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In this section, we're going to look more
at the vertical distances between notes.
If you remember back to the graph we
originally drew and
we said the vertical axis represented high
pitches or low pitches.
We're now going to start quantifying
those.
Now, we did say that we had an octave
which is a real phenomenon, a phenomenon
of nature.
And we said that was eight notes.
Of course, it's actually seven note names,
A, B, C, D, E, F, G, back to A.
But, of course, if you look, for instance,
at
Zack's guitar here, you'll see that there
aren't seven notes.
There's a lot more.
>> So, we did an example where we said
that the
open A string is here and then if you half
that string.
It's an octave above.
But if we look at the, the discreet
pitches available to us in between.
We've actually got, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7,
8, 9,
10, 11, 12, and then things start to repeat
again, actually.
So what we're saying is the octave on many
musical instruments nowadays
isn't divided into eight, as you'd expect
based on the prefix oct.
Actually, we have 12 distinct pitch
classes.
>> Yeah.
Now, if we were to look at the piano, we
will see the same thing again.
So looking at what Zack did on guitar.
If we look at it on the piano, instead of
having frets, of course we've got all of
these white notes.
We've also got these black notes, which
we're now going to introduce.
So, starting on A, where Zack was, 1,2,
3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10,
11, 12, and then we're back to A.
And there's the octave [SOUND].
Now, going back to this A, this distance
here is called a semitone.
Where semi means half.
If that distance is called a semitone this
distance
is called a Tone.
Semitone, half, double it, tone.
That's the same on all instruments.
Okay, keep that thought in mind.
We're now going to have a look at that
represented back on our stave.
Now, this semitone is the smallest
distance that
we're going to work with at the moment.
Now, if you want to find out more about
that, we have additional material on it.
But let's just say for the moment, the
semitone is
the smallest working distance we can have
between two notes.
Also, at this point we're going to stop
using A and start orientating ourselves
around C.
And so, here is C on our stave.
The next note up on the line is D.
We can count from C to D, one, two.
It's a tone.
But if we're going to name it in a
different
way, we can say it's an interval of a
second.
One, two, a second.
There
are lots more intervals for us to look at,
and
to do that we're actually going to go back
to the keyboard.
>> So Richard's just talked to you about
this interval, the second, from C to D.
But as he said, there's much more than
that.
So let's have another look through that,
and we'll do that within the octave.
So, we've got C to D.
There's a second, one, two.
We ve got C to E, 1 2 3.
That's a third.
C to F, a fourth.
C to G, a fifth.
C to A, a sixth.
C to B, a seventh.
And from C to C, we're not going to call
that an eighth,
we're going to use the word that we've
already used, which is octave.
But what we don't want you to think
is that intervals are only ever counted
from C.
You know, we could go from G to A, is a
second.
G to C is a fourth.
F to A is a third.
It's all about counting the space.
One, two, three.
F to A is a third.
Now, if we were to play B to C, for
example.
We can see that this is a second.
One, two.
Okay.
Let's play F to G.
F to G.
There's a second.
One, two.
But actually what we see here is that the
B to C
Is a second, but the C is only a semitone
above B.
Whereas, for instance, F to G, 1, 2, is a
second.
But G is actually a tone,
that's to say, two semitones above F.
Now, they are both seconds, and it's
perfectly correct to describe them that
way.
But they do have a different quality.
We're going to talk about that more next
week, so hold that thought, but
at the moment let's use that information
and turn to think about scales.
So now I'm going to turn our attention to
scales.
[flute plays scale]
There's one.
Scales are a pathway.
through an octave, okay?
It's like they're a pool of notes, a set
of notes which melodies can be drawn from.
And if we can have that on the piano as
well,
[MUSIC]
I could say if I was doing Julie Andrews.
Which is that is a Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol,
La, Ti, Do.
But I can also say it is, C, D, E, F, G, A, B,
C.
That is why we have orientated ourselves
to C, because we've now
found the scale of C Major, which I'm sure
you've heard of.
Which is very common throughout the world.
Similarities exist in many cultures, and
it's what
lots of music is built on, C Major.
>> And an important thing for you, looking
at this, is when you're
looking at your piano, it's all the white
notes from C to C.
So, Richard just said that this is an
example of a major scale.
And actually, what's important here, is
the relationship between the notes.
The relationship between all of these
notes that are
available to us within this pool of notes.
And actually what we have to remember
here is the difference between tones and
semitones.
So let's look at them again on the last
stave.
C to D.
That's a tone, so I'm going to write T
underneath here for tone.
D to E another tone.
So here is a T.
E to F there is no black note in between
so this is a semi tone.
Which I will show with an S.
F to G a tone.
G to A a tone.
A to B, a tone.
And again, B to C, a semitone.
There's no blank note in between.
So, that gives us a pattern of Tone, Tone,
Semitone, Tone, Tone, Tone, Semitone.
>> So, this pattern of two tones and then
a semi-tone and three more
tones and a final semi-tone is what makes
this scale sound the way it does.
Now we could say that each note on it's own doesn't
actually mean that much, what's
important is how they sound next to each
other in the context.
How they stand next to each other
and build up relationships between one
another.
What this does is it gives us the flavor,
gives us the overall sound.
And if we're going to talk about that
formally in music
theoretic terms, it gives us the quality
of the scale.
An important piece of terminology to
remember, then, is that the
letter name that the scale is named after
is called the tonic.
So, in the case of C Major, C is the
tonic.
In the case of F Major, F is the tonic.
This major scale is also an example.
What is called a Diatonic Scale.
Dia between to tonics.
Diatonic scales are ones where we always
have seven
notes with some pattern of five tones and
two semitones.
Now, lets just have a little bit of the
scale again on the staff.
And, remember we said C to D was a second.
Zack had pointed out that B to C was
also a second but one of the smaller ones:.
A semi tone.
So, I'm going to put this little dart sign
here, to
show that between B and C is the semi
tone.
Now, the other place we have a semi tone
is between E and F.
So, I'm also going to put the dart sign
there.
That will just help us to see, on
the stave, or major scale, where the
semitones are.
So, there you have it, we found C Major.
Through our pattern of tones and
semitones, we've found our first major
scale.
But of course, a scale isn't just a scale.
A scale helps to make music.
C major can give us this.
[Piano plays Auld Langs Syne]
Well, we are in Scotland.
C major can also give us this.
[Flute plays Twinkle Twinkle little star]
And don't think I'm being patronizing
playing Twinkle Twinkle, Little Star.
It's a good exemplifier of the major
scale.
It's also was a good enough tune for
Mozart to write a whole set of variations
on.
While I'm on Mozart, that brings me to a
little disclaimer.
In this course, we're dealing with musical
techniques that are known as the Common
Practice.
And the Common Practice Era is basically
Western Europe from 1600 to 1900.
So, it's very much the music of Bach,
Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, etc.
but there are other forms of music around
the world.
That might use different techniques.
Where possible, we will reference them,
but it has to be
said that the common practice is a good
system to work from.
It applies to quite a lot of pop and rock,
a lot of jazz,
quite a lot of folk music, and so that's
our main focus in this course.
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