Sunday, May 21, 2006
Lesson-24 : The Major Apartments - Sharp Analysis : Part-2
Just to brush up… and to add a little more details of these black notes…!
Black notes are placed in a particular fashion in between White notes…in the piano/keyboard !
They are denoted as,
either Sharp (#) of previous white note
or Flat (b) of succeeding white note…
For example, You can call the black note next to C as either C-Sharp or D-Flat…. and so on...!
Then the question arise…in G-Major scale, whether the black note shall be called F-Sharp or G-flat…
The answer lies in the simple rule that is :
to form a Scale using the seven notes (alphabets)..
“Use each letter certainly once…but ONLY once…”
That simply answers why it is called F-Sharp in G-Major..
If we use G-Flat, we use the letter G twice…….which is not correct……. and also we are not using the letter F at all.. again not correct……
Also observe that the interval title will change if we use the different letter names…!
For example : E to F-sharp…. we will call it…Major 2nd…….
But in case of using flat, E to G-flat will have to be called a kind of 3rd……. Diminished 3rd….precisely…..!
Even though we are talking about the same two keys in a piano/ keyboard, even though the sound quality of the interval is same…the name changes…!
Symbols like Sharp and Flat (and one more symbol called Natural….meaning returning to normal by canceling the sharp or flat effect…. We will see later…..) are called Accidentals
So using the right kind of accidentals is a must while notifying the black notes…!
Returning to our G-Major scale analysis……
Nothing new to add about this G_Major…since we know a lot about the C-Major… the basics are same…
Now G has become Tonic, A is Supertonic, B is the Mediant and so on….!
All the interval pattern remains the same… only the letters change…!
Whether it is Tonic to others…or… any note to any note…we can manage naming intervals…! Can we ….?
SO whether it is C to G in case of C-major or G to D in case of G-Major, the interval is same…Perfect 5th….! And so on…!
But one thing I want you to observe…..!
I deliberately made you to climb 8th floor…ie … from C to G......in terms of musical interval, We reached a Perfect 5th above the Tonic of C major…. To reach the G-Major…
and we found the note F is sharped..to preserve the Major scale…and one black note is added…! ……
Which is….one letter before the tonic we selected to analyse…! F-Sharp…!
If we generalise this as a finding…. And try to analyse the next Major by selecting the note a Perfect 5th above the current G-Major…..which is nothing but D…..!
Can we say blindly…the D-Major will have 2 black notes…?
In addition to already selected black note of F-sharp….This time the note before D….. which is “C” will also be sharped to preserve the Major Scale pattern…?
Try it… you can’t believe it….our hypothesis is right….absolutely right…..!
Looks like some algebra….series….!
So D-Major is D-E-F#-G-A-B-C#-D
If you grasp this simple principle…. You can follow any Major scale…. starting from C onwards…..!
Major scales in steps of Perfect 5th starting from C-Major are :
C-Major, G-Major, D-Major, A-Major and E-Major.
Till such time you exhaust all the 5 black notes and you will ask me what to do next…..?
Simple….! Add one more sharp…. And make it Double sharp….. meaning you climbed two consecutive notes above….!
So after E-Major, the Perfect 5th above scales are:
B-Major, F#-Major, C#-Major...... etc etc.
That ends one cycle from C to C# Major.
So try yourself the major scales on all 12 notes starting from C onwards….using the sharp technique…..!
Each time note down the notes sharped so far….! And try to tabulate the exercise as a summary.
That’s very big climb for us in terms of our lessons….!
Completely knowing all Major scales of sharp…!
You are not only wiser now, you are Sharper also……!
Black notes are placed in a particular fashion in between White notes…in the piano/keyboard !
They are denoted as,
either Sharp (#) of previous white note
or Flat (b) of succeeding white note…
For example, You can call the black note next to C as either C-Sharp or D-Flat…. and so on...!
Then the question arise…in G-Major scale, whether the black note shall be called F-Sharp or G-flat…
The answer lies in the simple rule that is :
to form a Scale using the seven notes (alphabets)..
“Use each letter certainly once…but ONLY once…”
That simply answers why it is called F-Sharp in G-Major..
If we use G-Flat, we use the letter G twice…….which is not correct……. and also we are not using the letter F at all.. again not correct……
Also observe that the interval title will change if we use the different letter names…!
For example : E to F-sharp…. we will call it…Major 2nd…….
But in case of using flat, E to G-flat will have to be called a kind of 3rd……. Diminished 3rd….precisely…..!
Even though we are talking about the same two keys in a piano/ keyboard, even though the sound quality of the interval is same…the name changes…!
Symbols like Sharp and Flat (and one more symbol called Natural….meaning returning to normal by canceling the sharp or flat effect…. We will see later…..) are called Accidentals
So using the right kind of accidentals is a must while notifying the black notes…!
Returning to our G-Major scale analysis……
Nothing new to add about this G_Major…since we know a lot about the C-Major… the basics are same…
Now G has become Tonic, A is Supertonic, B is the Mediant and so on….!
All the interval pattern remains the same… only the letters change…!
Whether it is Tonic to others…or… any note to any note…we can manage naming intervals…! Can we ….?
SO whether it is C to G in case of C-major or G to D in case of G-Major, the interval is same…Perfect 5th….! And so on…!
But one thing I want you to observe…..!
I deliberately made you to climb 8th floor…ie … from C to G......in terms of musical interval, We reached a Perfect 5th above the Tonic of C major…. To reach the G-Major…
and we found the note F is sharped..to preserve the Major scale…and one black note is added…! ……
Which is….one letter before the tonic we selected to analyse…! F-Sharp…!
If we generalise this as a finding…. And try to analyse the next Major by selecting the note a Perfect 5th above the current G-Major…..which is nothing but D…..!
Can we say blindly…the D-Major will have 2 black notes…?
In addition to already selected black note of F-sharp….This time the note before D….. which is “C” will also be sharped to preserve the Major Scale pattern…?
Try it… you can’t believe it….our hypothesis is right….absolutely right…..!
Looks like some algebra….series….!
So D-Major is D-E-F#-G-A-B-C#-D
If you grasp this simple principle…. You can follow any Major scale…. starting from C onwards…..!
Major scales in steps of Perfect 5th starting from C-Major are :
C-Major, G-Major, D-Major, A-Major and E-Major.
Till such time you exhaust all the 5 black notes and you will ask me what to do next…..?
Simple….! Add one more sharp…. And make it Double sharp….. meaning you climbed two consecutive notes above….!
So after E-Major, the Perfect 5th above scales are:
B-Major, F#-Major, C#-Major...... etc etc.
That ends one cycle from C to C# Major.
So try yourself the major scales on all 12 notes starting from C onwards….using the sharp technique…..!
Each time note down the notes sharped so far….! And try to tabulate the exercise as a summary.
That’s very big climb for us in terms of our lessons….!
Completely knowing all Major scales of sharp…!
You are not only wiser now, you are Sharper also……!
