All this advice is dancing around the basics of music theory. Theory sounds scary but to start it's really brain dead simple. I'll be a little sarcastic just to make a point and I'll use the word "you" generically.

The concepts is called Scale Tone 7ths and it starts on a piano keyboard. The key of C is all white keys. If you find any C note on a piano just hit it with any finger you want. Move up to each white key to the right and count to 8. Congratulations you just played a C Major scale. OMG!! I just learned a major scale? That's theory, noooo...

This is something a 7 to 10 year old kid can learn in oh, a minute maybe. Are you as smart as a 10 year old?

Now that you've counted the white keys C to C look at each one in order. You see C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C. A C Major scale. Gee that's so hard, how can anybody but a musical genius grasp that? I don't know but lets press on anyway to the Scale Tone 7ths. The important thing here is these are all using the major scale in C which is all white notes on a piano. The white notes are what makes this so easy to start with. The D note is what number of the scale? It's a 2, right?, the E is 3 and so on. Here's the 7ths by playing 4 note chords not just triads. Oh, a triad is 1, 3, 5 counting from each note of the scale.

Again, all white notes and after you've counted the triad continue to count to 7 from each white note of the scale. So difficult I know but stay with me. Count to 7 from each note. 1 is a Maj 7th. 2 is a minor 7th. 3 is a minor 7th. 4 is a major 7th. 5 is a dominant 7th. Wait, what? A dominant 7th? That's simply a flatted major 7th, In G, the major 7th is an F#, the dominant is an F. Deal with it. 6 is a minor 7th and finally 7 is a minor 7 with a flat 5. A flat 5?? OMG, lalala. What is that? It's all white notes on a piano remember? So the 5th Scale Tone note is an F (the major would be F# so it's played as a flat 5) and the 7th Tone is the A so you're playing a B, D, F and A which spells out a Bm7b5 also known as a half diminished. That chord is talked about a lot on the Biab forums as in how do I enter it on the chord grid.

Scale Tone 7ths means exactly what it says. Once you've identified the notes of any major scale you simply count to 7 starting on each note (Tone) of the scale. This is just sooo hard I know, sigh. It's so hard a 10 year old can get it in maybe 15 minutes? This is the beginning basics of music theory. This is why btw if a kid starts beginner music classes he starts on a piano keyboard regardless of what his primary instrument is going to be. It's so simple to see the white keys right in front of you. Put any finger on the C note and count up the white keys to the next C.

I seriously don't want to hear any crap about I'm too old to learn this. C'mon people, really? Scale Tone 7ths. Learn it in C and then in all keys. Once you learn this then we can talk about exceptions.

Bob


Last edited by jazzmammal; 01/26/19 10:22 AM.
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