The Complete Idiot''s Guide to Music Theory

Note
Half Steps to Next Note
Tonic
1
Second
2
Third
2
Fourth
1
Fifth
2
Sixth
2
Seventh
2

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Chapter 3:
Scales
B Locrian is relative to the key of C, and consists of the following notes:
43
B Locrian mode, relative to the key of C.
The Least You Need to Know
◆
A scale consists of eight notes whose letter names are in successive alpha-
betical order.
◆
Scales can be either major or minor. (And there are three different types of
minor scales!)
◆
All major scales have the same intervals between different notes, no matter
what note they start on.
◆
A mode, like a scale, consists of eight notes in a row—but aren’t limited to
just major and minor. Modes are derived from the ancient Greeks and
(later) the medieval church, and can be thought of as starting on different
degrees of the related major scale. 
Exercises
Exercise 3-1
Name the following major scales.
Exercise 3-2
Name the following minor scales.

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Part 1:
Tones
Exercise 3-3
Enter the notes for the following major scales.
44
Exercise 3-4
Enter the notes for the following minor scales.
Exercise 3-5
Name the natural minor scales related to the following major scales, and enter the notes for those scales.
Exercise 3-6
Enter the notes for the following modes, within the C Major scale.

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4
Major and Minor Keys
In This Chapter
◆
Understanding major and minor keys
◆
Determining key by using key signatures
◆
Using the circle of fifths
◆
Applying accidentals and changing keys
If you’re writing music within the C Major scale, you have it easy. All the notes
fall in the lines and spaces of the treble and bass clefs; no sharps or flats are nec-
essary. (And, if you’re playing the piano, you don’t have to use those tricky black
keys!)
However, if you’re writing music using another scale, you have to use acciden-
tals to raise and lower notes beyond the white keys on the piano keyboard. For
example, if you’re using the F Major scale, you have a pesky B-flat to deal with.
Now, you could put a flat sign in front of every B-flat in your music. However,
you’ll end up writing a lot of flats—which is a major pain in the butt.
Fortunately, there’s an easy way to designate consistent flats and sharps throughout
an entire piece of music, without noting each and every instance. This approach
requires the knowledge of musical 
keys
—which just happen to correspond to the
musical scales we discussed in the previous chapter.
Keys to Success
When a piece of music is based on a particular musical scale, we say that music
is in the “key” of that scale. For example, a song based around the C Major
scale is in the key of C Major. A song based around the B-flat Major scale is in
the key of B-flat Major.
When you assign a key to a piece of music (or to a section within a larger piece),
it’s assumed that most of the notes in that music will stay within the correspond-
ing scale. So if a piece is written in A Major, most of the notes in the melody
and chords should be within the A Major scale. (There are exceptions to this, of
course; they’re called 
accidentals;
they’re discussed later in this chapter.)
Chapter

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