PLEASE explain musical scales to me!!!!!?

Question

I can't seem to understand musical scales... Guitar to be more precise. I've been playing about 8 months, I'm self taught, and I'm trying to understand them but all the "root note" and designs and everything seems to be nothing but confusing to me. Can anyone explain musical scales to me so i can understand what exactly it is??

Answer 1

Sorry if this sounds scientific- a major scale is two tetrachords put together- in english- you start on any note then follow this pattern --Whole step; whole step; half step; whole step: whole step; whole step; half step. On guitar a whole step is up two frets; a half step is the next fret up.
Sorry I don't play guitar well enough to give you exact fingerings, but this can get you started.

Some typical scales for a guitarist are
G,A,B,C,D,E,F#,G
C,D,E,F,G,A,B,C
D,E,F#,G,A,B,C#,D
A,B,C#,D,E,F#,G#,A

At least then you can just look up fingerings! Good luck.

Answer 2

A scale is a fixed pattern of notes. Each key has it's own. U know about major & minor keys, right? I'll just do major at first.
Every major scale is made up of the same "steps". T=a tone, or whole step. S=a semitone, or half step.
Scale pattern is T T S T T T S. eg: Key of G
G A B C D E F# G
T T S T T T S
Root note is the note with the same name as the scale, so above, root note is G. An octave is the scale from bottom to top - G to G
U know that on guitar each fret is a semitone.
So, Scale of G: E string 3rd fret, A string open, A string 2nd fret, A string 3rd fret, D string open, D string 2nd fret, D string 4th fret, G string open. Hope this helps.

Answer 3

Scales have their root note, or the tonic. They are then based on a series of whole and half steps in ascending and descending order. Major scales go (from the tonic) whole, whole, half, whole, whole, whole, half. A C Major scale starts on C then goes a whole step to D, a whole step to E, a half step to F, a whole step to G, a whole step to A, a whole step to B, and then a half step back to C. A half step on the guitar is one fret, and a whole step is two.
The guitar is tuned in perfect fourths, which is 5 half steps, until the B string, which is a major third or 4 half-steps higher than the G below. The E string is then tuned a perfect 4th again. To play scales on a guitar, you need to know where the half steps are and also where the next string starts in the scale. This might take a little figuring out, but it shouldn't be too hard. With the example of a C Major scale, if you start on the A string and go up, you would start with the 4th fret on A (C), the open D string (D), the 2nd fret on D (E), the 3rd fret on D (F), the open G (G), the 2nd fret on G (A), the open B (B), and finally the 1st fret on B (C). If you wanted to play D Major it would be: open D (D), 2nd fret on D (E), fourth fret on D (F#), open G (G), the 2nd fret on G (A), open B (B), 2nd fret on B (C#), and 3rd fret on B (D).
Scales aren't too complicated, really. You might consider getting a scale book for guitar that has fingering and frets. If you can't get a hold of one, if you use the whole and half step patterns, it isn't too difficult to figure the scales out. Rock on.

Answer 4

You are correct that the key theoretically limits the notes to be used in any given song, and a song in G "shouldn't" have a C# in it. However, rules are made to be broken (once they've been properly learned, of course...). For one thing, in all kinds of music, a song might sometimes have a key change, where it temporarily shifts into a different key from the one it started in. More likely in this case is that a lot of rock and jazz music draws on the blues tradition, which allows for the use of certain other notes outside of those prescribed by the song's nominal key. The most famous example of this is the "blue note," a note halfway between the 4th and 5th notes of the scale. That's probably what your C# is - in the key of G, C is the 4th and D is the 5th, and C# is a blue note between them. Using it makes the song feel, well... bluesy. The other most common one you'll see is the flatted 7th. Again, in the key of G, your 7th ought to be F#. But in a lot of blues, jazz, and rock music, the song will use an F instead, "flatting" the F# to F. It's not clear how these notes got to be accepted in music. Some think it's just that African-American slaves didn't have formal music education to tell them these notes were "wrong" and just played what sounded good them. It's recently been proposed that "blue notes" weren't just improvised by uneducated slaves but actually come from Islamic music, which is different from western and allows more notes to be used, via enslaved West African Muslims. We'll probably never know for sure.

Answer 5

There are all kinds of musical scales in myriad different cultures, and to describe the gamut of scales would require writing a book.
I think what you are interested in , to get you sarted, is called the major scale.
Do re mi fa sol la ti do. That is the major scale. There is a standard system for determining the notes of the major scale. Some posters have mentioned that the major scale starts on a note, then the following notes are : one whole step higher, one whole step higher, one half step higher, one whole step higher , whole step, whole step , half step.
The "whole step" refers to notes on the piano. Start on any note on the piano, then the next note is a half step higher. The second note up is a whole step.
On the guitar, a half step is one fret higher, a whole step is two notes higher.
To play a major scale on the guitar, start on any note. Whatever note you start on will be called the root. That "root" will be the name of the key of the major scale.
To play a scale in the key of G, fret your lowest string on the third fret.
That note is G. Next, play the note on the fifth fret--A(one whole step),
7th fret-B (whole step), 8th fret-C (half step), 10th fret-D (whole step)
12th fret-E (whole step), 14th fret-F# (whole step), 15th fret-G(half step). This is a G scale, and should sound like do re mi etc.
You can start on any note you like. As long as you keep these intervals, you will play a major scale in the key of your starting note.
Be aware that the method I have given you allows you to play the scale on one string. This will give you the right notes, but in practice, you will want to play these same notes using several strings.
But that is another lesson.

Answer 6

Maybe it will help if we take it from why scales are constructed as they are, or as I say "from the beginning."

A scale is an artistic form of auditory communication incorporating instrumental or vocal tones in a structured manner, contrived in a series of notes differing in pitch according to a specific scheme (usually within an octave.)
Don't be discouraged. That's just babble.

The building of a musical scale is based on assumptions about the human hearing process (what is pleasing, and what is not pleasing to the ears of most people) Tones are said to be consonant if their combination is pleasing to the ear, and dissonant if displeasing to the ear.

Major scales in Western music practice are constructed in accordance to a consonant relationship of tones. Consonant tones have been determined to have an integer ratio relationship between frequencies.

These integer relationships are known as intervals. The smallest interval between two tones is call a Semi Tone or Half step. Using the guitar fingerboard as reference, starting on any note and moving to the note next to it (one fret) is a Half step. (e g. from C to C# is a Half step, from E to F is a half step.) Two Half steps (two frets) constitutes a Whole Tone or Whole step. (e.g. from C to D is a Whole step, from E to F# is a Whole step.) Three Half steps (three frets) is termed Tone-Plus-Semi Tone or a Step and a Half.
http://www.musictheory.halifax.ns.ca/7small_intervals.html

The most consonant scale in Western music is the Major scale. All Major scales can be built using a pattern- Whole step, Whole step, Half step, Whole step, Whole step, Whole step, Half step. Start on any note and move in this pattern and you have played a Major scale for the note name on which you have started.
http://www.musictheory.halifax.ns.ca/8major_scales.html

Further research; (or more info to confuse you)
http://www.tonalcentre.org/Diatonic.html