Where to learn Theory for beginners

To be honest, this thread should be stickied.

I've been trying to make sense out of this for a long time, and for once, now I understand.

Thanks to Fretsource and Greybeard for the great explanations, I knew about the WWHWWWHWW pattern before but now I can see it and the explanation about tetrachords really makes it clear.

Now I'm beginning to understand key signatures and why they are written the way they are.

This has also opened up my understanding of modes also, as from what I understand, they are all related to where they start on the scale.

Again, Thanks guys for opening a BIG door for me! :D

Maybe it's only because piano is what I learned first and best, but I think if someone has the opportunity to learn, or even be shown once or twice, the WWHWWWH (TTSTTTS) thing, and scales, octaves, etc on a keyboard, it is easier to understand.

On a keyboard, every A looks just like every other A, unlike on the guitar. And on the keyboard, there is no jumping to the next string, etc. The visual patterns are so obvious on a keyboard.

So if you have access to a piano/keyboard and someone who can play it, print out the pertinent posts here and ask the pianist to show you what it means on a piano.

Just an idea to help imprint the concept permanently.

Margaret

On a keyboard, every A looks just like every other A, unlike on the guitar. And on the keyboard, there is no jumping to the next string, etc. The visual patterns are so obvious on a keyboard.

Agreed Margaret. The keyboard is great for explaining the note arrangements. It all makes sense, when you can see the flats/sharps (black notes) sitting between every natural note except B-C and E-F.

I always make a point of showing it to my students - and I always get the response "Oh yeah! :idea: "

One advantage that the fretboard does have over the keyboard is in showing how any chord type can be moved up and down in pitch without changing shape. On the other hand, that can lead to an over reliance on 'shapes' at the expense of knowing what actual notes are in the chord.

Thanks to Fretsource and Greybeard for the great explanations, I knew about the WWHWWWHWW pattern before but now I can see it and the explanation about tetrachords really makes it clear.
Thanks for the kind comments Racetruck - glad to help.
One thing though - Why did you write WWHWWWHWW? That's two Ws too many. Is it just a typo?

To be honest, this thread should be stickied.

Thanks to Fretsource and Greybeard for the great explanations, I knew about the WWHWWWHWW pattern before but now I can see it and the explanation about tetrachords really makes it clear.

:D

yes i agree with this so lads are you ready to go on to the next level :lol: your on a roll

Yep,

Side effect of another thread! :oops: :twisted:

Yep,

Side effect of another thread! :oops: :twisted:
:lol:

Go help a cat earn its wings, Racetruck!

Margaret

Can't find them, here kitty,kitty kitty... :twisted:

so lads any one interested in going into modes with me
The continuation we'll call it

What do you want to know?

lol what are they and why you use them !

What are they....

Well, they're scales. Scales are simply arrangments of tones in order. The 'strongest' note is the tonic, or root, of the scale - all the other notes 'point' back to the tonic. That's done with the shape of your melody.

You probably know a few scales, and you can see they're different from each other. You get a different sound from using A major:

A-B-C#-D-E-F#-G#-A

than you do from A natural minor:

A-B-C-D-E-F-G-A

That's because three of the notes are different.

But now compare A major to F# natural minor:

A-B-C#-D-E-F#-G#-A
F#-G#-A-B-C#-D-E-F#

These two scales use identical notes. A lot of people say they're 'related' scales, which is sort of true - they each have the same key signature. But they're still different scales - one has a major sound, and the other has a minor sound.

Some people will tell you that's because of the first note, the last note, the note most frequently used, etc. - those interpretations are sometimes true, but that's not what makes them sound different... it's because the most important note in each scale is different, and that means the other notes (even though they're the same) have different relationships to the 'key' note.

Our major scale isn't symmetrical - there are two half steps, and they're separated by two different distances (two whole steps, or three whole steps). Because of that arrangement, we can get seven different sets of relationships to the key note from just one set of letters:

A-B-C-D-E-F-G = Aeolian
B-C-D-E-F-G-A = Locrian
C-D-E-F-G-A-B = Ionian
D-E-F-G-A-B-C = Dorian
E-F-G-A-B-C-D = Phyrgian
F-G-A-B-C-D-E = Lydian
G-A-B-C-D-E-F = Mixolydian

Although this relationship exists, it's more of a curiosity than a practical use. Although E Phrygian is "the notes of C major from E to E", thinking about it that way while you play pretty much guarantees you'll be playing in C major - because you'll be thinking in terms of C major relationships as you play.

This has gotten kinda long, so how to use them will be in the next post

When you play using a major scale or a minor scale you've got your whole life's worth of experience guiding what you do, because almost all the music you've ever heard uses those two tonalities. Two of the modes are the same as these scales: Ionian is the major scale, and Aeolian is the natural minor.

Most of the other modes are almost major or minor scales - there's just one note that's tweaked to give you a different suond. This one 'odd' note is what creates the different sound of a mode. If you're playing in C major, but you include F#, you've used a note that's not expected - and you immediately notice there's something different about the melody.

So the most useful way to approach modes is to let your ear and experience guide your melody, and use the difference between the mode and the 'normal' scale supply the modal sound. If you're playing in a major key, you've got these modes:

Ionian = major scale
Lydian = major scale with a #4
Mixolydian = major scale with a b7

That lets you shape a melody that has a really solid 'key note', since all of your musical experience guides you... but you've also got the one odd note (#4 or b7) that makes your melody 'modal'.

The same thing is true of minor scales:

Aeolian = natural minor
Dorian = natural minor with a raised 6th
Phrygian = natural minor with a lowered 2nd

The other mode, the Locrian, isn't terribly useful. Since Locrian has a b4 and b5, you can't build a typical IV-I or V-I cadence - it's really hard to place Locrian over a harmony. All the other modes can be easily used - just try playing over a major progression using Lydian, or a minor one using Dorian, and you'll see how the one odd note provides the modal feeling.

In my experience, this is the only way using modes really make sense. The 'related scale' approach is very easy for learning which note is which, but it's extremely hard to use effectively because you're comparing a mode to a scale with a different key note. The 'altered tone' approach I just showed is only a tiny bit harder to learn, and it allows you to craft melodies with the correct tonal center - avoiding the most common pitfall to using modes improvisationally.

As NoteBoat is obviously too modest to mention it himself: Music Theory for Guitarists.

lol what are they and why you use them !

A bunch of scales that cause no end of disputes wherever they're mentioned :lol:
One reason is that it's a huge subject and when trying to explain them in a few paragraphs some over-simplifications are necessary - which get picked up on.

Modes go back a long way, to a time when there were no sharps or flats in music - just the seven notes ABCDEFG and their octaves.
These notes could be made into melodies in various ways, in that certain of the notes could be heard as the main note, to which all the others related in a kind of early version of a key note (known as a 'final').

Having been incorrectly named from an earlier Greek usage, modes by the mid 16th century were fully revised, expanded and established (at least in theory) as:

The Aeolian mode - ABCDEFGA (A late addition)
The Locrian mode - BCDEFGAB (a useless theoretical mode)
The Ionian mode - CDEFGABC (A late addition)
The Dorian mode - DEFGABCD
The Phrygian mode - EFGABCDE
The Lydian mode - FGABCDEF
The Mixolydian mode GABCDEFG

As there was no complete system of sharps and flats, a mode couldn't begin on any other note than those. When sharps and flats arrived and harmony was on the rise, it became possible to shift modes to other starting notes - but it was also noticed that they weren't all equally good at combining to make good chord progressions. As a result the modes all but died out among classical composers but lived on in folk music. Classical composers (e.g. Beethoven) would still turn to them occasionally but only for effect - to capture a medieval feel to their music. The English composer Vaughan Williams made a lot of use of them to create the rustic folk atmosphere of rural England, (e.g Fantasia on Greensleeves)

Two of the modes remained as they were found to be suitable for making good chord progressions - the ionian mode, which we call the major scale, and two modified versions of the Aeolian mode, which are now known as the harmonic and melodic minor scales.

And then modes were rediscovered by Jazz musicians and later still in rock music which was also influenced by folk music that still used modes.

That's a rough version of their history and traditional usage.

Their modern usage is different in many ways. Nowadays they tend not to be seen as distinct scales with a unique interval pattern but as variants of the major or minor scale scale, using the same notes but starting on different scale degrees. For example D Dorian (DEFGABCD) is seen as a 'mode' of C major because it has exactly the same notes but starts on D instead of C. This is a very different concept of modes from their traditional usage. The fact that they still use the original names is what causes disputes and confusion - just as it did among the medieval musos who were forced to use inappropriate ancient Greek names - when their modes had little in common with the original Greek modes