Building Scales on Guitars with Half & Whole Steps

Video Transcript

"MICHAEL PLUNKETT: Hi, this is Michael Plunkett on behalf of Expert Village. We're going to talk about another term that we use when relating to notes in music called the "step." We have two different types of steps. You'll see I used the symbol H when I'm referring to a "half step," I'll explain what that means on just one second, and the letter W to relate to what I call a "whole step." Looking on the keyboard first then we'll take it over to the guitar. A half step, I used to refer when I'm moving from any one note, I could start anywhere, I'll start on A, in this case, to the very next note adjacent to it. So, it would be moving from A, in this case, to B flat, A sharp, whatever I want to call it. I would put a little H there saying that that's a half step. This could be in a ascending or a descending direction, so I could also go from the note F, if I were to move a half step down, I'd be the note E. It's the very next note from F. A whole step is just like that but instead of moving to the very next note, I move two notes over. So, in the case of A, if I wanted to move a whole step ascending, I would actually skip the A sharp and go to the note B; that would be a whole step. I can also do that descending. So, I were going from the note G and I wanted to descend a whole step, remember I skip that accidental note there and I go all the way to the F, that would be a whole step. On guitar, it's basically the same idea but instead of thinking of notes on a piano, we use our frets. So, I could start anywhere and pick this note here. And if I want to move up 1/2 step, I just put it on the next fret above. If I were going to move down a whole step, I start here--I'm sorry, a half step, I just go to next fret below. A whole step is the same concept except instead of one fret, I'm now moving two frets ascending or from doing a descending whole step, I take my starting note and I go down two frets. Half step ascending, half step descending, whole step ascending, whole step descending. That's whole step and half step on guitar and piano."