Welcome back to another fun-filled lesson on scale degrees! As you’ll recall from Understanding Scale Degrees: Part 1, we worked through the first three steps of my method of understanding scale degrees…
- Step One: Understanding the musical alphabet.
- Step Two: Understanding the major scale.
- Step Three: Understanding what the scale degrees of the major scale are.
If you’ve completed these steps from the previous lesson, then you’ll be totally prepared for the fourth and final step. Let’s take a look at it now…
Step Four: Understanding Scale Degrees That Aren’t Part Of The Major Scale.
As you probably remember from the previous lesson, the scale degrees of the major scale are…
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
To work out any other scale degree we have to alter a scale degree from the major scale. For example, to work out a #5 we would need to raise the 5 of the major scale by one half-step.
Let’s look at a few examples using the F major scale…
Example One: b6
If we are in F major then the b6 would be Db.
Example Two: #4
If we are in F major then the #4 would be B.
Example Three: b5
If we are in F major then the b5 would be Cb.
Example Four: #2
If we are in F major then the #2 would be G#.
Get the idea? We’re working out the new scale degrees by altering the scale degree from the major scale.
Now It’s Your Turn
Please print out this webpage and fill out the following table. I’ve done the first two answers for you, to give you a better idea of what you need to do…
A Common Question That Students Have
How did you go with filling out this table? What questions do you have about this stuff?
If you’re anything like some of my students you might be thinking…
“What on earth is the point of all this stuff?!? How does this stuff help me?”
That’s a fair comment—after all, this stuff is useless unless you can apply it to real life musical situations.
Because of this, you might want to take a look at the lesson that I’ve linked to below…
Until the next time we meet, practice hard and have fun!
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