Music Basics

The F Major Scale is fashioned from the Key of F Major – F, G, A, Bb, C, D, E, (F) and consists of the formula: tone-tone-tone-semitone-tone-tone-tone-semitone. Its relative minor is G Minor.

The Bb Major Scale is fashioned from the Key of Bb Major – Bb, C, D, Eb, F, G, A, (Bb) and consists of the formula: tone-tone-tone-semitone-tone-tone-tone-semitone. Its relative minor is G Minor.

The Ab Major Scale is fashioned from the Key of Ab Major – Ab, Bb, C, Db, Eb, F, G, (Ab) and consists of the formula: tone-tone-tone-semitone-tone-tone-tone-semitone. Its relative minor is F Minor.

The Db Major Scale is fashioned from the Key of E Major – Db, Eb, F, Gb, Ab, Bb, C, (Db) and consists of the formula: tone-tone-tone-semitone-tone-tone-tone-semitone. Its relative minor is Bb Minor.

The G Major Scale is fashioned from the Key of G Major – G, A, B, C, D, E, F#, (G) and consists of the formula: tone-tone-tone-semitone-tone-tone-tone-semitone. Its relative minor is E Minor.

The B whole tone scale starts off on B and goes up by a whole step throughout the entire pattern, resulting in a very open sound. Find out more about this symmetrical scale with help from a jazz...

The cello is a very recognizable part of any orchestra. Despite its popularity throughout the centuries, however, it remains a difficult instrument for most people to learn, and its mastery is...

The term "tone" is used in music in two ways. The first is as a noun to discuss a particular note. The more common use is as to describe the sound quality produced by an instrument or singer.

Tuning forks are small, unassuming objects, but without them---or something like them---world-class orchestras would drive their audiences away by playing out of tune. When a tuning fork is...

Turn on the radio, what do you hear? Do you call it noise or music? Generally, we can call music a set of pitched tones, and noise is anything that's unpitched. Here is some more information about...

Getting good tone and sound from a violin when playing the C melodic minor scale takes delicate hands. Play the C melodic minor scale with good sound alongside a violin instructor in this free...

Tone quality, more often expressed as tone color or timbre, is the distinguishing characteristic of any one instrument or voice as opposed to another. With the proliferation of electronic musical...

Although often neglected, tuning your drums properly is the most important step in obtaining the right sound for your kit.

Often dismissed as little more than Mongolian string-benders, heavy metal musicians deserve more respect for the uncommon levels of skill that the genre demands. This is especially obvious for the...

Lets take a peak at a simplified relative of the Major Scale: The Major Pentatonic Scale.

In this lesson we learn to play and read music by exploring a fundamental idea in music: The Minor Scale

You can tune your guitar by ear with a little bit of practice and training of your ear.

Lots of people of all ages like the idea of knowing how to play hand percussion. After all, the only things you need are a drum and your hands.

The conga drum is a tall and narrow drum of African origin. It is one of the more basic percussion instruments, but can achieve a surprising array of sounds. These sounds are produced by playing...

The bass fiddle is like a gentle beast. The more you tame it, the better it performs. Like all stringed instruments, tuning is crucial to becoming a better bassist. Although it's big, tuning your...

Knowing your cymbals is as important as a painter knowing his color wheel. Cymbals not only help keep time and rhythm, they also unwrap a wide array of color and accents to your playing. There are...

Any musician must master scales in order to learn the relationship of notes to one another and build pleasing melodies. What's not commonly known is that each type of scale consists of a set...

The chromatic scale is all the notes in a scale, including the sharps and flats of each whole tone. To play the chromatic scale, a musician must play each note in an octave (eight notes). There...

For jazz, rock, guitar, piano and everything that involves playing or writing music, chord inversions are a must know. They give you the ability to create a better flow to the song and to make it...

As a musical art form, the blues provide a very personal, subjective way to express taste, preference, rhythm and feel when you play guitar. Everyone's experience is different, but each depends on...

An out of tune sax can make a loud squealing noise that will get you noticed in a negative way. Now you can make sure your saxophone is perfectly in tune before you play solo or with a group.

Where the bow is on the strings and what section of the bow that you use affects the sound that your going to create with a fiddle. Follow these tips to using a bow when playing the fiddle.

Rosin is an important substance for all string instrument musicians. Rosin increases the friction between the hair of the bow and the string of the instrument which causes the instrument to create...