Following up and expanding on a post about learning music theory with Auto-tune.
So maybe you want to write a song or an instrumental in a particular mood or style, and you’re feeling overwhelmed by all the scales. Here’s a handy guide to the commonly used scales in western pop, rock, jazz, blues and so on. They’re shown in the way you’d program them into Auto-tune. Click each image to go to that scale’s Wikipedia page, where you can hear it, see it in traditional notation and pick up fun historical facts.
Major scales
Happy; can be majestic or sentimental when slow. The white keys on the piano. Examples: “Mary Had A Little Lamb,” “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.”
Bluesy, rock; can also be exotic/modal. Play over C7 chord. Same pitches as F major. Example: “Tomorrow Never Knows” by the Beatles.
Ethereal, dreamy, futuristic. Same pitches as G major. Example: “Possibly Maybe” by Björk (from the line “As much as I definitely enjoy solitude…”)
Exotic, Middle Eastern, Jewish. Same pitches as F harmonic minor. Example: “Hava Nagila.”
Minor Scales
Sentimental, tragic. Same pitches as E flat major.
Tragic, exotic, Middle Eastern.
Mysterious, jazzy, very dark. Example: sixties Coltrane.
Hip, sophisticated, jazzy. Same pitches as B flat major. Example: “So What” by Miles Davis.
Spanish/Flamenco. Same pitches as A flat major.
Synthetic Scales
All the piano keys. Freefalling, anxiety-producing. Same pitches as every other chromatic scale.
Dreamy, underwater. Every other key on the piano. Same pitches as D, E, F sharp, G sharp and A sharp whole tone scales. Example: Background parts in the Simpsons theme song.
Dark, mysterious. Same pitches as E flat, G flat and A diminished scales. Examples: movies about Dracula.
Joyful; widely used in world and folk music. Major scale with 4th and 7th removed. Same pitches as A minor pentatonic.
Rock; widely used in world and folk music. Minor scale with 2nd and 6th removed. Same pitches as E flat major pentatonic.
Blues, obviously. Works great over major and minor chords. Minor pentatonic with flat fifth added.
Making chords
To make basic chords from the major and minor scales, start with the first note, then skip to the third, then the fifth. Using C Dorian, that’s C, Eb, G. This is called a triad, and it’s the simplest type of chord.
To extend the chords, add in the seventh, the second/ninth, the fourth/eleventh, and the sixth/thirteenth. Using C Dorian, that’s Bb, D, F, A. The more notes you add, the more complex and dense the chord becomes.
You can also skip or leave out notes: C, Eb, Bb, F for example. Also, you can double notes (especially the first/root.)
Don’t put fourths/elevenths into major chords unless you leave the third out, it sounds very dissonant.
Have fun!
2 Comments
“Don’t put fourths/elevenths into major chords unless you leave the third out” Now where’s the fun in that?
Yeah, I know, really you should feel free to do whatever you want and I can cite a few examples where people use the third and fourth together and it sounds cool, but this is aimed at the mainstream.
Post a Comment