Tutorial: Intermediate Theory

[MusicalIdiot]

So what exactly is the Locrian scale? As dead end of an answer this is, it's the only thing I can offer: a mode. I suppose one could say it is a mode with all minor intervals and a tri-tone:
Unison, Minor Second, Minor Third, Perfect Fourth, Diminished Fifth, Minor Sixth, Minor Seventh, Octave.
Sorry the answer is more exciting; but hey, there are a lot of interesting scales out there.

[aniu22]

nice, I well have to print most of this stuff down to help me remember XD Thanks!

[udsahn]

After a long time without any updates, I'm going to update this thread. This time I'm also going to give visual aid so that it can be understood clearer. I will attempt to give it in three variants: Guitar, Piano, and notes (both tab, and note letters.) Keep in mind, as I've stated before, some aspects of theory are still closed to me--and in no way do I claim to be a master or teacher--so I can only present them the way I understand them.

I may, for Allan's sake, include them also for his new instrument's tuning (Ukulele.)

Updates will fly by you (starting with Ionian and going through to Locrain) real soon!

[udsahn]

As I have promised, here's the first update to this thread.

We'll start from the top and go through the other scales, in each one we will use the key of C so that you (the viewer) can identify the changes in each scale. Keep in mind, that you can slide scales up and down the notes, and each scale is, in fact, relative to each other.

So at the start, we will begin with Ionian--what I tend to call pure major even though that is inaccurate.

And this time...we've got visual aid . Watch out though, there's a lot of information condensed in each sheet.


I figured we should start with the piano as a base. Notice how when you are in C Ionian you play only on the white keys. The reason for that is because there are no sharp or flat notes in the scale--a neat thing.

Not being an experienced piano player, I can't elaborate too much on playing, but I can on the theory. At the top there is a small section that details which note is played, and which are skipped. I also denote what the note positions are, and their equivalent chord.

On the bottom I give two diagrams. The first on the left tells you what notes to use for just a very basic chord. On the right, there are the notes you play. Each colored key is played in the scale, while keys without coloration are not (the small ellipses in this case.)

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As I said earlier, I was going to include a small insert on Allan's new instrument--just for him. Keep in mind I myself do not own an instrument like his, but being stringed, I can modulate scales I play to his tuning.


This is a similar diagram to the Piano one. The top area is exactly the same. The only difference is the bottom portion. What you see down there are what are called 'tabs'.

Tabs are probably one of the oldest forms of notation. In this case, the tab showed what fret number (the bar on the instrument if it has them) to use when picking a string.

For the absolute tab newbie, tabs might sound a little confusing. Although as you get more used to them, they can be pretty useful. The only thing about tabs that I 'myself' don't like so much, is the fact that you lose timing information in it. In other words, there's no real 'measure' portrayed: only notes.

In Tab for stringed fretted instruments like the Ukulele or Guitar or Bass, '0' denotes not holding down a string, while any number greater than means depressing a string in front of that fret. It might be confusing, but this is as best as I can explain it without another kind of visual aid ;P.

All in all, I give two forms of the same scale. One (on the top) is at a much higher position on the neck. It might be difficult to play here due to the fact that the gap between frets might not be very large.

The second tab gives a lower example of the scale.

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And finally, I can't leave out my instrument's notation XD.


This is what the scale would look like on a guitar. It's only one of several variants...okay, many...but it's the most basic format. It's very similar to that of the Ukulele because it actually follows the same note pattern on one of the tabs. The only difference is that the guitar has 'two' octaves.

That should finish the first explaination for the night. I might edit this post sometime (early next week) to include the discussion that was given in earlier posts. Think of this as a 'work in progress' at the moment, so relay between the earlier post and this one to clarify.

Until later!

[udsahn]

I figured that I'd relay something I recently discovered in theory (simply because I decided to play around with the idea) that suddenly triggered an 'A-HA!' reaction. If you have problems reading this in some places, I was a bit tired, so forgive me hehe.

This is modifying scales into other scales, and how some scales are actually in common with each other. Did you catch that last bit? I'll say it once more, some scales are literally in common with each other in very surprising ways.

An example would be this one. If you take the Ionian scale, and make it minor by flatting the 3rd note, you have a minor scale, sure, but what scale do you have? You'd be very surprised if you knew its sister scale .

Ionian is a major scale which has its 7th in a major position (Note, this is a term I use since certain parts of theory are still cloudy to me. Think of it as the 7th is major if it is next to the octave, and it's minor if it's next to the 6th note). This basically means that any 7th chords you play would naturally be major 7th chords from the scale.

Okay, a bit of a bunny trail there, but watch this, when you take the third and you flatten it (such that the triad is tonic->minor 3rd->Major 3rd) it becomes what could be called Ionian minor. But it becomes something else equally more interesting.

If you know your minor scales, you'll realize that if you look close enough, it also becomes none other than a melody minor scale. Now isn't that intriguing?

What's melody minor you wonder? Take an Aolean scale and sharp both the 7th and the 6th notes. In contrast, another minor scale called harmonic minor is the same thing as Aolean but with only its 7th sharpened.

This should seem odd to some people because they then realize that a major scale can streamline straight into a minor scale and work. I have noticed this phenomenon in some of my work works. Does it actually sound good though? Surprisingly, yes. This may not be the case for all such scales though.

In summary, I recommend taking the scales you've learned and messing around with them. The first step is changing the 3rd note. Keep in mind you can also flatten the 3rd note if you're playing a minor scale--This makes a diminished form of scale from a diminished triad (Tonic->minor 3rd->minor 3rd). You'd be surprised how many scales are common with each other. I'll include another such scale comparison:

Ionian (Melodic minor when made minor)
Melodic minor (Ionian when made major)

Mixolydian <Major scale> (Dorian when made minor)
Dorian <Minor scale> (Mixolydian when made major)

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Note:

To make Mixolydian,
Take Ionian and flat the 7th.

To make Dorian,
Take Aolean and sharp the 6th.