#Second notes on the e scale plus#

They are the natural, melodic and harmonic minor scales. There are three types of minor scales and we shall take a look at all of them here. For more on getting to know that yardstick inside and out, see The Easiest Intro to Music Theory.This lesson is all about the E minor scale. Everything else is defined by how it’s different from that yardstick. It’s the only one with all seven unaltered scale degrees: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7. No need to memorize any of these just yet, except for the major scale.

#Second notes on the e scale plus#

That’s how you can construct the scale from any root! Here are all the definitions we’ve seen so far, plus a few more: The minor scale, for example, is defined as 1 2 ♭3 4 5 ♭6 ♭7. But we can define all of these things independent of root. Looking at all of the examples so far, I’ve named the notes first, then revealed the scale degrees. F minor pentatonic: F A♭ B♭ C E♭ = 1 ♭3 4 5 ♭7.G major pentatonic scale: G A B D E = 1 2 3 5 6.C minor scale: C D E♭ F G A♭ B♭ = 1 2 ♭3 4 5 ♭6 ♭7.That universalizes the thing we’re defining so that it’s independent of root you can transpose it to work on any root note. Now we can define any scale, arpeggio, chord, or even a melody, with scale degrees. The ♯3 is better to interpret as the 4, the ♭4 as the 3, and the ♯7 as the 1. The 1 is always the 1 no altering the root.

Notice that a few alterations were missing. Anything outside that major scale is described with a sharp or flat alteration. Those unaltered notes (1 2 3 4 5 6 7) always refer to the major scale of the current root note (in this case G A B C D E F♯). Assuming G is the root, here’s how all the other notes pan out using scale degrees: Let’s shift our perspective with a new root in this example. Since we aren’t using “major/minor/perfect,” we won’t use “diminished/augmented” either. C up to B will always be a major seventh interval, but when C is the root, B is just “the 7.” Here’s that subtle difference in language. Notice that there are no “major/minor/perfect” qualifications from interval land. Calling it the 8 is (almost always) redundant. Scale degrees, on the other hand, label every note relative to the root, C. In the C major scale, we know that the interval from C up to E is a major third, from D up to A is a perfect fifth, and so on. Notes in the C major scale: C D E F G A B See Intervals on the Guitar: The Key to Fretboard Music Theory. Make sure you know a little about intervals first. Let’s start with an example, using the C major scale. If I succeed in portraying it clearly, maybe you will too. There is also a subtle difference in language, which I’m sure some find pedantic, but I find quite handy. As you’ll see in this article, scale degrees can be seen as a type of interval, specifically from the root ascending to any other note, in the scale or not. They refer to the notes in a scale, relative to the root. Scale degrees, while often not distinguished from intervals, are in fact a little bit different. They describe the distance between any two notes, and they allow you to think and communicate about music in a more sensible manner. Intervals are a great way to get started in music theory.