The Harmonious Blacksmith: A Music Theory Exploration

Ep. 6: All About Scales(Part 2)

• Kevin Patrick Fleming • Season 1 • Episode 6

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All About Scales Part 2 | Music Theory Podcast

In All About Scales Part 2, we continue our comprehensive exploration of scales in music theory. Whether you're a music theorist, music educator, musician, or music student, this episode dives deeper into the complexities of scale construction, modal theory, and how scales shape harmony, melody, and tonality in Western music.

We expand on the foundational concepts from Part 1, covering major scales, minor scales, and diatonic harmony, while introducing more advanced scale types like pentatonic scales, blues scales, and chromatic scales. Learn how these scales function in different musical genres and how understanding their structure can help improve your composition, arranging, and improvisation skills.

This episode is also a great resource for music educators and music students looking to gain a deeper understanding of how scales relate to musical modes, key signatures, and musical expression. We’ll also touch on the historical evolution of scales and how different musical traditions have influenced modern scale systems.

By the end of this episode, you’ll have a solid grasp of how to apply a variety of scales in your music, enhancing both your theoretical knowledge and practical skills. Subscribe now for more insights on music theory!



A Further exploration of MAJOR and MINOR SCALES and a comparison of the 2.  Introduction to the 7 GREEK MODES and how they work. Terms introduced are: PARALLEL KEYS, RELATIVE KEYS, GREEK MODES, and THE CIRCLE OF FIFTHS.
Lots of Audio Examples Within.

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UNKNOWN:

Thank you.

SPEAKER_00:

everybody welcome back to the harmonious blacksmith this is episode six and i do appreciate all of you tuning in i am your host kevin patrick fleming oh thank you thank you my good people thank you i appreciate it as always this is a cumulative and linear podcast And if this is your first time tuning into my podcast, I do suggest going back to episode one as everything that we are discussing is building on everything else to have a full, clear picture of how music theory actually works. So let's do a little recap about what got us to this point. Really, just from the last episode, we talked about the four triad types, major, minor, augmented, and diminished. and what makes them or how they are constructed based on major and minor thirds, which were your first introduction to what we call intervals. We also ended up the episode by talking about extended harmony chords like seventh chords, ninth chords, suspension chords, and add chords. But today's episode is all about the re-emphasis of the importance of scales. So this is a part two of scales as I gave one other episode about scales already. We're going to go a little more in depth today with the comparison of major and minor scales. I'm even going to introduce a concept called the Greek modes. We're going to do a little bit more on the difference between major and minor. We're going to compare triads and their orders in major and minor keys. And we're also going to do a few examples of minor chords. So we double back to scales because of the sheer importance of what they do in music theory and how everything is born from them. Scales contain the amino acids that build the proteins in music, if you will. Scales contain the bricks that build the infrastructure and buildings in the music world. they are quite literally the most important concept in music theory in my opinion and we are of course focusing on the two that are most widely used which are major and minor which are constructed using five whole steps and two half steps though the order of those whole steps and half steps is different between major and minor which is why they sound different and yield a different Now, for those of you that have been following my podcast for a while, do you remember the two different formulas based on whole steps and half steps for major and minor scales? The major scale is whole, whole, half, whole, whole, whole, half. And the minor scale is whole, half, whole, whole, half, whole, whole. And let's do a quick back-to-back aural comparison of major and minor starting on the same root. So I'm gonna bass both the major and minor scale you're about to hear in the key of C. So C major sounds like this. And C minor sounds like this. And even though we started on the same pitch C, based on just the different ordering of the whole steps and half steps for the scale formula, you get a completely different experience. So as you can tell, songwriters are going to use these two different realms, one being bright, happy, sunshiny day, which is major, the other being a little bit more mysterious, gloomy, emotional, sometimes sad, which is minor. We're going to use these two different realms to express human experience and emotions. And most of the time, we're going to mix them together just like they get mixed together in life. So I'm going to offer you an interesting comparison in today's second lesson about scales, which is the two patterns share pitches and then have some that are different. And those are going to be the things you can hinge on in your comparison. Let me give you an example of what I mean. First of all, major and minor scales in any key always share scale degrees 1, 2, 4, and 5. So no matter what key you're in, I've been playing in C and G and maybe one or two others, but no matter what key you're in, scale degrees one, two, four, and five will always be the same. So then the real difference between a major and a minor scale is just scale degrees three, six, and seven. Those are the three that are different. And specifically, they are a half step lower in minor. And this brings me to a new term called... parallel keys. Parallel keys are two keys that have the same exact root note starting and ending, but they have a different pattern of whole steps and half steps in between. So the example I'm going over right now uses C major and C minor, and they are considered parallel keys. So now that you know that 1, 2, 4, and 5 are the same in major and minor, and 3, 6, and 7 are the only one's different, let's do the aural comparison again back to back to hear what that sounds like. And I'm going to call out the scale degrees this time as I do it so you can hear it as it comes. So here's major with scale degrees. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, and one. So now compare that to the minor. You'll hear the three, six, and seven are lowered by one half step. And minor sounds like this. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, one. So again, the minor scale is literally just the major scale with those three lowered pitches, three, six, and seven. And the significance of that is great. When we talk about lowering a pitch, a half step in music, it has this kind of drooping effect. It has this effect of it kind of getting depressed. Think about like a tire with air in it when it's a little bit flatter than It's a depressed tire. Now, that's a whole different business if you've got one of those on the highway. I hope that doesn't happen to you. But the point is that the tire has a depressed look to it, just in the same way that a half-step lower on a note in music has a depressed kind of sound to it. Let's test that out. If I just take random notes on my guitar, for example... You can tell I just went from a note, and then I went down a half step, and it just has this lowering, saddening kind of sound. So I'll do it again in a random place. And even if I go up high, you can still tell. And if I string them together, those half steps, again, you get this drooping, saddening kind of feeling. And the opposite is true if you take the half steps up. You get more of that rising, brighter kind of feeling that you get in major sometimes. So now it's time to get to probably the most important concept of this episode, which is called the modes. modes refer to all seven diatonic scales that are based on the five whole steps and two half steps patterns, just like major and minor as we've been doing. They're also sometimes referred to as the Greek modes because it originated this idea in ancient Greece. But to be absolutely clear, there are seven total modes and major and minor Wait a second, Kevin! Yeah, there are five more, but there are seven total. And the good news is you basically understand how they're constructed at this point. They're all constructed using the five whole steps and the two half steps. So in order to understand how the seven Greek modes work, you really just need to reach back to the major and minor understanding that we've already established in built up to this point. Comparing major and minor, you realize there's five whole steps, there's two half steps, but they just happen to be in a different order. So as you can imagine, the remaining five modes that we're going to talk about really more in the future and in a future episode, but I'm going to at least mention them here. They're all based on that same premise, five whole steps, two half steps, just all in a different order, which yields a different result and gives you a different realm of sound to pull from. So major and minor are two of the seven Greek modes, and those seven Greek modes do have these cool Greek names. And look, you don't have to memorize them yet. I am going to do an entire episode on Greek modes coming up, and I'll give you ways to help you memorize them and things like that. But for now, I just want you to hear the names, which I'll are... Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian, and Locrian. Out of all of those, Ionian refers to the major scale that we've been doing the whole time, and Aeolian refers to minor. So if you don't memorize the other five right now, that's fine. We don't use them as much, which is why we don't talk about them as much. But I do think you want to go ahead and memorize that major is Ionian and minor is Aeolian. And hopefully that gives you a picture that they really are just two of a group of seven scales called the Greek modes. So now it's time to pull out your keyboard image, or at least picture it in your mind. We're going to use this tool right now to understand how these modes work and where they come from. The first thing I'm going to explain is there are seven notes in the music alphabet and there are seven Greek modes. That is not by accident. A mode can be built on every single letter in the music alphabet. So therefore, there are seven modes, just like there are seven letters in the alphabet. So looking at your keyboard or thinking about it, basically, we're going to start on a C. It can be middle C. Just find any note C. And we're using only white keys right now as we're in C major. If you go from C to C, that's C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C. That's a C major scale. Or now you know it as the Greek mode Ionian. But now what if you use those same keys and instead of starting on C, you just go up a key and start on D and go from D to D. Now you're going D, E, F, G, A, B, C, D. That is the next Greek mode, which is called Dorian. Again, you don't have to memorize these names yet. Eventually you'll want to. And then what if we keep that pattern going and now we go from E to E on the white keys? E, F, G, A, B, C, D, E. That's Phrygian. Keep going. F to F. F, G, A, B, C, D, E, F. That's Lydian. Et cetera, et cetera. So until you get back to C again, which would bring us back to Ionian. So that's how the modes can be thought of. Really just think about all the white keys from C to C. That's Ionian. Then D to D, that's Dorian. E to E is Phrygian. F to F is Lydian. G to G is Mixolydian. A to A is Aeolian or Minor as we know it. And B to B is Locrian. And if you don't get a chance to look at a piano while I'm explaining this, do come back to it. Remember this concept and when you get a chance to pull out a keyboard image or a keyboard or piano that you have on Please do this. It's a really powerful concept, the way modes work. And yet, when you pull it out on a keyboard, it's very simple to think about how it works. So now let's listen to what those sound like on a guitar, for example. And I'm going to go ahead and start with the very first one, which is one you're familiar with, which is C major, also known now as Ionian mode within the Greek modes. and sounds like this. So remember, now I'm just going to go up one note from scale degree 1 to 2, which is a D. And now on the D, we're just going to go from D to D, again thinking about like we're just playing white keys on piano. And that would sound like this. And that is Dorian mode, which sounds kind of minor. So now I'm going to keep going. We're going to go from E to E. That's E Phrygian, which kind of sounds, if you want a relationship in your mind, sounds a little Spanish to me, actually. Like... That's what Phrygian sounds like. And we move forward to go from F to F, which is Lydian. Otherwise known as the love mode, as I learned in a theory class, even as a grad student, meaning that it was often found that Lydian was used in music, in love stories, in movies, for example. And we keep going. G to G is Mixolydian.

UNKNOWN:

Mixolydian.

SPEAKER_00:

That sounds more like a major scale with just one lowered note. Then we keep going to Aeolian, which is the familiar minor pattern. And then we're to the very last one, which is called Locrian, which is actually the least common one, the least used one. It just has some strange results, but it sounds like this. Sounds a little minor, a little strange, a little bit like the Phrygian as well, but has its own unique flavor. And so that wraps up an introduction to the seven Greek modes. And to give a synopsis of what you just heard for understanding purposes, major and minor scales that we've been studying up to this point are just two of the seven Greek modes. Why are those the ones that we know the most? Because they yield the most friendly and popular sounds in terms of melodies, chord progressions and things of that like and the way they're married. The major and minor, which now you know major is Ionian and minor is Aeolian. Those are the two most popular, but you do have the other five. So this was just an introduction to what the modes are. I'm going to have a full-blown level two version episode about Greek modes coming up in the future. So stay tuned for that. But hopefully you just have an idea of what the Greek modes are now. And having told you that you can flesh out all seven modes just using white keys on a piano, does that mean that I'm going crazy and changing keys and bouncing around all over the place? Of course not. If we're using the same seven white keys over and over again to explain the seven Greek modes, then they're all in the same key, or at least that's one way we can think about them. And that brings me to my next term, which is called relative keys. Relative keys are keys that actually have the same exact pitches shared between them. They just start and end on a different root note. When we talk about relative keys, we're actually referring to a major key and a minor key that share the same exact pitches. But really, this refers back to what we call modes because remember what the exercise that we just did, which was to play only the white keys on the keyboard to explain all seven modes? Well, guess what? All of those were in the same key or in relative keys. But really, when we talk about relative keys, we're referring to a major key and a minor key or Ionian and Aeolian. So let me demonstrate. So I'm going to start with C major. So again, if you're referring to keyboard, that's all the white keys from C to C. And on a guitar, it would sound like this. Okay. So the relative key or relative minor of C major would be A minor. Because when I go down to A and I play from A all the way back to A on a keyboard or any instrument, A, B, C, D, E, F, G, and back to A, it's all white keys on a keyboard as well. It's the same key. So we call them relative keys. So A minor would sound like this.

UNKNOWN:

A minor.

SPEAKER_00:

And so you get the minor sound. But did you know that's the same exact set of pitches as C major?

UNKNOWN:

Okay.

SPEAKER_00:

despite the fact that they sound completely different, right? So C major and A minor are relative keys. So the way to talk about it would be like, if you're in C major and you say, what's the relative minor? It's A minor. Or you can talk about it vice versa. If you're in the key of A minor, you can say, what's the relative major key? And that would be C. And really, understanding what keys are relative to each other is really just about understanding which major and minor pairs share the same pitches. The easiest way to do that is in an organizational tool, which is absolutely brilliant, which is called the Circle of Fifths. I will get into that as I create a complete episode around the Circle of Fifths in the future. But for now, I'm just going to give you another example. Let's take, for example, the key of G major. So the pitches of that are going to be G, A, B, C, D, E, F sharp, G. So now we have the introduction of a black key from the piano, for example, as in the sharp. And so now we're going to want to find the minor key that has also the same exact pitches with that one sharp, F. And in this case, it's actually E. So E goes E, F sharp, G, A, B, C. Same exact pitches with the F sharp included. It's just we're going from E to E. So G major and E minor are also relative keys. Kevin, I do not know why we need to know all this. What in the world is this? That is the question that you should always ask when you learn anything, really. But really what it boils down to is relative keys is a powerful concept because when a minor key and a major key share the same pitches, they therefore also share the same triads and the same chords. So if you're playing an A minor or C major, you're going to have the same exact triads. They're just going to be in a different order. And so the chord progressions are going to work a little bit differently, but you're going to have the same scale, the same triads, just in a different order. And yet you still get that completely different realm of sound, whether it's major, that bright, happy sound, or minor, that sad, emotional sound. So we have keys right Okay, phew, that was a lot, I do admit. I'm going to take a breath here for a minute as I've introduced a lot of concepts to you today. A lot of powerful concepts, actually. I will also remind you as a theory student that just because you hear something for the first time or even the second time doesn't mean it's necessarily going to fully sound. sink in until you have some context for it multiple times. So again, that's why I repeat things throughout my episodes here and there, because it's important to hear it repeated and use it repeatedly in order for it to sink in. I will also let you know that I'm going to have a full blown episode on modes, as I mentioned. So we'll go deeper into those. And I'm also going to have a full blown episodes on the circle of fifths. For those of y'all who find the circle of fifths strange and mysterious or not learned much about it it's actually a way to organize multiple things but one of the concepts that we talked about today which is relative keys so the circle of fifths organizes the relative keys in a way that you can just calculate them on the spot it's really beautiful it's a brilliant tool I will most likely have an entire episode on the circle of fifths or at least part of one and now it's time for breakdown We started with a comparison of major and minor scales back to back and next to each other. And how both of them share scale degrees 1, 2, 4, and 5. But that a minor scale is really like a major scale with a lowered 3rd, 6th, and 7th. And in turn, we learned that what parallel keys are. The idea that they start on the same root note, but have a different pattern in between. We introduced Greek modes and the seven Greek modes. Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian, and Locrian. And that the two that we've used so far that we know as major and minor are Ionian for major and Aeolian for minor. And in the end, we learned what relative keys are. The major and minor keys that share the same exact pitches. They just start and end on a different root note. Thanks again for tuning in to The Harmonious Blacksmith, and I can't wait to continue this music exploration with all of you.