scales chords 4 beginners

7/28/2019 Scales Chords 4 Beginners

1/50

PRESENTS:

Scales and Chords 4 Beginners ! 1

2008 PT Music - All rights reserved. This PDF should not be redistributed either for payment or free.

Teachers: Please contactwww.petethomas.co.ukif you would like the distributable version of this publication foryour students. All proceeds to charity.
http://www.petethomas.co.uk/http://www.petethomas.co.uk/http://www.petethomas.co.uk/http://www.petethomas.co.uk/http://www.petethomas.co.uk/http://www.petethomas.co.uk/


2/50

By Pete Thomas





3/50

All revenue from thispublication is donated

to charity.

Please do not copy it

and/or distribute it.

http://www.petethomas.co.uk/fundraising/



http://www.petethomas.co.uk/http://www.petethomas.co.uk/http://www.petethomas.co.uk/http://www.petethomas.co.uk/http://www.petethomas.co.uk/http://www.petethomas.co.uk/http://www.petethomas.co.uk/fundraising/http://www.petethomas.co.uk/fundraising/


4/50

SCALES! 5Scales: What & Why?! 6How to Learn a Scale! 9How to Play the Scales! 12Major scales! 13Melodic minor! 18Harmonic Minor! 21Aeolian Mode! 24Dorian Mode! 27Pentatonic minor! 33Blues scale (minor) ! 36Blues scale (major)! 38Whole tone scales! 40Whole tone (cont)! 42

CHORDS! 43Major chords! 44Minor chords! 44Major 7 chords! 45Minor 7 chords

!46

Dominant 7 chords! 46Some Important Terminoloy! 47





5/50

S C A L E S





6/50

Scales: What & Why?

Ive made it relatively easy for you by presenting all these scales as written down music. I hopethis will be a great reference for you, but ideally you need to be able to learn all these scales,especially if you ever intend to learn to do any jazz, pop, rock or blues improvisation. At first thiscan be a bit of a daunting task, but after a while if you know a scale in one key, there is noreason why you cant play it in any key. OK, the fingering is very difficult in some keys, butnobody expects that part of it to be easy.

However the important goal is to understand the sound of a scale, so that you can imagine thenotes in your head, just like you can imagine a tune and be able to whistle it or sing it in theshower. Ideally you should learn to sing these scales as well as play them. Not got a very goodvoice? Dont worry, because (A) you dont need a good voice for this part of the learningprocess and (B) it will get better anyway. The important thing is that learning to sing the scales

as well as play them will help to train your ears, which will help you to both learn the scales and(this is the good bit) be a much better player all round.

What makes one type of scale different to another?

Intervals and the pattern of intervals.

Intervalsare the distances (in pitch) between the different notes. Just as a melody is made up ofdifferent intervals, so are scales - in fact I encourage you to think of a scale as a tune. But, Ihear you ask, isnt a scale just a series of notes going up in steps, then down again? Yes it is,but we dont use all of the steps of a staircase (although there is one exception to this that you

neednt worry about for now) but the staircase is a useful analogy:

Imagine a staircase made up of twelve steps, however for the scale analogy you think of eachstep as a half step (the musical terminology is a semitone) . So we can either go up thatstaircase in twelve half steps (semitones) or six whole steps (whole tones).

Wrong!

We can make life a bit more interesting than usingeither every step or running up two at a time.

We can use different combinations of whole andhalf steps. It is those different combinations ofwhole and half steps (or whole tones and semitones) that make one type of scale different toanother.





7/50

The Major Scale

Remember, we think of each step of the staircase

as a half step (half a tone) and two steps of thestaircase as whole step (whole tone) so as youcan see for the major scale we start with twowhole tones, then one half tone, then threewhole tones and finally a half tone to finish.

We can use a shorthand method to describe thisPattern of wholes and halves.

Whole = WHalf = H

So we call this:

WWHWWWH (The WH pattern)

You may find it easier to remember if we split this into two:

WWH WWWH

If you learn the guitar, you can think of the frets of the fingerboard as steps of the staircase.

But its very worthwhile to get hold of a keyboard or piano and see how this works on thekeyboard.

As I mentioned previously you dont need to be a great singer, and you dont need to be aconcert pianist to benefit from singing scales and playing them (however slowly) on a keyboardas well as on your saxophone.





8/50

Minor Scale

Remember, whatever key you are in, the patternis always the same for each type of scale. For themajor scale its WWH WWWH.

Lets now see how this applies to a minor scale,in this case the 1melodic minor. There aredifferent types of minor scale as you may know,for now but to understand the big main differencebetween a minor scale and a major scale, we justneed to look at one of them. The melodic minor isthe same as the major, but with one difference,the 3rd note is one step lower.

This means our pattern of whole/half tones isnow

WHW WWWH

On the keyboard:

These differences in interval between the 1st (root) and the 3rd note are what defines a scale asmajor or minor. The interval from the 1st and 3rd in a major scale is called a major 3rd, and in aminor scale, guess what? a minor 3rd.

Well go into then theory of that later on, for now just to get an idea of the very different (andsignificant) flavours of major and minor, try playing those notes on the keyboard together. Firstplay a C and E together, then play C and Eb. You will hear a very different quality: the major 3tdcan sound strident or triumphant, the minor tends to sound sad or wistful.




1

In classical music, the melodic minor is different ascending and descending. When used in jazz its the same

scale up and down


9/50

How to Learn a Scale

If you take a quick glance at all the scales in this book, you may wonder how you will ever be

able to play them all, let alone learn them by heart.

Well, memorising them is the easy part, once youve got over the initial hurdle of hearing theWH pattern for each type of scale, e.g. whether the scale is WWH WWWH, WHW WWWH orwhatever. It doesnt take long to understand and be able to identify those intervals so that youcan not only recognise them, but picture in your head the sound and whether you move by onehalf step or two half steps (a whole tone).

The next thing is be able to play them in every key, whether or not you can memorise them.Obviously some scales have fingerings for notes that are more difficult than others, and unlessyou know all the fingerings for all the notes, you arent going to be able to play the scales at all,

let alone from memory so make sure you are familiar with the fingering for every note.

It may be too daunting to memorise a whole scale at once, so I suggest breaking a scale downinto smaller chunks. We do this in three stages, like this:

Stage 1First play the first three notes. Play them up and down, both in one go and separately up anddown:

C& 44 D

E D

C

C

D

E E D

C

Say the note names to yourself, but now do it again and say the note numbers:

1& 2

3 2

1

1

2

3 3 2

1

This is especially useful for a variety of reasons, for now it will help with the learning process.You will get to think of how the intervals between 1 and 2, and between 2 and 3 are both wholetones, and these numbers of course will apply whatever key you happen to be in.





10/50

Sooner or later you will be able to know the notes you should play even if your fingers arent yetaccustomed to the fingering.

Moving on, we take the next chunk:

Stage 2This takes a little more thought as we are starting on note 3:

E

& 44 F

G

F

E

E

F

G

G

F

E

3

& 4

5

4

3

3

4

5

5

4

3

And if you remember your WWH WWWH, the note your are starting on (the 3rd note of thescale) goes up a half step to the 4th and then a whole step to the 5th. Once you feelcomfortable with the numbers, keep thinking the intervals to yourself as well and try to hearthe difference between the half tone and the whole tone.

You probably know whats coming next, yet another chunk. Well, youd be wrong. First we are

going to put together the first two chunks we just learnt and really get our heads round the firstfive notes:

Stage 1 & 2 together

C& 44 D

E

F

G

F

E

D

C

w1

& 2

3

4

5

4

3

2

1

wWe have now covered just over half of our WH pattern: WWHW





11/50

Stage 3Now that we have put together stages 1 and 2, we just need to complete the scale.

Think back to our WH pattern:

WWH WWWH. We are going to start from the 5th note; WWH WWWH and so we play from thatnote, two whole notes and a half to finish off onto the last note, which is of course the root noteagain, same as the 1st but an octave higher.

A quick look at the keyboard again:

We have covered C D E F G as two chunks: WW and HW, then put them together as WWHW

Here is the final chunk of our C major scale:

G

& 44 A

B C B A

G

5

& 44 6

7 8 7b n 6

5





12/50

Thats it! Now put the whole scale together:

C

& 44 D

E

F

G

A

B

C

C

B

A

G

F

E

D

C

And dont forget to also think the numbers:

1& 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

By thinking not just the note names, but the numbering system and the WH patterns, you maythink your life is a bit more complicated, but both of these will gradually help as you progress, sothat instead of learning the musical language of scales as if it is just a random list of words, you

will start to think in whole sentences that actually become easier to remember and will certainlybe a great help when learn some of the basics of improvising and progress onto the next books

in the Taming the Saxophone series.

How to Play the Scales

I have specifically not set out out any different ways to play the scales, (e.g. over the entirerange or up to the 9th note before descending) as different teachers and syllabuses usedifferent methods. These are purely for reference: you can adapt them to fit in with the way yourteacher has advised.

One very important thing:

Dont rush them. It is more important to play with an even tempo than it is to play fast. Once youare sure you can play evenly (and in time with a metronome) at a certain tempo, then you cangradually set a higher speed, but each time do make sure that you are playing evenly and notstumbling or slowing down the tempo over the harder fingering passages. If one part of a scaleis difficult (e.g. over the break between octaves) then practise just that one part as a sparatechunk before playing the entire scale.





13/50

Major scales

WWH WWWH





14/50

& b44 F wU bb

& bb B b

wU bbb

& bbb Eb

wU bbbb

& bbbb Ab

wU bbbbb

& bbbbb D

b wU nnnnn ######

& ######F#

wU





15/50

Major scale (cont.)

####44

B

wU

n####

& ####E

wU n ###

##

A

w

U n ##

& ##D

wU n #

G

w

U n

& C

wU b

& b

F

w

U

bb

& bb B

b

wU





16/50

Major scale (cont.)

#####44

F# wU

n#####

& #####B

wU n ####

###E wU

n###

& ###A

wU n ##

#D wU

n#

& #G

wU





17/50

Major scale (cont.)

& 44

C

wU

b& b

F

wU bb

& bb

Bb

wU

bbb

& bbb Eb

wU bbbb

& bbbb

Ab

wU

bbbbb

& bbbbb D

b

wU nnnnn ######

#####

F#

w

U n #####

& #####B

wU



http://www.petethomas.co.uk/http://www.petethomas.co.uk/http://www.petethomas.co.uk/http://www.petethomas.co.uk/http://www.petethomas.co.uk/http://www.petethomas.co.uk/http://www.petethomas.co.uk/


18/50

Melodic minor

WHW WWWH





19/50

& bbbb 44 Fm n n n n wU bbbbb

& bbbbb B bm

n n n n wU bbbbbb

& bbbbbb Ebm n n n n wU bbbbbbb

& bbbbbbb Abm

n n n n wU nnnnnnn ####

& ####C

#m # # # # wU n ###

& ###F#m

# # # # wU n ##

& ##Bm

# # # # wU





20/50

Melodic minor (cont.)

,

Em

## #

# wU n

& Am

# # # # wU b

& b

Dm

n #

# n w

U

bb

& bb Gm

n # # n wU bbb

& bbb

Cm

n n

n n w

U

bbbb

& bbbb Fm

n n n n wU bbbbb

&bbbbb

Bbm

n n

n n w

U



http://www.petethomas.co.uk/http://www.petethomas.co.uk/http://www.petethomas.co.uk/http://www.petethomas.co.uk/http://www.petethomas.co.uk/http://www.petethomas.co.uk/http://www.petethomas.co.uk/http://www.petethomas.co.uk/


21/50

Harmonic Minor

WHW WHW+HNote there is an bigger than usual interval between the 6th and 7th steps, this is an augmentedwhole toneand is equal to three semitones.





22/50

& bbbb 44 Fm n n wU bbbbb

& bbbbb B bm

n n wU bbbbbb

& bbbbbb Ebm n n wU bbbbbbb

& bbbbbbb Abm

n n wU nnnnnnn ####

& ####C

#m # # wU n ###

& ###F#m

# # wU n ##

& ##Bm

# # wU





23/50

Harmonic minor (cont.)

& #44 Em

# # wU n

& Am

# # wU b

& b Dm

# # wU bb

& bb Gm

# # wU bbb

& bbb Cm

n n wU bbbb

& bbbb Fm

n n wU bbbbb

& bbbbb B

bm

n n wU





24/50

Aeolian Mode

WHW WHWW

There are more than just two modes, but these are some common ones





25/50

&bbbb 44

Fm wU bbbbb

& bbbbb B

bm

wU bbbbbb

&bbbbbb Ebm wU bb

bbbbb

& bbbbbbb Abm

wU nnnnnnn ####

###

C#m wU n ###

& ###F#m

wU





26/50

Aeolian (cont.)

#44

Bm

wU

n#

& #Em

wU n

&

Am

wU

b& b

Dm

wU bb

& bb

Gm

wU

bbb& bbb

Cm

wU bbbb

& bbbb

Fm

wU

bbbbb& bbbbb

Bbm

wU





27/50

Dorian Mode

WHW WWHW





28/50

& bbbb 44 Fm n n wU bbbbb

& bbbbb B bm

n n wU bbbbbb

& bbbbbb Ebm n n wU bbbbbbb

& bbbbbbb Abm

n n wU nnnnnnn ####

& ####C

#m # # wU





29/50

Dorian (cont.)

##44

F#m

# #

w

U n ##

& ##Bm

# # wU n #

&

#

Em

# #

w

U n

& Am

# # wU b

& b

Dm

n n

w

U bb

& bb Gm

n n wU bbb

& bbb

Cm

n n

w

U bbbb

& bbbb Fm

n n wU bbbbb

& bbbbb

Bbm

n n w

U





30/50

Pentatonic major

WWm3 Wm3We have a new interval here, a minor 3rd (m3) . This contains three semitones.





31/50

& b44 F

n ######

& ######F# nnnnn #

& #G n bbbb

& bbbb Ab nnnn ###

& ###A nnn bb

& bb B b



http://www.petethomas.co.uk/http://www.petethomas.co.uk/http://www.petethomas.co.uk/http://www.petethomas.co.uk/http://www.petethomas.co.uk/http://www.petethomas.co.uk/http://www.petethomas.co.uk/http://www.petethomas.co.uk/


32/50

Pentatonic major (cont.)

&

#####44B nnnnn

& C bbbbb

& bbbbb D

b nnnnn ##

& ##D nn bbb

& bbb Eb nnn ####

& ####E





33/50

Pentatonic minor

m3W Wm3W





34/50

& b44 Dm

n######

& ######D #m

nnnnn #

& #Em

n bbbb

& bbbb Fm nnnn ###

& ###F#m nnn bb

& bb Gm





35/50

Pentatonic minor (cont.)

####44

G#m

nnnnn

& Am bbbbb

& bbbbb

Bbm

nnnnn

##

& ##Bm nn bbb

& bbb

Cm n

nn

####

& ####C

#m





36/50

Blues scale (minor)

& bbbb 34 Fm n b #U bbbbb

& bbbbb B

bm n b #U nnnnn ######

& ######D #m n # n #U n #####

& #####G

#m

n # n b #U n ####

& ####C#m n # n #U n ###

& ###F#m

n # n #U n ##

& ##Bm n # n #U





37/50

Blues scale minor (cont.)

"

Em

#

b #

U n

& Am

# b #U b

& b

Dm

# b #U

bb

& bb Gm

# b #U

& bb

Cm

# b #U

& bb Fm

b n n b b #U

& bb

Bbm

b n b b n b b #U





38/50

Blues scale (major)

& b34 F

# b #U bb

& bb B

b

# b #U bbb

& bbb Eb

# b #U bbbb

& bbbb Ab

n b #U bbbbb

& bbbbb D

b

n b #U nnnnn ######

& ######F#

n # n #U n #####

& #####B

n # n #U





39/50

Blues scale major (cont)

###34

E

n #

n #

Un###

& ###A

n # n #U n ##

#

D

n # n #U

n#

& #G

# b #U n

&

C

# b #U

b& b

F

# b #U bb

& bb

Bb

# b #U





40/50

Whole tone scales

WWW WWW





41/50

& #44 D7+ # b b # w n bbbbb

& bbbbb D b7+ n n b b n n w nnnn b

& b C7+ # b b # w n ####

& ####B7+

# n n # w nnnn bbb

& bbb B

b7+

n b b n w nnn ##

& ##A7+

# n n # w nn bbbbb

& bbbbb Ab7+

n n n n w nnnnn

&

G7+

# b

b # w





42/50

Whole tone (cont)

& #####44 F

#7+

n n n n w nnnnn bb

& bb F7+

n b b n w nn ###

& ###E7+

# n n # w nnn bbbb

& bbbb Eb7+

n b b n w nnnn #

& #D7+

# b b # wn bbbbbb

& bbbbbb D

b7+

n n n n w nnnnn b

& b C7+

# b b # w n####

& ####B7+

# n n # wnnnn bbb

& bbb B

b7+

n b b n w





43/50

C H O R D S

Scales and Chords 4 Beginners


http://www.petethomas.co.uk/http://www.petethomas.co.uk/http://www.petethomas.co.uk/http://www.petethomas.co.uk/http://www.petethomas.co.uk/


44/50

Im going to assume by now you know what a scale is, and many of you know what chords are,

but its probably worth having a little look here at how they are related. If you can get access toa keyboard for this section you will get a much better understanding of the concept.

This is not an easy concept if you havent studied music theory before, so I suggest you readcarefully, play the examples at the keyboard (it doesnt matter how slowly, you dont need to bea concert pianist, just follow the diagrams)

Major chords

Here is a C major scale with scale degrees shown as numbers:

1

& 44 2

3

4

5

6

7

8

We can make a chord by counting up from the root (1) and including only alternate notes:

1& 3 5

chord:

C

This is a chord of C major (we use just the letter C as achord symbol to denote the chord of C major). This ishow you finger it on a keyboard:

Minor chords

Now lets look at a scale of C minor (note the three flats in the key signature):





45/50

1

& bbb 2

3

4

5

6

7

8

And do the same thing:

1

& bbb 3

5

chord:

Cmin

We now have a chord of C minor (chord symbol = C minor sometimes just Cm - but note that the m must belower case). Note that there are various different types ofminor scale which are in common use, this one is calleda natural minor.

These two chords (C and C min) are both 3 note chords (triads), and although they are verycommon in pop and rock, we also find 4 note chordswhich have a slightly richer sound.

To make a 4 note chord we use the same approach, but just go one stage further and includethe 7th note.

Major 7 chords

1

& 3

5

7

chord: wwwwCmaj7

Using the C major scale again, we count up from the rootmissing out the alternate degrees of the scale and weget a 4 note chord in C major. This is called a C major 7(Cmaj7). This is sometimes denoted with a triangle -C7.





46/50

Minor 7 chords

Lets do the same with our C minor scale:

1

& bbb 3

5

7

chord: wwwwCmin7

And we get a C minor 7 chord (C min7).This is sometimes written as C-7

Dominant 7 chords

Theres just one more type of chord I want to look at now, this is called a dominant 7. It is thesame as a major 7, but the 7th degree is lowered (flattened) by one semitone:

1& 3 5 7bchord:

wwwwbC7

As you can see the 1, 3 and 5 make up a C majorchord, but be careful not to call this a C major 7.Whenever you see a chord symbol with just the 7 andno minor or major, it is a dominant 7 type chord withthe flattened 7th.

But dont be fooled into thinking that the 7th note will therefore always have a flat symbol. In thiscase we are thinking of a C chord in the key of C. But if we are in a sharp key, ie a key with one

or more sharpened notes, such as the key of G then the 7th note of the major scale is always asharpened note. So when the note is flattened, it has a natural symbol to show that thesharpened note (F# in this case) has been flattened by a semitone:





47/50

1

& #44 3

5

7

n chord: wwwwnG 7

This chord can be used in two main ways:

In the example above we have a C7 chord and we still in the key of C but have just flattened the7th degree. The Bb doesnt normally fit in the key of C, but this chord is very frequently used inblues, where the flattened note gives the chord some colour.

A more traditional use in western music would be to use this chord as a chord in the key of F, inwhich case the Bb is already in the key signature.

F

1

& b44 G

2

A

3

Bb

4

1

C

5

D

3

E

F

5

G

A

7

Bb chord: wwwwTC7

As you can see the key signature is now F and this time instead of counting the notes of thechord from the 1st (or root) note of the key (F), we are counting the C chord notes up fromfifth note of the F scale, which is of course C the root of the chord C. That is because in any keya chord can be built on any degree of that key. In this case our dominant chord is built on the5th degree of F (F - G - A - Bb - C) so although C is the 5th degree of the key of F, we still call itthe root (or 1st degree) of the chordof C. More of this later.

Some Important Terminoloy

Chords that have all their notes in the key signature (as with a C7 when it is the fifth chord in F)are called diatonicchords. If one or more notes a chord has one are not in the key signaturewe call the a chromaticchord.

What you have just learnt is some very basic theory in regard to playing rock, pop, jazz andblues, however I included one of the more advanced concepts than you would not normally getat this stage of learning about chords, the idea of chromaticchords. The reason Ive chosen todo this is that blues and rock music, although on the face of it a simple form of music, very often





48/50

uses the type of chromatic alteration I showed you above (often called blue notes, more aboutthose later).

Very often people learn conventional classical harmony, in which at a basic level a dominantchord always functions a diatonic chord, ie the fifth chord of a key, and not as a chord that has

just had a note changed to make it sound bluesy.

I have done this for a reason. Very often people want to start off learning blues. In somerespects it is very simple and a good starting point for beginners as it can be a lot morerewarding than trudging through the usual old beginner tunes that you get in some tutors, but ifyour knowledge of music theory is based purely on elementary classical harmony, then it can beconfusing when you find that not only are the rules broken, but if you try to apply the rules, youget taken in completely the wrong direction.

So if you are a complete beginner to the idea of improvising with and chords I every stronglyrecommend that you read this chapter again, ideally with a piano or other keyboard so that youcan not only get these basic concepts internalised, but also (and more importantly) understandhow they sound.

One final thing about chords. On a keyboard or guitar the notes can be played simultaneously.This is not possible on a saxophone (with a few exceptions using a very advanced technique),so when saxophone players play chords, they are played one note after the other - arpeggios.





49/50

Saxophone Instruction DVDDevised and presented by Pete Thomas



http://www.petethomas.co.uk/http://www.petethomas.co.uk/http://www.petethomas.co.uk/http://www.petethomas.co.uk/http://www.petethomas.co.uk/http://www.petethomas.co.uk/saxophone-instruction-dvd.html?submenuheader=1http://www.petethomas.co.uk/saxophone-instruction-dvd.html?submenuheader=1


50/50

I hope you have enjoyed working on these scales.

Lots more stuff in Taming The Saxophone

Please look out for other books, DVDs and online

resources in the series.

Pete Thomas
http://tamingthesaxophone.com/saxophone-studies.htmlhttp://tamingthesaxophone.com/saxophone-studies.html

scales chords 4 beginners

Documents