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April 2002
String Theory
April 2002 issue
Major Assignment: Learning all your major scales.
Last month, I explained how our ears have been conditioned to music and how we're used to hearing certain patterns of notes. From the day we're born, we're exposed to an enormous amount of music. The result: you subconsciously began to digest and understand repeating-interval paterns. When you hear a particular note in a scale, you might anticipate the next note to follow. Certain musical themes might make you feel sad, whole others make you feel happy. This is all based on cultural conditioning. If you grew up in India and were never exposed to Western music, you would react entirely differently to tonal relationships.
So what does this have to do with last month's homework?
Good question. As I just explained, we react predictably to certain patterns of pitch, or scales. In Western culture, the most common scale is the major diatonic [seven-note] scale. As I illustrated last month, this scale follows a set intevcal pattern, or formula, no matter what note you start from: 1, 1, 1/2, 1, 1, 1, 1/2 (we say: whole-step, whole-step, half-step, whole-step, whole-step, whole-step, half-step) For example, as we learned last month, if you start on the note C, at the eighth fret on the sixth string in standard tuning, and play each successive note prescribed by the intercal pattern (D E F G A B C), you will have played the C major diatonic scale(Figure 1). And, if you completed your homework successfully, you will have sounded out and constructed the D, A, and E major scales, as well. Let's review by construting the D major scale:
Starting on the keynote (a.k.a., the root note) D, write out the eight note names (not including the sharps) between it and its octave above. These are D, E, F, G, A, B, C and D. Then, beneath these notes, write out the standard major scale interval pattern (1, 1, 1/2, 1, 1, 1, 1/2), as illustrated inFigure 2. Next begin to check each interval to see if it's right by referring back to the C major scale (Figure 1). The first interval is a whole-step, or two fret, distance. Since D is naturally one whole-step apart from E, the first two notes are correct and no changes are necessary. The next interval is also supposed to be a whole-step. Here we have a problem. If you look at Figure 1 you'll notice that the distance from E to F is only one half-step, or one fret. So we must raise ("sharpen") F by one half-step to F# in order to make it fit into our interval pattern. As you can see by referring to the chromatic scale we also learned last month (Figure 3), F# is a whole-step away from the previous note in out D major scale, E, and one half-step from the next note, G. Remarkably, that conforms exactly to the standard intercal pattern.
If you complete this exercise correctly, you will find that the only other note in the D major scale you need to raise is C. Therefore, the correct D major scale notes are D E F# G A B C# D (figure 4). When you do the same exact thing with the A and E major scales, you should have come up with notes A B C# D E F# G# A for the A major scale and E F# G# A B C# D# E for the E major scale.
So, Brad, I've done my homework, but how in the world can I use this in my playing?
That's another good question. In order to demonstrate how all this theory impacts the fretboard, I'd like to take this opportunity to present you with some diatonic patterns. These are the actual, physical manifestations of what we're discussing, and the best thing is this: since they are only patterns, they can be amoved anywhere on the fretboard to represent the diatonic scale in any key. But for the time being, we will concentrate on learning the diatonic patterns in the key of G major.
Pattern 1 (Figure 5) begins on the keynote G at the third fret of the sixth string and utilizes three notes on each string. Here, the first three notes are G, A, and B. As you follow this pattern across the neck towards the first string, you will sound out the succession of notes in the scale: C D E F# G A B C E, etc. So you play C, D and E on the A string, F#, G and A on the D string, and so on. When you're practicing this patterns ascending and descending, make sure not to cheat on the fingering, either. It should be played with the left-hand figuring shown in Figure 6.
Once you've memorized this pattern and are confident that you are fingering it correctly, begin to employ alternate picking. This means you should alternate the direction of your picking with an upstroke following each downstroke (down, up, down, up, down, up, etc.).
This, my friends, is the first component of this month's homework. Your other assignment is to finish constructing the major diatonic scales in each of the following keys: B F# and C#. To review: write out each of the scales, beginning and ending with the keynote; plug in the interval pattern (1, 1, 1/2, 1, 1, 1, 1/2) and then determine wether or not you need to alter any notes to make them conform to the interval formula. Both of these assignments are mandatory. You have all month to complete these tasks. By putting in a litle time each week, you should have no problem being fully prepared for next month's lesson.
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