Jump to content
HAPPY NEW YEAR, TO ALL OUR HARMONY CENTRAL FORUMITES AND GUESTS!! ×

scaaaaales. help me!


Recommended Posts

  • Members
Posted

ok. i have an exam coming up close to the middle of december. for this exam i need to know every major, minor harmonic, and minor melodic scale (in first position), and fairly well. basically i'll be sitting in front of a bunch of instructors and they will say to me 'play a g#m harmonic scale, descending.' and i'll have to do it real quick. I'm not half bad with the major scale but i have never really practised minor harmonic or melodic scales before.

 

i need to know these scales and fast. what is the best way to go about it? should i just play the scales over and over for hours everyday or is there a better way to go about it? basically what I've been doing is playing the scales and singing out each note as i play it, but there's got to be one or two other ways to get this done.

  • Members
Posted

Hi.

Well, you don't have much time.. About 25 days or so. That's not that much to really memorize 14 different scales.

I don't think the a book is the right way to go. You said you know the major scale and it modes.. Fine, then develop the new modes from there, and don't start all over again.

It's not more difficult to do it on your own, and you have the chance to *understand* how they are constructed. That way the scales will more likely be easier for you than to memorize 14 different note sequences.


Here it how I did it:

harmonic minor:

You start with aeolian (minor) and raise the 7th. That's harmonic minor 1, right? aeolian #7 = harmonic minor.

In the diatonic series the next mode would be locrian (starts at the second of minor).

The second harmonic minor mode is just that: locrian with a sharp 6. As you move up the modes the sharped note moves down a step. The series continues with ionian #5, dorian #4, phrygian #3, lydian #2, mixolydian #1 and you're back at minor #7. Ain't that easy?

If you just remember which note to raise you can develop from your well-known major patterns and only need to alter one single note. I think that's a task you can acomplish in 25 days.



melodic minor works the same way, just a bit different:

melodic minor 1 = aeolinan with #6 and #7.

So you could play the melodic minor modes as major-modes with two alterations.. No big deal, BUT: it's easier because:

meldic minor 1 = ionian b3.

Jep, melodic minor is like the good old major scale with a flatted third. So you're once again by a single note alteration, and you can develop from it just the same way as you I developed the harmonic minor scale for you.

ionian b3, dorian b2 ect...

Ain't that simple? If you already have the diatonic modes (ionian, dorian ect.) in your fingers the new ones are just slight variations.. Sure - 14 scales is a lot, but if you know the diatonics you already have 80% of your work done.

(btw, you might want to buy a book anyways.. and you may want to build the melodic minor from aeolian.. Just to view at the stuff from a different perspective).

Good luck with your exam,

Nils

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

×
×
  • Create New...