Guitar Reviews

 HARMONIC MINOR Fig. 1 What is a Harmonic Minor Scale? Looking back at modes of the major scale , a Harmomic Minor Scale can be seen as a Natural Minor (Aeolian Mode) with a major seventh note(Fig. 1) Fig. 2 Fig. 2 above shows a regular A Aeolian Mode. The Aeolian Mode is the 6th Mode in the Parent Scale, in this case the scale of C, whilst Fig. 1 shows the Harmonic Minor comprisong of the altered 7th note.  The Leading Tone of the Harmonic Minor As our ears can very easily pick up intervals in music. We can tell a half, or a whole step interval. An augmented second interval (3 half steps) would always cause trouble for composers and performers. Composers had set rules when writing melodies so no unexpected interval jumps would create an unwanted sound in the melody. The whole step movement in the Natural Minor, or Aeolian Mode, between the 7th note and the octave was something that somewhat concerned composers, so they sharpened the 7th create a 'leading tone' so it would na...

  Scales and Intervals -Why Bother If you understand the Major Scale, it is the basis of all other scales and chords. An understanding of the Major Scale makes it easier to build scales, chords, understand keys, and how they work, understanding songs and writing your own songs. Music scales This is an ordered sequence of notes that may be played ascending or descending. The pitch will correspondingly increase or decrease. This ordered sequence will continue in the order given with the presented intervals. An interval is the difference in pitch (sound) between one note and another. On a guitar the interval is measured by frets, or semitones (one fret = one semitone or half tone, two frets = whole tone). Shown below is a Major scale played on one string of the guitar. To play a major scale on guitar the sequence of intervals would be W W H W W W H This may be easier to see on a piano keyboard If you look at the C major scale, and count up using the pattern, you’ll see that it f...

  INTERVALS   Intervals are important in music and they are the basics for chord and scale construction. An interval is the difference in pitch between one note and another. Intervals can be either designated melodic or harmonic. A melodic interval is when notes are played in a melody (unsurprisingly lol), and harmonic intervals are notes that are played at the same time eg. a chord, double-stop, etc. Ok, so what harmonic and melodic Intervals do I need to know? Good question, thank you for that. I will endeavour to answer it, (mmm clears throat…) Wow, that looks confusing.. This may be easier Intervals are designated as either perfect (P), major (M) or minor (m). If you look at the fret diagram you can see that written above the sixth semitone is  Ƅ 5. Above that is the type of interval, in this particular case it is a A4/d5. This is an Augmented 4th or a Diminished 5th (sometimes called the Tri-Tone). All this means is the Perfect 4th note has been sharpen...