The pentatonic scale is the most universal scale in the world. It appears in Chinese classical music, West African drumming traditions, Scottish folk songs…
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Before major and minor became the dominant scales of Western music, composers worked within a system of seven modes — ordered sets of pitches derived from the…
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The minor scale has an identity problem — a productive one. Unlike the major scale, which has a single fixed formula, the minor scale comes in three versions…
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Relative and parallel keys are the two ways one key can be a close cousin of another, and understanding both is the foundation of fluent modulation.
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Tool Number Three is a diagram. It looks like a clock — twelve positions arranged in a circle — but instead of hours, it shows key signatures.
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A scale is not a melody. It is an ordered inventory of the pitches available in a given key — the pool from which melodies, harmonies, and progressions are…
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