Major Scale_Beginner Question

[JonPR]

Here's a good basic intro exercise for the major scale, for beginners. You should know this before you do anything else, IMO:

-----------------------------------------
-------------------0--1---------------
-------------0--2-----------------------
----0--2--3--------------------------
-3---------------------------------------
-----------------------------------------
 do re mi fa so la ti do
 C  D  E  F  G  A  B  C
 1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8

Sing it while playing it too. (Sing the do re mi, or the notes, or the numbers.) For male voices of any register, this should be possible, although women will probably find it too low in this octave.

Play it down as well as up (using same fingers as fret numbers) then - once your fingers know their places - mix it up. Play the notes at random; random order and random length. Finish on C (either one).

Then expand it to all 6 strings (in this position, ie open or 1st position):

-------------------------------------------0--1--3--
----------------------------------0--1--3------------
----------------------------0--2-----------------------
-------------------0--2--3--------------------------
----------0--2--3---------------------------------------
-0--1--3-----------------------------------------------
                do re mi fa so la ti do
 E  F  G  A  B  C  D  E  F  G  A  B  C  D  E  F  G
 3  4  5  6  7  1  2  3  4  5  6  7 8/1 2  3  4  5

Again, once your fingers know their places, mix it up at random. Finish on C as before, from any direction, but also see how it sounds to try finishing on any other note. (You should find that B is the only one that never sounds finished. The others vary.)

Then look for all the chords you can make with those notes. C, F, G, Am, Em, Dm are all there, as are their 7th versions (maj7s on C and F, b7s on all the others), and various sus2 sus4 and add9 chords.

This is fundamental, foundation stuff, IMO. (You may already know it, but if you don't, learn it now!)

The next stage would be to raise all the F's 1 fret to F#, which gives you the G major scale, and all the chords in the G major key. (And G then becomes "do", or "1".)
This is still all in open position, going no higher than fret 4.

Then making the appropriate changes to get the scales of D, A and E major (and the associated chords in each key).
To get a complete set of chords in each key, you'll need more and more barres, which will take you to 6th fret (eg 4th fret barres for G#m and C#m in key of E), but this is a good way to start learning the rest of the neck.

All of this stuff - the different chord shapes and linked scale patterns in open position - is transferrable up the neck, via the "CAGED" system (if you want a name for how the neck is laid out). So, in a sense, if you know open position (frets 0-4), you know the whole neck, potentially.

[creamburmese]

I learn so much from this forum! Have to admit that although I know that chords arpeggios and intervals are all built on the major /minor scales I still don't manage to relate it to the music I play... except in as far as knowing which sharps and flats to play from the key signature. I learned to play the major scales a while ago, but it seemed to be just an exercise. However just started doing scale pieces (again) with input from a teacher, and have learned a ton about hand (actually both hands) position for speed tone and dexterity from doing these exercises. So I would venture to suggest that there are both theory and technique goals in mind... Good luck!

[Earwitness]

(And G then becomes "do", or "1".)

My kids' piano teacher--a really amazing old French fellow with a background of being a conductor in Paris, so quite legitimate--began with using the solfege note names, and now, 6 years later, as they are pretty advanced intermediates, still uses solfege, so I guess it's for life! Anyway, he always leaves do to be a C note, re a D, etc., so when he is in the key of G he's saying "sol-ti-re" or whatever.

I suppose from what you are saying--and I know you have a great background in this, too--that this is not universal, that some or most people reorient the solfege to the key they are in?

Not super important, but I was just curious.

[JonPR]

Originally Posted by Earwitness

My kids' piano teacher--a really amazing old French fellow with a background of being a conductor in Paris, so quite legitimate--began with using the solfege note names, and now, 6 years later, as they are pretty advanced intermediates, still uses solfege, so I guess it's for life! Anyway, he always leaves do to be a C note, re a D, etc., so when he is in the key of G he's saying "sol-ti-re" or whatever.

I suppose from what you are saying--and I know you have a great background in this, too--that this is not universal, that some or most people reorient the solfege to the key they are in?

Not super important, but I was just curious.

Yes, there are two systems: fixed do and movable do. The latter is standard in English-speaking and Germanic countries and fixed do is standard in French and Spanish (Romance) and Slav countries:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solf%C3%A8ge

[perttime]

(C Major in "open" position)

Originally Posted by JonPR

-------------------------------------------0--1--3--
----------------------------------0--1--3------------
----------------------------0--2-----------------------
-------------------0--2--3--------------------------
----------0--2--3---------------------------------------
-0--1--3-----------------------------------------------
  ...
 E  F  G  A  B  C  D  E  F  G  A  B  C  D  E  F  G

My original way to visualize that was the white keys of a piano, or almost any other keyboard instrument. The open position C Major (or A Minor) on guitar is the same thing: when you go past a keyboard's black key, you jump over one fret, or go to the next string.

At school music lessons we had to memorize how a major scale goes, like:
starting from the "root note" and going "up" - full step, full step, half step, full step, full step, full step, half step - where you end up at the root one octave up. Here, "full step" = 2 frets and "half step" = 1 fret.

[Earwitness]

Originally Posted by JonPR

Yes, there are two systems: fixed do and movable do. The latter is standard in English-speaking and Germanic countries and fixed do is standard in French and Spanish (Romance) and Slav countries:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solf%C3%A8ge

Hey, thanks, wiki to the rescue... Here, I was just relying on AGF....

"The question of which system to use is a controversial subject among music educators in schools in the United States."

Funny that I happened to mention that this teacher was French, and that lined up with the information in the article you gave me.

Again, thanks for humoring my curiosity!

[ironhorse777]

Thanks JonPR practised major scales patterns by concentrating on notes in it and by singing them.

[ironhorse777]

Originally Posted by JonPR

[/CODE]Sing it while playing it too. (Sing the do re mi, or the notes, or the numbers.) For male voices of any register, this should be possible, although women will probably find it too low in this octave.

Play it down as well as up (using same fingers as fret numbers) then - once your fingers know their places - mix it up. Play the notes at random; random order and random length. Finish on C (either one).

Like I mentioned ealier, The book also has chapter on melodic patterns on major scale Which can be played through the fingerboard. So, are melodic patterns just a way playing the "sexy notes" of a major scale ? to be exact a pattern derived out of major scale to sound more interesting?
Also, I try to noodle around with major scale patterns given and try to make it somewhat sound like music rather than notes being played in random and what I mean is I just go by what I hear and try to make it musical by connecting the notes of major scale pattern in a different way. Am I learning the correct way?
Btw, I started singing the notes of the major scales while playing them too

[JonPR]

Originally Posted by ironhorse777

Like I mentioned ealier, The book also has chapter on melodic patterns on major scale Which can be played through the fingerboard. So, are melodic patterns just a way playing the "sexy notes" of a major scale ? to be exact a pattern derived out of major scale to sound more interesting?

The latter.
There are no "sexy" notes; but there are sexy intervals (melodic and harmonic).
IOW, it's when you put notes together (one after the other, or simultaneously in harmony), that they begin to have musical meaning; and playing a scale using melodic patterns is a way to start revealing that - as well as make your practise drills more interesting.

Originally Posted by ironhorse777

Also, I try to noodle around with major scale patterns given and try to make it somewhat sound like music rather than notes being played in random and what I mean is I just go by what I hear and try to make it musical by connecting the notes of major scale pattern in a different way. Am I learning the correct way?

Absolutely.

One the best (and simplest) tips I know to make something sound musical is to repeat it. Got a random bunch of notes in a dull phrase? Play the phrase again, it starts sounding cool...
Repetition is under-rated as a musical device .

[perttime]

Playing up and down scales, or just certain intervals, can be good practice for technique and ear - but it rarely sounds very interesting.

Somebody, somewhere, recently said that: "when you play a weird note once, people think it is a mistake. If you do it again, they think it sounds cool".