SCALES
A scale is a series of ascending or descending notes - the word scale originally derived from scala, Italian for staircase. In a major scale this is in the fixed pattern, Tone Tone Semitone Tone Tone Tone Semitone. So the second note is a tone higher than the first and the third is a semitone higher than the second and so on.
I don't know how many different scales there are but it is certainly in the realms of 'lots'. And you don't need to know them all by any means but it is helpful to take a look at the major scales. This will help you with reading music in different key signatures and also if you choose to learn chords, for example to play jazz.
The chromatic scale is the one that has all the possible notes in as each is a semitone higher than the preceding note so is useful from that point of view. Plus you will often have to play part of it as a run in music so it is helpful to practice on your chosen instrument.
I don't know how many different scales there are but it is certainly in the realms of 'lots'. And you don't need to know them all by any means but it is helpful to take a look at the major scales. This will help you with reading music in different key signatures and also if you choose to learn chords, for example to play jazz.
The chromatic scale is the one that has all the possible notes in as each is a semitone higher than the preceding note so is useful from that point of view. Plus you will often have to play part of it as a run in music so it is helpful to practice on your chosen instrument.
C MAJOR SCALE
As you can see this scale has no sharps or flats in at all, it is a scale made up entirely of natural notes.
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G MAJOR SCALE
As you can see there is one accidental in the scale of G and that is F sharp.
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F MAJOR SCALE
There is also only one accidental in the scale of F, but this time it is B flat.
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D MAJOR SCALE
In the scale of D major both the F and C are sharp.
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B FLAT MAJOR SCALE
In the scale of B flat major both the B's and E's are flat.
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A MAJOR SCALE
In the scale of A Major there are 3 accidentals, F, C and G sharp.
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E FLAT MAJOR SCALE
In the scale of E Flat major there are 3 accidentals, B, E and A flat.
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E MAJOR SCALE
The scale of E Major has four accidentals which are F, C, G and D sharp.
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A FLAT MAJOR SCALE
The scale of A Flat Major has four accidentals which are B, E, A and D flat.
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B MAJOR SCALE
We are getting to the trickier scales now as there are more accidentals than natural notes. In the B Major scale they are F, C, G, D and A sharp.
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D FLAT MAJOR
Another tricky scale where all the following are flats - B, E, A, D and G.
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F SHARP AND G FLAT MAJOR
These two last scales may look different and have different names but they actually come out the same because the notes are as follows:
Fsharp scale: F SHARP - G SHARP - A SHARP - B C SHARP - D SHARP - E SHARP
G flat scale: G FLAT - A FLAT - B FLAT - C FLAT D FLAT - E FLAT - F
If you compare each note in the F sharp scale with the note in the G flat scale written below it you will see that they are in fact the same. C sharp=D flat and so on.
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Fsharp scale: F SHARP - G SHARP - A SHARP - B C SHARP - D SHARP - E SHARP
G flat scale: G FLAT - A FLAT - B FLAT - C FLAT D FLAT - E FLAT - F
If you compare each note in the F sharp scale with the note in the G flat scale written below it you will see that they are in fact the same. C sharp=D flat and so on.
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CHROMATIC SCALE
This scale shown over two octaves and with the accidentals firstly written sharp and secondly written with flats, uses all 12 musical notes. Each note is a semitone higher than the note preceedes it and the two scales are written differently but will be played the same.
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