Scales - Arturia KEYSTEP 37 User Manual

3.6.5. Scales

Scales express emotion in music. A single melodic line can evoke many emotions, but when
you add chord notes from the scale to that melodic line, the feeling will become much
stronger. When you add notes of a major scale, the result sounds forceful and happy,
whereas adding notes of a minor scale can make the same melodic line seem sad. At least,
that might be your response if you were born in a culture dominated by western music. In
other cultures, the response to major and minor scales may be different.
A standard (chromatic) scale consist of twelve notes: C-C#-D-D#-E-F-F#-G-G#-A-A#-B. Every
scale is a selection from these twelve notes. By leaving out certain notes, each scale evokes
a very specific emotional effect.
The most widely used scale in western music is the C major or C Ionian scale: play the
white keys on a piano ascending from C to C' and what you hear is the C major scale. Of
the twelve notes of the chromatic scale, C major uses: C D E F G A B (C'). Leaving out certain
notes creates gaps. Some of these gaps, known in musical terminology as intervals , are
whole-tone gaps; the others are semitone gaps. The interval from C to D is a whole tone;
from E to F a semitone.
C major has a specific series of intervals: tone, tone, semitone, tone, tone, tone, semitone.
This is known as the Ionian mode.
However, if you play the white keys on the keyboard ascending from D to D', you get a
different series of intervals: tone, semitone, tone, tone, tone, semitone, tone. This is known as
the Dorian mode.
If you now start on C and play a scale using this new series of intervals, you play a C Dorian
scale.
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