Copyright

© 2018 by Nicolas Carter

All Rights Reserved

This document is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. It is geared toward providing
exact and reliable information in regard to the covered topic. The presentation of the
information is without contract or any type of guarantee assurance.

Except for the quotation of small passages for the purposes of criticism or review, no part of
this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or
by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, without
the permission in writing of the author.

guitaryourday.com

guitaryourday@gmail.com

Third edition

Cover by Emir @Pulp Studio

Interior book design by Vladimir Zavgorodny

Table of Contents
Introduction
What is Music Theory, Why is It Important and How It Can Help You
Music Reading — is It Necessary to Learn
Music as a Language

Part 1. Music Theory Fundamentals

What is a Sound, Pitch, Note, Timbre and Tone?
Notes in Music
The Note Circle
Octave and Registry Ranges
Middle C and Standard Pitch
Octave Subdivision
Master The Intervals
What Is an Interval in Music?
Music Intervals Spelled Out
Inverted Intervals (With Interval Exercise)
Chromatic and Diatonic Intervals
Augmented and Diminished Intervals
The Building Blocks of Music — Harmony, Melody and Rhythm
What Makes a Great Melody?
The Concept of Root Note

Part 2. Mastering Scales and Modes

What Is a Scale in Music?
The Master Scale
Types of Scales
Minor Pentatonic Scale
Minor Pentatonic Structure
What Is a Mode?
Major Pentatonic Structure
Modes of the Minor Pentatonic Scale (With Audio Examples)
Minor Pentatonic Mode 1 – Minor Pentatonic Scale
Minor Pentatonic Mode 2 – Major Pentatonic Scale
Minor Pentatonic Mode 3
Minor Pentatonic Mode 4
Minor Pentatonic Mode 5
Minor Pentatonic Mode Comparison Charts
Term “Diatonic”, What Does It Mean?
7-Note Diatonic Scales —
Natural Major and Natural Minor Scale
Why Is Major Scale the Most Important Scale to Learn?
Understanding Major Scale Structure
Natural Minor Scale Structure
Major and Minor Scale — Understanding the Difference
Figuring Out the Major Scale in All Keys (Major Scale Exercise)
Demystifying Diatonic Modes
Parallel and Relative Modes,
Parent Scales and Tonal Center
Diatonic Modes Spelled Out (with Audio Examples)
Ionian Mode
Dorian Mode
Phrygian Mode
Lydian Mode
Mixolydian Mode
Aeolian Mode
Locrian mode
Diatonic Modes Comparison Charts (Plus PMS Exercise)
How to Hear a Mode (Practical Exercise)
Harmonic Minor Scale — How and Why Was It Derived from the Natural Minor Scale
Harmonic Minor Scale Structure
The Modes of the Harmonic Minor Scale (With Audio Examples)
Harmonic Minor Mode 1 – Aeolian #7
Harmonic Minor Mode 2 – Locrian #6
Harmonic Minor Mode 3 – Ionian #5
Harmonic Minor Mode 4 – Dorian #4
Harmonic Minor Mode 5 – Phrygian #3
Harmonic Minor Mode 6 – Lydian #2
Harmonic Minor Mode 7 – Mixolydian #1 or Super Locrian
Harmonic Minor Modes Comparison Charts
Melodic Minor Scale — How and Why Was It Derived from the Harmonic Minor Scale
Melodic Minor Scale Structure
The Modes of the Melodic Minor Scale
(With Audio Examples)
Melodic Minor Mode 1 – Dorian #7
Melodic Minor Mode 2 – Phrygian #6
Melodic Minor Mode 3 – Lydian #5
Melodic Minor Mode 4 – Mixolydian #4
Melodic Minor Mode 5 – Aeolian #3
Melodic Minor Mode 6 – Locrian #2
Melodic Minor Mode 7 – Ionian #1 – The Altered Scale
Melodic Minor Scale Comparison Charts
Scale Overview — Scale Comparison Chart
Keys and Key Signatures
 How to Understand Circle of Fifths (and Circle of Fourths)

Part 3. Master the Chords

What is a Chord?
How Chords Are Built
Chord Types (Dyads, Triads, Quadads) and Chord Qualities
Understanding Chord Qualities
Triad Chords
Suspended Chords
th
7 Chords (Quadads)
3 Fundamental Chord Qualities
The Complexity of Extended chords (9’s, 11’s and 13’s)
Rules for Leaving Out the Notes in Extended Chords
Problem with 11’s
Added Tone Chords – What’s the Difference
Demystifying the Altered Chords
Major Chord Alterations
Minor Chord Alterations
Dominant Chord Alterations
Alteration Possibilities and the Use of b5 and #5
Borrowed Chords vs Altered Chords – Classical vs Jazz View
Altered Harmony – How Altered Chords are Used and Where Do They Come From
Chords Built in 4ths
How Chords Come from Scales
How to Analyze Diatonic Chords
Assembling Diatonic Chords
Transposing from One Key to Another
Chord Inversions and Chord Voicings
Major Triad Inversions
Minor Triad Inversions
Inversions of Diminished and Augmented Chords
Inversions of 7ths and Extended Chords
How to Find Root Note Position in an Inverted Chord
Slash Chords
Voice Leading
Polychords
Chord Progressions (Part 1)
Common Chord Progressions
Extending and Substituting Chord Progressions
Moving Tonal Centers (Tonal Centers Vs Keys)
What Is Modulation and How Is It Used
Chord Arpeggios

Part 4. All About the Rhythm

The Importance of Having a Good Rhythm
 Understanding Time, Beat, Bar and Tempo
Time Divisions
Time Signatures Explained
4/4 Time
6/8 Time
How to Count in 6/8
Simple, Compound and Complex Time Signatures
Triplets and n-Tuplets
Polyrhythms and Polymeters
Accents, Syncopations, Dynamics, Tempo Changes…
Building Blocks of Rhythm — Create any Rhythm Pattern Easily (With Audio Examples)
4-Bar Random Sequence Exercise 1
Adding Syncopation
4-Bar Random Sequence Exercise 2

Part 5. More Ways of Creating Movement in Music

Timbre/Tone
Dynamics
Consonance and Dissonance
Drama
Extended Techniques

Part 6. Putting Musical Structures Together

What is a Composition?
Improvisation as Instantaneous Composition
Note Relativism
How Chords Function in a Key
How Notes Function in a Chord
Types of Harmony
Tonal Harmony
Modal vs. Tonal Harmony
Polytonality
Atonal Harmony
Questions to Ponder

Part 7. Going Beyond the Foundations

Chord Progressions (Part 2)
Chord Substitutions
Not Changing the Root
Changing the Root
Chord Progression Substitutions
Chord Addition
Chord Subtraction
Series Substitution
Modal Reduction
 Modal Substitution
Modal Interchange
Polytonal Substitutions
A Word on Chromaticism
More Substitution Examples
Improvising Over Chord Progressions
Chord Tones
Extensions
Using Substitutions in Single-Note Lines
Chord-Scales
Chromaticism
Polytonality
Modal Harmony (Miles, Debussy, Pre-Common-Era Music)
Modal Substitutions
Modal Interchange
Chromatic Sliding
Polymodality
Atonality
Chromatic Playing
Ornette Coleman – Harmelodics
Free Harmony
Beyond Harmony, Melody, and Rhythm
Spirituality and Music Theory

A Note from the Author

Other Books by Nicolas

Cheat Sheet
Introduction

What is Music Theory, Why is It

Important and How It Can Help
You
Most of us have heard of music theory. Some of us are immediately excited by
the sense that it is foreign to us and by the idea that there is, somewhere, a body
of knowledge that will make us better players, that will make us play like our
heroes. We may even be excited by the idea of spending long hours studying
music, learning names and concepts, working to apply those things to our music.
Becoming masters, not just of our instruments but of the fields of sound that they
produce.
But we may also not be so excited. Music theory may seem miles away —
difficult, burdensome, time-consuming. We may feel as though we don’t want to
spend years of our life learning things that may or may not turn us into the sorts
of musicians we want to be. We may have the sense that music theory is for the
scholars, for the students at Universities, for the jazz heads, and not for us. Not
for plain musicians who just want to bleed ourselves a little from our
instruments. It may even seem as though understanding theory will be
counterproductive, since it seems like it will turn something expressive,
something visceral, into something plainly understandable. Something we can
analyze and explain.
Whatever your attitude toward theory is this book is meant to say that you will
greatly benefit from learning the fundamental concepts of harmony, melody, and
rhythm. Far from leeching your affective creativity, learning to think about
music gives you a place to depart from, a space in which to work. It amplifies
your expressive potential in just the same way that knowing something about
how to make food amplifies a good meal — when you know what to look for
and you are familiar in general with the aesthetic space that you’re working in,
that space is richer and deeper. Period.
And that is what theory is. Above all, it is a body of ideas that helps familiarize
you with the aesthetic space of music. It doesn’t tell you what you must do, it
only hones your ear and your hands so that you can better discover what you
want to do. Theory is harmony, melody and rhythm — the fundamental
structures of sound that makes it possible for that sound to be organized
musically. And it will make you a better player.

* * *
The aim of this book is to help you learn music theory in a structured way that is
easy to follow and understand. Music theory is universal and applies to all
instruments. Since piano is music theory heavily oriented instrument (one can
play as much as 10 notes simultaneously) all key concepts are usually best
explained on a piano keyboard — which I will do whenever there is something
important to demonstrate visually. So don’t worry if you’re not a piano player,
you’ll see just how applicable music theory is on any instrument and why it is an
essential means of communication between all kinds of musicians.

Music Reading — is It Necessary

to Learn
Many people associate music theory with reading music. And this is because
when people teach theory, most notably in music schools, they often teach it on
the staff (the system of musical symbols), and usually they do that with respect
to the piano. Reading music can help people to understand the fundamentals of
harmony, melody and rhythm, so some people think, because it gives us a way
of writing it down, visualizing it, and communicating it clearly.
If you are interested in learning to read music, then there are many tools
available for you to do so, but it is worth saying here that it isn’t a necessary part
of learning theory. Theory is a collection of ideas, ideas that interact with one
another and guide our ears. Putting that theory down symbolically on the staff
can be useful, but it doesn’t all by itself mean that we will understand it or be
able to use it any better.
In short, when learning music theory it is not necessary to learn to read music.
There are cases, however, when it is useful. If you are a band leader or
composer, then it is essential to be able to communicate your vision to other
musicians. While that doesn’t necessarily mean writing music traditionally, it is
useful to know how to. Likewise, if you are a session player or a member of
someone else’s band, it is highly likely that people will be handing you sheet
music to learn, or even to sightread (sightreading is the act of playing a piece
while you read it, usually one you have never read before).
In those cases, it is useful to be able to read music. But in general, if you aren’t
going to be making your living playing in other people’s bands and on other
people’s albums, and if you are happy to learn ways of communicating your
music to other players that is non-standard or non-traditional, then you may be
just as happy not learning musical notation. There are many great musicians who
don’t know how to read music, however they do understand music theory and
how music works.
Reading traditional musical notation is part of the big world of music theory; but
remember that you can learn and use music theory without having attained this
skill, but you cannot learn and understand how to read music without
understanding the basic music theory first.
The choice of whether or not to learn how to read music and write it down on the
staff using traditional musical notation is entirely up to you — it depends on
your goals as a musician. This is certainly a useful skill that will deepen your
understanding of how we think about music, and I would definitely recommend
you to learn at least the basics of how we capture it on the staff. This book
explains theory in detail but it doesn’t deal with reading or writing down music
using traditional notation, because that is a separate subject—more suitable for a
separate book. It is not essential in order to benefit from learning music theory,
plus it makes it less complicated and easier to learn, especially for beginners or
nonprofessional musicians.
If you decide that you want to learn how to read music, write it down, and
interpret written notation, and how it’s all connected to the music theory, then I
have a great tool for you to consider:
A sibling book (2nd book in the Music Theory Mastery series) dedicated solely to
learning how to read music for beginners and attaining the basic level of
sightreading. You can check it out here:

www.amazon.com/dp/B071J4HNR5
With this book you’ll easily learn the fundamentals of the notation system and
key signatures, clefs, staff elements, notes, how rhythms are written, solfege and
much more. There are also progressive exercises at the end in which you’ll be
required to apply everything you’ve learned in the book and actually sightread a
musical piece. It will also be very exciting to see how it all relates to what you
learn here and how many concepts complement each other.

Music as a Language
It is sometimes useful to think of music as a calculus, as a rigid system of
numerical relationships. It seems, when you think about the fact that everything
reduces to intervals and their relations, that fundamentally music theory is
mathematical. It is sometimes useful, but it isn’t entirely accurate to think about
music that way.
Music isn’t a calculus, music isn’t an abstract system of numbers, music is an
expression. It is creative in the same way that painting a portrait is creative, and
the difference between creative musical meaning and representing music
mathematically is the difference between painting deeply and creatively and
painting by numbers.
All of this is to say that music isn’t math, music is a language. And just like our
ordinary language, it is messy, subtle, complicated, expressive, nuanced and
sometimes difficult. There are things you can learn, rules if you like, that make
up the grammar of music. This is the system of notes, intervals, scales, chords
(which we will learn in this book), etc. But to make use of theory it is always
important to remember the way language works — you can’t learn a language by
learning a set of rules, you have to learn it by immersing yourself in it and
getting a sense of its practices.
To understand music as a language means to always make theory come alive,
never to let it sit and become stale. To live it and practice it by listening, playing,
singing, expressing, writing and thinking it. Intervals are only as good as the real
notes that compose them, and music is only as good as the linguistic expressions
that it comprises.

In Part 1 of this book we will setup the fundamental framework that constitutes
music language, namely notes and intervals.
In Parts 2 and 3 we’ll see how notes and intervals are used to create more
complicated structures, such as scales and chords.
Just like a language music doesn’t happen without time, which is why Part 4 is all
about time and rhythm, and how to understand this crucial component of music.
In Parts 5 and 6 you will learn about the types of harmony, how to approach
composing and manipulating musical structures, and how to be more expressive
musically—which goes beyond merely playing the notes or chords.
Finally, in Part 7 we will dive deep into harmony and examine some advanced
musical concepts that will give you a grander perspective about the wide scope of
music, and the possibilities you may not have even considered or knew they exist.

Get ready, and let’s get started.

Part 1

Music Theory Fundamentals

What is a Sound, Pitch, Note,

Timbre and Tone?
This may seem like a simple question but the answer may be as complicated as
you want it to be. It could be said that everything in nature is energy vibrating
and different frequencies; there are scientific theories that even the reality itself
on the tiniest layers is just that—a vibration in the quantum field. When
something vibrates it produces waves. Waves, in physics, are disturbances that
transfer energy and there are two main types we experience in our perceivable
surroundings: mechanical and electromagnetic. The main difference is that
mechanical waves require the presence of physical matter, like air, through
which they can travel. Electromagnetic waves do not require physical medium—
they can travel through the vacuum of space.
So what is a sound then? In the simplest terms, sound can be defined as:
mechanical pressure waves that travel through a physical medium, like air or
water. Sound has its own unique properties, such as: frequency, speed,
amplitude, duration, etc. The property which concerns us most is the frequency,
which we can define as: the number of pressure waves that repeat over a period
of time. Sound frequency is measured in hertz (Hz), where 1 hertz means that a
pressure wave repeats once per second. Higher frequency simply means more
waves per second and vice versa.
This brings us to the pitch. Physically, it can be said that pitch is a specific
frequency of sound produced by a vibrating object, such as a guitar string. Us
humans have the ability to hear a wide range of sound frequencies ranging from
20 Hz to 20 000 Hz (or 20 kHz) on average, although this range reduces as we
age (and it is nothing compared to some animals). Musically, a pitch is like the
harmonic value of a note, and it is said to be higher or lower than other pitches.
In a sense, studying harmony and melody is studying pitch and the relationships
between pitches.
A note, by the way, is simply a named specific pitch with a particular duration,
loudness and quality. The notes are named with an alphabet letter ranging from
A to G (we’ll get to them in a bit). Each of the notes has its own pitch, that
makes it the note that it is (for example, A note found on the 5th guitar string is
110 Hz, when tuned to the standard pitch).
Two sounds can have different rhythmic values and can sound different overall
but if they have the same pitch, they will still be the same note. If two sounds
that are the same note sound different, then it is said that these two sounds have
different timbres. A timbre is like a sound color or sound quality that comes
from different instruments. For instance, a C note played on a piano is the same
note as C played on a violin, but we perceive their sound quality differently
because of the timbre.
Finally, the term ‘tone’ is often used interchangeably with a lot of these terms in
music, which usually causes some confusion. Tone is often synonymous with
timbre; when we say that different instruments have different tones, or that they
have good tones, we are actually talking about their timbres. Furthermore, tone
is synonymous with a note, usually when we talk about playing different tones;
and it is used as a name for a particular music interval. Musical tone is also
considered as a steady sound with properties like a regular note, only that it is a
single (pure) frequency that can only be produced digitally. If you want to hear a
pure single frequency the best way to do that is in a soundproof room that
eliminates any excess resonance or vibration. On the other hand, musical note
produced by a musical instrument is way more complex than a single frequency
due to the instrument’s natural resonance and harmonics (as well as the acoustics
of the environment and the way that the note is played); what we hear as a single
note is actually a whole spectrum of frequencies coming from the instrument that
our ears perceive, more or less, as a single frequency.

Notes in Music
When we see music as a language it is easy to realize that the notes in music are
like the alphabet of a language. The notes are simply the foundation of all music.
There are only 12 notes in Western music, which is historically derived from the
European music and is by far the most common music system that we hear
today. There are other music “systems” out there, like Indian, African, Chinese
and other traditional folk music, which are all different and make use of different
scales.
The 12 notes in Western music are as follows:
A, A# or Bb, B, C, C# or Db, D, D# or Eb, E, F, F# or Gb, G, G# or Ab
Here are those notes laid out on a piano keyboard:

Figure 1: Notes in one octave on piano

There are a couple of things to note here.

1. The notes are named after the first 7 letters of the alphabet: A, B, C, D, E, F, G.
2. There are also 5 notes lying between those: A#/Bb, C#/Db, D#/Eb, F#/Gb, G#/Ab,
that are named with sharps (‘#’ symbol), which indicate that a note is raised, and flats
(‘b’ symbol) which indicate that a note is lowered.
In this system, the sharp of one note is harmonically identical — also called
enharmonically equivalent — to the flat of the note above it. In other words, A# is
exactly the same tone as Bb, C# is the same tone as Db, D# as Eb, etc.
3. There are no sharps or flats between B and C or between E and F. That’s just one
fundamental characteristic of the music system that we use today.
4. The notes that don’t have any sharps or flats — all white keys on piano keyboard —
are called Natural notes. The black keys on piano keyboard are always the notes
with sharps or flats.
 5. The distance between any two of these 12 notes that are next to each other is called a
half-step (H), and each half-step is the same distance (for example the distance
between Bb and B is the same as the distance between E and F). The distance
comprising two half-steps, which is the distance between, for instance, C and D, is
called a whole step (W).

In previous section it was mentioned that the term ‘tone’ is sometimes used as a
name for a particular music interval. This is that case—oftentimes the term
semitone (S) is used instead of the half-step, and tone (T) instead of the whole
step. These are just different names for the same thing. Half-steps or semitones
are equal to the distance from one piano key to the next, or one fret on guitar to
the next (which is why there are 12 keys or 12 frets per octave on those
instruments).

The Note Circle

The note circle shows all 12 notes that exist in Western music.

Figure 2: The foundation of music

Whenever you’re moving clockwise on the note circle (from left to right on
piano keyboard), you are ascending and the notes are becoming higher in pitch.
That’s the situation in which we would use ‘#’ symbol; for example, we would
use C# instead of Db to indicate that we’re ascending.
On the opposite, whenever you’re moving counter-clockwise (from right to left
on piano) the notes are becoming lower in pitch and hence we would use ‘b’
symbol — Db instead of C#, to indicate that we’re descending.

Octave and Registry Ranges

Each note has its own pitch, but as we saw, there are only so many different
notes (there are 12 in the Western music system). This doesn’t cover the whole
range that our ears can hear. That means that those notes have to repeat in higher
and lower registers. All registers contain the same 12 notes, repeated both in
higher and lower pitches.
When a note repeats in a higher or lower register—when it has a different pitch
but is the same note—we say that the distance between those notes is measured
in octaves. An octave is simply the distance between one note and that same note
repeated in the next higher or lower register on the frequency scale. Physically
speaking, an octave is the distance between two pitches that results in one pitch
having exactly twice as many waves in the same amount of time (number of
oscillations per second). In other words, the frequency of a note that is an octave
up from another note is twice that of the first, meaning that there are twice as
many waves, and the pitch is higher despite being the same note.
Between any two octaves there are all of the notes, and the order of the notes
stays the same. What that means is that if you understand something in one
octave, you have understood it in all of them. If you look back at the note circle
(Figure 2) you can see that an octave is equal to going one full way around the
note circle from any starting note. If you go clockwise and end up on the same
note you would get an octave higher note, and likewise if you go counter-
clockwise you would get an octave lower note. After one octave, the notes
simply repeat themselves in the same order in the next lower or higher
octave/register. Note that the terms ‘octave’ and ‘register’ are often used
interchangeably.
An octave can also be viewed not just as the distance (interval), but as a single
note—the eight note—which has the same letter name as the first note, but
double the frequency. This will be important when we get to scales and chords
later in the book.
Limited by what our instruments can produce and the range that our ears can
hear, there are only so many registers (or octaves) at our disposal. Different
instruments vary a lot in their ranges; some instruments, such as pianos, have
many octaves, so that even though there are only 12 notes there are 88 keys on a
full-size keyboard (88 different pitches that can be produced, which is as many
as 7 octaves).
Here’s a picture of a full size master piano keyboard with marked all C notes
repeated in eight different octaves/note registry ranges.

Figure 3: An octave with the middle C is called the Middle octave—it’s the 4th octave on a full
size piano keyboard

You may have seen before a note with a number next to it and wondered what
that number means. Unless we’re talking about a particular chord, that number
tells us what kind of registry range the note is in. Looking at the figure 4, you
can see that there are eight C notes on piano, and this number (1-8) tells us
exactly which C to play (in what registry/octave range). Same goes for any other
note; for example, D3 means that this D note is in the C3-C4 range, or the third
range. This is especially important when writing down music using notation
because it determines what kind of clefs we will use to best cover the range of a
piece, and minimize the use of ledger lines (this is explained thoroughly in How
to Read Music for Beginners book).

Middle C and Standard Pitch

On Figure 3 you can see all registry ranges on piano. One range has the length of
one octave—so the distance between C3 and C4 is exactly one octave; same
with F2 — F3, D6 — D7, A4 — A5, etc. The distance between C1 and C3
would be 2 octaves, G4 and G7 3 octaves, etc. It’s important to remember here
that C is the starting note/frequency of each range, and that C4 note is called the
middle C. On guitar (if tuned to standard tuning), this note is found on the 5th
fret of the 3rd (G) string.
We use pitch to determine how high or how low something sounds. But there
was a problem back in history (before XIX century) when notes were not fixed
to certain pitches (pitch was not standardized), and musicians would just pick
certain frequencies according to their subjective hearing and assign notes to
them. For this, and many other reasons, it was obvious that pitch standardization
was needed. Throughout history there have been many attempts to standardize
the musical pitch. The most common modern music standard today sets the A
above middle C to vibrate at exactly 440 Hz. This A4 serves as the reference
note, with other notes being set relative to it. This is called the “Standard
pitch”, or “Concert pitch”. Most instruments today are tuned according to this
“default” tuning. On standardly tuned guitar for example, A above middle C is
found on the 5th fret of the 1st (thinnest high e) string.
Since A4 has the frequency of 440 Hz, what frequency would an octave lower—
A3 have?
The answer is: 220 Hz, and A5 would be 880 Hz.
This tuning standard is widely recognized and used, but there are also other
tuning choices used by different orchestras around the world, most of which
revolve around A4 being set to different frequencies, such as: 441 Hz, 442 Hz,
436 Hz, etc. There is another type of pitch standard, called Scientific pitch (or
Philosophical pitch), where the focus is put on the octaves of C rather than on A.
In Standard pitch, A4 is 440 Hz, and C4 (or middle C) is 261.625 Hz, but in
Scientific pitch C4 is adjusted so that it is equal to a whole number—256 Hz,
and A4 is 430.54 Hz. This pitch standard is sometimes favored in scientific
writings because 256 is a power of 2, which is very useful in the computer
binary system and serves different purposes.

Octave Subdivision
One octave consists of 6 whole steps, one step consists of 2 half-steps, and one
half-step consists of up to 100 cents. What that means is that, for example, D
and D# are one half-step apart but between them there are up to 100 cents. Cents
in music are typically used to express microtones, which are very small
intervals—smaller than a half-step (which you can also call a semitone).

Figure 4: Most software programs that work with sound files allow you to change the pitch in
octaves, semitones and even cents

Beyond one semitone, rather than using hertz as a frequency measure unit
(which if you remember shows the amount of air pressure waves produced in a
given amount of time), we more often use cents which are a logarithmic measure
used for musical intervals. It is enough to say that they are simply more
convenient and easier to use for musicians. Human ear is very sensitive as it can
recognize up to only a few cent difference between two successive notes
(pitches), but the interval of one cent is too small to be heard between two
successive notes.
Your instrument can be in tune and still sound a little bit off, and that’s the case
when there’s a small pitch difference that can only be measured in cents.
Correcting these small differences is sometimes called fine-tuning and the tuners
that you can find today allow for this kind of super-accurate tuning (with even
less than one cent accuracy). The more “exactly” in tune your instrument is, the
better it will sound, especially on the recording. That’s why it is important to
keep it in tune.
We’ve now covered the notes and the note circle. Before we dive any further, it
is essential that you understand and learn the intervals in music.

Master The Intervals

What Is an Interval in Music?

An interval is a relationship between two notes. It describes the harmonic
distance between notes with a unique sound.
Each interval has a unique sound and a unique name. The names of the intervals
come from their position in diatonic scales (more on diatonic scales soon). In
that sense, intervals can be either:

1. Major
2. minor
3. Perfect

Major and minor intervals are used a lot in Western music, while Perfect
intervals are generally used more in ethnic music all around the world.

Music Intervals Spelled Out

Take a look at the note circle again. There’s an interval between any of the notes
from the note circle – you can start on any note and play any other note
(including itself), and you will play an interval of some kind.
In order to show you all the intervals, we need to first choose the Root note,
which can be any note. The Root note is the starting note, it is the harmonic
center of whatever chord or scale you are using. In this example the note C will
be used as the Root.

1. First we have C to C.
Yes, there’s an interval between the Root and the Root (the exact same note played
two times), and it’s called Perfect Unison.
2. The next note, C#/Db, is a minor 2nd above C (and also a major 7th below it). This is
also the equivalent of one semitone (S).
3. D is a Major 2nd above C (and a minor 7th below). Also the equivalent of one tone
(T).
4. D#/Eb is a minor 3rd above C (and a major 6th below).
5. E is a Major 3rd above C (and a minor 6th below).
6. F is a Perfect 4th above C (and a Perfect 5th below).
Fourths and fifths are said to be “perfect” rather than major or minor because they
are the same in the major and minor scales, as well as most other diatonic scales
(don’t worry if you don’t understand this right now).
7. F#/Gb is Augmented 4th — also called a Tritone — above C (and a Tritone below
it).
This is a strange interval. It is highly dissonant and often avoided. It sometimes
functions as a sharp 4th, and other times it is a flat 5th. The tritone is also the only
interval that is the inversion of itself — if a note is a tritone up from another note,
then it is a tritone down from it as well.
8. G is a Perfect 5th above C (and a perfect 4th below it).
9. G#/Ab is a minor 6th above C (and a major 3rd below).
10. A is a Major 6th above C (and a minor 3rd below).
11. A#/Bb is a minor 7th above C (and a major 2nd below).
12. B is a Major 7th above C (and a minor 2nd below).
13. And lastly, we have C which is a Perfect Octave interval above root C.

We have now gone through the full note circle.

There are 4 Major intervals, 4 minor intervals, 4 Perfect intervals, and that
“strange” interval — the Tritone (Augmented 4th or flat 5th).
In terms of semitones:
Perfect Unison (C to C) is 0 semitones apart
 minor 2nd (C to C#) is 1 semitone
Major 2nd (C to D) is 2 semitones
minor 3rd (C to D#) is 3 semitones
Major 3rd (C to E) is 4 semitones
Perfect 4th (C to F) is 5 semitones
Tritone (C to F#) is 6 semitones
Perfect 5th (C to G) is 7 semitones
minor 6th (C to G#) is 8 semitones
Major 6th (C to A) is 9 semitones
minor 7th (C to A#) is 10 semitones
Major 7th (C to B) is 11 semitones
Perfect Octave (C to C) is 12 semitones.

Sometimes, we define intervals above an octave. These are named by adding 7

to whatever the name was in the first octave. For example, a major 2nd interval
an octave higher becomes a major 9th, a minor 6th becomes a minor 13th, and so
on.
Note that in music theory the terms: “Major” and “Perfect” are usually
capitalized, while “minor” isn’t.
Intervals are used to define both chords and scales because a particular set of
intervals defines a unique sound, a unique harmonic space. If you have listed all
of the intervals that are in a given scale or chord, then you have fully defined
that scale or chord. In later sections you’ll see how intervals are used to define
chords and scales and how important they are in music theory.

Inverted Intervals (With Interval Exercise)

Beyond the interval quality (major, minor, perfect) and its name, there is one
more property of intervals which is important to understand.
Take a look at the note circle again. Notice that intervals between any note can
go up or they can go down. They can be either:

1. Ascending (lower note in pitch going to a higher note, for example C to D#)
 2. Descending (higher note in pitch going to a lower note; for example, B to Ab)
3. Harmonic (when two or more notes are played simultaneously)
4. Played in Unison (the same note played twice)

You can say that B is a Major 3rd interval up from G, but that Eb is a Major third
down from G. So that means that intervals can be inverted — if B is a Major 3rd
up from G, then it is also a different interval — in this case, a minor 6th — down
from the G of the next octave.
In this way, intervals come in pairs. Every relationship can be defined by two
different intervals, one up and one down. That should explain the intervals in
parenthesis from the intervals list.
To explain it further, interval is a relative property of notes. For example, we
want to figure out what interval it is from A to C. We have 2 possible solutions.
C note is a particular interval away from A. If the C note is higher in pitch than
A, then this interval is ascending. So we can say that C is a minor 3rd up from A,
and that C is A’s minor 3rd interval.
A -> C = minor 3rd (ascending interval)
But if the note C is lower in pitch than A, then this is a descending interval. We
can now say that C is major 6th down from A.
A -> C = major 6th (descending interval)
When figuring out intervals, unless we don’t have any information on what kind
of interval it is (ascending, descending or harmonic), we always treat the lower
note as the root note, and we count intervals clockwise on the note circle from
the lowest note.
Try to do this yourself and see how easy it is. Here are some intervals to figure
out.
E -> C (ascending) — ?
E -> C (descending) — ?
D -> A# (ascending — the sharp symbol tells you that this is an ascending interval)
— ?
D -> Bb (descending — again, the flat symbol indicates that this is a descending
interval) — ?
Gb -> Ab — ?
It is important to remember that when an interval is ascending you will see/use
sharp (#) symbol, and when it is descending you will use flat (b) symbol.
Like I said before, there is a different interval pair for every note of the note
circle. You can use the note circle and count the intervals there. The answers will
be provided at the end of this book.

Chromatic and Diatonic Intervals

All of the intervals shown so far fall under one large group of Chromatic
intervals. The term Chromatic tells us that this is a set of ALL intervals that
exist between the notes that are used in the conventional tonal music today, same
as how the chromatic scale is the set of all 12 notes that exist in today’s 12-tone
music system.
Within those Chromatic intervals there is a specific group of intervals, called
Diatonic intervals which are quite important. Diatonic intervals are those
intervals that the Major scale is comprised of. Major scale is the most popular
scale in music and all other scales are measured against it in one way or another.
Major scale, the most important scale to learn, is a Diatonic scale (you will soon
find out what this means, just bear with me for a bit), and that’s why all intervals
that make up the Major scale are called Diatonic intervals.
In that sense, Diatonic intervals are: Perfect Unison (C to C), Major 2nd (C to
D), Major 3rd (C to E), Perfect 4th (C to F), Perfect 5th (C to G), Major 6th (C to
A), Major 7th (C to B).
These Diatonic intervals fall under Chromatic intervals as a special group of
intervals which make up the Major scale. In other words, all of these intervals
appear in the Major scale.

Augmented and Diminished Intervals

Beyond Major, minor and Perfect intervals, there are also Diminished and
Augmented intervals. These intervals are in a way hidden because they are used
in theory for showing the interval structure of only those scales and chords that
require the use of them. What do I mean by this?
All scales and chords are made up of individual notes and intervals between
those notes. We use this interval structure to write out the notes and name any
scale or chord. However, at certain times, depending on the scale, we have to
abide by certain rules in music theory when it comes to writing out the notes and
intervals. That’s usually when these theoretical intervals come into play.
We will get to these rules soon, for now understand that diminished intervals
lower or narrow the minor and Perfect intervals by one semitone.
Augmented intervals expand or widen the Major and Perfect intervals by
one semitone.

Table 1: Complete list of Chromatic intervals

A couple of things to note here:

1. Diminished and Augmented intervals are equivalent to their Major, minor and
Perfect interval counterparts – they are the same distance, but have different name.
 For example, diminished 4th and Major 3rd are physically (distance-wise) the same
intervals. The name which will be used for intervals is usually in the Major, minor
and Perfect column, but in some instances, depending on the scale or a chord that
interval is a part of, we will have to use its alternative — diminished/augmented
name.
2. Notice that Major, minor and Perfect intervals lack one interval with the distance of 6
semitones. 2 semitones are equal to 1 tone, so this interval has 3 tones, and that’s
why it’s commonly called “Tritone”. This is a diminished 5th/Augmented 4th interval
(can be either), and it is the only interval from this column which appears, not in the
Major scale itself, but in the modes of the Major scale, also called Diatonic modes
(which we’ll get to in Part 2 of this book).
3. Diminished intervals are usually shown with a lower case first letter, while
Augmented intervals usually have an upper case first letter.

Understanding intervals — truly understanding them and how they relate to one
another and learning to hear and use them — takes a lifetime. In a sense, all of
the other learning about scales and keys and chords is a way to make sense of the
wide-open space of the network of intervals in the 12-tone system. It is very well
worth always keeping an eye on your comfort level with this idea and training
your ear to recognize them.

The Building Blocks of Music —

Harmony, Melody and Rhythm
We say that music consists of three things:

1. Harmony,
2. Melody and
3. Rhythm.

Harmony and melody both describe the relationship between pitches (although
differently) without respect to their duration, whereas rhythm describes the
relationship between sounds and their durations without respect to their pitches.
Harmony is what happens when we combine notes in music. If you add one or
more notes to another note, and you play them at the same time or in a sequence,
then you’ve added harmony to the original note. This is one way to think about
the harmony.
Harmony is the vertical relationship between pitches. It is a structure, like a
lattice; a network. When you understand the relationship between two or more
notes harmonically, you are treating them as though they were happening at the
same time (even if they are happening one after another). It is possible in this
way to think about the way the overall harmonic structure of a piece moves and
changes. Harmony is the thing that most people mean when they talk about
theory.
Melody is like harmony in that it describes the relationship between pitches, but
it is a horizontal rather than vertical understanding. While still a matter of
relative structure, melody is all about the way that notes act in sequence, so that
the same 4 notes played in different orders have different melodic values, even if
those 4 notes taken together might have the same harmonic structure.
Melody could be considered simply as part of the harmony which focuses on
how notes sound together in a sequence. Usually we add harmony to a melody
line (which puts the melody in a certain context and makes it sound richer), or
we may add melody to the existing harmony.
Rhythm is the relationship, in time, between notes (or sounds in general)
regardless of pitch relationships. Rhythm describes the way sounds pulse (or
don’t pulse), their speed and regularity. Rhythmic structures describe the way a
piece moves according to a particular kind of time-based division. While not
generally the focus of as much theoretical attention, rhythm is equally as
important. An understanding of the role of time and duration in music is
essential since music is, after all, a time-based art form. That’s why there is a
whole section dedicated to rhythm in this book.

What Makes a Great Melody?

A strong melody is essential to good music. It is the difference between bringing
someone’s ear on a ride and driving right past it. Good melody is all about
telling a story. It moves and unfolds, builds and releases. It plays against and
with the chord structure of a song (the harmony) in a way that makes people
want to hear it.
Good melody is hard to understand, and even harder to prescribe rules for (read:
impossible), but in general we say that a melody consists of tension and release.
That means that a good melody moves away from the harmonic center of the
music, building tension, and then moves back in some interesting way, releasing
that tension.
To tell a story is to create an arc. To rise and to fall. And that’s what a good
melody does: it begins somewhere, and while it usually follows the structure of
the chords, it does so in a way that creates movement and drama, that makes a
little friction between the single notes in the melody and the structure of the
chords (its harmonic structure). In most music, this is followed by some kind of
release, in which the relationship between the single notes and the chords is
again easy, consonant and stable.

The Concept of Root Note

This concept is quite important in music theory and we’re going to use it a lot in
the following pages, so it is worth explaining now.
The root note of a scale or a chord is the note — usually the lowest note in the
scale or chord, or the “bass” note (but it doesn’t have to be) — that is used to
define the intervallic relationships in the rest of the scale or chord. In other
words, all of the other notes are defined as intervals relating back to that one root
note.
The root note is the first thing that the name of a chord or a scale lists, so that if
someone is talking about a D minor 6th chord, then you know that the D is the
root of that chord and the rest of the chord is defined relative to that D note. If
someone is talking about a G# major scale, then you know that the G# is the root
note of that scale and then the rest of scale notes are defined relative to that
starting G# note.
Part 2

Mastering
Scales and Modes

What Is a Scale in Music?

Scales are some of the most important things in music. In a certain sense, the
entire harmonic and melodic structure of a piece of music can be described with
respect to scales. They can be used to generate chords and chord progressions,
and can define and produce melodic ideas to be used over those chords. They
can be used to compose complicated works but also to improvise music, even
advanced music, with little effort.
Put as simply as possible, a scale is an abstract collection of notes and the
relationships between those notes or pitches.
It is a collection and not a sequence because it doesn’t exist time — it doesn’t
have an order, and it doesn’t imply any particular melodic arrangement. It is just
a set of relationships between notes that defines a harmonic space.
It is abstract because it is not tied to any particular actual arrangement of notes
— it doesn’t tell you to play the 6th note in a scale or the 3rd note in a scale, all it
does is give you a set of tones that define a space in which you can play.
It isn’t necessary to play all of the notes in whatever scale you’re using, and it
isn’t necessary to play only those notes, just to use the scale as a sort of general
category. Scales are loose characterizations of harmonic material, more like a
tendency and less like a rule.
Because scales are abstract, they don’t depend on any particular expression. In
other words, they are in the background, at a higher, more general, level
than the actual notes of the music.
You can play a Led Zeppelin solo or you can play a Stevie Ray Vaughan solo,
and they will be completely different things, but they will both be using the
minor pentatonic scale. Because of this, scales are useful tools for understanding
what someone is doing musically and for knowing what you want to do
musically, since they allow you to know, in general, what is going on in the
music and what will happen if you, for instance, play a particular series of notes
over a particular chord.
Scales come in many forms: some have 5 notes, some have 7, some have more,
but all of them define a root, which is the center of harmony and melody, and a
set of relationships between the rest of the notes in the scale and that root.
Also, all scales have their own scale formula consisting of tones (whole steps)
and semitones (half-steps). Simply by knowing the scale formula it is very easy
to figure out the notes of any scale and play them on any instrument (as we’ll
soon see).
Scales are used to define chords, which form the harmonic structure of a song,
and also to compose melodies, which consist of (usually) single-note lines
played over top of that harmonic structure. They are also used to create
harmonies, which occur when more than one single-note line is played together.
The best way to start understanding scales is to start with the chromatic scale.

The Master Scale

The most fundamental scale in Western music is the Chromatic scale. It is the
master scale. The chromatic scale contains all 12 tones in every octave, and so in
a sense it is the set of all other scales. Every chord and every scale is contained
in the chromatic scale.
Because the chromatic scale is so large, it is a very useful way of thinking about
the overall harmonic landscape. Everything that you can play (as long as you are
in tune) has some kind of relationship to everything else, and the chromatic scale
is the set of all of those relationships. The chromatic scale does not have a key
itself, it is the set of all keys (more on keys later).
But because it is so democratic and decentralized, the chromatic scale isn’t
always useful. It is very abstract and it’s not musical.
Sometimes — most of the time — you don’t want to play just any note, in any
key, at any time. Sometimes — again, most of the time — you want to cut the
chromatic scale up, define a slightly (or radically) more limited harmonic and
melodic space. That’s when all of the other scales become useful.
Consisting of 12 notes per octave, the chromatic scale is broken evenly into 12
half-steps (H) or 6 whole steps. The notes of the chromatic scale are simply all
12 notes from the note circle in the same order.
It is very easy to play a chromatic scale and it’s particularly good to use as a
technical exercise (especially for beginners who are getting used to their
instrument). Just take a look at Fig 1 again and you’ll see how it’s laid out on
piano. To play it you can start on any note (it doesn’t have to be A), and just play
all of the notes in order ascending or descending until you get to the octave.
Just as understanding intervals is a lifelong project, making sense out of the wide
array of possible scales and their interactions is as well. It is useful, however,
when undertaking that project, to remember the place of the chromatic scale. It
contains all of them, it democratizes, it spreads the harmony and melody wide
open, and it allows you to do virtually anything you want to. Learning to use that
freedom responsibly is one of the things that sets great players apart from the
mean.

Types of Scales
There are basically only a few types of scales. One of them we have just covered
— the chromatic scale. The chromatic scale is the set of all other scales. It is the
master scale. But it doesn’t define a distinct harmonic space beyond the division
of harmony into 12 equal parts. For that, you need scales with fewer than 12
notes in them.
Commonly, there are 2 other scale types that make the foundation of harmony,
and those 2 types break up into a few others.
 1. First, there are 5-note scales. These are called “pentatonic” scales, meaning “5-per-
octave.” The variations of those simple scales are enough to produce a rich landscape
all by themselves. While there are a variety of different note patterns that can make
up pentatonic scales, there is one in particular, which define the minor pentatonic
scale as well as the major pentatonic scale, that is most often used.
These scales are found in blues and rock music, and variations of those simple scales
are enough to produce a rich landscape all by themselves. There’s a reason why
they’re called “minor” and “major” and it’s because they originate from the 7-note
scales that bear the same name.
There are also other pentatonic scales, especially in non-western music, which are
rarer but still sometimes useful. For example, Chinese scale used to compose
traditional Chinese folk music is a pentatonic (5-note) scale.
2. Then there are 7-note scales. 7-note scales have many forms, the most basic of which
are called “diatonic scales” (more on this later). The most common Major scale
(do-re-me…) and Natural minor scale are both 7-note diatonic scales.
The words “minor” and “major” refer to something like the mood of the scale, with
minor scales in general sounding sad, dark and thoughtful and major scales in
general sounding happy, bright, and lively (like minor and major chords).
Most blues, for instance, is played in a minor key, which means that it makes use of a
minor scale quite often, whereas most pop is played in a major key, which means it
makes use of a major scale.

There are two other varieties of 7-note scales that are used in classical music,
neo-classical, advanced rock, and jazz, and they are the harmonic minor scale
and the melodic minor scale (and their variations).
Beyond 5-note and 7-note scales, there are a few specialized 8-note jazz scales
(called bebop scales). Otherwise, it is always possible to produce new scales by
adding notes from the chromatic scale to an existing scale, resulting in scales
with as many as 11 notes (this is most often done in jazz).
It is also possible to create new scales by altering an existing scale
chromatically. In general, creating new scales by this chromatic alteration and/or
addition results in what we call “synthetic” scales or modes.
Keep in mind that there are 12 notes in music, so there are 12 harmonic centers
(or root notes) that a scale can start on. This goes for any kind of scale no matter
the number of notes it contains.
Minor Pentatonic Scale
While there are many different kinds of pentatonic scales that can be assembled,
there is really only one pentatonic structure that is used commonly in western
music. This structure has 2 variations in particular that are ubiquitous in blues,
rock, pop, country, jazz and bluegrass. Those two scales are the minor pentatonic
(which is the most familiar) and the major pentatonic.
The minor pentatonic scale is the foundation of most of the blues and rock that
most of us have heard. It is a simple, easy to remember scale with a very distinct
sound. It connotes a soulful, deep affect and can be made to sound quite sad.
This scale consists of notes that are all found in the natural minor scale, and so it
is of use any time the minor scale is called for.
It is possible to make an entire career out of this one harmonic collection, as
many blues, folk, bluegrass, funk and rock musicians have. Outside of the
Western world, this and similar scales are common in traditional Asian and
African music (the latter being the historical source of the minor pentatonic scale
in the American Folk tradition).

Minor Pentatonic Structure

Remember when I said that we use intervals to define chords and scales? Here’s
how we do that.
We say that the minor pentatonic scale consists of 5 notes:
A Root, a minor 3rd, a Perfect 4th, Perfect 5th, and a minor 7th
or (when abbreviated)
R, m3, P4, P5, m7
These numbers refer to the notes’ relative position within a diatonic scale (in this
case, the natural minor scale), but the intervals themselves exist in many scales,
including the minor pentatonic scale.
If the scale is played in order, there is:
1. A Root, abbreviated to ‘R’.
 2. A root is followed by a note a step and a half (3 half steps) above the root — this is
the minor 3rd, or simply ‘m3’.
3. Then a note a full (whole) step above that — this is the Perfect 4th, or ‘P4’.
4. A note a full step above that — this is the Perfect 5th, or ‘P5’.
5. And a note a step and a half above that — this is the minor 7th, or m7. *

*NOTE: These are the 5 notes of the minor pentatonic scales. The distance between the last
note (the minor 7th) and the first note in the next octave is one full step.
Now check what is underlined above. These distances (intervals) can be used to
describe the scale in another, simpler, way:
WH W W WH W
or (same thing)
TS T T TS T
This is called a scale formula. In this case it’s the minor pentatonic scale
formula. A scale formula simply represents a unique set of intervals found
within each scale. It is written by using tones and semitones (and a combination
of the two — TS).
Just by knowing a scale formula you can start on any of the 12 notes on any
instrument, apply the formula, and easily figure out how to play any scale.
When put in context:
R — TS — minor 3rd — T — Perfect 4th — T — Perfect 5th —
— TS — minor 7th — T — R
For example, if we start from an A note we can then apply the formula: TS — T
— T — TS — T, and easily figure out the rest of the notes of the A minor
pentatonic scale. The notes would be:
A — TS — C — T — D — T — E — TS — G — T — A

A is the Root
C is the minor 3rd (above A)
D is the Perfect 4th (above A)
E is the Perfect 5th (above A)
G is the minor 7th (above A)
and lastly A is the Perfect 8th — Octave (O)
When applying a scale formula you can follow the note circle to find out the
notes easier.

Figure 5: Minor pentatonic structure on a piano in A

This can be done on any note/key.

This is one of the first, if not the first, scale that many people (particularly
guitarists) learn, and once learned it can be used very quickly.
If you place the root of this scale on the root of virtually any chord (especially
minor and dominant chords) then the other notes in the scale will almost always
sound good. If you’re playing the blues, then all you need to do is make sure the
root of this scale is the same note as the key that the song is in.

What Is a Mode?
It is worth using the minor pentatonic scale to demonstrate an important concept.
We saw that this scale consists of a collection of 5 notes, and that when they are
oriented around the root, there is a particular set of intervals that define the scale.
But what if we take those same exact 5 notes — for instance, the A minor
pentatonic scale (A, C, D, E and G) — and re-orient them. In other words,
what if rather than calling A the root, we treat this same collection of notes as a
C scale, treating C as the root.
Now the notes have different names:

C is no longer the minor 3rd (of A), it is now the Root.

D is no longer the Perfect 4th (of A), it is now the Major 2nd (of C),
E is now the Major 3rd,
G is now the Perfect 5th, and
A is now the Major 6th.

So the new set of notes is:

Root, Major 2nd, Major 3rd, Perfect 5th, Major 6th;
or:
R, M2, M3, P5, M6
This is a completely different abstract collection of notes than the A minor
pentatonic scale — even though it consists of the same 5 tones — because it is
now a completely different set of intervals.

Major Pentatonic Structure

By using the same pattern, but beginning at a different note, we have created a
different scale. The scale that we have created is called the C major pentatonic
scale, and it’s also an important and very common scale in blues, country, rock,
pop, etc.
 Figure 6: Major pentatonic structure on piano in C

What we have created by re-orienting the scale is called a “mode”. We can say
that the major pentatonic scale is a mode of the minor pentatonic scale, or that
the minor pentatonic scale is a mode of the major pentatonic scale (we usually
say the major pentatonic is derived from the minor pentatonic because it is the
most used one in virtually all blues and rock).
So major pentatonic scale is derived from the minor pentatonic structure, only it
begins on what was the 2nd note of the minor pentatonic.
Like the minor pentatonic scale, the major pentatonic scale is simple and
recognizable, and most of us know it without realizing it. Because of the
different set of intervals, this scale sounds different — it has a brighter, happier
sound than its minor cousin, which is a result of the fact it being a “major” scale.
The notes of the major pentatonic scale are all contained in the major scale, and
so it is useful whenever that scale can be used.
Because there are 5 notes in the minor pentatonic scale, there are 5 different
notes that can act as the root of different modes. For each note in the collection,
there is a different mode, in which that note is the root and the 4 other notes are
defined with respect to it, resulting in 5 different sets of intervals with each note.
This is a very basic understanding of modes. As your understanding and
application in playing deepens, you will start seeing them as completely separate
scales rather than simple note re-orientations of the parent scales (that’s why you
can sometimes use the terms ‘scale’ and ‘mode’ interchangeably).
On a deeper level, modes show the relationships between chords and scales, and
they are completely relative to the chords that are playing underneath in the
background, or on the backing track. This concept will be extremely
important when it comes to 7-note scales, But first, let’s tackle the minor
pentatonic scale modes.

Modes of the Minor Pentatonic

Scale (With Audio Examples)
From what we’ve learned so far, we can easily list all of the modes of the minor
pentatonic scale. Since it contains 5 notes there will be five of them.
I’ve included audio examples for each mode to help you hear how that
mode/scale sounds. Each audio track consists of the following (in order):

1. Scale tones played up and down (starting and ending on the Root note) — this will
help to establish the scale’s tonal center in our ears.
2. A series of chords that belong to that scale. Since at this point in the book you may
not be familiar with how chords are built and generated by scales, just focus on the
sound of the chords, and notice how everything relates to the first chord that is
played. After you go through the chord section later in the book you can come back
to these scale audios again and it will be clear why those chords are played.
3. An improvisation excerpt over a drone note (a note, usually a low bass note, that is
sustained or is constantly sounding throughout the excerpt in the background). The
following example will be in A, so we’ll be using A note as the drone note over
which we’ll be playing scale tones for each mode separately, in a musical way
(improvise basically).

Hearing, distinguishing and using modes is a process that will take some time,
but once you do it, most of the things in theory will start to make much more
sense, the dots will be connected, and it will make you a much better musician.
So be patient and take your time with this. Let’s get to the modes.
Minor Pentatonic Mode 1 – Minor
Pentatonic Scale
The first mode of the minor pentatonic scale is just the minor pentatonic scale. It
consists of a:
Root, minor 3rd, Perfect 4th, Perfect 5th, minor 7th
In A, the scale is: A, C, D, E, G. Here’s how this scale, or mode 1, sounds:
Minor Pentatonic Scale Mode 1 audio example in A -> http://goo.gl/ixb9BQ
Pay close attention how each of the notes played sound against the backing
drone note. Some will add tension, some will feel more pleasant and some will
provide resolution.

Minor Pentatonic Mode 2 – Major

Pentatonic Scale
The second mode of the minor pentatonic scale has a special name. It is the
Major pentatonic scale, as we’ve seen in the previous section.
It consists of the following intervals:
Root, Major 2nd, Major 3rd, Perfect 5th, Major 6th
With abbreviations: R, M2, M3, P5, M6
In C, the notes are: C, D, E, G, A;
C is the relative major key of A minor pentatonic, which is considered its parent
scale. You don’t need to understand this for now, just have the idea in your
mind.
Here is the key thing — in the improvisation excerpt for this mode we will be
playing over the A drone note again so the tonal center will be A. In order to
hear how this mode sounds we will play Major pentatonic scale, or mode 2
minor pentatonic scale, in A rather than C, over this backing note. Hope
you’re still with me.
In order to do that, we need the notes of the A Major pentatonic scale, so we just
apply the Major pentatonic formula starting from the A note. This formula is
shown on Figure 6, but here it is again:
R – T – M2 – T – M3 – TS – P5 – T – M6 – TS – R
And the notes of the A Major pentatonic scale are:
A – T – B – T – C# – TS – E – T – F# – TS – A (Octave)
Now all we have to do is simply play these notes, improvise a melody with
them, and listen to their individual (as well as overall) effect over the A drone
note. This will give us the sound of the mode 2 of minor pentatonic scale, or
simply: Major pentatonic scale.
Minor Pentatonic Mode 2 audio example in A -> http://goo.gl/x6ExEb
Again, pay close attention to each of the notes and how it sounds against the
backing A drone note. Notice how the Major 3rd, C# in this case, gives it that
major upbeat feel. Be patient with this.

Minor Pentatonic Mode 3

Hope your head doesn’t hurt much after all this as we will now examine another
mode. :) Luckily, it’s the same concept for other modes, and if you get it once,
you get it for all modes. From then it’s just continuous practice and patience.
The third mode in our A minor pentatonic example begins on D and consists of
a:
Root, Major 2nd, Perfect 4th, Perfect 5th, minor 7th
Or simply: R, M2, P4, P5, m7
Let’s quickly recap how we got to this (it’s the same process as with the Major
pentatonic mode).
In Mode 1 of the A minor pentatonic the notes were: A, C, D, E, G. Mode 3
begins on the 3rd note, which is D, and continues from there.
So the notes, now in D, are: D, E, G, A, C.

D is no longer Perfect 4th of A, it is now the Root.

 E is no longer the Perfect 5th of A, it is now the Major 2nd relative to D.
G is no longer the minor 7th of A, it is now the Perfect 4th relative to D.
A is no longer the Root, it is now the Perfect 5th relative to D
C is no longer the minor 3rd of A, it is now the minor 7th relative to D.

Try to do this for modes 4 and 5 by yourself when we get to them, it will be a
nice little mental workout.
Now again, D minor pentatonic mode 3 is relative mode to the A minor
pentatonic because they share the same notes, and A minor pentatonic is its
parent scale. But since our backing drone note is still A (in the audio example),
in order to hear the characteristic sound of this mode we need to use minor
pentatonic mode 3 in A.
So we just take the mode 3’s interval structure with the scale formula and apply
it starting from the A note again. This will give us the following notes:
A(R) – T – B(M2) – TS – D(P4) – T – E(P5) – TS – G(m7) – T – A(O)
Playing this set of notes and intervals in A, over the A backing drone note will
give us the sound of the mode 3 of the minor pentatonic scale.
Minor Pentatonic Mode 3 audio example in A -> http://goo.gl/1aQJcV

Minor Pentatonic Mode 4

The fourth mode begins on E and consists of a:
Root, minor 3rd, Perfect 4th, minor 6th, minor 7th
Its notes are: E, G, A, C, D.
Now E is the Root and we have a new set of intervals. But again, since we will
be playing over A drone note we’ll need to use minor pentatonic mode 4 in A to
get its sound. So we take its interval structure along with the scale formula (T’s
and TS’s), and apply them starting from A note. This will give us the following
notes:
A(R) – TS – C(m3) – T – D(P4) – TS – F(m6) – T – G(m7) – T – A(O)
It is worth nothing again: the intervals in parenthesis explain the note’s
relationship to the Root. Like with any mode, those intervals define a mode
and are responsible for its characteristic sound.
Minor Pentatonic Mode 4 audio example in A -> http://goo.gl/e8BXnq

Minor Pentatonic Mode 5

Finally, the fifth mode begins on the 5th note of the minor pentatonic scale,
which in our A minor pentatonic example is G. It has a:
Root, a Major 2nd, a Perfect 4th, a Perfect 5th and a Major 6th
Its notes, in G, are: G, A, C, D, E.
To get this mode’s sound over the A drone note used in the audio example we
will have to use minor pentatonic mode 5 in A.
Without repeating the whole process again, the notes of the 5th minor pentatonic
mode in A, are:
A(R) – T – B(M2) – TS – D(P4) – T – E(P5) – T – F#(M6) – TS – A(O)
Minor Pentatonic Mode 5 audio example in A -> http://goo.gl/ngqWWY
We’ve seen that mode 5 of A minor pentatonic is in G, with the notes: G, A, C,
D, E. As it has been stated several times, the backing drone note in our audio
improvisation excerpts is A, so to get the mode’s sound we had to use minor
pentatonic mode 5 in A instead (it can get confusing since modes of the minor
pentatonic don’t have special names like the diatonic modes). The point is, we
could’ve used the 5th mode of A minor pentatonic, which starts on G, for the
improvisation excerpts, but in that case we would have to play over the G drone
note to hear the characteristics of the A minor pentatonic 5th mode sound. Since
we played the 5th mode of the minor pentatonic in A, can you figure out its
parent minor pentatonic scale? It’s B minor pentatonic.
Don’t worry if you don’t get this now, it will be clearer when we get to diatonic
modes, just remember, modes are completely relative to what’s playing in the
background – playing the same thing over a different backing will have different
effects.
On another note, the sound of a mode becomes a bit more apparent when it’s
played over a full chord, or a chord progression in the backing track. Though it’s
important (and easier to learn modes) to just start with a drone note and keep it
simple at the beginning. We have yet to go over the chords later in the book.

Minor Pentatonic Mode Comparison Charts

To sum up, here’s a table showing minor pentatonic modes in A with their
interval functions:

Table 2: Minor pentatonic modes in A

If you want a good workout you can try to fill out this table in a different key,
for example C (you would start with C as the Root note in the top left corner).
 Table 3: Minor Pentatonic Interval Comparison

Notice on Table 3 how notes and their functions change with different modes.
Notice for example how modes 2 and 5 are similar — Mode 2 has a Major 3rd (3)
and Mode 5 has Perfect 4th (4). Look for patterns and notice the differences.
We will now move on to 7-note scales, but first...

Term “Diatonic”, What Does It

Mean?
A scale is diatonic when it is a mode, or variation, of the major scale. This
includes the natural minor scale and all 7 of the diatonic modes (of which the
major and minor scales are two).
The word “diatonic” is Greek, and it means “across the octave.” The name refers
to the fact that the structure of diatonic scales is such that there is an even
distribution of 7 notes across the 12-note octave. There is never, in any
diatonic scale, more than a full (whole) step between two notes, and the half-
steps are spread out by at least two full steps.
While there are 7 diatonic scales — called the diatonic modes, which includes
the major scale and the minor scale — there is only one diatonic structure.
This is because all 7 of those scales are defined in terms of one another. In fact,
they are generated from one another (though in most cases they are said to be
generated from the major scale because it is the most fundamental scale).
They share a structure because they are effectively the same 7-note pattern
beginning at different notes/points (if you treat the first note of the major scale as
the first note of the diatonic structure, then you can define a completely different
scale moving up that structure but beginning on the second note, or the fifth
note, or any other note — just like the minor pentatonic modes).
Since there is only in fact one diatonic structure, it is possible to talk both about
diatonic scales (meaning the modes of the major scale) and also about THE
diatonic scale (as in the underlying structure of those modes).
This is an exclusive usage and understanding of the term “diatonic scale”, which
is not entirely consistent, but is by far the most common and recommended.
Some theorists also include harmonic and melodic minor modes as diatonic for
specific reasons, but this is much rarer and can cause some confusion.

7-Note Diatonic Scales —

Natural Major and Natural Minor
Scale
As we know now, the most basic, fundamental type of 7-note scale is called a
“diatonic scale”, and this category includes what are probably the two most
easily recognizable scales by name: the natural major scale (usually simply
“the major scale”) and the natural minor scale (usually simply “the minor
scale”).
These two scales form the harmonic and melodic bedrock that Western music
lays on and has laid on for a very long time, and similar scales are found
throughout the history of world music (in traditional Indian music, for instance).
It is worth noting now that just like with the minor pentatonic and major
pentatonic, natural major and natural minor scales are simply the modes of each
other, but with major scale being thought of as the most fundamental diatonic
scale.
Also worth noting is that the 5-note major pentatonic scale is just like the 7-note
natural major scale, except that two notes are omitted. Same goes for the minor
pentatonic and the natural minor scale.
These pentatonic scales came from the desire to remove the intervals that are a
semitone apart in the diatonic structure. Because of that, minor and major
pentatonic scales are essentially simplified and safer sounding minor and major
scales. See scale comparison chart later in the book and this will be crystal clear.

Why Is Major Scale the Most Important

Scale to Learn?
Beyond the pentatonic scale, the first scale most musicians learn is the major
scale. It is also the first scale most of us, even at a young age, can recognize. It is
the foundation in Western music, and virtually all 7-note scales are derived from
it in one way or another — it is the yardstick against which they are defined. For
all of these reasons, it is often the first piece of real music theory that instructors
introduce to beginning musicians.
The major scale is the scale that results when you sing that familiar “do, re, me,
fa, sol, la, ti, do” (singing notes in this way is referred to as solfege). It is
generally described as a happy, uplifting scale, and it is easy to produce highly
consonant melodies using it. For this reason, many pop songs are written using
the major scale.
The intervals that define any given scale are described according to their
relationship to the intervals that make up a major scale. In other words, all scales
are in some way measured against the major scale.
This 7-note scale is the foundation for all diatonic harmony; all of the variations
of the major and natural minor scales can be generated by the major scale, and
since all non-diatonic harmony can be seen as diatonic harmony that has been
altered (chromatically) in some way, there are virtually no scales that aren’t
somehow derivable from the major scale and its variations.
In most types of Western music, from classical to celtic to pop, major scale
forms the foundation of the harmony. Minor pentatonic might be regarded as
‘the king’ in all blues music, but even that scale is derived from the natural
minor scale, which is again derived from the major scale.
In Western music everything relates back to major scale in one way or another
and that’s why it is the most important scale to learn.

Understanding Major Scale

Structure
The major scale is a 7-note scale so it consists of seven notes. The structure of a
major scale is relatively even (the consequence of being a diatonic scale); it
consists of:

1. A Root note (R)

2. Then a note a whole step above that, called the Major 2nd (M2)
3. A note a whole step above that — the Major 3rd (M3)
4. A note a half step above that — the Perfect 4th (P4)
5. A note a whole step above that — the Perfect 5th (P5)
6. A note a whole step above that — the Major 6th (M6)
7. And a last note a whole step above the 6th, which is the Major 7th (M7);

The distance between the 7th note and the first note of the next octave is a half-
step, and the overall structure of the scale (you can also say ‘scale formula’) is:
whole, whole, half, whole, whole, whole, half
W W H W W W H
or:
Tone, Tone, Semitone, Tone, Tone, Tone, Semitone
T T S T T T S
 Figure 7: Major scale structure

And here’s how it looks on a guitar fretboard:

Figure 8: Major scale on a single (thickest low E) string

So we have:
R — T — M2 — T — M3 — S — P4 — T — P5 —
— T — M6 — T — M7 — S — R (Octave)
This is the form of all diatonic scales (only since they’re modes of each other
they begin at different points in the structure).
Each scale has a starting note — called the Root note (R), which gives the scale
its name. Root note can be any of the 12 notes from the note circle.
If we say: “In the key of A major” (or you can just say “in A”, if it’s a major
key), it means we use A note as the root note and then apply from it the major
scale structure (T T S T T T S).
So “in A” the notes would be:
A — T — B — T — C# — S — D — T — E — T — F# — T — G# — S — A

Figure 9: Major scale in A

In the key of C, the notes are:

C — T — D — T — E — S — F — T — G — T — A — T — B — S — C
If you start on the D note you would get the D major scale, if you start on the G,
that would be the G major scale, Bb would be Bb major scale, and so on.
Out of all 12 keys, C major key is specific because it contains all of the notes of
the chromatic scale minus the sharps and flats: C, D, E, F, G, A, B — which
means that on a piano the C major scale is just the white keys. Every other key
has one or more black keys (sharps/flats).
It is worth repeating that knowing the scale formula of a scale is very useful
because you can start on any note, apply the formula, and you would get all
notes of that scale. You don’t have to remember all the note positions of a
particular scale on your instrument — if you just know the scale formula and
understand its interval structure it is very easy to remember, play and use that
scale.
In the case of the major scale this is particularly important because, if you recall,
all other scales are derivable from the major scale, and if you know the Major
scale structure it is much easier to understand, learn and use other scales, even
the non-diatonic ones.

Natural Minor Scale Structure

Second only to the major scale is the natural minor scale, or simply the minor
scale for short. No less foundational, it is remarkably different. The minor scale
is less common in pop music than the major scale, since it is far harder to create
a melody that will stick in someone’s ear with the minor scale than with the
major scale.
This scale is useful in very many situations, and it is marked by a pronounced
tension that creates musical friction while at the same time sounding rather
consonant.
The natural minor scale is, according to many people, a sad, deep, dark sounding
scale. It is the dark cousin of the major scale. Though it can be played in ways
that make the music move quickly and even brightly, the natural tendency of this
scale is in the direction of darkness.
The minor scale is dark, deep, and heavy sounding, and is often described as
“sad.” Though the major scale is more common in some forms of music, the
minor scale is far from rare, occupying a central place in classical and jazz,
among other styles.
The minor scale is a mode of the major scale (the 6th mode). So the minor scale
that is the mode of the C major scale:

— is the A minor scale, consisting of the notes A, B, C, D, E, F and G.

The structure of this scale is the same as that of the major scale: whole, whole,
half, whole, whole, whole, half, only it is re-oriented so that the 6th note of the
major scale is the Root of the corresponding minor scale (In C, that means the
root of the minor scale is A; in A major the relative minor scale is F# minor, and
so on).
So the structure of the minor scale is the same as the major, only shifted so that it
now starts from the 6th note. It’s the same concept as with the pentatonics but is
worth going through again.
Now it is:
tone, semitone, tone, tone, semitone, tone, tone.
or
T S T T S T T
The minor scale consists of the following notes:
Root, Major 2nd, minor 3rd, Perfect 4th, Perfect 5th, minor 6th, minor 7th
So we have:
R — T — M2 — S — m3 — T — P4 — T — P5 — S — m6 — T — m7 — T — R
Here it is on a guitar fretboard:

Figure 10: Natural minor scale on the thickest guitar string

The notes in A minor now are:

A — T — B — S — C — T — D — T — E — S — F — T — G — T — A
 Figure 11: Minor scale structure in A

Notice the similarities between this A minor scale and its relative major — C
major scale (It’s the same structure only the notes are re-oriented so that now A
is the starting note). Because of this, key of A minor is also without sharps or
flats. This goes for any mode of the C major key.
Also notice the similarities between this minor scale and minor pentatonic and
major and major pentatonic scale. Can you figure out which notes are left out?
Refer to the scale comparison chart should you have any trouble with this.
As an exercise you can try to figure out the relative minor scales of the following
major keys: G, D, A, E, B, F.

Major and Minor Scale —

Understanding the Difference
We have already said that the major and minor scales are modes of one another.
They are each diatonic modes and so they are each variations on the same
fundamental harmonic structure.
But that doesn’t mean they are the same scale. While they share a structure, they
begin at different parts of that structure, which means that the set of intervals
that define those scales is radically different. Music is all about the intervals, and
if the set of intervals within a scale is different — even though the scales share
the same harmonic structure — then the sound of that scale will be different as
well.
What was the distance between the 1st and 3rd notes of the major scale is now the
distance between the 3rd and 5th notes of the minor scale. That means that, if you
play a major scale and a minor scale that are relative to each other (that contain
all of the same notes), then the note that was the major 3rd of the major scale is
now the perfect 5th of the minor scale. The note that was the perfect fourth of the
major scale is now the minor 6th of the minor scale.
The major scale consists of intervals (with respect to its root) that define a
happy, bright, typically major-sounding scale, while the minor scale’s intervals
(with respect to its root) define a sad, dark, typically minor-sounding scale.
In general, the difference between these scales is quite stark, and it is the
difference between darkness and light, between happy, easy play and sad, dark
depth. It is easy to hear the difference, and once you do, it will be easy to
identify the general difference between major and minor tonalities in the future.
A word on that last thought — There is the difference between the major scale
and the natural minor scale, but then there is also the difference between major
and minor tonalities in general between any chords or scales of the major and
minor families. There are many major chords and many major scales, just as
there are many minor chords and many minor scales. Each of them is different
from the others, sometimes radically.
The thing that all major scales and chords have in common, however, is their
being major scales and chords. While the major scale is the typical, iconic major
scale and the natural minor scale is the typical, iconic minor scale, there are
other major scales (such as the Lydian mode) and other minor scales (such as the
Phrygian mode) that share enough in common with those iconic scales to be in
the same major or minor family, both of which belong to one big diatonic
family.
Once you have learned to distinguish between the major and minor scales,
distinguishing between major and minor tonalities in general is only a step away,
and generally comes easily.
Figuring Out the Major Scale in
All Keys (Major Scale Exercise)
A great exercise for you now (and a cool learning experience) is to figure out the
major scale tones for each of the notes/keys.
Take a look at the table on the next page, copy it if necessary and fill it out with
the appropriate notes. You can use the note circle only if you’re stuck, and also
to check afterwards if you got it right.
 Figure 12: Major scale in all keys

There are 12 notes in music, so there must be 12 Major scales — each starting
from a different note, right? Well, yes, but in music theory it’s not that simple.
We have to deal with both #’s and b’s.
In order to fill out the entire table correctly you have to follow a simple rule in
music theory which says that there can’t be two side by side notes with the
same name. In other words, you need to have each letter of the alphabet in a
scale key only once, and you just add #’s or b’s as necessary. A good practice
when figuring out the notes of a scale then is to first just write out the alphabet
letters from the starting note.
Let’s check out the key of A# as an example – a purely theoretical key and a
hard one to figure out. One tone after A# is C, one tone after C is D, and one
semitone after D is D#, etc. But we can’t have A# – C – D – D# because this
breaks the rule: B letter is missing and two D’s are side by side. That’s why we
use double sharps (or flats for flat keys) and we write this key in the following
way:
A# — T — B# — T — C## — S — D# — T — E# — T — F## — T — G## — S — A#
On the table the first 7-8 keys are very commonly used in music. I’ve left the
theoretical keys like A# for you as a challenge and practice. Try to figure them
out and you’ll gain a much better understanding of major scale keys.
Note that for the keys starting on a note with sharp (#) you would use #’s, and if
the key starts on a note with flat (b), you need to use b’s. I’ve provided a
complete list of all notes in all keys at the end of this book so that you can
double check your work.

Demystifying Diatonic Modes

If there is one thing that scares musicians, in particular guitarists, it is the
diatonic modes. Widely known but rarely understood, “the modes” are nearly
mythic for many players at many levels.
Most of us know that the modes are important, that great players know all about
them, but it feels like they are miles away — part of what people call “music
theory” and not at all the sort of thing that we can understand, much less make
use of.
Maybe we have heard of modal jazz and believe that the modes are of interest to
advanced jazz players with years of formal training but that they are otherwise
unnecessary or beyond our reach.
But the modes are not monstrous. They are not a myth. They are not only for
people who spend their 20s in music school. They aren’t just for jazz musicians,
and they aren’t, once you have learned them, any more difficult to use than any
other scales. What they are, however, is important.
The modes give us a way to understand the interconnectedness of different
scales, offer us a variety of scales to choose from in many situations and give us
the tools to compose or improvise in any number of ways over and in virtually
any harmonic framework.
We have seen that a mode is simply a re-orientation of a scale, treating a
different note as the root and re-defining the other notes in the scale. The notes
stay the same, but since the harmonic center is different, the set of intervals has
changed (what was a perfect 5th in the A minor scale becomes a major 3rd in the
C major scale). And that is the essence of modality — the fact of the relative
harmonic value of notes.
A note is not a static, unchanging thing; a note does different things in different
contexts (depending on the harmony that is playing underneath or in the
background). It is relative. That is the fact that confuses many players, and it is
the reason that the modes are often avoided.
Before going any further, it is important to understand a few terms.

Parallel and Relative Modes,

Parent Scales and Tonal Center
When we talk about modes and scales, we talk about two ways for scales to
relate to one another consonantly. One is being in parallel, and the other is being
relative.

Relative Modes
Relative modes are what most of us think about when we think about “the
modes”, and it is the way the modes have been presented thus far. Relative
modes are scales that contain all of the same notes but begin at different
places. C major and A minor are relative scales, same as G major and E minor.
Coming back to the minor pentatonic modes, it was said that all of the modes of
the minor pentatonic are relative to one another because they share the same
notes, as we’ve seen: for example, A minor pentatonic and C major pentatonic
are relative scales, same as the mode 3 of A minor pentatonic in D and A minor
pentatonic, and so on.
Relative modes are useful when extending the range of a piece up or down the
harmonic space, on a guitar fretboard for instance. They are also useful when
figuring out which chords will substitute best for other chords, but we’ll get to
that later in the book.

Parent scales
This is the scale that other modes are derived from. As we’ve seen, for all 5
modes of the minor pentatonic, the first mode — the minor pentatonic, is
considered the Parent minor scale, since other modes are derived from it.
It is important to be able to tell quickly what is the parent scale of each mode
that you encounter. For example, can you figure out what is the parent scale of
minor pentatonic mode 4 in C#?
You would need to list out the notes first by applying the minor pentatonic mode
4 formula starting from C#:
C#(R) – TS – E(m3) – T – F#(P4) – TS – A(m6) – T – B(m7)
We know that relative modes are just re-orientations of the parent scale, so after
which note C# comes as the 4th?
It’s F# (F#, A, B, C#, E). So the parent minor scale of the minor pentatonic
mode 4 in C#, is F# minor pentatonic.
There are quicker methods to figure out the parent scales which usually involve
using your instrument, although this is something that will come naturally with
time as you continue to use modes in your playing. On guitar fretboard for
instance, there are physical shapes you can derive from the notes and their
positions relative to one another, and you can visualize this shape anytime you
want to recall the Parent scale and other relative modes of a mode, quickly.

Tonal center
Tonal center is like the center of gravity – it is usually the chord or a note (as in
our case with audio examples) that the mode is played over. When we use a
mode, there are some notes that will help define the tonal center in our solo.
These are the good notes, or you could also call them the home notes. These
notes are usually the notes of the chord that is playing in the background at the
moment, and the strongest of them is the Root note (it is usually the safest one to
land on during playing).
Then, there are some notes that pull away from the tonal center, establishing a
movement, and there are some that will add lots of tension which tends to be
resolved to a home note. There are also bad notes, which can really clash with
the tonal center or other notes playing in the background, and they usually won’t
sound good at all.

Parallel Modes
A parallel mode or scale is simply a scale that shares its root with the original
scale in question. In other words, the modes that share the same tonal center
are parallel modes. For instance, A major and A minor are parallel modes, B
minor pentatonic and B major pentatonic are parallel modes, same as E Locrian
and E Lydian (don’t worry about the fancy names for now), or any other
mode/scale with the same starting note. In audio examples for the minor
pentatonic modes we played parallel modes against the A drone note.
Relative modes share the same parent scale — they have the same notes, ordered
differently, but they have different Roots, which means they have different tonal
centers. Parallel modes on the other hand share the same root — the same tonal
center, but they have different Parent scale. This distinction is important to
understand and remember.
Parallel modes are quite useful in modal harmony, when it is not uncommon to
alter the harmony of a piece by substituting one parallel mode for another. This
is called modal interchange. More on this much later in the book.

Diatonic Modes Spelled Out (with

Audio Examples)
We’ve seen that the major scale is a mode of the minor scale and that the minor
scale is a mode of the major scale. In general, the major scale is taken to be
primary when talking about the diatonic modes, and when we talk about “the
modes,” we are almost always talking about these scales — diatonic scales: the
major scale and its modes, which include the natural minor scale.
There are 7 notes in the diatonic scale and so there are 7 diatonic modes. Unlike
the pentatonic scale modes, diatonic modes each have their own Greek name,
and those names are usually how we refer to the modes when we are thinking
modally.
Again, we will have audio examples for each mode in the same format:

1. A scale/mode played up and down

2. Chords from that scale played in order (in triad form)
3. An improvisation excerpt, this time over the C drone note.

The key we’ll be using is C Major and all of the improvisation excerpts will be
played over C drone note.

Ionian Mode
The first mode is the normal Major scale. This is called the Ionian mode. In C,
its notes are: C, D, E, F, G, A, B.
It consists of a:
Root, Major 2nd, Major 3rd, Perfect 4th, Perfect 5th, Major 6th, Major 7th
This mode has a happy, melodic, consonant sound. We have already examined
this scale/mode in the previous sections. In the improvisation excerpt we will
play this mode over C drone note so we will use C Ionian mode, you could just
say regular C major scale.
Ionian mode audio example in C -> http://goo.gl/szNpFJ

Dorian Mode
The 2nd mode of the Major scale is the Dorian mode. It starts on the 2nd note of
the Major scale. The Dorian mode is a minor mode (though it is not “the minor
scale”) since its 3rd is minor and not major (this is how scales are divided
between major and minor in general).
In D, its notes are: D, E, F, G, A, B, C.
It has a:
Root, Major 2nd, minor 3rd, Perfect 4th, Perfect 5th, Major 6th, minor 7th
How did we get this intervals? Easy, just for this mode let’s do a quick recap.
D Dorian is relative to C Major scale because, as we can see, they share the same
notes but have different tonal centers. Since we know the notes in C Major, we
know them in D Dorian as well, and it’s easy to figure out the intervals from
there:
D is the Root
E is the Major 2nd up from D
F is the minor 3rd up from D
G is the Perfect 4th up from D
A is the Perfect 5th up from D
B is the Major 6th up from D
C is the minor 7th up from D

Another way to get to this interval structure without the tonal center, is to take
the major scale formula:
T T S T T T S
— and re-orient it like we did with the notes. Since this mode starts on the 2nd
note of the Major scale, we start on 2nd ‘T’ (bolded).
So the scale formula for Dorian mode is:
T S T T T S T
Now we just start from the Root (which could be any note) and continue from
there:
R – T – M2 – S – m3 – T – P4 – T – P5 – T – M6 – S – m7 – T – R (O)
The Dorian mode is darker than the Ionian mode because of the minor 3rd, but it
sounds a little brighter than the minor scale because of the Major 6th. It is a
common scale in jazz and especially blues. Make sure to consult the Scale
Comparison Charts afterwards to look for these differences.
Now like with the pentatonic modes, we will play this mode in parallel since our
drone note is C. That means that we will play C Dorian mode over C in the
improvisation excerpt.
First we need to figure out the notes in C Dorian, which is super easy because
we can just apply its Dorian scale formula or its interval structure, both of which
we’re familiar with:
C – T – D – S – Eb – T – F – T – G – T – A – S – Bb – T – C (O)

Can you explain why we used b’s to write out these notes and not #’s?

Dorian mode audio example in C -> http://goo.gl/EiwnD7

Again, listen to the effect of each note over the drone note. Notice which notes
are stable and safe sounding and which ones are more dissonant providing
tension, and how that tension is released to a stable note.

Phrygian Mode
The third mode is the Phrygian mode. It starts on the 3rd note of the Major
scale. It is a minor mode (because of the minor 3rd), though again it is not the
natural minor scale. In E, its notes are: E, F, G, A, B, C, D.
It has a:
Root, minor 2nd, minor 3rd, Perfect 4th, Perfect 5th, minor 6th, minor 7th.
The Phrygian mode is dark sounding and due to its minor 2nd, is very exotic
sounding. The minor 2nd note is just a half-step above the Root, so this note adds
a lot of dissonance because it naturally wants to resolve to the nearest tonic (the
Root). This mode is used in some jazz, metal, as well as Latin and Indian-
influenced music.
In the audio example we use C Phrygian over the C drone note. The notes in C
Phrygian are:
C (R) – Db (m2) – Eb (m3) – F (P4) – G (P5) – Ab (m6) – Bb (m7)
Phrygian mode audio example in C -> http://goo.gl/dvr2ke
Lydian Mode
The fourth mode is the Lydian mode. It starts on the 4th note of the Major scale.
This is a major scale because it’s 3rd is major, and its notes in F are: F, G, A, B,
C, D, E.
It has a:
Root, Major 2nd, Major 3rd, Augmented 4th (Tritone), Perfect 5th, Major 6th, Major 7th
The Lydian mode is a very pleasant sounding mode — similar to the major scale
(it differs from it only by one note: the Tritone), only slightly more exotic. There
is a subtle dissonance in this mode, though it is a major mode, and so it tends to
sound rather complex, even sophisticated. It is widely used in jazz in place of a
major scale and over certain jazz chords.
Since we’ll be using C Lydian mode to play over the C drone note, we’ll need
the notes of the C Lydian scale:
C (R) – D (M2) – E (M3) – F# (Aug4) – G (P5) – A (M6) – B (M7)
Lydian mode audio example in C -> http://goo.gl/YtV1MW

Mixolydian Mode
The fifth mode is the Mixolydian mode. It starts on the 5th note of the Major
scale. It is a major mode and its notes in G are: G, A, B, C, D, E, F.
It consists of a:
Root, Major 2nd, Major 3rd, Perfect 4th, Perfect 5th, Major 6th, minor 7th
The Mixolydian mode is a great blues scale and has a round, stable sound. Like
with the Lydian mode, the only difference to the Major scale is one note — the
minor 7th.
In the audio example we will use C Mixolydian to play over C note. Its notes
are:
C (R) – D (M2) – E (M3) – F (P4) – G (P5) – A (M6) – Bb (m7)
Mixolydian mode audio example in C -> http://goo.gl/nKAPRv
Aeolian Mode
The sixth mode is the Aeolian mode. This is the Natural minor scale. In A, its
notes are: A, B, C, D, E, F, G.
It has a:
Root, Major 2nd, minor 3rd, Perfect 4th, Perfect 5th, minor 6th, minor 7th
The Aeolian mode is quite dark, even sad sounding, though it is not altogether
dissonant, and it is widely used in virtually all types of music. We have
examined this scale in the minor scale section.
In the improvisation excerpt we will use C Aeolian mode, or C Natural minor
scale. Its notes are:
C (R) – D (M2) – Eb (m3) – F (P4) – G (P5) – Ab (m6) – Bb (m7)
Aeolian mode audio example in C -> http://goo.gl/kkGZLh

Locrian mode
The seventh and the final mode is the Locrian mode. It starts on the 7th note of
the Major scale. In the case of C Major, it starts on B; so in B, its notes are: B,
C, D, E, F, G, A.
It contains a:
Root, minor 2nd, minor 3rd, Perfect 4th, diminished 5th (Tritone), minor 6th, minor 7th
This mode is strange, and rarely used. It is a minor scale, but both its 2nd and 5th
notes are flat. It is the only diatonic mode without a Perfect 5th, the Locrian
mode thus is highly unstable. Historically, this scale was avoided altogether. Its
sound is heavy, dissonant and unstable.
We’ll be using C Locrian in the improvisation excerpt over the C drone note.
The notes in C Locrian are:
C (R) – Db (m2) – Eb (m3) – F (P4) – Gb (dim5) – Ab (m6) – Bb (m7)
Locrian mode audio example in C -> http://goo.gl/i6DVRG
Diatonic Modes Comparison Charts (Plus
PMS Exercise)
I hope that you can see by now how modes are easy once you understand them
fundamentally.
To sum up, here’s a table showing the diatonic modes:

Table 4: Diatonic modes in C.

All these modes are relative to C Major scale.

And here’s a table showing all modes with their respective intervals and notes.
 Table 5: Diatonic modes with their intervals and notes.

Study this chart. It is very important chart for the diatonic modes and you will
need to memorize it if you want to use modes in your playing efficiently. Also,
take some time to answer the following questions:

How b’s appear after the Ionian mode? Notice that Dorian adds b’s on the 3rd and
the 7th, and Phrygian adds flats just behind those — on the 2nd and the 6th.
What is the only mode with a ‘#’ and where?
What is the mode with only one ‘b’ and where?
What is the mode with the most flats and where are they located?
What is the one big difference between Aeolian and Phrygian modes and why?
Why does Locrian mode sound obscure and why is it difficult to use?
Why have we written b5 for the Locrian mode instead of #4?

Parent Major Scale (Exercise)

When using modes, you should think about them in parallel, that is, treat them as
separate scales, but at the same time it is important to know their relative scales
and what is the Parent Major scale of each mode in any key.
For example, parent major scale of E Locrian is…
…F major, and parent major scale of F Lydian is…
…C major.
Let’s explain these two. First, E Locrian – we know that Locrian is the 7th mode
of its Parent Major Scale (PMS). We also know that in a Major scale, the 7th note
is just a half step behind the Root note. In this case, a note that is a half-step up
from E is F, so PMS of E Lociran is F Major or F Ionian (both are correct,
although it’s more correct to say F Major in this case). Figuring out the PMS for
the Locrian mode is very easy in any key.
You can apply this process for all modes simply by counting the steps and half-
steps.

Dorian is just one whole step up from its relative PMS Root, or 10 half-steps down
from the root octave. So in any Dorian key you can just count two half-steps or
semitones back in your head. For example, PMS of D# Dorian is C# Major scale.
Phrygian is two whole steps up from the PMS root or 4 half-steps. In the opposite
direction, it is 8 half-steps down from the root octave.
Lydian is 5 half-steps up from the root, or 7 half-steps down from the root octave.
Mixolydian is 7 half-steps up from the root, or 5 half-steps down from the root
octave.
Aeolian is 9 half-steps up from the root, or 3 half-steps down from the root octave.
Locrian is 11 half-steps up from the root, or 1 half-step down from the octave.
Ionian is zero half-steps up or down from the root.

But what if we have a mode that is in the middle of the PMS, namely: Phrygian,
Lydian, Mixolydian or Aeolian, and we don’t want to bother with counting the
half-steps?
For that, let’s determine the PMS of F Lydian. The process which can be done
for any mode, is as follows (it was described briefly earlier in the Parent scale
section):
First, we list out the notes of F Lydian (you can use Table 4 – Diatonic modes
with their intervals, for this):
F (R) – G (M2) – A (M3) – B (#4) – C (P5) – D (M6) – E (M7) – F (O)
Since we know that Lydian is the 4th mode of its PMS, we look at the notes and
see to which note the F comes as the 4th?
It’s C.
C (1), D (2), E (3), F (4), G(5), A(6), B(7).
So PMS of F Lydian is C Major scale.
As an exercise try to figure out the Parent Major scale of the following modes:

1. G Dorian?
2. F# Mixolydian?
3. E Phrygian?
4. A# Aeolian?
5. G Lydian?
6. D Locrian?
7. B Ionian?
8. Db Mixolydian?

There will be answers provided at the end of the book in the Cheat Sheet section.

How to Hear a Mode (Practical

Exercise)
It is one thing to know what the modes are, to know what modality is in
abstraction and to be able to name the modes, even to spell their intervals and
relationship. It is one thing to know a scale, but it is quite another to understand
it practically. It is one thing to have it in your mind; it is another to have it in
your ears. The point of learning scales and their modes is to be able to make use
of them, and that means being able to really hear them and to know, from their
name, what they will sound like and how they will feel.
In some music courses, there is a lot of focus on formal ear training and sight
singing, in which students are asked to recognize, name and notate scales
(among other things) by their sound and sing them accurately after only seeing
them written down or being told their name.
It is not, for every musician, necessary to be trained in that way. The ability to
attach a particular name and a particular set of written symbols to a sound (and
to be able to sing, from memory those musical structures) is far removed from
the act of actually playing or writing with those structures.
But some form of ear training, in which there is a general, emotional,
unconscious sense of what different scales do and how they will impact the
music is very important to being a good musician. Even musicians who don’t
know anything about theory, if they are good, have this sort of internal,
unconscious connection to different sets of intervals.
It is how you know what will work and what will not work, and how you know
what you like and what you don’t like. In short, it is how you know what to play
and how to sound like you, how to have a style of your own.
So how can you develop that sort of familiarity with scales and their modes?
There is no shortcut really, you simply have to learn to hear them and use
them… a lot. But there are some exercises (beside the regular ear training
exercises) that can help.
The exercise is simple:

1. Play a drone note (on guitar, the E string would be most natural), which will establish
your key, your tonal center. Then you can play various scales and modes in that key.
So play an E note for example and let it drone (sustain), and then play an E Ionian,
and then an E Dorian, and then an E Phrygian, and so on. Play all of the modes that
share the same tonal center. This is what we have done for the Pentatonic and
Diatonic modes’ audio examples, but you should be able to do it on your own now.
Try it. Listen for differences in harmonic effect and feel for differences in overall
affect.
2. Once you have done this, it is useful to move on to playing over a single chord or
entire chord progressions. Make or find a backing track for each mode and play over
those progressions using those modes. You will develop a sense for the differences
between scales. However, if you’re not familiar with chords and chord progressions
yet, you will be able to do this after you go through the Chord section later in the
book.
3. Finally, begin substituting scales and modes for each other over the same chord or
progression. If you are playing over a minor progression, for instance in A minor,
you can perhaps begin by playing in A Aeolian (natural minor scale) and end by
playing in A Phrygian. This takes time to truly understand and be able to do, but it is
well worth the effort! By the end of this book you will have a much better
understanding of how to go about this.
You might also choose a single chord: a Major 7th chord for instance, and play
by cycling through all of the various modes of the pentatonic, diatonic, harmonic
minor and melodic minor scales. You can even use scales that don’t make any
natural sense — like a Dorian over a Major 7th chord — just to hear what it
sounds like. Doing this sort of substitution will help you really learn to feel the
differences between scales and will encourage you to remember certain
harmonic techniques and exotic sounds that you enjoy and want to incorporate in
your style.

Harmonic Minor Scale — How and

Why Was It Derived from the
Natural Minor Scale
The diatonic modes are useful, and they offer a host of harmonic possibilities.
They are not, however, exhaustive. There are 12 tones in the chromatic scale,
and even if you limit yourself to combining those 12 tones into 7-note major or
minor scales, there are more than 7 possibilities.
The diatonic scale is one, very stable, cutting of the chromatic scale and it
organizes an octave in a particularly useful way for most players much of the
time, but it has a very particular sound. Sometimes musicians want a different
sound, and when they do, they reach for other organizations of tones. Generally,
these new organizations are derived from the diatonic scale in some way, and so
once you know the diatonic modes, learning other sets of scales is often less
difficult.
Historically, the most important 7-note scale to be derived from the diatonic
scale was what is called the Harmonic minor scale. The harmonic minor scale
was the result of the desire to make the minor scale resolve in a particular way
when played ascending.
The major scale has a major 7th, and so when it is played from start to finish
going up, there is a strong resolution at the end — the last note is only a half-step
below the root in the next octave (the more a note is closer to the root the more it
wants to resolve to it), and so when our ears get to the 7th note of the scale they
very naturally feel the Root coming next (which is like the center of gravity in
music). This is particularly useful for composing and improvising melodies in
major keys because it makes it easy to resolve tension, which is ultimately what
melodies are all about.
But in a minor key, it isn’t so easy. The 7th note of the minor (Aeolian) scale
(and also the Dorian, Phrygian, and Locrian modes) is a full step away from the
Root in the next octave. This means that the Root doesn’t pull on the 7th note in
the same way that it does in the major scale, which in turn means that there is
less of a sense of magnetism between the 7th note and the Root.
The result, practically, is that resolutions in a minor key, whether in the chords
or in the melody, feel less stable than resolutions in a major key. This can be
solved, however, by altering the minor scale slightly.
Some time ago, composers realized that if they raised the 7th note in the minor
scale by a half step and left the rest of the scale untouched, they could create a
new scale that had most of the properties of the minor scale — a generally deep,
dark feeling — but that also had the possibility of stable resolutions, since now
there was only a half-step between the 7th note of the scale and the root (just like
the major scale).
This new scale was called the Harmonic minor scale, and its structure is derived
from the Natural minor scale.

Harmonic Minor Scale Structure

The harmonic minor scale derives its structure from the minor scale, which is a
version of that diatonic structure, only reordered: whole, half, whole, whole,
half, whole, whole. Only now, the final note is raised, which means that the last
interval is a half-step, and the second-to-last interval has been increased to a step
and a half.
In A, we said that the notes of the minor scale are: A, B, C, D, E, F, G. The notes
of the A harmonic minor scale then are: A, B, C, D, E, F, G#
So the harmonic minor structure is this:
whole, half, whole, whole, half, whole + half, half
 or:
T S T T S TS S
In terms of intervals:
R — T — M2 — S — m3 — T — P4 — T — P5 — S — m6 — TS — M7 — S – R
In A:
A — T — B — S — C — T — D — T — E — S — F — TS — G# — S — A

Figure 13: Harmonic minor scale structure in A

Because of the structure like this (step and a half between 6th and 7th note)
harmonic minor scale is not a diatonic scale.

The Modes of the Harmonic Minor

Scale (With Audio Examples)
Now we’re getting into some exotic stuff that many people consider advanced.
But it really isn’t since you now understand modes. Like the major scale, there
are 7 notes in the harmonic minor scale. Also like the diatonic scale, there are 7
modes of the harmonic minor scale. The same concept we had before applies
here as well, so it should be really simple.
Harmonic minor modes do have their own names, which are not very intuitive
and may seem confusing. In essence, they are just variations of the diatonic
modes’ names because they show their relation to the minor scale and other
diatonic modes they’re derived from.
Here are the harmonic minor modes (HMM for short) listed in A along with the
audio examples following the same format we had so far.

Harmonic Minor Mode 1 – Aeolian #7

The first mode of the harmonic minor scale is just the normal harmonic minor
scale. It consists of a:
Root, Major 2nd, minor 3rd, Perfect 4th, Perfect 5th, minor 6th, Major 7th.
Why is this mode called Aeolian #7? Well, if you compare this interval structure
(which we already examined), to that of the regular diatonic Aeolian mode, you
will see that it is the same structure, but with one important difference: the 7th
note.
In diatonic Aeolian we had minor 7th, but here we have Major 7th. The 7th note is
sharpened, hence why mode 1 of the Harmonic minor is called Aeolian #7.
In A it has the following notes: A, B, C, D, E, F, G#, and those are the notes we
will use to play over the A drone note in the improvisation excerpt.
Harmonic minor mode 1 –
Aeolian #7 audio example in A-> http://goo.gl/f62mgA

Harmonic Minor Mode 2 – Locrian #6

The second mode of the harmonic minor scale has a:
Root, minor 2nd, minor 3rd, Perfect 4th, diminished 5th, Major 6th, minor 7th.
If you compare the structure of this mode to the diatonic Locrian mode you will
see that it is the same interval structure but with one significant difference:
diatonic Locrian has minor 6th, and this one has Major 6th, so that’s why it’s
simply called: Lociran #6.
Diatonic Locrian: 1 – b2 – b3 – 4 – b5 – b6 – b7
Locrian #6: 1 – b2 – b3 – 4 – b5 – 6 – b7
This mode is sometimes also called Locrian natural because the 6th is no longer
flattened.
In B, HMM 2 or Locrian #6 notes are: B, C, D, E, F, G#, A.
In the improvisation excerpt this mode will be played over A note, so in order to
hear its characteristic sound we need to use A Locrian #6.
In A Locrian #6 the notes are: A, Bb, C, D, Eb, F#, G, and those are the notes
we’ll be using to improvise over A drone note. Note that this is a rare instance
where we have to use both sharps and flats because of the rule in music theory
we talked about — the rule which says that alphabet letters should not be
skipped when writing out the notes of a key.
Harmonic minor mode 2 –
Locrian #6 audio example in A -> http://goo.gl/LY6Vav

Harmonic Minor Mode 3 – Ionian #5

The third HMM has a:
Root, Major 2nd, Major 3rd, Perfect 4th, Augmented 5th (which is enharmonically equivalent
to a minor 6th), Major 6th, Major 7th.
This mode is called Ionian #5 and it’s easy to tell why – again, just compare its
structure to the regular Ionian structure, the difference is shown in the name
itself.
In C, its notes are: C, D, E, F, G#, A, B.
But as always, since we’re playing over the A note in the improvisation excerpt
we will use the A Ionian #5.
The notes for this mode in A are: A, B, C#, D, E# (enharmonically equivalent to
F), F#, G#.
Harmonic minor mode 3 –
Ionian #5 audio example in A -> http://goo.gl/UeyjgR
Harmonic Minor Mode 4 – Dorian #4
The fourth HMM has a:
Root, Major 2nd, minor 3rd, Augmented 4th, Perfect 5th, Major 6th, minor 7th.
Its notes in D, are: D, E, F, G#, A, B, C.

Can you explain why is it called Dorian #4?

In A Dorian #4 the notes are: A, B, C, D#, E, F#, G, and these are the notes
we’ll be using to play over A note.
Harmonic minor mode 4 –
Dorian #4 audio example in A -> http://goo.gl/3YbEBr

Harmonic Minor Mode 5 – Phrygian #3

The fifth HMM has a:
Root, minor 2nd, Major 3rd, Perfect 4th, Perfect 5th, minor 6th, minor 7th.
In E, its notes are: E, F, G#, A, B, C.

Can you explain why is it called Phrygian #3?

In A Phrygian #3, the notes are: A, Bb, C#, D, E, F, G, and these are the notes
we’ll be using to play over A note.
Harmonic minor mode 5 –
Phrygian #3 audio example in A -> http://goo.gl/zaHsHv

Harmonic Minor Mode 6 – Lydian #2

The sixth HM mode has a:
Root, Augmented 2nd (enharmonically equivalent to a minor 3rd), Major 3rd, Augmented 4th,
Perfect 5th, Major 6th, Major 7th.
In F, its notes are: F, G#, A, B, C, D, E.
Can you explain why is it called Lydian #2?
In A Lydian #2, the notes are: A, B# (enharmonically equivalent to C), C#, D#,
E, F#, G#, and these are the notes we’ll be using to play over A note to
showcase this mode.
Harmonic minor mode 6 – Lydian #2 audio example in A -> http://goo.gl/qiJKtq

Harmonic Minor Mode 7 – Mixolydian #1 or

Super Locrian
Finally, the seventh HM mode has a:
Root, minor 2nd, minor 3rd, diminished 4th (enharmonically equivalent to a Major 3rd),
diminished 5th, minor 6th, diminished 7th (enharmonically equivalent to Major 6th).
Its notes in G# are: G#, A, B, C, D, E, F.
G#(R) – S – A(m2) – T – B(m3) – S – C(dim4) – T – D(dim5) – T – E(m6) –
S – F (dim7) – TS – G#(O)
This scale is the oddest so far and has different names.

1. It is sometimes called an Altered scale, since it is the Major scale with each of the
scale degrees flatted (altered). Though this is not the real Altered scale since we have
bb7. The Altered scale is actually the 7th mode of the Melodic minor scale and we’ll
get to that soon.
Regular Major scale: 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 7.
Harmonic minor mode 7: 1 – b2 – b3 – b4 – b5 – b6 – bb7.
2. It is also sometimes called Super Locrian which is a fancy name but that’s because
it is the same as diatonic Locrian, but it goes one step further. Locrian has the Perfect
4th, while in Super Locrian that note is flatted (diminished 4th) and the b7 note is
flatted once again.
Diatonic Locrian: 1 – b2 – b3 – 4 – b5 – b6 – b7.
Super Locrian: 1 – b2 – b3 – b4 – b5 – b6 – bb7.
3. It is also sometimes called Mixolydian #1, but why?
Let’s take our G Major scale and G Mixolydian scale (whose Parent Major scale is
C), and list out their notes.
G Major has: G(1) – A(2) – B(3) – C(4) – D(5) – E(6) – F#(7)
G Mixolydian has: G(1) – A(2) – B(3) – C(4) – D(5) – E(6) – F(b7)
Now the 7th mode of the harmonic minor scale in this context (when compared
against G Mixolydian) looks like this:
 G Mixolydian #1: G#(1) – A(2) – B(3) – C(4) – D(5) – E(6) – F(bb7)
The problem here is that there is one extra flat on the 7th, making it function as the
Major 6th in this context.

So we have three different names for the same thing. It’s important to understand
each name and its context (what is it telling you?), because as we said, the names
describe a mode’s relationship to other scales. Knowing these relationships is
what will help you with understanding and using modes in your playing. You
can use any name that you like just as long as you know how it’s related to other
scales and modes. In my opinion the best name to use here would be Super
Locrian.
In A, the notes of this mode are: A, Bb, C, Db, Eb, F, Gb, and these are the notes
we’ll be using to play over A drone note in the backing track.
Harmonic minor mode 7 –
Super Locrian audio example in A -> http://goo.gl/3u9yuv
Note that HM modes can have different names depending on their context, this is
something that is open to interpretation. What I’m presenting here is the most
logical way that these modes are (usually) named by.

Harmonic Minor Modes Comparison Charts

 Table 6: Harmonic minor modes in A.

And here’s a table showing all harmonic minor modes with their respective
intervals and notes.
 Table 7: Harmonic minor modes interval structure.

Melodic Minor Scale — How and

Why Was It Derived from the
Harmonic Minor Scale
The Harmonic minor scale and its modes open up the harmonic space beyond
the diatonic scale. Knowing those 7 scales is an important step in being able to
improvise or compose chords or melodies in any situation, and they give you a
broader, more delicate palette from which to paint. But they are still not
exhaustive.
The Melodic minor scale is to the Harmonic minor scale what the Harmonic
minor scale is to the Natural minor scale. It goes one step further. The Harmonic
minor scale came out of the desire to have a certain kind of resolution between
the 7th and the Root, and so one of the tones (the 7th of the minor scale) was
raised to make it more like the major scale.
The Melodic minor scale comes out of a similar concern — the Harmonic minor
scale does a good job of giving the root a kind of magnetism, and there is a
strong resolution from the 7th to the next root, but that has what is for some
people an unwanted effect.
The diatonic structure was such that there was never more than a full step
between any two notes of any of the modes, but in the Harmonic minor modes
there is a step and a half between two of the notes (the minor 6th and the Major
7th). This is why the scales sound so exotic — our ears hear an uneven spacing in
the structure of the scale itself.
This is sometimes a good thing, as in when you want to sound exotic, but
sometimes you don’t want to sound that way and you still want to play in a
minor key, while having the resolution that the Major 7th note gives you. Or
maybe you just want a sound that is non-diatonic but that isn’t exotic in the same
way that the modes of the Harmonic minor scale are. Or perhaps you are in a
situation where none of the modes of the harmonic minor or diatonic scales will
fit. In all of these cases, you are probably reaching for the Melodic minor scale.
The Melodic minor scale is produced by taking the Harmonic minor scale and
correcting the minor 6th note so that there is no longer a step and half gap
between the minor 6th and the Major 7th. Since there is only a half-step gap
between the 5th and the 6th, this is possible in a way that results in, like the
diatonic modes, there being never any more than a full step between any two
notes.
The 6th note of the Harmonic minor scale is raised by a half step, and a new scale
is born: The Melodic minor scale.

Melodic Minor Scale Structure

The notes of the Melodic minor scale are:
Root, a Major 2nd, a minor 3rd, a Perfect 4th, a Perfect 5th, a Major 6th and a Major 7th.
And the structure looks like this:
R – T – M2 – S – m3 – T – P4 – T – P5 – T – M6 – T – M7 – S – R
 Figure 14: Melodic minor scale structure in A

As with the diatonic and harmonic minor modes this structure defines a series of
scales (modes), each with one of the seven notes as the root. Some of these
scales are used widely in jazz, and their sound is, while not as exotic as the
harmonic minor modes, still quite pronounced.

The Modes of the Melodic Minor

Scale (With Audio Examples)
There are 7 modes of the melodic minor scale. They are quite similar to the
harmonic minor modes. These modes also can have different names (they don’t
have a standardized nomenclature), but they’re presented here with the names
from the Diatonic modes they’re essentially derived from.
For diatonic modes we used C Major as the Parent Major scale, the relative
minor of that scale (Aeolian mode) is the A natural minor scale. Both Harmonic
and Melodic minor scales are derived from the Natural minor scale, and that’s
why all audio examples for these scales and their modes are in A.

Melodic Minor Mode 1 – Dorian #7

The first mode (the regular melodic minor scale) has a:
Root, Major 2nd, minor 3rd, Perfect 4th, Perfect 5th, Major 6th, Major 7th.
In A, it has the following notes: A, B, C, D, E, F#, G#.
Why is it called Dorian #7? When you compare its interval structure to the
diatonic modes you can see that diatonic Dorian mode has the most similar
structure.
Diatonic Dorian: 1 – 2 – b3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – b7.
Melodic minor mode 1: 1 – 2 – b3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 7.
So all notes are the same (have the same interval functions) except that melodic
minor mode 1 has Major 7th, and diatonic dorian has a minor 7th. That’s why this
mode is called: Dorian #7 – the 7th note is sharpened. Since this scale or mode is
used quite a lot in jazz, it is also sometimes referred to as the Jazz minor scale,
or just simply Melodic minor scale.
We will play this mode/scale in A, and just like with the Harmonic minor modes
we will use A drone note to play over in the improvisation part of the audio
example. We already have the notes of the Melodic minor mode 1 in A shown
above.
Melodic minor mode 1 –
Dorian #7 audio example in A -> http://goo.gl/NRFEp7

Melodic Minor Mode 2 – Phrygian #6

The second mode has a:
Root, minor 2nd, minor 3rd, Perfect 4th, Perfect 5th, Major 6th, minor 7th.
In B, its notes are: B, C, D, E, F#, G#, A.
The structure for this mode is: 1 – b2 – b3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – b7.
When you compare this structure to the Diatonic modes you can see that the
most similar structure is that of the Phrygian mode: 1 – b2 – b3 – 4 – 5 – b6 –
b7.
So the 2nd mode of the Melodic minor scale is like the Phrygian diatonic mode,
the only difference being that it has a Major 6th instead of a minor 6th. That’s
why this mode is called: Phrygian #6.
To demonstrate the sound of this mode, since we’re using A drone note, we’ll
use Melodic minor mode 2 in A.
A Phrygian #6 notes are: A, Bb, C, D, E, F#, G.
Melodic minor mode 2 –
Phrygian #6 audio example in A -> http://goo.gl/367PSE

Melodic Minor Mode 3 – Lydian #5

The third mode comprises a:
Root, Major 2nd, Major 3rd, Augmented 4th, Augmented 5th (which is enharmonically
equivalent to a minor 6th), Major 6th, Major 7th.
In C, its notes are: C, D, E, F#, G#, A, B.
It has: 1 – 2 – 3 – #4 – #5 (same as b6) – 6 – 7.
Diatonic Lydian has the most similar structure to this, but in this case the 5th is
sharpened; that’s why this mode is called: Lydian #5. In this same manner try to
figure out the names for the rest of the melodic minor modes.
In A, the notes of this mode are: A, B, C#, D#, E# (same as F), F#, G#.
These are the notes we’ll be using in our audio example.
Melodic minor mode 3 –
Lydian #5 audio example in A -> http://goo.gl/iL4SYR

Melodic Minor Mode 4 – Mixolydian #4

The fourth mode has a:
Root, Major 2nd, Major 3rd, Augmented 4th, Perfect 5th, Major 6th, minor 7th.
Its notes in D, are: D, E, F#, G#, A, B, C.
In A, Mixolydian #4 contains the notes: A, B, C#, D#, E, F#, G.
Melodic minor mode 4 –
Mixolydian #4 audio example in A -> http://goo.gl/xkHiZ8

Melodic Minor Mode 5 – Aeolian #3

The fifth mode consists of a:
Root, Major 2nd, Major 3rd, Perfect 4th, Perfect 5th, minor 6th, minor 7th.
In E, its notes are: E, F#, G#, A, B, C.
In A, the notes of the of this mode are: A, B, C#, D, E, F, G.
Melodic minor mode 5 –
Aeolian #3 audio example in A -> http://goo.gl/6NoSa6

Melodic Minor Mode 6 – Locrian #2

The sixth mode has a:
Root, Major 2nd, minor 3rd, Perfect 4th, diminished 5th), minor 6th and a minor 7th.
In F#, its notes are F#, G#, A, B, C, D, E.
In A, the notes of this mode are: A, B, C, D, Eb, F, G.
Melodic minor mode 6 –
Locrian #2 audio example in A -> http://goo.gl/khYa9U

Melodic Minor Mode 7 – Ionian #1 – The

Altered Scale
Finally, the seventh mode, as usual the most complicated one, has a:
Root, minor 2nd, minor 3rd, diminished 4th (enharmonically equivalent to a Major 3rd),
diminished 5th (or Tritone), minor 6th, minor 7th.
In G#, its notes are: G#, A, B, C, D, E, F#.
First of all, the structure of this mode is: 1 – b2 – b3 – b4 (same as 3) – b5 – b6 –
b7. When you compare this structure against the diatonic modes, you can see
that it is most similar to the Locrian mode, which has the Perfect 4th: 1 – b2 – b3
– 4 – b5 – b6 – b7. We can technically call this mode ‘Locrian b4’, but there are
some other options; as with the 7th mode of the Harmonic minor there are a
couple of ways to name this mode.
First, this mode can be called Super Locrian, but it is a little bit ambiguous name
especially because we’ve already used it to name the HMM 7, which has bb7,
and MMM 7 has a b7. That is the only difference — one note a semitone apart,
but still a significant difference. So Super Locrian is not a good name for this
mode, but there is one name by which it is well known: The Altered Scale.
The Altered scale, as the name suggests, is a scale which has all of the notes of
the regular Major scale but altered by one semitone.
Major scale: 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 7
Altered scale (MMM7): 1 – b2 – b3 – b4 – b5 – b6 – b7
Super Locrian (HMM7): 1 – b2 – b3 – b4 – b5 – b6 – bb7
So usually when someone talks about the Altered scale, they are referring to the
7th mode of the Melodic minor scale. Have that in mind.
This scale can also be called Ionian #1, and the reason is the same as why the
HMM 7 can be called Mixolydian #1.
Ionian mode structure (same as Major scale) is: 1 – 2 – 3 – 4 – 5 – 6 – 7.
Melodic minor scale structure is: 1 – b2 – b3 – b4 – b5 – b6 – b7.
But since we’re not talking about specific notes we can also show the Ionian
mode structure like this: b1 – b2 – b3 – b4 – b5 – b6 – b7. This is still the Ionian
mode because the intervallic relationships between these notes remained the
same — we’ve put a ‘b’ next to all of the notes. And since the MMM7 structure
has ‘1’ instead of ‘b1’, or in other words, the 1st note is sharpened, we can call
this mode Ionian #1.
This scale, like the 7th mode of harmonic minor, is useful in situations that call
for an altered scale. In most other situations, however, it is not used.
In A, the notes of this scale are: A, Bb, C, Db, Eb, F, G.
 Melodic minor mode 7 –
The Altered Scale audio example in A -> http://goo.gl/qfqcju

Melodic Minor Scale Comparison Charts

Table 8: Melodic minor modes in A

 Table 9: Melodic minor modes interval structure

Scale Overview — Scale

Comparison Chart
Here are the scales that we’ve looked thus far. These charts will make it easier to
see the similarities between scales, and how everything is derived from the
Major scale, which again, is just one 7-note cutting of the Chromatic scale.
 Table 10: Scale comparison chart 1

Table 11: Scale comparison chart 2

Table 11 is quite important table to remember because it summarizes the scales

we’ve learned about so far and shows how they are related to one another; they
are different, yet quite similar.
Notice how both minor and major pentatonic are just the cut-outs of the natural
minor and major scale. But even so, they still sound different, because the
intervals are different (especially because of that larger TS interval), and
intervals are what music is made up from.
Study this chart, notice the differences, analyze it, and try to memorize it, it will
serve you a lot.

Keys and Key Signatures

So far in this book we’ve mentioned keys in several instances, but let’s explain
more closely what it means when we say that something is in some key.
In virtually all cases, nearly without exception, a piece of music is organized
according to some scale — usually the major or minor scale — with a root note
as its center, or “tonic.” This is called the key of the piece, and it takes the form
most often of a note followed by the word “major” or “minor”, for instance, “D
major” or “Bb minor.” Since there are 12 notes, that mean that we have 12
possible keys at our disposal.
A key is like a harmonic center of a musical piece. Knowing the key of a song
gives a musician a lot of information, since it tells you what scale the song is
organized around. In the case of most rock, pop, blues and country music,
knowing the key of the song is enough to tell an improvisor what notes will
sound good over the chord changes of that song.
In the case of jazz, it is often more complicated than that, since a song in one key
may move through various tonal or harmonic centers as the song progresses,
thus requiring different scales to be played. In general, however, the key of a
song gives a musician the most basic and important information about its
harmonic framework.
When we write the key of a song, we indicate the scale that the song is organized
around. A key also tells us how many sharped or flatted notes are contained in
that scale (for example, C major contains no sharps or flats, but D major contains
two sharps: F# and C#). This is called a key signature.
Key signature is simply a measure of sharps or flats in a key. Each distinct scale
has its own key signature, and each key signature can either indicate a major key
(such as C major) or a minor key that shares the same scale (as we should know
by now this is called a relative minor key). The key signature is used in the
music notation system at the beginning of the staff to indicate the key of the
piece, and that’s why it is very useful concept for musicians who use traditional
musical notation.

How to Understand Circle of

Fifths (and Circle of Fourths)
When you take a music theory course or you begin taking private lessons, one of
the very first things you will receive is a diagram of a circle with lots of notes
around it. It is for most people confusing and for virtually all people unusable
until they learn what it really is and what it means.
That circle is the circle of fifths. There is a lot to say about the circle of fifths,
but in general it is a visual tool — a way of arranging notes in intervals of
perfect fifths.
This is useful for many reasons. It describes the relationships between all of the
possible notes you can play in a very particular way. It allows us to better
understand chord progressions (more on this later) as well as the distance
between any given keys. It also lists some features of each key that are useful
when understanding the internal structure of those keys.
The most important of all is that circle of fifths gives us an easy way to
remember how many sharps or flats are in each diatonic key (and remember: in
diatonic keys, there are either sharps or flats, but never both).
Beginning with C major (relative A minor), which has no sharps or flats (or
“accidentals” as they are called), it is possible to move up or down by an
interval of fifth to determine what other keys will look like and what its key
signature will be.
So a circle of fifths simply shows all keys arranged in fifths starting from C at
the top because the key of C (major) has no accidentals in it.
A fifth up from C is G, and the circle continues: G — up a fifth — D — up a
fifth — A — up a fifth — E — up a fifth — B — up a fifth — F#.
Moving up the circle in this way adds one note with a ‘#’ in the key of G, two
sharps in the key of D, three sharps in the key of A, etc.
F# sharp sits on the bottom of the circle (6’o clock). We could go on ascending
from F# to C#, G#, D#, A#, F, C and close the circle, but we usually start from C
at the top and then either go left (descending) or right (ascending).
Starting from C again, we can descend the circle by moving counter-clockwise
in fifths, this time using flats:
C — down a fifth — F — down a fifth — Bb — down a fifth — Eb —
down a fifth — Ab — down a fifth — Db — down a fifth — Gb (same as F#)
— down a fifth — Cb (or B) — Fb (or E) — down a fifth — A,
and so on all the way down to C. *
*NOTE: It is important to clarify here something that confuses a lot of people. Since we’re
descending on the circle of fifths, the notes are becoming lower in pitch by a perfect fifth
interval. This means that if you move counter-clockwise, and the notes are descending in
pitch, you’re still moving by an interval of perfect fifth. However, if you move counter-
clockwise on the circle of fifths and the notes are ascending in pitch, then that is considered
as the circle of fourths — a mirror reflection of the circle of fifths. Some musicians
prefer to think in terms of the circle of fourths because chord progressions tend to move
more often in this way. In any case, here is the circle of fourths sequence:
C — up a fourth — F — up a fourth — Bb — up a fourth — Eb
— up a fourth — Ab, etc.
So a descending fifth is like an ascending fourth, only one octave apart. You can
easily verify this by looking at the note circle shown on Figure 2. If you
remember, the perfect fifth interval is 7 semitones and the perfect fourth is 5
semitones, up or down from the starting note. All you have to do is to count the
semitones up or down from any starting note. I encourage you to check this for
yourself.
Coming back to the circle of fifths, moving counter-clockwise adds one note
with a b in the key of F, two flat notes in the key of Bb, three flats in the key of
Eb, and so on.
 Figure 15: Circle of fifths at its basic form.
Sometimes the relative minor keys are added beneath each major key (A minor for C, E minor
for G, B minor for D, F# minor for A, and so on)

This special relationship between notes, by an interval of “fifth”, is in many

ways the foundation of harmonic movement. By listing the notes in ascending or
descending fifths, a cycle is produced in which all of the notes are represented.
That cycle, depicted as a circle, helps to tell us things about each of those notes
when they are used to create keys, such as, for instance, what the structure of
those keys is. Usually, this is understood in terms of major and minor scales, and
a relationship is established between relative major and minor keys.
What’s most important is that arranging the keys in fifths makes it easy to see
how keys relate to one another.
When it comes to reading and performing (sightreading) written music it is very
important to understand how these concepts (such as key signatures and the
circle of fifths) work in theory and in practice. For an in-depth look at this check
out my How to Read Music for Beginners book.
Part 3

Master the Chords

What is a Chord?
Some instruments are single-note instruments, capable of only playing one note
at a time. Other instruments, however, like guitars and pianos, are capable of
playing chords.
A chord, at its most basic, is simply a music unit consisting of more than one
note being played at the same time. In other words, it is the sound we get when
we combine any two (or more) notes and play them at the same time.
Chords come from scales. In fact, they are made up from notes in a scale. Each
scale implies a certain list of chords; once you have a scale in mind, it is easy to
produce chords that are contained in that scale. We’ll get to this soon.
Chords are, like scales, defined by a set of intervals relative to the root note. This
is how chords are named — the name of a chord tells us what kind of notes it
contains; it tells us what is the root note (could be any of the 12 notes), and from
which intervals that chord is made of. The intervallic structure of a chord — the
way the notes in the chord relate back to its root note — is called the “spelling”
of that chord, and if you know the name of the chord then you know, because of
its spelling, the notes that are contained in it.
If we have a Major 7th chord, for instance, then by the end of this chapter you
will learn how it consists of some Root, a Major 3rd, a Perfect 5th and a Major 7th
note (all relative to the root). This is the spelling of a Major 7th chord. If we
assign this chord a specific root note, for example G note, then the name of this
chord would be: G Major 7th; and if we then look at the G major scale, we would
know that the other notes in the chord, because of its spelling, are: G (R) B (M3)
D (P5) F# (M7).
It is possible, simply by naming the intervals contained in the chord, to create
highly complex chords (such as a Major 13 flat 9 chord). These chords are most
often used in jazz and they create sophisticated harmonic spaces. Their use is
highly specialized, with certain chords only being played in very specific
situations.

How Chords Are Built

Traditionally, chords are built from intervals of thirds. In other words, they
consist of a root note and another note, or series of notes above that root that
ascend in thirds. To achieve such a structure all that is required is to take a scale
and count up from a root note by a third (which means up two degrees in the
scale) to get a chord note, and then for each new note in the chord count up by
another third (to the fifth, the seventh, and so on).
Similarly to scales, chords can be described by their chord formulas. Since
chords are made up from notes of the scale they come from, their formula simply
shows the scale degrees that that chord uses from its scale. If we have a “1 3 5 7”
chord formula for example (which is the formula for a Major 7th chord), it simply
means that this chord consists of the Root (first scale degree), 3rd, 5th and 7th
scale degree. If we take a Major scale, and assign it a key, let’s say key of C, we
can simply apply this formula to get the notes of the C Major 7th chord.

This is why C major 7th chord consists of the notes: C (Root — gives the chord
its name), E (Major 3rd), G (Perfect 5th) and B (Major 7th). Chord formulas and
chord spelling are very similar and useful concepts that give us a way of
analyzing the chords. We’ll explore this a lot more in further sections.
It is possible, and not uncommon, to alter chords that have been built by stacking
thirds — by moving one or more of the notes up or down, by inverting the
chords (rearranging their notes) so that a new chord is produced, or by adding a
note from the scale you’re working with to a pre-existing chord. It is also
possible to create chords by stacking intervals other than thirds — for instance,
fourths or fifths, although this is far less common. Generally speaking, however,
chords are generated in the way we have described — by stacking thirds above a
root note according to a particular scale.

Chord Types (Dyads, Triads,

Quadads) and Chord Qualities
A chord is any sound produced by more than one note. That means that any time
two or more notes are produced at the same time, a chord is formed. We
categorize chords according to how many notes are contained in them, and
though it is possible to talk about chords containing very many notes (up to
twelve), the usual formulations contain two, three, or four notes. In jazz and
some classical, chords with more than four notes occur with some frequency, but
in general they are considered extensions of three or four note chords.
Most often, chords consist of 3 or 4 distinct notes, although many times when we
play a chord some of these notes are repeated in various octaves resulting in
more than 3 or 4 tones composing the chord. This is obvious, for example, if you
play a basic chord on guitar most beginners first learn, such as E minor, and then
analyze which notes you just played — even though you played all six strings,
which means six notes, there are only 3 distinct notes in this chord, some of
which are repeated on certain strings to get a fuller sounding chord.
The most common chords consist of simple 3-note chords, called triads. In more
complex harmonies most chords contain at least 4 notes (in general these are
called the 7th chords or quadads).
Most common chord types are categorized as follows:

1. Dyads — these are chords containing any two notes.

2. Triads — these are chords containing three distinct notes.
3. Quadads — these are chords containing four distinct notes.

In the case of triads (which are most used chord-types in rock, pop and other
genres) and quadads, it is usually the case that the chords are built of stacked
thirds (as previously discussed).
In the case of dyads, however, any interval can be used. In fact, any Chromatic
interval (see Table 1) is also a dyad chord; so they can be any kind of: major,
minor, perfect, augmented or diminished dyads. The most common dyads in
rock, are dyads produced by playing two notes a 5th apart — Root and the
Perfect 5th (sometimes followed by another Root — an Octave, on top). These
are usually called “Power chords”, and are commonly used by guitarists in rock
and metal genres.
It is possible to play a chord consisting of only 2 notes (and even of only 2
tones) and also of more than 4 notes. It is not uncommon for a jazz musician to
play chords consisting of 5 or 6 different notes, and piano players have the
ability to play as many as 10 distinct notes at one time. In most cases this is
avoided because the more distinct notes are added to a chord the more they will
clash with each other, and the chord will sound more and more dissonant. Most
pop songs have very simple harmony consisting of simple chords with very few
notes, whereas jazz on the other spectrum is usually very advanced harmony
with more complex chords.

Understanding Chord Qualities

In general, and particularly when talking about triads and quadads, chords have
different flavors that characterize them. These flavors are usually called chord
qualities, and they make the chords sound different, not in the terms of the
higher or lower pitch, but in terms of the mood or the effect they produce.
For example, the most common chord qualities are major and minor, and the
difference between them is easy to notice: major chords are happy sounding,
while minor chords are sad sounding. E Major sounds quite different than E
minor, not in the same way as E Major would sound different from F Major,
where chord quality is the same but pitch of the root note is different by one
semitone.
The ‘quality’ that a chord will have entirely depends on the interval structure
(spelling) of that chord, and each chord, as we said, has a unique set of intervals
and a formula that describes how it relates to its scale. In the next few sections
we’ll go over each chord quality for triads and quadads. Note that when we say
‘chord quality’ we often exclude ‘quality’ and simply refer to it as a ‘chord’ —
this just means that we haven’t assigned any of the 12 notes to the chord yet.
By the end of this chapter you will have a huge library of chords at your disposal
and more than solid chord foundation; and it will be easy to remember them all
with the tricks I’ll show you.

Triad Chords
We’ll start with 3-note chords first because they are the simplest and easiest to
understand. They’re the most common chords today. It is worth repeating that
generally, when we talk about triads, we are talking about those triads that are
composed of two 3rds (usually either major 3rd or minor 3rd interval) stacked on
top of one another, or that are simple modifications of those stacked-3rd triads.
Triad chords are as follows:
Major triads — these chords consist of a: Root, a Major 3rd and a Perfect 5th.
This means that they are composed of a root, a major 3rd above that root and a
minor 3rd above that second note. Notice here that the distance from a Major 3rd
to a Perfect 5th is 3 semitones — which is a minor 3rd interval.
The chord formula for a major triad is: 1 3 5.
In C, the C major triad would be: C E G.
Minor triads — these are composed of a minor 3rd interval and a major 3rd
interval stacked on top of that (the inverse of the composition of major triads).
That means that they consist of a Root, a minor 3rd and a Perfect 5th.
As for the minor triad chord formula — first we have a root — 1, then we have
minor 3rd instead of a major 3rd. These two intervals are one semitone apart, so
that means in order to get the minor 3rd we just have to flatten the major 3rd note
by a semitone, so we simply write: b3. And then we have a perfect 5th as usual.
Also, note that the distance between the minor 3rd and perfect 5th is 4 semitones,
which is a major 3rd interval.
So a minor triad chord formula is simply: 1 b3 5, and from our C major chord
consisting of notes: C E G, we would get C minor with the notes: C Eb G.
You can see here how only one note difference as little as one semitone apart
changes the mood of the chord dramatically. It goes from happy sounding
(major) to sad sounding (minor). We can conclude that 3rd in a chord is a very
important note that makes a huge difference to its sound.
When it comes to triads, there are also:
Augmented triads — these are major triads with a sharp 5th. That means they
are built from two major thirds stacked on top of one another and contain the
notes: Root, Major 3rd, Augmented 5th (same as minor 6th). Their sound is jarring
(sometimes a good thing) and these are rarely played.
The augmented triad chord formula is: 1 3 #5.
#5 tells that we simply have to raise the perfect 5th note by one semitone.
As for the notes, C Augmented, or just Caug, would be: C E G#.
Diminished triads — these are minor triads with a flat 5th (Tritone). They are
composed of two minor thirds stacked on one another, which means they consist
of a Root, a minor 3rd and a diminished 5th.
The diminished chord formula is: 1 b3 b5, which tells that we have to flatten
both 3rd and 5th note of the parent scale.
The C diminished chord, or just Cdim, would then be: C Eb Gb.
All of these four basic triads are composed of two intervals — major and
minor 3rds — stacked on top of one another in various permutations.

Suspended Chords
It is common, however, to alter those triads slightly and arrive at chords that are
derived from stacked 3rds but that contain other intervals. This is done by altering
the second note in those triads — the 3rd, whether it is a major 3rd or a minor 3rd.
These new chords are called Suspensions, and there are two types of them. First,
there are suspended chords in which the 3rd is lowered to a 2nd. These are called
Suspended 2nd chords, or just sus2.
Suspended 2nd triads — If you begin with a major or minor triad and lower the
3rd to a major 2nd, then you will have a sus2 triad. It consists of a Root, a Major
2nd and a Perfect 5th, and it is built from a perfect 4th stacked on top of a major
2nd interval.
The chord formula for a sus2 chord is: 1 2 5.
This means that the notes of Csus2 chord would be: C D G (we just take the 2nd
note instead of the 3rd from the C major scale).
Suspended 4th triads — The second kind of suspended triad is one in which the
3rd is raised to a 4th (rather than lowered to a 2nd). These are called: Suspended 4th
chords, and are commonly used in jazz as well as in rock and pop to add specific
color to major and minor triad progressions, that is neither major nor minor.
Beginning with a major or minor triad, Sus4’s are derived by raising the second
note in the chord (major or minor 3rd) up to a perfect 4th. It is built from a major
2nd interval stacked on top of a perfect 4th (the opposite of sus2), and it is
composed of a Root, a Perfect 4th and a Perfect 5th.
The chord formula for a sus4 chord is: 1 4 5.
The notes of Csus4 chord would be: C F G.
This concludes all forms of triad chords... Almost.
It is also possible to talk about suspensions of diminished and augmented
chords — although these are very rarely used. In these cases, the suspended
chords have the same qualities as before, only the fifth is either flatted (in the
case of a suspension of a diminished chord) or sharped (in the case of a
suspension of an augmented chord).
These chords are shown in the following way:
dimsus4 (1 4 b5),
dimsus2 (1 2 b5),
augsus4 (1 4 #5),
augsus2 (1 2 #5).