Keys, scales and chords
Major scales
Ordinary scales have 8 notes
Major scales sound bright and cheery
All major scales except C have 1 or more black notes
The set of notes in a scale is called a key
Minor scales
Minor scales all sound a bit mournful
The natural minor has the same notes as the relative major
The harmonic minor has one accidental
The melodic minor has 2 accidentals
Modes and other types of scale
Modes follow different patterns of tones and semitones
Pentatonic scales are used a lot in folk and rock music
Whole tone and chromatic scales sound spooky
Intervals
An interval is the gap between 2 notes
An interval has 2 parts to its name (e.g. augmented fifth)
The number tells you how many notes the interval covers
The description tells you how the interval sounds
The tritone interval sounds odd
Chords - the basics
Only some instruments play chords
Some sound great - others sound awful
The best-sounding chords are called triads
Triads
Triads use major and minor thirds
You can add a note to a triad to get a 7th chord
Fitting chords to a melody
The melody and chords must be in the same key
There's are chord for every note in the scale
The primary chords are the most useful
Minor chords make harmony more interesting
Inversions
Triads with the root at the bottom are in root position
First inversion triads have the 3rd at the bottom
2nd inversion triads have the 5th at the bottom
7th chords can go into a 3rd inversion
There's a symbol for each inversion
Inversions are handy for moving between chords
Unscramble the inversion to work out the root note
Different ways of playing chords
Block chords are the most basic
Rhythmic chords give you harmony and rhythm
In broken and arpeggiated chords the notes are separate
Use decorations to vary the harmony
Melodic decoration adds notes to the tune
Auxiliary notes are higher or lower than the notes either side
Passing notes link the notes before and after
Appoggiaturas clash with the chord
Suspensions clash then go back to harmonising
Phrases and cadences
A phrase is like a musical sentence
Cadences emphasise the end of a phrase
There are 4 main types of cadence
Perfect & Plagal
Work like full stops and give a feeling of completion and certainty
Imperfect and interrupted
Work like commas and give a feeling of incompletion and uncertainty - more like a resting point than a finish
Some minor pieces finish with a Tierce de Picardie
Modulation
The starting key is called 'Home'
There are 2 ways to modulate
By pivot chord
By abrupt modulation
Texture
Texture is how the parts fit together
Monophonic music is the simplest
Polyphonic music weaves tunes together
In homophonic music, the parts move together
In heterophonic music the instruments share the tune
Canon - same melody different parts
Imitation - repeat a phrase with slight changes
Looping and layering are modern techniques
More than 1 part can play the same melody
Some instruments play accompanying parts