on your own would be a great excercise for a guy like you because in addition to learning the scale you'd also go a long way towards mapping out the fretboard.
That's a bit unclear. Are you saying I start on a chord and move down or up one step with the same finger positions?
edit: I'm assuming we're talking about chords. That's what all the scale related pages I found mentioned when they provided any information.
Nope, single notes. After all, notes make up scales. If you know your C scale, which is what's in your PDF, then you also know that if you put your fingers on a C, an E, and a G, you have a major chord -- because the E is the 3rd note and the G is the fifth note. That formula works for any scale.
In other words, scales determine what notes go into a chord. They also illustrate chord changes. If you know your scales, you know why going between a G chord and a D chord sounds so "right."
If you're getting the impression that this is a lot of work, it really isn't. Once you start going through your scales (say, do 2 new scales a week), you'll know all your scales really well in like two months. That's a LOT of music knowledge that will seriously not feel like work.
It's really a lot of fun -- you start to quickly see how all the notes are connected to each other, and your typical rock song is trivially easy to just pick up and play at that point.
edit: the simple, really simple version of all this is this: You're mapping out C, and you see that there's a pattern. You can do the same thing for all of those other notes -- BUT music isn't about just playing a note in different octaves. It's all about moving between notes. So knowing where C is is a great exercise, but a good next step is to figure out how to GET to C. Learning how to get to the notes using the major scale is a very musical and easy way to do it, and it applies to every other note as well.
ok guys, so I've played guitar for a few years. I'm pretty decent, and I understand what notes are on any given chord I play. I'm not great with music theory, but if I get out some paper I can map out all of the notes in a given chord I know.
so I bought a keyboard, and now I need to learn to play it. What should I do? When I listen to piano/keyboard it's in rock songs. jack white, peter frampton, eric clapton...help!
ok guys, so I've played guitar for a few years. I'm pretty decent, and I understand what notes are on any given chord I play. I'm not great with music theory, but if I get out some paper I can map out all of the notes in a given chord I know.
so I bought a keyboard, and now I need to learn to play it. What should I do? When I listen to piano/keyboard it's in rock songs. jack white, peter frampton, eric clapton...help!
The white key to the left of the group of two black keys is C, the white key to the right of the group of three black keys is B. The black keys are sharps/flats and work like you would expect them to.
Middle C (right between the bass and treble parts of the staff) is somewhere under the logo or to the left if it's a short keyboard. Your right hand plays the right side (treble) and your left plays the left (bass). Each hand should start with the leftmost finger/thumb on a C.
ok guys, so I've played guitar for a few years. I'm pretty decent, and I understand what notes are on any given chord I play. I'm not great with music theory, but if I get out some paper I can map out all of the notes in a given chord I know.
so I bought a keyboard, and now I need to learn to play it. What should I do? When I listen to piano/keyboard it's in rock songs. jack white, peter frampton, eric clapton...help!
The white key to the left of the group of two black keys is C, the white key to the right of the group of three black keys is B. The black keys are sharps/flats and work like you would expect them to.
Middle C (right between the bass and treble parts of the staff) is somewhere under the logo or to the left if it's a short keyboard. Your right hand plays the right side (treble) and your left plays the left (bass). Each hand should start with the leftmost finger/thumb on a C.
I was motivated by having access to a piano over thanksgiving. I was finding A and working my way around from there. I basically took some guitar chords and found the middle notes and played them on a piano...is this at all how piano's play "chords?" What is (is there?) their equivalent?
ok guys, so I've played guitar for a few years. I'm pretty decent, and I understand what notes are on any given chord I play. I'm not great with music theory, but if I get out some paper I can map out all of the notes in a given chord I know.
so I bought a keyboard, and now I need to learn to play it. What should I do? When I listen to piano/keyboard it's in rock songs. jack white, peter frampton, eric clapton...help!
The white key to the left of the group of two black keys is C, the white key to the right of the group of three black keys is B. The black keys are sharps/flats and work like you would expect them to.
Middle C (right between the bass and treble parts of the staff) is somewhere under the logo or to the left if it's a short keyboard. Your right hand plays the right side (treble) and your left plays the left (bass). Each hand should start with the leftmost finger/thumb on a C.
I was motivated by having access to a piano over thanksgiving. I was finding A and working my way around from there. I basically took some guitar chords and found the middle notes and played them on a piano...is this at all how piano's play "chords?" What is (is there?) their equivalent?
The only chords I know on the piano are pretty straightforward, and there's a million videos on youtube that show how to do it. And now that I've made the connection, I see what everyone means. C E G is the first chord I learned to play on my keyboard. :rotate:
ok guys, so I've played guitar for a few years. I'm pretty decent, and I understand what notes are on any given chord I play. I'm not great with music theory, but if I get out some paper I can map out all of the notes in a given chord I know.
so I bought a keyboard, and now I need to learn to play it. What should I do? When I listen to piano/keyboard it's in rock songs. jack white, peter frampton, eric clapton...help!
The white key to the left of the group of two black keys is C, the white key to the right of the group of three black keys is B. The black keys are sharps/flats and work like you would expect them to.
Middle C (right between the bass and treble parts of the staff) is somewhere under the logo or to the left if it's a short keyboard. Your right hand plays the right side (treble) and your left plays the left (bass). Each hand should start with the leftmost finger/thumb on a C.
I was motivated by having access to a piano over thanksgiving. I was finding A and working my way around from there. I basically took some guitar chords and found the middle notes and played them on a piano...is this at all how piano's play "chords?" What is (is there?) their equivalent?
Well, first off, for a general lesson on chords: http://khavallmusic.blogspot.com/ Lesson 2-3. Wow that's a lot more convenient than typing it up again.
The basics are that you play a chord based on the root. You see a C chord for instance, you play a C, E, and G. You see a Gm chord, you play G, Bb, and D. Without a different bass note given, you play the root in the left hand. Obviously, if you're given a different bass note, you play the given bass note in the left hand.
Now, that's the basics. But your right hand can play different inversions too, and I'll actually end up covering this in the blog, but there's a thing called "voice leading" that also is part of this. Let's say you're playing a C chord in root position. Your next chord is G. Now, you could go from C-E-G to G-B-D, but let's look at those notes themselves. G is in both chords, B and D are only a step below C and E. So if you're lazy, or sometimes there are other reasons for doing something like this, you can keep the G, and play the G chord in 1st inversion. So if you're playing with the basic, standard fingering, Thumb-Middle-Pinky, you can just move your thumb and middle finger down a step. Some chords you can't do this for, like if you were going from C to dm, but that's close enough it's not an issue anyways. I'd recommend learning how to get from each chord easily from the I chord first.
Also, for certain styles you will tend to lean on certain inversions. For instance, in Jazz, it's pretty much sacrilege to play a chord in root position. But basically, you're still for chords on piano playing the notes of the chord together.
Not sure if anyone listens to the clips I've been posting, but here is another work in progress. It's the opening to a large 30min song we're working on. Drums still need to be recorded, but I thought it stood well on it's own as is. I love the complicated rhythm behind it.
I would say that pitch pipes are better for you in the long run because you have to actually listen and tune yourself up by ear (because playing music is all about listening) instead of just tuning by what the display said EXCEPT that electronic tuners can usually also play different pitches. So you're fine.
Beat me to it, almost word for word re: pitch pipes.
I will post my gear whore pics in here soon, but I'd like to chime in right now and brag about the Gallien Krueger 2000 CPL Guitar Preamp that I just aquired. Great Rush/Iron Maiden tone (it's what Maiden used on the 7th Son tour).
Now I just have to find a 5 button footswitch for it!
That doesn't help much. How do you determine where it starts if it doesn't start on the first note on the staff?
You could start a C scale on any note that falls inside the scale -- you're still playing the same scale. Just like if you start typing the alphabet in sequence -- even if you start on Q and go around through P, it's still the alphabet. Of course, just like the C scale, it technically still starts at A.
That's only because the particular notes you wrote down are the C scale, regardless of what the first note is. Since your PDF excluded sharps & flats, that is.
That doesn't help much. How do you determine where it starts if it doesn't start on the first note on the staff?
You could start a C scale on any note that falls inside the scale -- you're still playing the same scale. Just like if you start typing the alphabet in sequence -- even if you start on Q and go around through P, it's still the alphabet. Of course, just like the C scale, it technically still starts at C.
That's only because the particular notes you wrote down are the C scale, regardless of what the first note is. Since your PDF excluded sharps & flats, that is.
For some reason I hadn't figured out that the musical scale starts on C before now. Are there other scales?
There are 12, one for each note. The major scale follows the same musical pattern for each, though, despite each scale technically containing different notes.
You might've simply been confused by the range of your instrument, which starts on E. Violin's lowest note is G, Cello starts on C, brass instruments seem to be some weird Bb thing.
edit: Also, you can go through the notes in order - C, Db, D, Eb, E, etc. - but most people, when they practice, hit them according to the circle of fifths: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circle_of_fifths . You'll notice that, starting at C, if you go one direction around the circle you add one flat or sharp for each step until you get around to F#.
That doesn't help much. How do you determine where it starts if it doesn't start on the first note on the staff?
You could start a C scale on any note that falls inside the scale -- you're still playing the same scale. Just like if you start typing the alphabet in sequence -- even if you start on Q and go around through P, it's still the alphabet. Of course, just like the C scale, it technically still starts at C.
That's only because the particular notes you wrote down are the C scale, regardless of what the first note is. Since your PDF excluded sharps & flats, that is.
Ehhhhhhhhhhhh.
Kind of. Not really though, no.
We could say that that example contains all the notes of the C Major scale. We could also say that the example is a diatonic scale. And we could say that the order of pitches and starting pitch of a scale doesn't matter in practice, but technically, the scale posted is E Phrygian.
This is really confusing, but to help illustrate my point: If I said that the scale of C-D-E-F-G-A-B was an A minor scale, even though it started on C, would I be wrong?
They have the same notes, so what's with one person saying C and one person saying a?
We have to delve sort of into a weird murky area to get this right, but let's see if I can explain it.
First off, we're going to be dealing with Heptatonic scales for now, I don't want to get into crazy.
A Major, minor, or modal scale isn't just a collection of notes. It's a collection of notes that behave a certain way. Scales do consist of a collection of notes, bound by specific intervals, but they also should be thought of a collection of scale degrees. That is to say, we define a tonic, such as C, and the other notes in the scale are defined by their distance and behavior around the tonic, as well as by their intervals. G, for instance, is the dominant. B is the leading tone, or subtonic. When we play a C Major scale, we probably hear these relationships, and they're different in an absolute sense than when we play an a minor scale, where A is the tonic and G is the subtonic and E is the dominant. So while the starting note of a scale is a useless determination(you were right about that), the tonic is important, and if we're just playing a scale as a theoretical exercise, we start and end on the tonic.
To see this in action, try playing a C major scale starting on C, ascending and descending one octave and then play a G chord and a C chord. Now play random shit to clear your mind of tonality. Ok now play a C major scale starting on A, ascending and descending one octave, and then play a G chord and a C chord.
It didn't really... sound as right after the one based on A, did it? That's because you really were playing an a minor scale, and then played the V-I of a different scale.
Now, in any practical example of music, we aren't just dealing with notes of a scale. There are a billion things that determine the tonic, which is why we don't need to play a scale before a piece is played to set the key. But when dealing with scales on a purely theoretical level, we deal with the starting and ending note as the tonic of the scale. And technically, a scale with the intervals h-W-W-W-h-W-W is a Phrygian scale, and the example is one based on E.
However, MKR, this is sort of complex theorycrafting, for the basics of scale construction, well, there's a blog post for that.
Yeah, that's all very confusing to me. I like theory, but I can never make sense of it until I've pretty much figured it out by doing things. I'll read the blog post though. :P
Well the problem is that Theory literally can explain everything that ever happens in music. And while that happens, it also means it's incredibly specific, and the language can be confusing.
So if you learn that the notes of a C major scale are the same regardless of where you start, it makes sense. If you learn that a C major scale is the same regardless of where you start because the notes are the same, it seems to make sense but isn't strictly speaking correct. Because there's a scale that "starts" on a different note that contains the notes of a C major scale.
I think the easiest way to learn scales on a theory level, which while it still doesn't really tell the whole story, is to learn them as a set of intervals. That's why in that blog post I start off by giving the intervals, because that's what we can use to determine exactly what the scale is, when we're talking about just theory. And you can use it for any key. It may be confusing to remember that for some arbitrary reason F is sharp in D Major, but if you follow the intervals it makes sense. Technically there are other ways to think about it, like the behavior thing I talked about, but strictly speaking, the scale has to consist of the specific intervals in the specific order, in a pure form.
The explanations in the blag post made more sense once I realized the H in the pattern was BC and EF. It might be good to mention that so it's clearer.
So why does flatting the 3rd, 6th, and 7th note make it minor? Or is that one of those theory things that can come later?
And from what I can understand of the circle, it seems going up/down a fifth means going up or down two spots on the staff. Is that right?
edit: By that I mean two lines/spaces (depending on where the note is)
Not exactly. This is correct for C major (or A minor) where there aren't any sharps or flats, but might be different for other keys. Going up/down a fifth means going up/down [strike]9[/strike] 7 semitones (half steps), whatever that corresponds with.
And from what I can understand of the circle, it seems going up/down a fifth means going up or down two spots on the staff. Is that right?
edit: By that I mean two lines/spaces (depending on where the note is)
Not exactly. This is correct for C major (or A minor) where there aren't any sharps or flats, but might be different for other keys. Going up/down a fifth means going up/down 9 semitones (half steps), whatever that corresponds with.
I was trying to avoid modes so I didn't confuse the poor guy ;D
MKR: The short of it is this -- Learn your major scales. That's starting on a particular note and going WWHWWWH. The take-away for you from what Khavall and Yall pointed out is that if by learning your major scales, you are also learning a ton of other things that you don't even realize yet.
To illustrate in simple terms, once you know your A major scale, you can try to learn your A minor scale. As soon as you start to learn it, though, your brain (and your fingers) will quickly recognize "hey, this is just like the C major scale, only I'm starting on A. I know this!" And because you'll know your major scales, you'll almost instantly realize how the change can apply to any other scale.
I was trying to avoid modes so I didn't confuse the poor guy ;D
MKR: The short of it is this -- Learn your major scales. That's starting on a particular note and going WWHWWWH. The take-away for you from what Khavall and Yall pointed out is that if by learning your major scales, you are also learning a ton of other things that you don't even realize yet.
To illustrate in simple terms, once you know your A major scale, you can try to learn your A minor scale. As soon as you start to learn it, though, your brain (and your fingers) will quickly recognize "hey, this is just like the C major scale, only I'm starting on A. I know this!" And because you'll know your major scales, you'll almost instantly realize how the change can apply to any other scale.
Yeah, I figured, but I know that a lot of times what happens with this stuff, at least what happened with me is that I sort of got taught things that were a simplified version of theory and then had to re-learn all the terminology and everything I knew.
So I think it's better to note that yes, a C major scale starts and ends on C, but regardless of where you start and end, the notes of the C major scale are the same than to blanket statement incorrectly.
It's also why for instance I try to be careful with the difference between notes and pitch classes. Because even with like 90% of tonal theory they're almost exactly the same thing, and the biggest differences are normally given as "notational reasons" for why a pitch class is written as one note or another, as soon as you break beyond that if you're not careful you'll be using the wrong terminology when all of a sudden it actually matters, and you'll have to completely relearn everything about what really a note is.
I need to learn what frets correspond to which notes on all of the fretboard. Low frets (5 and below) and specific spots (like A string 7th fret) I know like the back of my hand, but other 'areas' I'm just ignorant on.
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There are a few different ways. I learned from a teacher, but I later realized that his method had come from Dan Erlewine's The Guitar Player's Repair Guide. You could probably find some how-to videos on youtube. The thing about guitar is while there aren't that many people who know how to play on the internet there seems to be no shortage of people who know how to work on their instrument.
PSN : Bolthorn
I used to string one of my guitars so the ball end was at the pegs. Very nice and neat looking.
easy way to string a floyd rose, right there.
It's not committed to long term memory just yet, but I could see this being a great way to study for anyone having trouble memorizing the fretboard (like me).
Also: Google Chrome's dictionary has fretboard.
Don't get me started. The strings on my bass cost $150 for a set. And that's the cheap stuff.
Using tab to learn scales and notes is pretty standard, so it's good that you're getting into it early. Beyond simple notes, you should look into scales as well. Learning scales will have you passing through notes in various locations AND teach you how notes related to each other. Plus it'll get you beyond the C scale, adding all those lovely accidentals ;D
edit: the real bonus of learning the major scales is that it's used so much that everyone knows it, so you can go through major scales in 3 octaves on guitar and always hear when you get a note wrong. I go through the circle of fifths doing two octave scales every time i start practicing, doing different things -- pizz, bowing, two notes to a bow, pizzing alternate fingers, etc. It's fantastic practice.
I'm having a rough time finding solid information on scales. I find a lot of "here are the scales," but nothing on how they work, or even how to play them.
Khavall's written up this stuff in the past, and I've hit it too, but here's the basics. The major scale, in C, is C D E F G A B C. A whole step is 2 semitones, a half step is 1 semitone (including the "black keys" on a piano), and on a guitar it's even easier -- each fret is a semitone, or half-step. So it's "whole whole half whole whole whole half." Or WWHWWWH. Easy, right?
So if you start on G, everything is the same -- except the F is sharp. And then when you go to D, the F is still sharp and also the C is now sharp. But for your purposes, that's not important. Because you'll notice that they all "sound" the same going through the scale, regardless of which notes are flat or sharp. Start on C and play a major scale straight through -- C D E F G A B C. Then do 2 more octaves -- keep going up to another C and then finally one last C. Then back down. You'll hit all the notes, and probably start getting a feel for where your fingers need to be when you're playing that scale.
Now start on a different note. Figure out the notes by ear, or by counting off the frets. Some will be harder than others, of course.
That's the basics for the major scale. The other scales are all, essentially, based on the major scale -- just some notes are sharp or flat to change how the scale feels. But if you know your major scales, learning those other scales is trivial -- you just think "Oh, this is just one note different from the scales I know by heart -- that's easy!"
Doing these exercises are doubly important on my instrument of choice because I don't have any frets, so these exercises teach my ear and my fingers where to be exactly. But they're important to do on any instrument, IMO, so you know where you are. I personally tell my teacher that I don't mind the technical exercises because I want to be a "double bass player," not just "someone who can play double bass."
re: pitch pipes. They're OK in a pinch. Given how cheap they are if you think you're going to be somewhere where you won't have electricity or your battery dies, you can pick one up. Personally I have one for my mandolin, but my electric tuner has great battery life so I don't use it much.
edit: I'm assuming we're talking about chords. That's what all the scale related pages I found mentioned when they provided any information.
Also Eggytoast is talking about single notes. Figuring out major scales in 12 keys on your own would be a great excercise for a guy like you because in addition to learning the scale you'd also go a long way towards mapping out the fretboard.
Nope, single notes. After all, notes make up scales. If you know your C scale, which is what's in your PDF, then you also know that if you put your fingers on a C, an E, and a G, you have a major chord -- because the E is the 3rd note and the G is the fifth note. That formula works for any scale.
In other words, scales determine what notes go into a chord. They also illustrate chord changes. If you know your scales, you know why going between a G chord and a D chord sounds so "right."
If you're getting the impression that this is a lot of work, it really isn't. Once you start going through your scales (say, do 2 new scales a week), you'll know all your scales really well in like two months. That's a LOT of music knowledge that will seriously not feel like work.
It's really a lot of fun -- you start to quickly see how all the notes are connected to each other, and your typical rock song is trivially easy to just pick up and play at that point.
edit: the simple, really simple version of all this is this: You're mapping out C, and you see that there's a pattern. You can do the same thing for all of those other notes -- BUT music isn't about just playing a note in different octaves. It's all about moving between notes. So knowing where C is is a great exercise, but a good next step is to figure out how to GET to C. Learning how to get to the notes using the major scale is a very musical and easy way to do it, and it applies to every other note as well.
so I bought a keyboard, and now I need to learn to play it. What should I do? When I listen to piano/keyboard it's in rock songs. jack white, peter frampton, eric clapton...help!
The white key to the left of the group of two black keys is C, the white key to the right of the group of three black keys is B. The black keys are sharps/flats and work like you would expect them to.
Middle C (right between the bass and treble parts of the staff) is somewhere under the logo or to the left if it's a short keyboard. Your right hand plays the right side (treble) and your left plays the left (bass). Each hand should start with the leftmost finger/thumb on a C.
A C major scale is going to start on a C note, so that could be string 5, fret 3. Could be string 2, fret 1. Could be a few other options.
I was motivated by having access to a piano over thanksgiving. I was finding A and working my way around from there. I basically took some guitar chords and found the middle notes and played them on a piano...is this at all how piano's play "chords?" What is (is there?) their equivalent?
The only chords I know on the piano are pretty straightforward, and there's a million videos on youtube that show how to do it. And now that I've made the connection, I see what everyone means. C E G is the first chord I learned to play on my keyboard. :rotate:
Well, first off, for a general lesson on chords: http://khavallmusic.blogspot.com/ Lesson 2-3. Wow that's a lot more convenient than typing it up again.
The basics are that you play a chord based on the root. You see a C chord for instance, you play a C, E, and G. You see a Gm chord, you play G, Bb, and D. Without a different bass note given, you play the root in the left hand. Obviously, if you're given a different bass note, you play the given bass note in the left hand.
Now, that's the basics. But your right hand can play different inversions too, and I'll actually end up covering this in the blog, but there's a thing called "voice leading" that also is part of this. Let's say you're playing a C chord in root position. Your next chord is G. Now, you could go from C-E-G to G-B-D, but let's look at those notes themselves. G is in both chords, B and D are only a step below C and E. So if you're lazy, or sometimes there are other reasons for doing something like this, you can keep the G, and play the G chord in 1st inversion. So if you're playing with the basic, standard fingering, Thumb-Middle-Pinky, you can just move your thumb and middle finger down a step. Some chords you can't do this for, like if you were going from C to dm, but that's close enough it's not an issue anyways. I'd recommend learning how to get from each chord easily from the I chord first.
Also, for certain styles you will tend to lean on certain inversions. For instance, in Jazz, it's pretty much sacrilege to play a chord in root position. But basically, you're still for chords on piano playing the notes of the chord together.
http://soundcloud.com/ueakcrash/study120809
Now I just have to find a 5 button footswitch for it!
You could start a C scale on any note that falls inside the scale -- you're still playing the same scale. Just like if you start typing the alphabet in sequence -- even if you start on Q and go around through P, it's still the alphabet. Of course, just like the C scale, it technically still starts at A.
That's only because the particular notes you wrote down are the C scale, regardless of what the first note is. Since your PDF excluded sharps & flats, that is.
For some reason I hadn't figured out that the musical scale starts on C before now. Are there other scales?
You might've simply been confused by the range of your instrument, which starts on E. Violin's lowest note is G, Cello starts on C, brass instruments seem to be some weird Bb thing.
edit: Also, you can go through the notes in order - C, Db, D, Eb, E, etc. - but most people, when they practice, hit them according to the circle of fifths: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circle_of_fifths . You'll notice that, starting at C, if you go one direction around the circle you add one flat or sharp for each step until you get around to F#.
For example - if you play all of the notes in a C Major scale, but start and end on A, you've just played an A Minor scale.
And from what I can understand of the circle, it seems going up/down a fifth means going up or down two spots on the staff. Is that right?
edit: By that I mean two lines/spaces (depending on where the note is)
Ehhhhhhhhhhhh.
Kind of. Not really though, no.
We could say that that example contains all the notes of the C Major scale. We could also say that the example is a diatonic scale. And we could say that the order of pitches and starting pitch of a scale doesn't matter in practice, but technically, the scale posted is E Phrygian.
This is really confusing, but to help illustrate my point: If I said that the scale of C-D-E-F-G-A-B was an A minor scale, even though it started on C, would I be wrong?
They have the same notes, so what's with one person saying C and one person saying a?
We have to delve sort of into a weird murky area to get this right, but let's see if I can explain it.
First off, we're going to be dealing with Heptatonic scales for now, I don't want to get into crazy.
A Major, minor, or modal scale isn't just a collection of notes. It's a collection of notes that behave a certain way. Scales do consist of a collection of notes, bound by specific intervals, but they also should be thought of a collection of scale degrees. That is to say, we define a tonic, such as C, and the other notes in the scale are defined by their distance and behavior around the tonic, as well as by their intervals. G, for instance, is the dominant. B is the leading tone, or subtonic. When we play a C Major scale, we probably hear these relationships, and they're different in an absolute sense than when we play an a minor scale, where A is the tonic and G is the subtonic and E is the dominant. So while the starting note of a scale is a useless determination(you were right about that), the tonic is important, and if we're just playing a scale as a theoretical exercise, we start and end on the tonic.
To see this in action, try playing a C major scale starting on C, ascending and descending one octave and then play a G chord and a C chord. Now play random shit to clear your mind of tonality. Ok now play a C major scale starting on A, ascending and descending one octave, and then play a G chord and a C chord.
It didn't really... sound as right after the one based on A, did it? That's because you really were playing an a minor scale, and then played the V-I of a different scale.
Now, in any practical example of music, we aren't just dealing with notes of a scale. There are a billion things that determine the tonic, which is why we don't need to play a scale before a piece is played to set the key. But when dealing with scales on a purely theoretical level, we deal with the starting and ending note as the tonic of the scale. And technically, a scale with the intervals h-W-W-W-h-W-W is a Phrygian scale, and the example is one based on E.
However, MKR, this is sort of complex theorycrafting, for the basics of scale construction, well, there's a blog post for that.
So if you learn that the notes of a C major scale are the same regardless of where you start, it makes sense. If you learn that a C major scale is the same regardless of where you start because the notes are the same, it seems to make sense but isn't strictly speaking correct. Because there's a scale that "starts" on a different note that contains the notes of a C major scale.
I think the easiest way to learn scales on a theory level, which while it still doesn't really tell the whole story, is to learn them as a set of intervals. That's why in that blog post I start off by giving the intervals, because that's what we can use to determine exactly what the scale is, when we're talking about just theory. And you can use it for any key. It may be confusing to remember that for some arbitrary reason F is sharp in D Major, but if you follow the intervals it makes sense. Technically there are other ways to think about it, like the behavior thing I talked about, but strictly speaking, the scale has to consist of the specific intervals in the specific order, in a pure form.
So why does flatting the 3rd, 6th, and 7th note make it minor? Or is that one of those theory things that can come later?
Not exactly. This is correct for C major (or A minor) where there aren't any sharps or flats, but might be different for other keys. Going up/down a fifth means going up/down [strike]9[/strike] 7 semitones (half steps), whatever that corresponds with.
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MKR: The short of it is this -- Learn your major scales. That's starting on a particular note and going WWHWWWH. The take-away for you from what Khavall and Yall pointed out is that if by learning your major scales, you are also learning a ton of other things that you don't even realize yet.
To illustrate in simple terms, once you know your A major scale, you can try to learn your A minor scale. As soon as you start to learn it, though, your brain (and your fingers) will quickly recognize "hey, this is just like the C major scale, only I'm starting on A. I know this!" And because you'll know your major scales, you'll almost instantly realize how the change can apply to any other scale.
Yeah, I figured, but I know that a lot of times what happens with this stuff, at least what happened with me is that I sort of got taught things that were a simplified version of theory and then had to re-learn all the terminology and everything I knew.
So I think it's better to note that yes, a C major scale starts and ends on C, but regardless of where you start and end, the notes of the C major scale are the same than to blanket statement incorrectly.
It's also why for instance I try to be careful with the difference between notes and pitch classes. Because even with like 90% of tonal theory they're almost exactly the same thing, and the biggest differences are normally given as "notational reasons" for why a pitch class is written as one note or another, as soon as you break beyond that if you're not careful you'll be using the wrong terminology when all of a sudden it actually matters, and you'll have to completely relearn everything about what really a note is.
I just need to play it enough times to remember it on the fretboard. :rotate: