Constructing Scales: A Complete Guide for Modes & Scales - 01

What is a scale? Why learning scale is important?

A scale is a collection of musical notes arranged in an order of frequency or pitch of the sound. When notes are played in increasing order of frequency it is called Ascending order and when they are played in decreasing order of frequency is known as Descending order. Thus a scale can be played in ASC and DESC order. With few exceptions some scales are played in varying ascending and descending pitches e.g. Melodic Minor. We will cover  types of scales in a different post.

 

The harmony or melody is constructed using a part of or the complete scale. Hence in the context of practicing music, scales are must to do exercise for learning. To have a much clearer picture of music, just visualize music as a language. To learn a particular language we start learning alphabets followed by formation of word and sentences. In the similar way in music; notes are alphabets, scales are words and harmony/melody is a complete sentence. Without attaining the basic knowledge of scales it will be difficult to understand music.

 

How scales are formed?

 



  

To understand the construction of scales, let us refer to the diagram - The Music Pyramid that demonstrates various elements step by step that are used to construct scale and composing music. Symmetrically they are Intervals, Modes, Scales, Harmony, Rhythm, Melody and Chords. We will discuss up to scales in this articles as it would be difficult to cover all the topics in a single post. Let's start exploring formation of scales step by step.

 

 

Intervals

 

Logically, interval is the gap between two notes which are arranged in ascending or descending order according to their pitch or frequency. For example starting with note C we can arrange all twelve notes in ascending order as: C, C#, D, Eb, E, F, F#, G, Ab, A, Bb and B. Now, the distance between C and C# is half note that can be denoted by "H" and distance between C and D is whole note which can be denoted by "W". So we get two types of Intervals i.e. Half Step (H) and Whole Step (W).

 

Modes

 

It will be very interesting and essential to learn about modes before switching to scales. A mode can be described as a blue print or a building block for constructing a scale. Usually a mode is an arrangement of intervals to form a pattern. This pattern of intervals is used to form a particular sequence of notes to construct the scale. Confused? Let us understand the concept with the help of an example. Let us consider the example of Ionian Mode which describes the following pattern of intervals:

W-W-H-W-W-W-H

Keep in mind that the interval defines the gap between two notes thus W or H is actually the distance between two notes and not the note itself. According to the given pattern of intervals let us construct the C Scale. To do so start with the note C and put the subsequent notes according to the given set of intervals. Here it goes:

1. Start with C
2. After leaving whole step interval pick the next note, that will be D
3. Leave whole step interval pick next note, that will be E
4. Leave half step interval pick next note, that will be F
5. Leave whole step interval pick next note, that will be G
6. Leave whole step interval pick next note, that will be A
7. Leave whole step interval pick next note, that will be B
8. Leave half step interval pick next note, that will be C

Thus the sequence of notes we derive from the Ionian Mode (W-W-H-W-W-W-H) starting with note C is C-D-E-F-G-A-B-C which is exactly the C Major Scale. Either way you can say that Major Scale is derived from Ionian Mode.

Modes and Scales Together

Let us put Modes and Scales together to understand the difference and similarity between them. First examine the difference:

SR	MODE	SCALE
1	Mode is the pattern of intervals.	Scale is sequence of notes arranged in order of ascending or descending pitch.
2	Mode is the building block.	Scale is derived from a Mode.
3	Mode cannot be played.	Scale can be played in ascending and or descending order.

Coming to the similarity between mode and scale, it lies only in their name. For example at times a mode and a scale share the same name such as Mixolydian Mode forms Mixolydian Scale. Whereas at most of the times the scale has a different name than a mode from which it is derived for example Ionian Mode is used to derive a Major Scale.