Before you begin take a look at how a major scale is constructed

Look at the C-major scale

C D E F G A B C

Find the sixth note. (The submediant). That note is ‘A’.

Now write a scale, starting on the ‘A‘,and proceed upwards for one octave.

A B C D E F G A

Now if you have already looked at how major scales are created you should know that Cmajor has no sharps or flats. This is the same for Aminor which has the same key signature as it is the relative minor of Cmajor.

So to find the relative minor of a major scale, find the sixth note of the major. That note is the note upon which the relative minor would be built.

The type of minor scale you just learned to construct is called a natural minor scale. Sometimes you may see them referred to as “Pure minor“.

There are two other types of minor scales you need to learn: the harmonic minor and melodic minor.

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HARMONIC MINOR:

To form a harmonic minor scale, take the natural minor, and raise the seventh note. To change the A-minor scale above into a harmonic minor scale, we would raise the seventh note, the ‘G‘ to become a ‘G#’. Here it is:

A B C D E F G# A

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MELODIC MINOR:

To form a melodic minor scale, take the natural minor, raise the sixth AND seventh note on the way up, and put them back to their “natural” state going down. Because the melodic minor looks different going up than it does going down, you must write a melodic minor ascending and descending. Here is a A Melodic minor scale:

A B C D E F# G# A G F E D C B A

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You should learn all these types of minor scale.

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Determining Key Signatures of Minor Keys

Hopefully you should know how to use a major scale, find the note upon which the relative minor scale will be constructed, and write the three different types of minor scale.

But what happens when you are asked to write the key signature of Aminor ?

As you know, a minor scale and its relative major will share the same key signature. In the case of A-minor, you know that ‘A’ is the sixth note of Cmajor scale. Simply go up a whole tone, plus a semitone. This will get you the relative major. So a whole tone plus a semitone above ‘A’ is ‘C’. C-major will use the same key signature as A-minor.

If you’ve understood the page dedicated to major scale construction you will already know that C-major has no sharps or flats. So now you also know that A-minor has no sharps or flats as well.

The major scale is constructed like this:

TONE, TONE, SEMITONE, TONE, TONE, TONE, SEMITONE

So if we use Cmajor as an example,

C D E F G A B C

So Using the following:

TONE, TONE, SEMITONE, TONE, TONE, TONE, SEMITONE

We can make all major scales:

Lets use Dmajor as an example:

D E F# G A B C# D

Other ways of working out scales can be done like this:

For scales that have sharps(#)

If we start with C major

C D E F G A B C

Go up to the fifth degree of the scale to G and start following the musical alphabet through to the octave.

G A B C D E F G

Retain the sharps (#) from the previous scale - (with Cmajor we have no sharps or flats)

Add a sharp (#) to the seventh note:

G A B C D E F# G

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So using this again:

G A B C D E F# G

Go up to the fifth degree of the scale to D and start following the musical alphabet through to the octave.

D E F# G A B C D

Retain the sharps (#) from the previous scale - (with Gmajor has an F#)

Add a sharp (#) to the seventh note:

D E F# G A B C# D

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Follow this through and you will get all the major scales that have sharps in their key signature.

A major scale has the notes: A B C# D E F# G# A

E major scale has the notes: E F# G# A B C# D# E

B major scale has the notes: B C# D# E F# G# A# B

F# major scale has the notes: F# G # A# B C# D# E# F#

C# major scale has the notes: C# D# E# F# G# A# B# C#

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Major scales with flats (b)

Again using Cmajor as our starting point.

C D E F G A B C

Go up to the fourth degree of the scale to F and start following the musical alphabet through to the octave.

F G A B C D E F

Retain the flats (b) from the previous scale (Cmajor has no sharps or flats)

Add a flat (b) to the fourth note

F G A Bb C D E F

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So following this through:

Take Fmajor:

F G A Bb C D E F

Go up to the fourth degree of the scale to F and start following the musical alphabet through to the octave.

Bb C D E F G A Bb

We now have our next major scale that has flats in it - this being Bb major

Retain the flats (b) from the previous scale (Bb major already has, as you can see a Bb)

Add a flat (b) to the fourth note

Bb C D Eb F G A Bb

Bb major scale has the notes Bb C D Eb F G A Bb

Eb major scale has the notes Eb F G Ab Bb C D Eb

Ab major scale has the notes Ab Bb C Db Eb G Ab

Db major scale has the notes Db Eb F Gb Ab Bb C Db

Gb major scale has the notes Gb Ab Bb Cb Db Eb F Gb

Cb major scale has the notes Cb Db Eb Fb Gb Ab Bb Cb

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Each note of a scale has a name - below using Cmajor as an example - the table shows both the name and the number of each degree of the scale - the numbers are always represented by a roman numeral

First let us present you with this.

1 semibreve note = 2 minim notes = 4 crotchet notes = 8 quaver notes = 16 semiquaver notes.
Keep that in mind while looking at these examples.

Lets start with this example.

First off, looking at the time signature you know that there are 4 Crotchet notes per measure.

In the first measure the semibreve note gets all the beats (1, 2, 3 and 4) because 1 semibreve note = 4 crotchet notes, and there are a total of 4 crotchet notes per measure.

In the second example, each minim note gets 2 beats because 2 crotchet notes = 1 minim note.

In the third example, each crotchet note gets its own beat because there are 4 crotchet notes per measure (time sig).

In the fouth bar example, there is something new. The + sign. It just means “and”. If you said 1 + 2 + … out loud it would sound like this.
1 and 2 and 3 and 4 and
Each eight note is 1/2 of a crotchet note, therefore it takes 2 quaver notes to equal 1 crotchet note.
Think of it like this: the 1 and the “and” are both half of one crotchet note and together they form 1 crotchet note and from the time sig we know there are 4 crotchets per measure.

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Let’s intermingle the 2 crotchet notes and a minim note.

The minim note get the first 2 beats, and each crotchet its own beat. This makes sense because the 4/4 time signature means there is 4 crotchet notes per measure. 2 crotchet notes + 1 minim note (which is really 2 crotchets) = 4 crotchet notes, the total number of crotchet notes for that measure (time sig).

This may seem a little confusing now, but all of the sudden it will click. You will hit yourself in the head and wonder how you never understood it.

Let’s introduce a mixed example.

The crotchet note is obviously beat 1 because from the time sig you know there are 4 crotchet notes per measure. You also already know one minim note = 2 crotchet notes therefore the minim note must be beats 2 and 3. Finally, you know that two quaver notes = 1 crotchet note so they must be the “4 +”.

When many different kinds of notes are intermingled, it starts to become tricky to count. Musicians will sometimes subdivide the notes so the counting flows more easily. Let’s use the above example, but this time sub divide it.

(Subdivide means to break each note in a measure in to parts equal to the smallest note in the measure.)

Here every note in the measure is subdivided into quaver notes thus making it a lot more “fluid” to count. Its pretty easy to understand too… one crotchet note is two quaver notes, so it gets “1 +”. The minim note is really four quaver notes so it get “2 + 3 +”. And the each quaver note get a half so one is “4″ and the other is the “and” of 4.

Here would also be a good place to throw in a few examples with rests. These will just show the counting and will not explain them. Just think of the rests in terms of their corresponding notes and you’ll have no problem!

The semi breve rest:

Looks like:

a dark rectangle attached to a bar line,hanging down.

Minim rest:

Looks like a dark rectangle attached to a bar line, facing upwards.

The Crotchet rest:

Looks like a squiggly line. (4 shown)

The Quaver rest:

Looks like a slanted line with a dot. (8 shown)

The Semi-Quaver rest:

Looks like a slanted line with a double dot. (16 shown)

Here we will go through how the notes look.

The Semi Breve

Looks like:

The Minim

Looks like the same as a semibreve not but with a vertical line attached to it.

The Crotchet

Looks like the same as a minim except the circle is filled in.

The Quaver

Looks like: the same as Crotchets but with a tail off the line. They can also be put in groups of 4, 3, or 2.

The Semi Quaver

Looks like: the same as a quaver note but has double tails.

These Can also be grouped in 4, 3 or 2 but are joined by a double line.

The number on top is the number of notes per measure, and the bottom number is what kind of note.

Let us take for example the most popular time signature, 4/4.
This means there are 4 crotchet notes per measure.

Looking at 4/4, you saw the 4 on top. This tells you that there were 4 of something per measure.

Looking at the bottom number - this can be 1, 2, 4, 8, 16, etc. Look at this chart.

Bottom Number Value
1 Semi Breve
2 Minim
4 Crotchet
8 Quaver
16 Semiquaver
For example:
3/4 = 3 Crotchet notes per measure.
5/2 = 5 Minim notes per measure.
6/8 = 6 Quaver notes per measure.

There are also 2 other common things you might see where the time signature should be.

- Common Time - Same as 4/4 time

- Cut Time - Same as 4/4 but everything is cut in half.
Example: a minim note = 1 crotchet note, a semi breve note = 1 minim note.

There are 2 types of clef. The clef you will see on your music depends on what instrument you play. On guitar you will see music written on a Treble Clef - on bass guitar it will be on a Bass Clef.
Treble Clef:

Bass Clef:

Now you may be wondering why there are 2 different clefs. This is so that the notes that are in the lower range can be written seperately so as not to confuse the player. You see some notes will appear so far down that it would be confusing to read.

Below are the the names of the notes for both clefs.

Although on guitar or bass you probably only need to one or the other it is good to know both from a compositional point of view.

The Treble Clef:

The Bass Clef:

Play the note 1/2 step up (Sharp)

Play the note 1/2 step down (Flat)

Play the note normally; pay no attention to the key signature(natural)

The above 3 symbols can also appear at the beginning of each line of music affecting the semibreve line.

Also, if they are included in an individual measure, they override each other and carry through ties or slurs.

Compressed Rests. The number on top specifies how many measures of rest.

Fermata. Hold the note until cut off.

Repeat. Play through normally until 2nd symbol,

then go back to 1st symbol and play again, this time ignoring 2nd symbol.

Begin and End. Marks the beginning and ending of a piece.

Tie. Make each note flow into the next. (Do not break them up)

Simply put,

The pitch of a note is how high or low it sounds.

Pitch is the frequency at which the sound wave of the note occurs.

Therefore:

the higher the frequency of a sound wave,

and the shorter its wavelength,

= the higher its pitch sounds.

For our use we don’t need to know this,

Instead we just give each different pitch a ‘letter’,

eg: A B C D E F G

These notes occur in different ranges called Octaves

A B C D E F G A is one 1 octave - it’s range(octave) would be based on how high or low the notes sound.

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In Western music there are twelve notes in each octave that are in common use.

These extra notes are -

Standard notation:

the symbol raises the pitch of the natural note by a half-step.

the symbol lowers it by a half-step.

the following octave could be seen in two ways,

A,  A, B,  C,  C, D,  D, E,  F,  F, G,  G, A,  A,

or

A,  A, B,  C,  C, D,  D, E,  F,  F, G,  G, A,  A,