Can someone explain scale theory in the most simplistic way possible?

[Ayeka]

Basically, I've been playing guitar for nearly a year proper now. Most of the time I'm just jamming black/thrash riffs and learning Judas Priest songs great fun! I know a fair few chords and my pentatonic scales...now I'm learning major and minor.

Part of what puts me off learning if not understanding why things work the way they do. It's like...I can learn a scale in one particular position, but unless changing that position involves moving 12 frets down the board it all falls apart as my brain tries to rearrange where all the notes go

And what exactly makes a major scale different to a minor or whatnot scale? And why do these scales have such-and-such particular notes to them?

So if someone's prepared to do an uber-patronising explanation, that'd be cool. I'm interested to see how much I actually know but don't-know-I-know (if you understand that), and which bits are the little things that make me stop mid-practise as I try and figure out "so why's that like that then?"

Cheers!

 

[sumairetsu]

Simply put, the Major scale goes like this:

R-W-W-H-W-W-W-H (R=root note; W=whole step; H=half step).

Start at the root note (doesn't matter what note you start on), go up a whole step (2 frets); go up another whole step (2 frets); go up a half-step (1 fret); I think you get the picture. (i.e. For C Major, you would play a major scale like this: C-D-E-F-G-A-B-C)

Now, for minor keys, simply start at the 6th position of your major scale, so you then have a scale that goes like this:

R-W-H-W-W-W-H-W

In other words, you would have a scale that looks like this (A-B-C-D-E-F-G-A).

 

[coolsnow7]

That explains stuff, but not that much.

I'm not sure exactly how scales work, (I have a friend who does, once he's done with the physics textbook he's reading so will I) but from what I understand they're just a pattern of intervals between notes that aren't dissonant. How exactly they came up with them, I need the textbook. But all are based off the major and minor scales.

The major scale is easiest to understand from C. The C major scale is just all the natural notes from C to C - C D E F G A B C. However, you likely don't know that between B-C and E-F there are no sharps or flats - a B# is a redundant way of saying C. So you have a pattern of intervals (this is easy to understand with guitar because its frets function as intervals) that goes like this: R W W H W W W H. With a guitar, if you don't want to leave a string, you would play that pattern to play a major scale: start at a note (root) go up 2 frets (whole step), 2 frets, 1 fret (half step), etc. Now this pattern can be moved to a different root note, and you would have the corresponding major scale - starting from an E would be an E Major scale, an A would be an A Major Scale, etc. If you wanted to play all the natural notes from a different note that would be called a mode of the C major scale.

Now the only difference between a minor scale and a major scale is that, with a minor scale, the third, sixth and seventh degrees (notes) are flattened. This results in a pattern like this: R W H W W H W W. The result is a scale that sounds sorta more depressing, down, minor. As sumairetsu pointed out, a minor scale is just a major scale played starting from the 6th degree. That 6th degree is A, and so an A minor scale is the same as a C major scale in that it has no sharps or flats - all the degrees are natural.

Now, all this really won't help you much as far as just knowing it. However, the point is to use these scales, and the many others out there, for writing melodies (very many early and some later Iron Maiden songs are based off a single scale, as far as the main riffs go) and for improvising and soloing (the same goes for the vast majority of solos - I'm pretty sure that the solo from the Judas Priest song "Electric Eye" is based completely on one pentatonic scale). All this also comes in handy when understanding chords, and keys, and harmonization, and chord progressions and such, but don't bother trying to learn that until you get this down, or you'll feel overwhelmed.

You have any other questions, feel free to pm me.

 

[sumairetsu]

That explains stuff, but not that much.

I'm not sure exactly how scales work, (I have a friend who does, once he's done with the physics textbook he's reading so will I) but from what I understand they're just a pattern of intervals between notes that aren't dissonant. How exactly they came up with them, I need the textbook. But all are based off the major and minor scales.

However, the point is to use these scales, and the many others out there, for writing melodies (very many early and some later Iron Maiden songs are based off a single scale, as far as the main riffs go) and for improvising and soloing (the same goes for the vast majority of solos - I'm pretty sure that the solo from the Judas Priest song "Electric Eye" is based completely on one pentatonic scale). All this also comes in handy when understanding chords, and keys, and harmonization, and chord progressions and such, but don't bother trying to learn that until you get this down, or you'll feel overwhelmed.

You have any other questions, feel free to pm me.

Depending on which notes you play, you can still end up with dissonance, even with the major or minor scale. For instance, if you were to play a "B" note on the G-string (4th fret, assuming that you're in standard tuning) and play a "C" on your B-string (1st fret) simultaneously, you would have a dissonance occur.

As for the different modes (i.e. Mixolydian, Locrian, Phrygian, etc.), these are all based off of the major scale, it just depends on where you start on the scale that determines their tonality.

There are hundreds of scales that are not based off of the standard western music scale that can be found and there are hundreds of books on the market that deal with different scales and their different forms.

Most of the songs in older Heavy Metal (i.e. Judas Priest, Black Sabbath) were based on the E minor scale (E-F#-G-A-B-C-D-E), with few deviations, so you should have plenty of material to learn from.

Also, to break out of the "octave rut," try this: play an E minor scale only on one string and learn how those notes sound. (You'll do well learning on your low E-string.) Follow the above patterns I mentioned (starting at the root note - "E" - and then going up a whole step, then a half step. Just consider the nut on the guitar to be fret 0). You'll notice that when you get to the 5th fret, you'll be at "A," which, coincidentally, is the first note on your next string, "A." Simply subtract 5 from the fret number that you're on and you'll have the same note on the adjacent string, except for your B-string, but more on that later. I have to go to work.

 

[Ayeka]

Now this pattern can be moved to a different root note, and you would have the corresponding major scale - starting from an E would be an E Major scale, an A would be an A Major Scale, etc. If you wanted to play all the natural notes from a different note that would be called a mode of the C major scale.

This bit spun me out at first, but putting it into practise on the guitar made everything clear so modes are "the starting point of another scale from a major scale" (my words), right?

These basics definately help set my mind at ease. Remembering where the whole and half steps go has been a bit of a problem in trying to stop myself playing while looking at a sheet of paper familiarity with that and where the notes all lie on the fretboard (I have a hard time remembering where they all are on the G and B strings) will build the confidence that should let me sail through this. I hope. Walk before you can run, merrr!

Cheers guys. Any other basics shouts and I'll be right back.