Alright, when we talked about melody, we talked about the fact that it was
made up of series of pitches,
but those pitches aren't just randomly arranged. We actually have a system for
that,
and that system is called tonality. You may also have heard of
people talking about something being in the key of something. Key is another word for
tonality.
It's a relatively modern concept. We don't really even talk about keys until
the 1600's.
Yeah, okay, I know, that's 500 years ago but still relatively modern in terms of the grand
scheme of things.
So when we talk about tonality we are talking about
scales and all a scale is is a set of notes in this particular pattern,
and if you've ever taken lessons you probably learn scales. So you
may know that pattern, and I'm going to give you some instructions about how
to use that virtual keyboard
to practice making up your own scale so that you can see how they're put together.
So we need to go back to our keyboard and look at
the arrangement of the pitches again. So we talk about how
the sharps and the flats are related to the notes that they're next to.
But what we also need to think about is the distances between
notes on the piano so piano is a great example because you can actually see it.
So the distance from any note, doesn't matter where we start,
to its closest neighbor, whether that neighbor is a white key
or a black key, I'm going to start here on C because it happens to have a white key right
next to it this way,
notice there's no black key there and it's got a black key as it's closest neighbor
here because this key is in between it and the next white key.
The distance between any note and its closest neighbor
is what we call a half-step or sometimes a semi tone or half tone
but half step is the word we'll use for this class so
it's a half step from this note to this note it's also half step from that note
to that note. If we put
two notes together we skip over the one in the middle
so we go from C we skip this half step here and go to here
we now have a whole step this is elementary school math again right
Half step plus a half-step equals a whole step so
you can make all the scales you need to make using just combinations of
half steps and whole steps so if you start on any pitch
we'll start with what we call a major scale and so if you would have something being in a
major key
that means it's based on a major scale so I'll do the C
major scale because that one's pretty much like everybody starts there
so it start on the note C we haven't gone anywhere yet
right this is just like playing mother may I you haven't taken a step until you've gone
somewhere so
that's our starting point. So the first distance that we need to go
is a whole step so we skip that one, go to this one.
Then we need to go another half whole step.
And now we get our first half step.
And you can see that those two are right next to each other so that was easy.
We have a whole step.
Another whole step, another whole step,
and a final half-step.
And you'll see that we ended up back on the same note that we started from
C to shining C. We call that an octave two notes that have the same name
but are eight notes apart. Those are all C's
they're all octaves apart. So we have our C scale
I could start on any other note so we'll just take
this note here I can make my pattern the whole step
the whole step,
half step, the whole,
whole,
half,
I get the same basic sound the relationships between the notes are the
same just on different pitches.
So that's our major scale. Most music you listen to in your daily life
is in a major scale or in what we call a major key.
So if you hear somebody talking about oh I'm doing this piece in the key of G major
that just means that they're using a note to the G scale. You can do it in any
other key and it would still sound like the same piece just be in a different
key,
and we'll talk about that when we get to the free time with this kinda I'm
idea really comes into play. We can take
this major scale and we can change the relationships between the notes and we
have a different kind of scale.
So if we start with the C scale I'm going to change some notes,
see if you can share what I've done.
And
it's a different sound
and that's what we call
a minor scale and then this but they're actually many kinds of minor scales. This is
called a pure
minor scale or the pure or the natural minor scale.
It uses a very particular pattern and you don't need to learn this one so you don't need to
worry about that if you're really
care about that you can ask and I'll give you the information but
it's just a different set of things we started on C we ended up on C
but we had a different set of relationships in the middle. We can take
the same minor scale and change one note
and we get a different kinda minor scale.
And so I changed
this note right here went from there to there. That's the one you hear a lot.
It has sort of the Middle Eastern sound so if you think you're belly dancing
kind of music it's got that scale
that's just that's just the quality of sound that they are you are used to hearing with
that kind of music.
That's called a harmonic minor scale and you hear that one a lot.
So we take the scales we make our melodies from it.
So in the case of my jingle bells,
that's where I ended up, ended up on G.
I'm in the key of G for that piece. Now as a composer,
what we try to do would be to put together the notes in such a way,
that you are lead somewhere. You're lead to expect certain things to happen.
So I'm gonna make up a tune I'm just gonna create this on the spur the moment here and
I'm gonna stop before I get to the last
pitch and I want you to sing
that last pitch when I get there so just
listen trust me you'll get it right. This is not gonna be hard I'm going tomake it so good
that you will not be
possibly lead to go to any place but the right note so here's my
little tune that I'm making up for you.
That's where you went wasn't it?
You can't help yourself. I structured the music
so that it used the scale in a way that your brain
focused and knew that that's home I have to go there.
We call that the tonic pitch or the home pitch you know we have lots of
notes that tell us
this is the most important note: I know you got that right cause
cause you can't help yourself. Your brain is programmed to take you there.
So when we talk about tonality that's what we're talking about
a set of notes to come together are used in certain kinds of ways
they lead you to a destination.
Because after all that's what music is, it's a destination, it's a journey
and you want to get to the right place at the end. So the things you could
remember out of this particular segment are: the term scale,
which is just a set of notes in a particular order, major scale,
that whole whole half whole whole whole half, and that there are several
different types of minor scales,
and that the whole concept is tonality or a sense a key,
and is the thing that gets you home at the end
of the piece.