Notes, octaves and scales
Find the 12 notes and the octave on the trig keys, hear major against minor, and play a riff that stays inside the minor pentatonic.
Twelve notes, then they repeat
Western music uses 12 notes. Each one is a semitone (half step) from the next. After 12 semitones you reach the same note name again, higher: an octave.
A scale is a choice
A scale picks 7 of the 12 notes. Major goes whole, whole, half, whole, whole, whole, half and sounds bright. Natural minor goes whole, half, whole, whole, half, whole, whole and sounds darker.
The note you hear first is the 3rd: 3 semitones above the root in minor, 4 in major.
Minor pentatonic
Five notes of the minor scale: the root and 3, 5, 7 and 10 semitones up. It leaves out the two notes most likely to clash, so almost anything you play on it sounds right.
No scale lock here
In CHROMATIC mode, the default, the 16 trig keys play 16 semitones and 9 is the root of the active track's sound. The Model:Cycles won't keep you in a scale, so you learn which keys belong to it.
Lesson 9
- Notes, octaves and scales.
- In this lesson you will find the 12 notes and the octave on the trig keys, hear major against minor, and play a riff that stays inside the minor pentatonic.
Western music uses 12 notes.
Every key on a piano is one semitone from its neighbour, black keys included. Twelve semitones up you reach the same letter again, an octave higher: it sounds like the same note, only brighter.
A scale is a choice of notes from the 12.
Play the three versions: same root, same rhythm, different notes. Listen closely to the third note of major and minor.
Major sounds open and bright, minor darker. The pentatonic has gaps, which is why it sounds so easy.
On the Model:Cycles the trig keys are a small keyboard: one semitone per key, 9 the root.
There's no scale lock, so this map shows which keys belong to the minor scale and to the minor pentatonic. Keep it next to you this lesson.
- Go to B01 (hold PATTERN, press T2, press 1) and make sure RECORD is off.
- Select T5 and turn DECAY to about 60.
- Press 9.
- Then 1 to 16 left to right.
9 is the root. Left to right, each key is one semitone higher: this is CHROMATIC mode.
Hear an octave
- Press 2.
- Then 14.
- Then 4 and 16.
- Each pair is 12 keys apart.
The second note sounds like the first, only higher. Same note, an octave up.
Play the minor scale from the map
- 4, 5, 7, 9, 11, 12, 14, 16.
- Then slip 10 or 13 into the middle of it.
The lit keys belong together. 10 and 13 sound like a wrong turn.
Hear what makes minor
- Press 9, 12 and 16 one after the other (root, minor 3rd, 5th).
- Then 9, 13, 16.
First dark, then bright. One key, the 3rd, decides the mood.
- Press PLAY and improvise over your beat on the pentatonic keys only: 2, 4, 7, 9, 12, 14, 16.
- Try ending each idea on 9.
Nothing clashes. Ending on 9 sounds like coming home.
Give T5 a one-bar loop
- Hold FUNC and press PAGE (SCALE menu).
- MOD is already TRACK, so press T5, set its LEN to 16 with LEVEL/DATA, and press BACK.
T5 will repeat every bar while the rest of B01 runs its four bars.
- Press RECORD and, on T5, place notes on 1, 4, 7 and 11.
- On 4, hold the trig, press LEVEL/DATA until NOTE shows, and turn it 3 semitones up.
- On 7, 7 up.
- On 11, 5 up.
Root, minor 3rd, 5th, then down a step to the 4th: four pentatonic notes.
- Press RECORD to leave grid recording and listen with the beat.
- Turn T5's REVERB SEND up a little.
- Save: hold FUNC and long-press SETTINGS.
A four-note riff over your beat. It can't sound wrong: every note is in the scale.
9 is your root. Which key plays the minor 3rd, the note that makes it sound minor?
Answer
12 is 3 semitones above the root: the minor 3rd. 13, 4 semitones up, is the major 3rd and turns the mood bright.
Count semitones from the root: 3 up is minor, 4 up is major.
This lesson's challenge
With the beat running, find a different four-note riff on the pentatonic keys and write its TRIG numbers in your notes. End it once on 9 and once on 14: which one sounds finished?