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All-Star Orchestra
Unit 1: Lesson 2
Reading music- Lesson 1: Staff, names of notes, treble clef
- Lesson 2: Ledger lines and the octave
- Lesson 3: Bass clef, grand staff and the octave
- Lesson 4: Reading music in treble clef and the C Major scale
- Lesson 5: C Major scale in bass clef and reading in bass clef
- Lesson 6: Alto and tenor clefs.
- Lesson 7: Accidentals
- Lesson 8: Natural sign, more on accidentals and key signature
- Lesson 9: More on sharps and flats
- Lesson 10: Chromatic scales and the half step
- Glossary of musical terms
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Lesson 10: Chromatic scales and the half step
Want to join the conversation?
- Why don't piano's have a black key between every white key?(16 votes)
- Great question! The main reason is because it is easier for the pianist to find the sharps and flats. If you had black keys between all the white keys it would be hard to figure out what note you were playing.(26 votes)
- If we have alto and tenor clefs to make it easier to read the music, how come atthere are several notes with a lot of extra ledger lines? Thanks! 2:28(3 votes)
- Sometimes composers write it like that, or with the alto and tenor clefs.
And plus, if you look closer those notes are made for piccolo, and flute( if i read correctly), and for piccolo and flute, usually they don't read in tenor or alto clefs. they read only in the treble clef.
Hope that helps. Take care:)(2 votes)
- Why are the letters of the piano are ABCDEFG?(3 votes)
- They're the first 7 letters of the English alphabet.(5 votes)
- Where can I find those 'future lessons' discussing intervals?(4 votes)
- How can we practice sight reading? Please recommend a few pieces or songs! Thank you.(3 votes)
- Now I'm confused, where are the future lessons on intervals?(2 votes)
- so both flats and sharps are only the black keys ? , also how do i know which is which ?(1 vote)
- on the piano that is the case. As to knowing which is which, I guess you just have to memoize them all at least, that's what we do on the violin.(1 vote)
- Why could a page or sheet of music be displayed and have student place notes as they are required , or perhaps create a simple song or tune, have note placed on line and student answer the note online or in a space f.a.c.e or e.g.b.d.f or whole actave.(1 vote)
- the point is for you to memorize the notes
so having the 'answers' kinda defeats that purpose(2 votes)
- why is there only keys to G and not any of the others or all 27 alphbates(1 vote)
- This has to do with the frequency associated with each note. Each note doubles in frequency as you move from one octave to the next octave above that one.(2 votes)
- i don't really get it...why I should use the accidental to low the 4th note in fis moll...(1 vote)
Video transcript
- [Instructor] We have learned that there are seven
names to all the notes, ABCDEFG. We can now add to that list of seven all the notes with sharps and flats. So an A, then there could be an A sharp, B, B sharp, C, C sharp, D, D sharp, and so forth. The same with flats. A, A flat, G, G flat, F, F flat, and so forth. Let's go back to our piano keyboard. From the treble clef middle C, let's look at the octave above, the C on the third space. There are 12 note from the middle C to the third space C. These notes make up the chromatic scale. (plays chromatic scale on piano) Remember that between E and F and between B and C there isn't a black key. Using sharps, here are all of the names of the notes of the chromaic scale. C, C sharp, D, D sharp, E, F, F sharp, G, G sharp, A, A sharp, B, C. The distance between each of these notes is called a half step or the interval of a semitone, also called a minor second. An interval is the distance
between two musical pitches. We already know one interval, an octave, and in future lessons, we will discuss many intervals, but for now let's focus on
the interval of a half step. This is a fundamental building block of all musical intervals. A chromatic scale is
made up of 12 half steps. Now let's look a the chromatic scale from the third space C in the treble clef descending using flats. C, B, B flat, A, A flat, G, G flat, F, E, E flat, D, D flat, C. All half steps. Towards the end of
Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade in the flute part, he writes a chromatic scale, but he uses a combination
of sharps, flats, and naturals to make this scale, all half steps, a chromatic scale. (dramatic orchestral music)