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Music TheorySolfege Scales and The Piano
The Musical Alphabet- Musicians use letters to represent Notes.- Notes range from A to G- Notes higher than G start again at A
ex: A B C D E F G A B C ….
What is a Scale?- Scales are sets of notes that move in a pattern by steps.- Scales are made differently in other countries- Our scale is an old 7 note system made by an Italian Monk named Guido de Arrezo from ~1000ad
Guido’s Scale- His original scale had 6 or 7 pitches:
Ut Re Mi Fa Sol La (Si) *Si was added later
- These eventually translated into SOLFEGEDo Re Mi Fa Sol La Ti
This solfege scale is still used today.
Scales and Solfege- Scales are based around their first note (Do)- If you start on a C, keep assigning notes using the musical alphabet.
ex: C D E F G A B C Do Re Mi Fa Sol La Ti Do
*Notice how both C’s are Do. That means all notes with the same letter sound the same, but are higher or lower. They are called Octaves.
Scales- Recap- Scales use letters A-G- Scales begin and end on the same letter.
- They are based on Solfege:Do Re Mi Fa Sol La Ti Do
- Notes that share a letter or Solfege are Octaves
The Piano Keyboard- The modern piano has a keyboard with both Black and White keys.- A full sized keyboard has 88 keys total- The Black keys are smaller and appear between white keys at certain places- The layout and placement of keys on a keyboard is based on Solfege too!
- The piano is based on the C scale- There is a group of 2 black keys, then a group of 3 black keys
** Notice the two places on the keyboard that do NOT have black keys between them!
- Here is the piano with notes on it.- The C scale is the only scale that you can play using only white keys.- E/F and B/C do not have black keys between them.
What About Those Black Keys?- Our musical alphabet includes 7 letters.- There are 12 different keys on the piano.
- We can use three symbols called Accidentals to help identify the remaining 5 notes.
AccidentalsSharp
Raises the note by1 Half-Step
Flat
Lowers the note by 1 Half-Step
Natural
Cancels out previous sharps or flats.
Half Steps v/s Whole StepsHalf Step:
Two notes that aredirectly adjacent on thepiano
Whole Step:Two half-steps
combined
Naming Sharps
- Sharps are the keys above (to the right) of each letter. Sharp notes are higher pitched.
Naming Flats
Flats are the keys below (left) of the letters.Flat notes are lower pitched than their natural notes.
Piano Note Names
Enharmonic PitchesEnharmonic-
Notes that sound the same, but are written with different letters.
Examples:F#/Gb, A#/Bb, Fb/E
The Scale Pattern- The piano keyboard is made so that the C scale is played all on white keys.- In order to play scales starting on other notes, we must understand the scale pattern.
Lets examine the steps between the C scale...
The Scale Pattern- The distance between C and D is a whole-step because it is made of two half steps (C-C# and C#-D)
- E to F is only a half step because there is no black key between them.
Our major scale pattern is: W W h W W W h
Building an F Scale
- Start by using the pattern W W h W W W h- A half step above A is the black key A#/Bb. Which letter should I use?- Pick the letter that is missing in the scale! You must use every letter once.- Therefore, an F scale is : F G A Bb C D E F
Example: Eb Scale
Ex: Eb F G Ab Bb C D Eb W W h W W W h
Diatonic v/s ChromaticDiatonic- Contains notes only within the same key- Only 7 notes are used.
Chromatic- May contain notes that are outside a given key- Can use all 12 notes.
Chromatic Solfege
- Raising a solfege changes it to the i (ee) sound.- Lowering a solfege changes it to an e (eh) or a (ah) sound.
Note: because Mi/Fa and Ti/Do are already half steps they do not have anything between them.
VocabNote Pitch Sharp FlatNatural Half-Step Enharmonic Whole-StepScale Major Diatonic ChromaticSolfege
Key Tasks- Identify the musical alphabet- Locate notes on a Keyboard- Locate sharps and flats on a keyboard- Identify whole-steps and half-steps- Construct a major scale- Pair notes and solfege
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