Scales

Everybody keeps on talking about scales. Scales, scales, scales. You might think these are only for the music geeks and the practice whores, and if so, how wrong you are. Scales are yet another fundamental aspect of music that you must understand, especially if you want to go anywhere with your electric guitar playing. Here I'll take you through the four most commonly known scales, and set you up for a deeper understanding if you choose to pursue one.

Part I - What makes a scale?

You've all heard somebody plodding up and down a scale in practicing, in a movie, warming up for a show. When it comes to being able to reproduce that, however, many people aren't sure what to do. If that's you, no sweat. We'll take care of that in a hurry.

There are seven letter names for notes in western music: A through G. Once you run out of new letters you start over at A. Any 8 note sequential pattern that spans from one note to another note of the same letter (e.g. from A to A, C to C, etc.) is said to span an "octave" and is generally classified as a scale of some sort. Forgetting for now about the occasional whacky scale which is not a sequence of seven distinct tones (the eight is a repitition of the first), such as the whole-tone scale, let's define a scale as a series of sequential notes. In other words, eight notes in which each note is higher in pitch than the one before it on the ascent and vice versa on the descent.

There are two classifications of scales that are fairly well known: major and minor. Eventually you'll see that this is an over-abstraction, and that they are actually related to each other, but for now, let's take a look at the two most common forms of each. The "major" scale and combinations of its elements are often associated with "happy" music. The major scale is also known as the "Ionian" mode (if you're interested, check out the lesson on modes after you finish reading this one). The scale is shown in the key of C below:

 C Major (Ionian)
|----------------------|----------------------|
|----------------------|------------10-12-13--|
|----------------------|----9-10-12-----------|
|-----------------9-10-|-12-------------------|
|---------8-10-12------|----------------------|
|-8-10-12--------------|----------------------|

|------------------------|--------------------|
|-13-12-10---------------|--------------------|
|----------12-10-9-------|--------------------|
|------------------12-10-|-9------------------|
|------------------------|---12-10-8----------|
|------------------------|-----------12-10-8--|

Play through this and see how it sounds. It may sound familiar or intuitive. It may not. Either way try to get a bit of a sense of what distinctions make it what it is. A major scale is made up of varying intervals of whole and half steps. Each fret on the guitar differs by one half step (H)from the previous fret. Not terribly surprising is the fact that a whole step (W) is made up of two half steps. The intervals in a major scale go as follows: W, W, H, W, W, W, H. The "natural minor" scale (deemed natural because it naturally arises as an inversion of the major scale and is naturally occurring in the key it lies in...more on that later) is shown below, this time in the key of A. The natural minor scale is known as "Aeolian" mode. Take a look:

 A Natural Minor (Aeolian)
|-----------------|-------------5--|-5---------------|-----------------|
|-----------------|-------5-6-8----|---8-6-5---------|-----------------|
|-----------------|---5-7----------|---------7-5-----|-----------------|
|-------------5-7-|-9--------------|-------------9-7-|-5---------------|
|-------5-7-8-----|----------------|-----------------|---8-7-5---------|
|-5-7-8-----------|----------------|-----------------|---------8-7-5---|

The intervals for a natural minor scale are: W, H, W, W, H, W, W. These two scales are very closely related. In fact, you may have already noticed their inherent similarity. If you've read the lesson on the major and minor pentatonic scales, you will see that what I said there about inversion holds true here. Let me explain. The C major and A natural minor scales (or C-Ionian and A-Aeolian modes if you are so inclined) are both comprised of the same notes, simply in different orders. Moreover, relative to each other, all of the notes are in the same sequence. In otherwords, if you were to start on the third note (eighth fret on the low E string) of the natural minor scale in the key of A, and you played up to the C on the fifth fret of the G string, you would have played one octave of C major. The two scales are simply shifts of each other: the same sequence of notes with different starting points. Take a look at the interval sequences below. On top is the major scale series of intervals. On the bottom, shifted two spots to the left, is the minor scale series of intervals. Note how when shifted, they match up.

         Major scale: W, W, H, W, W, W, H-W, W, H, W, W, W, H
    Minor scale: W, H, W, W, H, W, W-W, H, W, W, H, W, W

To illustrate this point, try playing the C major scale with different fingering:

 C Major w/ different fingering
|-----------------|---------5-7-8--|-8-7-5-----------|----------------|
|-----------------|---5-6-8--------|-------8-6-5-----|----------------|
|---------------5-|-7--------------|-------------7-5-|----------------|
|---------5-7-9---|----------------|-----------------|-9-7-5----------|
|---5-7-8---------|----------------|-----------------|-------8-7-5----|
|-8---------------|----------------|-----------------|-------------8--|

You'll notice that you are retracing the A minor scale, but simply starting on the third note and ending a third higher. It is this "shifting" of the starting point in a scale that can be used to create all of the major and minor modes. You may have heard some of their names before: phrygian, mixolydian, dorian, etc. If not, don't worry.

Part II - Scale degrees and their names

To make talking about scales and the notes they contain easier, there is a certain amount of vocab you should learn.

Each note in a scale can be referred to by what is called a "scale degree," something altogether independent of the note pitch. The first note in a scale is known as the "tonic" or "first scale degree," and all of the other notes are referenced from this note. Thus the third note in a scale would be the "third scale degree," etc. For notational purposes, a scale degree is indicated by an inverted v above each number (e.g. would indicate the second scale degree). Each scale degree also has a name that helps us keep in mind its functionality in a piece of music. Below is a table of scale degrees and their names for both major and natural minor scales:

You'll notice that the only difference in degree names is on the seventh. If you look at the series of intervals in each scale, you'll also notice that the last interval in the major scale is a half-step, whereas it is a whole step in the natural minor scale. This is the root of the naming difference. The half-step difference means that the seventh scale degree leads to or resolves to the tonic above it. Thus it is called a leading-tone in the major scale. However, in the natural minor scale this is not the case. There is no leading, no drive for resolution. Because of this the seventh tone is simply called the subtonic (sub meaning below, so "below the tonic").

Part III - Melodic Minor

Now that you have the basics of natural minor and major under your belt, let's explore a different form of minor: melodic minor. This is not often used in electric guitar playing, but it's good to know about anyway.

Melodic minor gets its name from the fact that in many, if not all, melodies predating contemporary popular music, this form of minor is used. Thus it is the form of minor often used for melodies. It is tricky in that it is different ascending and descending. The descent is the same as natural minor, but the ascent has both the sixth and seventh scale degrees raised one half-step. Thus A melodic minor would be played like this:

 A Melodic Minor
|-----------------|-------------5--|-5---------------|----------------|
|-----------------|-------5-7-9----|---8-6-5---------|----------------|
|-----------------|---5-7----------|---------7-5-----|----------------|
|-------------6-7-|-9--------------|-------------9-7-|-5--------------|
|-------5-7-9-----|----------------|-----------------|---8-7-5--------|
|-5-7-8-----------|----------------|-----------------|---------8-7-5--|

Another way to think about this scale is by treating the ascent as a minor scale up until the third scale degree, after which it becomes a major scale. The decent, as mentioned before, is simply natural minor. This scale re-introduces the familiar anticipation of resolution in the upper scale degrees, but once that tension is released upon resolution, the scale descends as normal natural minor would.

Part IV - Harmonic Minor

Harmonic minor is the other common alteration of natural minor. While a music theory textbook might tell you that this scale is often used in harmony (which is sometimes true for guitar playing, especially in blues and some forms of jazz), guitar players know this scale best as what you need to use to correctly play over any chord progression with a minor chord on the first scale degree and a major chord on the fifth scale degree (check out the lesson on diatonic chords). This may not make sense right away, so I'll show you the scale first. Have at it:

 A Harmonic Minor
|-----------------|-------------5--|-5---------------|----------------|
|-----------------|-------5-6-9----|---9-6-5---------|----------------|
|-----------------|---5-7----------|---------7-5-----|----------------|
|-------------6-7-|-9--------------|-------------9-7-|-6--------------|
|-------5-7-8-----|----------------|-----------------|---8-7-5--------|
|-5-7-8-----------|----------------|-----------------|---------8-7-5--|

Harmonic minor differs in two ways from melodic minor. Like melodic minor, the seventh is raised. However, the sixth is not raised, and the scale is not different in the ascent and the descent. This is because harmonic minors changes are there to allow for diatonic harmonies, as opposed to adding more complexity and expression to a piece. You may notice that harmonic minor has a distinctly exotic feel. In fact it may strike you as a sort of arabic- or spanish-sounding melody. This is probably due to the fact that phrygian dominant (one of the many scale "modes"), which is "native" to harmonic minor, not natural minor, is the foundation of much traditional flamenco (a spanish genre famous for its intricate guitar work) and arabic music. You can get a more in-depth explanation of all of this by reading through some of the other lessons.

Part V - Scale Degrees for Altered Minor Scales

Because harmonic and melodic minor are altered, their scale degrees are also distinct in a few minor ways. Here's a list of the altered scale degrees.

Most of these should be pretty self-explanatory. Harmonic minor and major share scale degree names due to their both having leading-tones. Melodic minor has that leading tone on the ascent, but the descent is identical to that of natural minor. Finally, because on the ascent, melodic minor also has a raised sixth scale degree, the sixth, normally the "submediant," is denoted as a "raised submediant." Make sense? As arbitrary as alot of these things seem, the arbitrariness of it all ends up tying together