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Before we go along too much more it might be worth making sure you and I both know how a major scale is put together. The thing that makes a major scale sound the way it does is the distance between every one of the notes as it goes along–the distance i’m talking about is the number of tones and/or semi-tones from doh to re, from re to mi and so on all the way up the scale. It turns out that no matter what note you start on the same pattern of tones and semi-tones will always turn out a thing that sounds exactly like a major scale. So instead of trying to remember all of the scales I can either remember the pattern of tones and semi-tones if I’m that way inclined, or I can use one of the scales as a model to help me recognize and remember the pattern.
If I’m going the ‘remember the pattern’ route, the easiest major scale for me to remember is the one starting on a C-note. I remember that one because it’s the only major scale where the letter-names of the notes have no sharps or flats (”note to self, circa 1974, only major scale with no sharps or flats is C-major”). So armed with that tiny bit of information I can tell you without checking that a C-major scale goes up like this;
C = doh
D = re
E = mi
F = fa
G =soh
A = la
B = ti
C = doh (the high one this time)
And one other thing that you might remember because it’s one of those useful trivia bits I told you about is that there are two semi-tones (and two semi-tones are the same as a tone) between every note EXCEPT between;
a B-note up to a C
and
an E-note up to an F.
The distance between B and C is only a semi-tone. Likewise the distance between E and F is only a semi-tone.
So if I put together knowing that a C-scale has no sharps or flats, and that there is a tone between every note except B-C and E-F, I first get this;
C-?-D-?-E-semi-tone-F-?-G-?-A-?-B-semi-tone-C
and then if I fill in the rest of the blanks with them being a tone apart, I get this;
C-tone-D-tone-E-semi-tone-F-tone-G-tone-A-tone-B-semi-tone-C
And that pattern of tones and semi-tones is a template I can use to map out a major scale starting on any note. It’s actually not hard to remember in itself, really. I figure if I remember ‘two’ and then ‘three’ the rest sorts itself out–that’s two tones then something different (a semi-tone), then three more tones and something different (another semi-tone). So a major scale goes;
Tone, Tone
Semi-tone
Tone, Tone, Tone
Semi-tone.
At least if I’m in a memorizing mode. But to tell you the truth I find it quite challenging to memorize disassociated jumbles of words and numbers. So usually I don’t. See I find it quite easy to remember melodies. I’m sure I’ve explained to you that I remember long songs or poems by learning the melody the sound of the words makes. Believe me, it’s way easier.
So in this case I just say this a few times;
Tone, Tone, Semi-tone
Tone, Tone, Tone, Semi-tone.
It’s a two-line song. Sing it a couple times a day for a week or so. The when someone asks you to put together a major scale starting on, say, a G-note. The first thing you do is sing the scale song;
Tone, Tone, Semi-tone
Tone-Tone, Tone, Semi-tone.
The second thing you do is lay out the letter names;
G, A, B, C, D, E, F.
The third thing you do is remind yourself where there is only a semi-tone of distance between two notes (you remember that it only happens twice). Right, only a semi-tone between B and C, and between E and F.
And the last thing you do is start matching up the pattern of tones and semi-tones with the letter names and see which ones need adapting with a sharp or a flat.
G to A is a tone–matches the major scale pattern
A to B is a tone–matches the major scale pattern
B to C is a semi-tone–also matches the major scale pattern
C to D is a tone–matches the major scale pattern
D to E is a tone–matches the major scale pattern
E to F is a semi-tone–doesn’t match the pattern, need to be a full tone, so the F will have to be raised by another semi-tone. That F will have to be an F-sharp.
F to G is a tone–but the major scale pattern calls for ti and doh to be only a semi-tone apart. Yes, but look, you just changed that F-note into an F-sharp. And the distance from F-sharp up to G is in fact a semi-tone–just what we need. So now you’ve successfully mapped out a major scale starting on a G-note;
G, A, B, C, D, E, F-sharp, G .
Not all that tough, see? Try doing the same thing starting on something like an F-note and see what you get. This pattern of tones and semi-tones is going to be helpful in a few different ways as we go along. For instance, since we know that the distance between the 7th and 8th notes of a major scale is a semi-tone, that means we also know that given any high doh, the second last note of the major scale will be the semi-tone below that, and that’s pretty easy to figure out. If doh is an A-note, ti will be a G-sharp (the semi-tone below A). If doh is an E-note, ti will be a D-sharp (the semi-tone below E). Works for the sharp and flat keys, too. If doh is a B-flat note, ti will be an A-note. So suddenly, as long as you keep in mind that special relationship between B and C (they’re a semi-tone apart, one of the two exceptions) , and between E and F (ditto), it becomes easy to know what the 7th note of any major scale is.
Seeing as I’m working with my guitar in DADGAD, it’s good to have a handle on a D-major scale. So if you figure out what the notes are in terms of letter-names and sharps or flats for a major scale starting on a D-note, maybe we’ll use that as a starting point to get to know our way around the neck of the guitar a little bit. Spend a couple of days figuring it out and getting it solid in your head, then we’ll begin the exploration.
 The Tuesday Fergus sessions have been going on for ten years now. I’ve spoken about them already, haven’t I? A good healthy mix of people and music. And when things were at their hardest these folks made me feel welcome (something my old town never bothered with even when I was out on the street, too busy singing songs about how they were making their world a better place and publicly preening over being such a cool place to be–behold the comfortably middle-class folkie of the deep left, who wouldn’t recognize kindness if it bit them, nor a genuine poor person if they tripped over one, I honestly wish it weren’t so, but there it is). So, yeah, I continue to go a little out of my way to support these Fergus sessions, and I usually tag along for the monthly field trip to one of the local retirement villages. Nice people doing nice things, no big deal. Kind of what healthy looks like. (Oh, okay, sorry, you’re right. That’d be at Delaney’s on Highway 6, on the left as you’re coming into town from the south, starts about 8 and runs to 11. Now you know.)
But don’t get me wrong, it’s not gratitude that keeps me coming back. Nor is it loyalty, although both of those things are certainly present in me as I walk in the door. No, these sessions really are good fun for their own sake. How so? Well, let’s see, how can I explain? Okay, try this. The other night was a fairly typical mix. After a few warm-ups we wandered through a bunch of oldies but goodies, then a couple of things from the ‘hey, that’s cool’ department, after that a bit of dealer’s choice, then we found ourselves in a bit of ‘here’s one I wrote’ territory. Oh yeah, and one from the rare but treasured ‘this is a little something I rescued from my friend’s wastepaper basket’ category. No kidding. Was a good song, too. We should all have friends like that–the rescuer, I mean. So yeah we’ve been around the block and are having a good time. And then it comes back around to the new kid. For his first turn he’d suggested a song but he didn’t know all the words. Turns out someone had them, passed them over and we all had a good time while the kid led. Most excellent. So, anyway, after all this it comes around again and he says, ‘Here’s something I did a while back. I put some music to one of Shakespeare’s sonnets.’ Cool enough. But here’s the thing–no one snorted in derision, no one groaned, no one left the room, no one tittered in embarrassment, no one razzed him, no one complained ‘that’s not folk music’, no one took the opportunity to have loud conversation with their friends because it wasn’t their turn and this was gonna be awful anyway. Nope, we listened, we played along, and we enjoyed it.
Repeat after me. It was…
No. Big. Deal.
And that it was no big deal, my friend, is simply beautiful. All welcome, all good. A truly co-operative sport. And that, I suppose is the biggest single reason why I keep coming back.
Well, that and the fact that the owner treats Tuesdays like a reason for celebration instead of something to be endured until a better idea comes along.
Okay, full disclosure. Just after he told us what number the sonnet was I couldn’t help myself, just fell out of my mouth. ‘Oh yeah, B-flat, right?’
For a heartbeat I think he believed me.
Still, the moment was his. And that too was a beautiful thing.
Yay team.
So while we’re thinking about fifths, the distance between doh and soh, here’s something that’s kind of neat.
Take a C-note and go up a fifth, that’d be a G-note
G up a fifth is D
D up a fifth is A
A up a fifth is E
E up a fifth is B
In each case we’re taking the first note and going up five notes of a scale. It’s actually 3-and-a-half tones, but who’s counting. Let’s keep going with the same pattern, we were at a B-note.
B up a fifth is F-sharp. (If you like you can figure it out by first counting 5 letters up, and remembering that music always start on 1, not zero, from B that’d be B, C, D, E, F. So you know it’s an F-something, you figure out whether it’s sharp or flat or just normal (actually they call it ‘natural’ when the note has no sharps or flats to go with it, you knew that, right) by counting up 3-and-a-half tones, in this case from B. You remember that there is no sharp or flat between a B-note and the C-note just above it. So from B to C is the smallest step we make, that’s a semi-tone. C up to D is a tone (there’s a note in between them unlike B and C), and from D up to E is another tone. So we’ve moved 2-and-a-half tones up from our original B so far. The 5th (soh) is 3-and-a-half tones, so we’ve got another full tone to go. We’re on E, and we remember that the only other place where there’s no sharp or flat in between is from E to F. So if we need one more full tone that F-note is actually going to have to be a semi-tone higher. That make it an F-sharp, 5 letter names up from B, and 3-and-a-half tones in measurement. Actually the first five notes of a doh, re, mi starting on a B-note would be B, C-sharp, D-sharp, E, F-sharp, I’ll show you how you figure that later. For now let’s just focus on how B up a 5th is F-sharp.
Okay, so let’s continue where we left off. I’ll do the counting, but feel free to check my work.
B up a fifth is F-sharp
F-sharp up a fifth is C-sharp
C-sharp up a fifth is G-sharp
G-sharp up a fifth is D-sharp
D-sharp is the same note as E-flat, so let’s count up from there
E-flat up a fifth is B-flat
B-flat up a fifth is F
F up a fifth is a C-note
Which is where we started. And part of what’s cool about that is not only did we end up where we started, with a C-note, but we went through every one of the notes, all the letter names and all the sharps and flats in between, exactly once each before we got back to the beginning. Works the same no matter where you start, of course.
Part of what’s neat about music is there are patterns everywhere, patterns in time, patterns in pitch, patterns in the relationships between chords. Patterns everywhere. Look there’s one now. This particular one has a name. It’s called The Circle of Fifths. I don’t think of it that way, myself. It’s just that really cool pattern. But what do I know.
Mess around with it. See what it says to you.
Hi friend, how’s your day? I managed to get in a bit of sleep, although it took me a while to get there. I was doing a favour for some folks, that involved getting up in front of an audience. Always gets both the mind and body working at a bit of a pace, and takes a little while to bring things back to something approaching normal. Not too much of a drag, really. Although it means that an evening affair will pretty much guarantee I won’t get to sleep until early morning. And once I’m asleep I’ll likely stay there for a while. So I’ve spent much of today trying to catch up.
It was a good night, though. Seemed to be worth the doing. I’d heard that the Millrace folks could use a hand filling an mc-spot or two. Didn’t think it’d be healthy for me to take on too much, so we agreed that I’d take care of Sunday night at what they used to call the main stage. Was a night of good music, well performed. And folks seemed to enjoy my little part in it as well. I apparently managed to serve up the necessary announcements in a way that made them seem interesting and sometimes entertaining, or at least that’s what folks said when they passed by me as I was standing over there going over my notes for the next break. So I had no choice but to figure that I was doing okay. It seems that I was able to get the job done in a way that helped the show, and that the audience enjoyed in itself. Good news.
It’s interesting how very different it is being up in front of a large audience without an instrument. It always takes me a minute or two to get comfortable with the situation, nothing that gets in the way, just takes a bit of settling in. I suppose that used to happen when I was beginning a concert, too. It’s just that I would be busy playing and wouldn’t quite notice it as much. I will admit to having fun once or twice over the course of the evening, though. At one point I noticed that some people over on that far side were waving towards somebody the opposite far side, the message wasn’t getting through. I started to joke with them about it. What I wanted to do was to get the whole audience on that side to start waving, then to turn the other way and tell the folks on that other side that some of those people back there were trying to get their attention, guess which ones. Didn’t quite have the nerve. Oh well.
But yeah, it was a good night. Good for the festival, which was most important. And I guess it was good for me, too. And that’s certainly got to be worth something. But for now I think I’ll have something to eat. And then maybe a nap. Anyway, just wanted you to know I was thinking about you. Hope you’re doing well. Yeah, I guess I’m doing alright. At least nothing a good night’s sleep can’t mend. Write when you get a chance. And I’ll do the same.
 Since you and I are spending a bit of time wandering through some of the slightly more technical aspects of music, I thought maybe I should share this with you. It fell out of my mouth many years ago. And then later I read it elsewhere, so apparently it’s a useful thought. I was asked, “Do you understand musical theory?” My immediate response was, “Not enough to get in the way.”
They thought I was kidding. No really.
Feel free to do likewise.
So you’ve had a little time to introduce youself to fifths–that is, the sound you make when you play two notes together, the 1st note of a scale (think of it as ‘doh’) and the 5th note of a scale (that’d be ’soh’). And you’re good with the idea that we call the distance from doh to soh ‘a fifth’. Of course this all started with us talking about what it takes to sketch out a chord.
Since you’ve been working out fifths you’ve probably already got a lot if this, but I thought I’d lay it out for you. The note on the left is doh, the note on the right is soh (up a fifth from doh). Play the two together and you’re playing a fifth.
First the straightforward starting notes and their 5th above;
C—>G
D—>A
E—>B
F—>C
G—>D
A—>E
B—>F-sharp
And just in case you want to get more adventurous;
B-flat—>F
E-flat—>B-flat
A-flat—>E-flat
D-flat—>A-flat
F-sharp—>C-sharp
C-sharp—>G-sharp
G-sharp—>D-sharp
…
Of course if you’re ahead of the game you’ll know that C-sharp and D-flat are the same note, and A-flat is that same as G-sharp. To save a little confusion I’d think of the notes going up like this;
C…C-sharp…D…D-sharp…E…F…F-sharp…G…G-sharp…A…A-sharp…B…C
And think of the notes going down like this;
C…B…B-flat…A…A-flat…G…G-flat…F…E…E-flat…D…D-flat…C
(Notice again that there’s nothing in between an E-note and an F-note. Likewise there’s nothing between a B-note and a C-note)
…
But mostly I wanted to make sure you had the fifths working out okay. Take a bit more time getting a few more of those fifths sorted out, then we’ll move that sketching out a chord thing ahead a bit more.
Have fun.
I did manage to get out after all. Instructed to have a good time. Oh, okay. Nice people, wonderful space, some lovely music. Some of the time was spent having those of us sitting around contribute something. There were songs and pieces of all shapes and sizes. No, it wasn’t all musically perfect, but migosh top marks for creativity. There were some chords I sure wouldn’t have thought to put together. Worked fine, though. I’m so at home at this kind of session, didn’t play myself, was nice to just listen. I’ve noticed that’s unusual in some circles, those folks would always rather play than listen. I get tired of my own cooking. So I’m always up to hearing someone else. And after all, this is ground zero. This is where ‘how do I make sounds that express what I mean?’ first comes up against ‘how does this thing work anyway?’. And when it gets exactly as far as ‘hey look what happens when I do this’, that’s when I think things get really interesting. And right there it almost always has some aspect of original creativity in it, before well meaning friends or teachers or musical professionals have steered them into sounding more like this other thing over here that has already been successful like the professional knows, or sounds more trained like the teacher fancies, or just more like a friend’s favourite kind of music. Before ‘I need to sound like…’ has set in. When it’s still ‘I need to make sounds.’ This is where that happens. And I think that is one of the most beautiful places on earth. And that maybe some small part of heaven sounds like that sometime. My favourite kind of session combines that with things that other folks have worked into a different kind of beauty. Not beautiful because it impersonates something cool, but because it has something to say, and look it works. No ego, no ‘look at me’. More like, ‘listen to this’. And if someone has something to tell me, and it sounds like that, I want to hear it.
And yes there was some of that too.
I guess it was a good night.
Thanks.
I’d like to give you one more thing to think about while you’re spending a bit of time getting used to what 5ths feel like. And I’d like to come at it from a different angle than what some folks suggest. First, let me lay this on you–you can already play both some major and some minor chords, right? (And just to confirm something you’ve probably already figured out, if it’s for instance called a D-chord that’s actually a D-major chord, or if it just says G that’s a G-major chord, kinda saves time. Small point. Got it? Good. Onward.) Well, have you figured out that there’s only one tiny difference between a major chord and a minor one? Absolutely. And that difference is the middle note.
Remember that a major chord is made up of three notes, that they’re notes in a major scale (the scale that starts ‘doh, re, mi…’), and that they’re the 1st, the 3rd and the 5th notes of that major scale (’doh’, ‘mi’ and ’soh’ in doh-speak). So if we’re talking about a C-major chord, and since the first five notes in the C-scale are C, D, E, F, and G, you and I can figure that a C-chord is made up of a C-note, an E-note, and a G-note. And I guarantee you that every C-major chord you ever play has only those three notes, although it might have more than one of each just to keep things interesting.
 The thing I want to focus on for the moment is the 1st and 3rd notes of that scale, the C and E-notes (the C-note is the bass note in your C-chord, and the E-note is the 2nd fret on your middle D-string, that’s the third from the bass, check out the diagram to see what I mean). First of all let’s solid up the notion that the there’s a musical distance between those two notes. That distance is called ‘a third’. Actually a major-third, but ‘third’ will do. Much like you’ve been reminding yourself that a 5th has a sound, a 3rd has a sound too. It’s sweet and pretty, whereas I think the 5th sounds kind of square and hollow, like a frame that’s going to have some walls put on it to make it a house. The 3rd is very different from that, can you hear it?
I love all kinds of intervals (that’s what the distance between any two notes is called, ‘an interval’, now you know). All the different intervals have their own sound and feeling, kind of like all the different herbs and spices have their own taste when we’re cooking. Trust me, when you’re looking for pretty, reach for a third.
 Okay, that’s all been fun, but here’s the thought I want to leave you with. If you take that note you’re playing with your second finger and move it down one fret so you’re playing a note on the first fret instead, that E-note has now been changed to an E-flat note. And if you leave the other two notes the same and play all three of these three notes now you’re playing a different chord. That chord is a C-minor chord. Cool, eh?
So the only difference between a C-major chord and a C-minor chord is that one fret, one note. In official language you’d say that to make a C-major chord into a C-minor chord you lower the 3rd by one semi-tone. So while you’re walking your way through all of those 5ths, I want you to think about what we just figured out. You already know how to play G-major and F-major chords, for instance. If you do a bit of figuring you might be able to turn them into minor chords. See if you can make sense of that thought and I’ll follow it up later. In the meantime, spend a little longer on those 5ths and then we’ll get back to sketching out chords. Have fun.
I know you’ve heard me talk about this before, but it’s worth thinking about for a bit. You’ve probably noticed that when I’m playing guitar I often play only two or three notes, sketching out a chord rather than playing every inch of it. In part that’s because I figure it leaves more room for other players to add in the notes they hear, and that makes the playing more inclusive. I also tend to think it allows the listener to fill in the spaces with their own imagination. And what I know for sure is that anything that helps the listener to be engaged in the music is a good thing. I also think that’s the same mechanism that also makes a really good, original version of a well known song so captivating. But that thought’s for another day. For now let’s just stick with that sketched out chord.
So what does it take? Well, there are a couple of things you probably already know. Like if the chord has a letter attached to it that note is probably important, right? So if you’re playing by yourself and the chord is a G-something, you need to play a G-note. See, you knew that. Yeah, alright, it means you’re going to have to figure out where the notes are on the guitar. But trust me, you don’t need to know the location of each and every G-note on the guitar. Figure out which G-note is on the bottom of your G-chord and that’ll get you where you need to go for now. And that’s the other thing you probably already know–if you’re playing a fairly normal chord chances are the lowest-sounding note is ‘doh’, which is the letter-name of the chord. So you already know where to find a bass A-note, a C-note, a B-note, a G-note, an F-note, a D-note–they’re all the lowest note of a basic chord in DADGAD. If you want to figure out where other notes show up you can count them. It’ll help things along if you can remember that there is no note between a B-note and a C-note, and there’s nothing between an E-note and an F-note (yeah, one of the few things you kinda need to flat-out memorize), but aside from that there’s a sharp or a flat between every note. You tend to use sharps when you’re going up and flats when you’re going down. Going up it’s C, C-sharp, then D and going down it’s D, D-flat, then C. C-sharp and D-flat are two different names for the same note.
If it’s a straightforward chord the next most important note is 5-notes up from the bass note (the distance between those two notes is called a 5th, easy, eh?). Remember when we’re counting in music there is no zero, so 5-notes up from our G-note is going to be a D-note (that’d be G, A, B, C, D). So the two most important notes in a G-chord would be a G-note and a D-note (of course in doh-speak that’s ‘doh’ and ’soh’, but you knew that).
So do me a favour. Before we go ahead with the rest of this thought, spend a bit of time finding ‘doh’ and ’soh’ for a bunch of the chords we’ve already gone over.
For a C-chord that’s a C-note and a G-note
For an F-chord that’s an F-note and a C-note
You can probably figure out the rest from there. Oh, and one more thing to know–it doesn’t matter whether the chord is a major chord or a minor chord, ‘doh’ and ’soh’ are still the two most important notes. So in a B-minor-chord that would be a B-note and an F-sharp-note. Anyway, spend a bit of time finding ‘doh’ (also called the ‘root’ of the chord) and ’soh’ (called the fifth) in as many chords as you can figure. Once you’ve got that down I’ll show the rest of what you need to sketch a chord.
Have fun.
A small thought, but probably worth setting down here. No matter how much time I might put into it I will never, ever learn everything there is to learn about music, nor will I ever be a perfect player. No matter how much I learn, no matter how much I improve, there will always be more to learn, more to work on. And that is one of the most beautiful things about music. If you understand that and it delights you, you are a natural musician in what I think of as one of the most important ways. And I suspect that if the thought disturbs you, you are not.
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