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Re: Dominant-diminished 7th theory

Author: mrn
Date: 2008-08-27 22:20

mrn wrote:

> I have a question... If the C scale and its companion minor scale A consist
> of the same notes, and a music composer uses a scale as the primary
> source of notes for a composition, why have a C Major and an A minor
> scale? I don't understand why we have both when they consist of the
> same notes.

Actually, they don't necessarily have the same notes. Only the "natural" minor scale has all the same notes (albeit with a different starting pitch).

Most of the tonal music we westerners are used to listening to is built using the "melodic" and "harmonic" minor scales, which are not quite the same as the "natural" minor scale.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minor_scale for more details.

The thing that make a minor scale minor is that the 3rd degree of the scale is a minor third up from the tonic.

Why we have both has to do with the way people in the good old days thought about music theory--building scales by defining intervals from a starting pitch. This makes sense when you think about how people sing--you start on a note and sing intervals based off of the starting note. Unless the singer has perfect (absolute) pitch, thinking of a scale as a collection of notes is kind of meaningless to a singer. Singers think in terms of intervals, not notes. If you tell someone to sing a major scale starting on A they can do it, but if you tell them simply to sing a collection of pitches you will leave them perplexed.

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Dominant-diminished 7th theory new

DrH2O

2008-08-11 18:54