I am just looking at scales for grade 1 and am I need some clarification please.

When looking at the F Major scale the semitone is a B flat and not an A sharp. Is this because the A is an open string? If so would that be the same for any note that is played as an open string - such as an open D, would the semitone be an E sharp?

Does that all make sense?

Thanks for looking.

It’s a B flat not an A sharp because you can only use each letter name once in a scale. Them’s the rules.. The fact that a stringed instrument has open strings etc might affect how you choose to play the scale, but as you posted this in the theory section, I presume you are concerned about writing them down?

Note that A# and Bb are the same pitch only on instruments with 12 fixed pitches per octave. In equal temperament, the chosen pitch is a compromise; a typical 17th C harpsichord would have had Bbs but not A#s, unless it had split black keys, in which case it would have had both (but no Cbb). If you want the maths, PM me.

Thanks SueHM. I forgot that there are lots of other instruments other than strings...duh!

Can I just clarify please. Using the only using each letter name once in a scale, so if you did use the an A sharp it would read something similar to .......E, F, G, A, A sharp, C, D etc, whereas using the B flat it would be.....E, F, G, A, B flat, C, D etc

Is that correct, or am I completely misunderstanding it?

Sorry

Correct. Each letter name occurs once only in the scale. However, in scales like F major you should stop even thinking of it as A sharp.

What should I think of it as then??

B flat.

When you get to B major you can have your A sharp.

I'm not sure whether you have understood this, as you have started your F major scale with an E which is completely illogical (either that or you have intentially written the Locrian mode on E, but I doubt that).

To form a (any) major scale you must adhere to two rules:

1) You must follow a set pattern of tones (T) and semitones (S), thus: T T S T T T S;

2) You must only use each letter once, sequentially (obviously), until you reach the next octave at which point you start the sequence again.

NB, tones and semitones are intervals (distances between notes), so the first "tone" in F major is between the F and the G, not the F itself, so: F (T) G (T) A (S) Bb (T) C (T) D (T) E (S) F

*These rules are not instrument-specific.*

Another useful rule is this:

Every major and harmonic minor scale begins with a tone and ends with a semitone. No exceptions.

I hope that all makes sense.

I randomly picked the E to start it. I wasn't actually being scale specific at the time. Thanks for the advice though. Very helpful.





Perfect. Thank you.

But you have to be scale specific, otherwise the pattern of sharps and flats is likely to be wrong - in other words, it is the opposite of random! The notes you chose were only correct in F major - in any other key they wouldn't have been.

I take your point, but at the time I was just trying to get clarification over something teeeny weeeny and not being scale specific. However, point noted. Thanks.

Thanks for all the explanations in this thread.
It has answered a few of my 'puzzles' and made a lot of sense.

I'm glad that it helped!

Apart from what else the others said...

In your first post you asked if a semitone on the A string is B flat or A sharp - and the answer is, it's either...it's the same note (ignoring pedantics) - just called different things - so both are a semitone.

So on the D string, a semitone higher would be either D sharp or E flat...both played with 1st finger....and which you call it depends on what key you're playing in (which is what everyone else is on about )

Thanks for that. Yep, I understood that it could be either - what I couldn't get to grips with is why they it was the B flat that was chosen in preference to the A sharp.

But thank you for the reply

Just to reinforce the point, it might help to understand the logic of this if you notate the scale on paper. In all major and minor scales the notes ascend or descend the staff one step at a time. A note on a line is followed by one in an adjacent space, the next one is on the next line and so on; visually it is a smooth progression without any jumps. (The sharps and flats in harmonic minor scales create aural jumps, but the notes are still adjacent on the staff.) If you were writing the scale of F major in the treble clef and you used an A sharp, you would have two notes in the A space, and then a jump to the next note in the C space; you would have no note on the B line. This is not allowed! The note has to be B flat.

Do string players not have the option to play a 'true' A sharp or a 'true' B flat though? And would these not be slightly different notes? Or perhaps would this not work in practice since the open strings would always be tuned to a fixed point? (Or maybe I am just making this up....)