Question:
Can anyone explain to me about violin scales?
Tanya
2015-07-29 08:28:59 UTC
I dont understand the violin scales.All i know is that the c major scale is all natural note.what is the use of scales anyway?does it mean that if you were to play a piece with all natural note,you will have to use the c major scale that start with c?or other any pieces complement to their violin scale?

does different scales have different octave or something?
whats the difference between any scales?the starting point?the fingering?
and can you play any piece with just the c major scale?

why dont piano have scales?

sorry for so much question...Ive been trying to understand and its starting to get me frustrated.haha...

thanks anyway :)
Four answers:
anonymous
2015-07-29 16:59:19 UTC
Are you taking lessons? Scales are usually taught on the violin one at a time and built up to one note at a time, and most teachers leave C Major for about the fourth or fifth scale a student learns since it doesn't follow the default finger pattern that is taught to beginners. Therefore, if you are getting into theory and how many sharps and flats are in a scale but still don't really understand the structure and purpose of a scale, something is wrong with how you are learning to play the violin. You are trying to read at a third grade level when you still haven't learned how to sound out words.



"what is the use of scales anyway?"



There are many, but unless you get into music theory, they really only have three purposes for actually playing the violin: learning/teaching intonation, intervals, and later shifting; warmup exercises; and demonstrating skills associated with scales, especially for auditions.



"does it mean that if you were to play a piece with all natural note,you will have to use the c major scale that start with c?or other any pieces complement to their violin scale?"



Often, but breaking the rules, so to speak, is common. In fact, all of the great composers vary a bit from the indicated key. You don't use scales to play pieces. Good for you, using "piece" instead of "song," by the way. You use keys. Scales are a specific arrangement of intervals. They are associated with keys that share the same name, and there are pieces that contain scales within them, but if you say a piece is in C Major you would be referring to the key, not the scale. A piece in C Major will have an empty key signature and will usually end with a C on the melody line. For the most part, there will be all naturals in the piece, but you might see a note here or there marked with a sharp or flat symbol. We call those accidentals.



"does different scales have different octave or something?"



They start on the lowest pitch that shares the name of the scale on your instrument. There are some scales you might learn in a higher octave first. For example, I teach A major as the very first scale my violin students learn, and they learn it in the second octave. Later, they learn it in the first octave and combine the two for a two-octave scale. Eventually, you will play three-octave scales on your violin. Once you are playing multi-octave scales, you will start in the lowest possible octave your violin can play in that key.



"whats the difference between any scales?the starting point?the fingering?"



Both. The intervals - the pattern of half steps and whole steps - is the same across all major scales. If you change it, you have a different kind of scale. All scales will be named for the starting pitch.



"and can you play any piece with just the c major scale?"



As I said earlier, you don't use scales to play pieces. You use keys. Any piece can actually be transposed to a different key, so as long as it was written in a major key to begin with, it can be played in C Major. There are also plenty of simple tunes that are pretty much built around all or part of a major scale. "Joy the World" and "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" are examples.



"why dont piano have scales?"



Pianos do have scales. The only instruments that do not have scales are simple instruments that do not have pitch at all or do not span a full octave.
Jasmine
2015-07-29 11:20:55 UTC
Okay, it's a bit complicated, but I will try to explain (and probably fail, sorry!)

Music is made up of the notes A, B, C, D, E,F and G. These notes repeat over and over, on different octaves. An A on a lower octave will sound similar, it will match an A on a higher octave but just sound higher. They sort of harmonize, sort of sound the same and there is an interval of 8 notes between an A and an A. That is why it is an OCTave.



Music is made up of whole tones and semi tones and these are called intervals. The major scale goes up in the following pattern - Whole, Whole, Semi, Whole, Whole, Whole, Semi. So in a C major scale, the interval between C and D is whole, D and E is whole, but E and F are semi and so on. However, sometimes, when you start on a different note, such as G, you will have to add flats (which bring the note down and semi tone) or sharps (which bring the note up a semitone.) Therefore, in the G major scale, F must be sharp so that there is a semitone between the F and G rather than a whole to so that it fits the pattern. You can do this for every note, adding flats or sharps to fit in with the pattern. You can even start on flat or sharp notes. That is why different keys have different names, because of the flats and sharps. You can then repeat the pattern to go another octave up the scale. If that confused you, take a look on www.musictheory.net which lainiebsky also recommended.



As for minor scales, which sound sadder than the major scale, make sure you understand the major scale first as there are three different types of minor scales with different patterns. Definitely look on musictheory.net for these. Every note also has a minor scale.



Whenever you play a piece, it will be in a key which will be shown at the start of each line of the piece. Learning scales is important as the notes of pieces will be based around the scale you are playing in. If the piece is in G, you will always play and F as an F sharp, raising it a semitone.



You can play pieces in different keys if you use the same intervals between each of the notes in the piece. The tune will sound the same, it just may be higher or lower sounding. Therefore you can play any piece in the c major scale but you will have to change the notes to adjust to the scale pattern. The starting note will also be different. If you moving from a C scale to a D scale, all of the notes will be moved up a whole tone. If you are moving from a B to a C, all the notes will move up a semitone because the B and C are a semitone apart unless made flat or sharp. Don't worry if you don't understand this yet though, it is called transposing and is more complicated. Maybe come back to it when you undertsand more about scales.



The fingering will change for each scale as you will have to move your fingers on the indicated notes to be sharp or flat.



Piano's have scales, as with all other instruments.



I hope I help, if not that website is brilliant, it has helped me brush up on a lot of music theory and learn whole new concepts.
lainiebsky
2015-07-29 10:16:15 UTC
Try the lessons on scales at musictheory.net . If you can't understand those you'll need to find someone to teach you one step at a time. It's a bit too complicated to go into here.



For your specific questions, any piece that's in C major will use the notes in the C major scale as a basis. If the piece is in g minor, it would use the notes in the g minor scale as a basis.



Scales can be played in any octave and can cover the entire range of an instrument.



The difference is the notes in the scale. The starting point will be the tonic of the scale; that is, a C major scale will start on C.



You can play any piece that's written entirely in C major with no modulations or accidentals with just the C scale. You'll find plenty of beginner pieces that use just one scale, but more advanced pieces go into more complex harmony.



Piano uses scales too. Every instrument uses scales.
?
2015-08-17 10:30:30 UTC
Learn Violin From WorldClassViolinist : http://www.ViolinsLion.com/Access


This content was originally posted on Y! Answers, a Q&A website that shut down in 2021.
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