Download Lecture 2

Instructor Anthony Johnson
Course Music
INTRODUCTION TO MUSIC
SCALES
MUSIC: SCALES
 Scales
 As stated earlier music generally does not use a total continuous range
of musical sounds. It draws only on a limited number of fixed pitches.
 This assembly of pitches in a collection is called a scale. Basically a
scale is a pool of pitches made available to composers and musicians
for making music.
MUSIC: SCALES
 Parts of a Scale
 The Interval
 Any 2 pitches will have a certain distance, or difference in highness or lowness of pitch.
 Theses differences are called intervals.
 An interval is the distance between two notes. Intervals are always counted from
the lower note to the higher one, with the lower note being counted as one.
Intervals come in different qualities and size. If the notes are sounded successively,
it is a melodic interval. If sounded simultaneously, then it is a harmonic interval.

The smallest interval used in Western music is the half step. A visual
representation of a half step would be the distance between a consecutive white
and black note on the piano. There are two exceptions to this rule, as two natural
half steps occur between the notes E and F, and B and C.
MUSIC: SCALES

Whole Step: The distance between two consecutive white or black keys.
It is made up of two half steps.

Half Step: Also known as semitones this is the distance between any 2
successive notes on the chromatic scale.
Play example
MUSIC: SCALES
 Intervals come in various sizes: Unisons, Seconds, Thirds,
Fourths, Fifths, Sixths, and Sevenths.
 2nds, 3rds, 6ths, and 7ths can be found as Major and Minor.
Unisons, 4ths, 5ths, and Octaves are Perfect.
MUSIC: SCALES
 The Octave (means: “eight span”)
 When pitches on the piano are played in succession 1after another from low to
high or visa versa. You will eventually duplicate the starting pitch at a higher level,
thus you have the octave.
 When we divide octave segments into smaller intervals theses are called scales.
MUSIC: SCALES
 Diatonic Scales
 In music theory, a diatonic scale is a seven note, octaverepeating musical scale comprising five whole steps and
two half steps for each octave, in which the two half steps are
separated from each other by either two or three whole steps.
This pattern ensures that, in a diatonic scale spanning more
than one octave, all the half steps are maximally separated
from each other .
 This is the scale we use most commonly in our Western music.
MUSIC: SCALES
 Chromatic Scale
 In music theory, The chromatic scale consists of 12 notes
each a half step apart. It is from the chromatic scale that
every other scale or chord in most Western music is
derived. On the piano/keyboard when you play all the black
and white keys of an octave in an ascending or descending
order you are playing a chromatic scale.
 Once again this is a scale made up of whole and half steps.
QUESTIONS & DISCUSSION
The smallest identifiable step idea is called?
Half Step
What are the 2 different types of scales used in Western
Music?
Chromatic & Diatonic
What do we call the distance between 2 different notes ?
Intervals
What is the other term for eight span?
octave
An assembly of pitches in a collection of steps is called?
A scale