Whole step forward, an interval of a second back
I read a post up on Dim Sum Diaries.
I suppose this was a week or more ago. She (Mir) was trying
to answer a question on music scales for her daughter, and realized
she couldn't. I can relate to that. My niece Nicole takes piano
lessons, her brother recently traded in violin lessons for drum lessons
from somebody named Sven, and persuded his father to pop for a drum
kit, sweet. My other nephew now wants to take bongo lessons not guitar
lessons. Is there such a thing as bongo lessons? None of them ask me music questions. I never took music
lessons on any instrument as a kid. I was
considered 'unmusical.' Years later in college when I bought my friend
Nancy [Micaela]'s guitar so she could pay her campus parking fines and
register for classes I discovered not knowing anything about music was
somewhat of a drawback. I thought of this little thing I made for
myself and my guitar (a kramer acoustic-electric hollow body) back then
so I could try to figure out what key I might be playing in. It was
never that clear, but I still use it anyway. For some reason I can't
find that post of Mir's now or I would link it. Maybe I'm losing my
mind.
Take a 4x6 index card and fold it in half. Take a piece of
graph paper the same size as the folded index card. Along the middle
rows write out the chromatic scale, you have to write the half steps as
either
flats or sharps. Write it out two or so times across the sheet.
Do this again below skipping a row between. I do one for the major
scale with a minor scale below it. Take an ordinary one hole punch and
punch out holes that will line up with the scales in the form
[whole-step, whole-step, half-step, whole-step, whole-step, whole-step]
for the major scale and [w-h-w-w-h-w+h] for the minor scale
respectively. Each individual box on the graph paper is a half
step - so you simply skip a box for the whole steps. You can label the
holes for their place in the scale Tonic, Subtonic third forth fifth
supertonic etc if you want. Then you slide the graph paper back and for
to read the vairous keys. I drew the circle of perfect fifths
on the back. For extra credit you can make another for the other
minor keys.
Then I got to thinking, I did this in the days back before
they invented computers. Now there must be java applets all over the
web that do this for you; and there are: The Scale Cruncher!, and others that test you on key signatures eMusicTheory.com practice and the like. I feel superseded.
9:23:34 PM  ;;
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