Understanding Basic Music Theory - Catherine Schmidt-Jones [58]
The set of expected pitches for a piece of music can be arranged into a scale. In a scale, the pitches are usually arranged from lowest to highest (or highest to lowest), in a pattern that usually repeats within every octave.
Note
In some kinds of music, the notes of a particular scale are the only notes allowed in a given piece of music. In other music traditions, notes from outside the scale (accidentals) are allowed, but are usually much less common than the scale notes.
The set of pitches, or notes, that are used, and their relationships to each other, makes a big impact on how the music sounds. For example, for centuries, most Western music has been based on major and minor scales. That is one of the things that makes it instantly recognizable as Western music. Much (though not all) of the music of eastern Asia, on the other hand, was for many centuries based on pentatonic scales, giving it a much different flavor that is also easy to recognize.
Some of the more commonly used scales that are not major or minor are introduced here. Pentatonic scales are often associated with eastern Asia, but many other music traditions also use them. Blues scales, used in blues, jazz, and other African-American traditions, grew out of a compromise between European and African scales. Some of the scales that sound "exotic" to the Western ear are taken from the musical traditions of eastern Europe, the Middle East, and western Asia. Microtones can be found in some traditional musics (for example, Indian classical music) and in some modern art music.
Note
Some music traditions, such as Indian and medieval European, use modes or ragas, which are not quite the same as scales. Please see Modes and Ragas.
Scales and Western Music
The Western musical tradition that developed in Europe after the middle ages is based on major and minor scales, but there are other scales that are a part of this tradition.
In the chromatic scale, every interval is a half step. This scale gives all the sharp, flat, and natural notes commonly used in all Western music. It is also the twelve-tone scale used by twentieth-century composers to create their atonal music. Young instrumentalists are encouraged to practice playing the chromatic scale in order to ensure that they know the fingerings for all the notes. Listen to a chromatic scale.
Figure 4.65. Chromatic Scale
The chromatic scale includes all the pitches normally found in Western music. Note that, because of enharmonic spelling, many of these pitches could be written in a different way (for example, using flats instead of sharps).
In a whole tone scale, every interval is a whole step. In both the chromatic and the whole tone scales, all the intervals are the same. This results in scales that have no tonal center; no note feels more or less important than the others. Because of this, most traditional and popular Western music uses major or minor scales rather than the chromatic or whole tone scales. But composers who don't want their music to have a tonal center (for example, many composers of "modern classical" music) often use these scales. Listen to a whole tone scale.
Figure 4.66. A Whole Tone Scale
Because all the intervals are the same, it doesn't matter much where you begin a chromatic or whole tone scale. For example, this scale would contain the same notes whether you start it on C or E.
Exercise 4.8.1. (Go to Solution)
There is basically only one chromatic scale; you can start it on any note, but the pitches will end up being the same as the pitches in any other chromatic scale. There are basically two possible whole tone scales. Beginning on a b, write a whole tone scale that uses a different pitches than the one in Figure 4.66. If you need staff paper, you can download this PDF file.
Exercise 4.8.2. (Go to Solution)
Now write a whole tone scale beginning on an a flat. Is this scale essentially the same as the one