 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: Jx
Date: 2006-02-16 22:56
Hi, In a couple of weeks I will be having a college audition, on the audition sheet it is mentioned that I need to play diatonic and chromatic scales with arpeggios. I was wonder if the term diatonic scale means the same thing as major scale.
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Author: Paul Aviles
Date: 2006-02-16 23:55
Any scale using the relationship based on the major scale scheme, whole step, whole step, whole step, half step, whole, step, whole step, half step.
This includes all forms of the minor (melodic, harmonic and natural).
Scales not included in this category are chromatic (all half step), whole tone (don't make me say it), and the pentatonic scale (ie all black keys - if you have a piano handy).
...........Paul Aviles
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Author: Ken Mills
Date: 2006-02-17 00:04
Dear Jx; The harmony is based on a cluster of chords that is diatonic to one scale, say, C major or C minor. These are the "primary" scales. We know the major. Also the C minor chords can come from the C natural minor or C harmonic minor scale. The secondary scales, on the other hand, cause tension that needs to be released to the listener: diminished, wholetone, melodic minor scales do not sound good by themselves for too long such as an unresolved situation. The cycle of fourths can go without secondary scales as C major to F major to Bb major, etc. But try it backwards for an instant, oooh, try this: C major to F major back to C major. That F major to C major will not sound good unless you stick in a secondary scale, the B diminished scale can lead to C major, stick it in there. This way we can move the tonal center around if we are in the key of C major for more interest. I like scales, Ken
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Author: ned
Date: 2006-02-17 04:50
''Scales not included in this category are chromatic (all half step), whole tone (don't make me say it), and the pentatonic scale (ie all black keys - if you have a piano handy).''
Can a pentatonic scale not be built on the white keys?
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Author: clarnibass
Date: 2006-02-17 05:32
Ned, it can but Paul just gave an example.
I always thought, and that is how we usually use it, that diatonic is the opposite of chromatic. No matter what scale you are in, the notes that belong to it are diatonic and the notes outside the scale are chromatic.
I'm not sure what 'diatonic scales' means. I've never heard that term.
Ken Mills, what you say is a bit weird.... There are thousand of pieces with harmony of Cmaj Fmaj Cmaj (or the same in every other tonic). It is a simple and VERY common I IV I progression. I'm not sure why you think it doesn't sound good.
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Author: Richard Salzman
Date: 2006-02-17 06:28
Diatonic means "two tones", the two being the tonic and the dominant.In the key of C these are C and G, C being the "home" and G the way to get there. Diatonic harmony has been the foundation of Western classical music and is still in wide use.
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Author: Richard Salzman
Date: 2006-02-17 06:46
Just to clarify a bit,I don't mean the individual tones C and G, but the harnonies built on them, in this case the chord G-B-D moves to the chord C-E-G. The basis for any chord is a triad, a group of three notes. Take any of your major or minor scales and you may construct a triad starting on any note, skip a note, use the next note, skip a note, and use the next note. This is the basis of harmony and a facinating study it is indeed.
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Author: clarnibass
Date: 2006-02-17 07:11
After readin what Richard wrote, I think diatonic scales means scales made from two tetrachords, which basically mean all major and minor scales and all modes of seven notes. I assume they only mean the major and minor and not all eastern, arabic, etc. scales.
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Author: Bassie
Date: 2006-02-17 07:33
From wikipedia, on 'tetrachord':
"The diatonic tetrachord, however, and particularly the shade built around two tones and a semitone, became the dominant tuning in European music"
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Author: Jx
Date: 2006-02-17 13:22
So this means I have to play all of my Major AND Minor scales? Man, I have some work ahead of me.
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Author: Steve B.
Date: 2006-02-17 14:46
Jx,
I would confirm this with the individual college. There are some
clarinet studios that only require the major scales for their audition.
Steve
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Author: Jx
Date: 2006-02-17 16:00
I guess that is the best thing to do Steve, I just felt too embarrassed to e-mail the professor. I just hope the clarinet professor doesn't go on this board(which I have a feeling he/she does.)
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Author: Richard Salzman
Date: 2006-02-18 01:57
In terms of practicing scales, look on the bright side.You only have to practice major, minor, and a chromatic scale. You needn't worry about microtonal scales, Indian ragas, blues scales, pentatonic, hexatonic, etc. etc.
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Author: Richard Salzman
Date: 2006-02-18 20:24
I have to correct my own idiocy. Diatonic does not mean "two tones". The prefix "dia" actually means "through" from the Greek.Not that this helps. The harmonic concept is still valid, i.e. the dominant to tonic relationality of Western harmonic practice but my conflation of that with the meaning of the word is incorrect. Live and learn......maybe.
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Author: Ken Mills
Date: 2006-02-18 23:54
Dear Clarnibass; Take the C major to F major scales. That is the way it goes best, I believe, in fourths. Try C major to G major, the famous tune, My Secret Love, goes up a fifth like that, but it is called a modulation or a temporary key change and it goes back easily to C in fourths harmony. But I do not like to call it C major but A natural minor because it can be used interchangeably with the A harmonic minor. I call these two A minor scales the A compound minor so that we have only one primary scale to deal with: the compound minor. This helps me assign secondary scales as I really prefer minor scale harmony to do tritone substitution in this more simple manner, which employs melodic minor scales. This is modern jazz to cycle in 4ths, 5ths, or any way on top of traditional harmony from your piano player doing what he or she is accustomed to. All his or her chords will be DIATONIC to the key of C major unless informed otherwise: take Rhythm Changes in C major, for example. Ken, I am Left-wing
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Author: clarnibass
Date: 2006-02-19 05:14
Ken, I'm not sure I understand how what you said is related to the I IV I progression. What I said is that the harmony progression of I IV I which you say doesn't sound good is used by thousands of composers from Bach (and before) to jazz.
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Author: Ken Mills
Date: 2006-02-22 01:53
Clarinbass, The I IV I: Let us say that the I is C major. Let us say that you hear the chance to play the C major scale in a jam session. (You have to be able to jam if you want to be considered as socially adequate by people like me.) You should stick other scales in between the C major bookends as harmonic resolutions or it will sound flat. The IV is good but as a takeoff scale from the C, another scale must be used to return. Try The Gershwin resolution of Bb7 to C major (sixth bar of his rhythm changes). (Notation: compound minor equals cm so that F major is the same as D cm.) What you get is: CM Dcm Ccm CM. Your piano accompaniment is using just the white keys if we are in C. Sometimes the diatonic chords will go for a while, so there is a lot that we can do. All The Things You Are is five bars in Ab then a II V I in C. (We always use C as the example, huh.) At the 1995 ClarFest in Tempe Arizona, I heard Dr. Bill Smith play it on his electric clarinet. I love that tune. I have Bach's Chromatic Fantasia (for clarinet alone) to look at for that IV. OK? Ken
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