im pretty scared

[postofficebuddy]

i have an audition for music college and you have to play something obviously and "you need basic notation theory,key sigs chord identification scales"

and im curious, wtf are those? where do i learn, im fairly good at guitar, have some mode knowledge, but cant read music at all, is there sites i can learn this stuff? or decent cheap books?

any help is appreciated

[MFB]

No offense, but if you can't read sheet music and plan on auditioning for music college...you're ****ed

It's a huge part of the music world and it's a necessity in the colleges so you'd probably want to have that be you're #1 priority before the audition

[GuitarBizarre]

Originally Posted by MFB

No offense, but if you can't read sheet music and plan on auditioning for music college...you're ****ed

It's a huge part of the music world and it's a necessity in the colleges so you'd probably want to have that be you're #1 priority before the audition

I'm in university and some members of my course can't read a note (Or should I say, couldn't before the start of the course)

Its important but its not essential it depends on the college in question.

Regardless, your #1 priority should be from now until whenever this thing is, LEARN TO READ MUSIC and recognize basic intervals at the very least.

A guy I speak to online wrote this for me a while ago that works quite well as a basic primer:

yo!

First i'll do some quick theory lessons, im' no expert but you will no doubt find them enlightening, and trust me it's a lot easier to learn it from a friend you've known for a while, then a dusty old book.

First of all, some "basics" or, a dictionary if you will, before we start.

A scale is just a sequence of notes, a way of dividing sound waves in a certain pattern, that sounds good to our ears. the major scale divides it in a way that sounds perfect, happy and divine to the human ear, and gives a happy sound.

a chord is simply a different sequence of notes derived from its "parent" scale. they can be almost any combinations of notes in the scale but the most common chord is the major chord which is the 1st, 3rd, and 5th note of any scale played together. The idea why it skips certain notes is because you fill them in by playing scales. make sense at all?


a tone(AKA whole tone, whole note, or "tone" or "note") is when you go up a whole note, for example, from F to G, or G to A.

Accidentals are in between and are either a "half-step(or half-tone)" flat or sharp of a certain note.

there are also natural half-steps.. E to F, and B to C.. there is no E# or B#, you just go straight to F or C.

so, if you had to go a half-tone
Here's an easy way to look at it..
Cmajor goes like this right?

C Major

m (m means relative minor)
C D E F G A B C
i ii iii iv v vi vii i

well right away we need a "system". there you go. all the music theory in the entire world can be derived from that little formula right there.

those numbers? those are called scale degrees.. so if anyone ever asks you for the third note of C, or the "third" of C, you say, E!

And if someone asks you the 7th, and you don't wanna count all the way up, it's pretty easy to figure out. you just go DOWN one from the first one, to find your 7th. We also know that the 7th is always one "half-step" lower then the 1st.
so if someone asks you what the 7th of C# is, what do you say?
it's C, one half-note lower then C#.

Now, there's one "formula" you need to know. this is math, so you should be able to use it easily. The "FORMULA" of the C major scale is this:


(Original note)-> Tone, Tone, Half-Tone, Tone, Tone, Tone, Half tone.(which goes back to the original note, but the next higher version of it, which is called the octave)

What that means is whatever note you start on, to find the major scale of that Key, you simply use that formula.. sometimes I think of it like 1, 1, .5, 1, 1, 1, .5
and a really easy mnemonic to remember it is "2 and a half, 3 and a half" Each scale has it's own formula, but you only need to know the major scale formula by heart, as all other scales are based upon it.

With me so far?

Let's try using this new knowledge to create some scales, without looking them up at all.

First let's try C, since it's the easist..

C.. now go up a tone from C, to D. now go up another tone, to E.

Then go up a half-tone, to E#.

wait, what did i do wrong already? well first of all, something you should know is that you can never use the same letter twice when spelling out a scale. all major scales are "diatonic" meaning you use each letter once.

wait, but if we know that, we can skip all this crap can't we? have an easy way to "start" any scale. for example, D. we know that the D major scale uses each letter once, right?

so then it's



D E F G A B C D , right? Well no, but that's an easy way to start it, since we know we need to use each letter. let's see..

Tone, Tone, Half-Tone, Tone, Tone, Tone, Half tone.

tone
D to E, that's a tone right? Good, so that's fine.

tone
E to F, is that a tone? Nope, that's a half tone, but we need a full tone here! so we must add a sharp to the F to conform to the formula. so now we have, D, E, F#.

half-tone
F# to G, is that a half tone? Yep. now we have D, E, F#, G.

tone
G to A, tone? yep, perfect. D, E, F#, G, A

tone
A to B, is that a tone? yep, so that can stay the same. D, E, F#, G, A, B,

tone
B to C, is that a tone? no.. that's a half tone. so what do we have to do? that's right, we sharp the C just like the F, so that it fits our formula. D, E, F#, G, A, B, C#,

half-tone
C# to D.. half-tone! perfect, this scale fits the formula perfect, to create..

*drumroll*



D Major

m (m means relative minor)
D E F# G A B C# D
i ii iii iv v vi vii i

OK so just looking at this we know a ton of things already.. First of all, we can immediately create our D major chord. since the formula for a major chord is the notes (1, 3, 5) of any major scale, we know that D, F#, and A creates the D major chord. we also know our relative minor is B, so we know the B minor scale now too! wanna know how to make the relative chord out of the major scale? You use the 6, the 1, and the 3.. so B minor is B, D, F#. we also know that D major and B minor can be played consecutively with good effect, since all their notes fall within the D major scale.

what other chords can be played? Well, let's take D major and Jump it up one, so instead of (1, 3, 5) we'll use (2, 4, 6). E, G, B. that's the E minor chord. and we call that the "ii" chord of the D major scale. to find the "III" chord you jump it up one more, and so forth. this is called harmonizing the major scale to create chords. B minor being the "vi" chord. aka relative minor. kinda get it now?

ok, let me show you an even easier way to look at it then!

D Major

m m
D E F# G A B C# D E F# G A B C# D
i ii iii iv v vi vii i ii iii iv v vi vii i

Now it's much easier to find the chords.. see the pattern? now it's easier to find the chords that skip over, because we just wrote it out twice to make it easier. try finding the relative minor chord using the (6, 1, 3) method now. way easier right? Now find all the other chords. don't worry about naming them major, minor, or whatever,(that would be too hard to remember for your first day) but just knowing how to construct every chord in the D major scale gives you that much more power.



sorry, this isprobably kinda getting confusing at this point, but it'll get better.

so we now if we play D major, B minor, and E minor, consecutively, it'll sound good and in key)
all from this little formula!
-----Sidenote------------------------------------------------
There are also chords you may want to learn called "7ths" chords which add the 7th note in there too. so it would be (1, 3, 5, 7) and that just adds kind of a jazzy flavor to it. if
you ever see a chord chart that says Dmajor7th , then you know from our little formula, to play the notes D, F#, A, and C#. tada
---------------------------------------------------------------

Now let's do a harder one, let's say, G#.
Let's use our "easy start" knowledge..

G# A B C D E F G.

Ok, wait, what have I done wrong already? Don't cheat!

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[GuitarBizarre]

the second half

Ok, wait, what have I done wrong already? Don't cheat!

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I forgot the sharp the second G#! d'oh.. that's the first thing you always must do, is make sure the starting and ending note are the same, or else it wouldn't be much of a scale, right? And besides, we can't use the same letter for two different notes!
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================================================== =========================================
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ok, so then..

G# A B C D E F G# . good start. formula time.

tone
G# - A = nope, that'd only be a half step, so we need to go to A#. G#, A#,

tone
A# - B - is that a tone? Nope, not even close.. but there's no such thing as B#, cause that's C, right? so we'd have to use C.. let's try it. G#, A#, C,

half-tone
G#, A#, C, C...#? , wait , wait.. Although that is technically correct, we're not allowed to use the same letter twice, and we HAVE to use each letter once, so we skipped one!.. so damn, what can we do? ---- Also, if you caught that as soon as I did it, nice.-----

let's go back and fix this.. let me explain.
=========EPLXANATION!!!!!!!!!!==================== ===================================
================================================== ==================================
B# is technically not a note, since it is C anyway.. but.. we just answered our own curiosity didn't we? If we know B# is C, why can't we say B# instead of C if we want to? Well, we can. and that's exactly what we're gonna do. Sometimes you may even have to put 2 sharps or flats on a note, in order to use each letter just once. So what is G##? Well that's A, but it's also G##. and it's also F###. See, we can call the notes whatever the hell we want, as long as it technically adds up. Whew.. getting there.
================================================== ======================
================YEA=============================== =========================

Let's start from where we were and i'll show you the right way to do it.
G#, A#,
tone
A# - B - is that a tone? Nope, not even close.. but there's no such thing as B#, cause that's C, ri------ *record scratch*

Ok.. now we know we can use B#.. so scratch that silliness! there is such a thing as B#, and that's what we damn well gonna use.
G#, A#, B#.

So that's tone, tone, now we need..

halftone

B#- C.. is that a halftone? yeah? well, no actually, cause remember, B# IS C. So that's actually a.. no-tone. haha. (seriously it's called a unison though, since they're the same note) so we need to sharp the C, to make C#. An easy way to think of it is,

B-C=half tone. B#-C#=also half tone. see it? same thing with E-F and E#-F#.
Hopefully you can grasp that little mnemonic because it's important to start thinking like that.

Back to the matter at hand, we now have

G#, A#, B#, C#, and we need to go up a tone to follow our formula of Tone, tone, halftone, tone, tone, tone, halftone.

tone
C#-D.. is that a tone? Nope, thats half. Sharp that D homie. G#, A#, B#, C#, D#,

tone
D#, E... nope.. and nope not F, well, yes it is F, but we're going to call it E# to keep with our rules. G#, A#, B#, C#, D#, E#, F??, G#

tone
E#-F . easy, F# right? wait.. ah crap.. E# -F# is only a halftone, remember? Besides, F#-G# would be a tone, and we need a half-tone there. So, ah damnit, we're ****ed, we have to start all over again.. or do we?

Actually, remember before when I said G## was the same thing as A? So maybe you already figured out that we can use as many sharps as we need to get this to fit, right?

so the answer is F## (which is G, technically, meaning that F##-G# is a halftone!)

so,
halftone
F##-G... nope , that would be a unison again, so, G#, which we already knew since the scale IS G#. phew.. now we have our damn G# scale. This is pretty much the hardest one for now, so if you got through this one without too many problems, you can now consider yourself pretty damn good at theory. not bad for your first day huh?



*drumroll again*


G# Major

m (m means relative minor)
G# A# B# C# D# E# F## G#
i ii iii iv v vi vii i

Ok, so there's our G# major scale, a toughie, but you got it. Remember our formulas?

Major Chord (1, 3, 5)
ii Chord (2, 4, 6)
iii Chord (3, 6, 7)
etc,
Relative Minor Chord ( 6, 1, 3)

Just write it out twice to make it easier to figure out your chords.

Now lets do an easier scale..

the G major scale.

well, instead of using the formula, i know you're pretty smart if you got this far, so i'm not gona bore you with those formulas for right now. we'll take a break for this one. i'll show you a little trick instead.

think critically for a second.. if we know that every major scale goes up the same formula of note intervals, and we have the G# scale right above us on the screen right now, looking at that, can you figure out the G scale pretty easily?

give yourself a minute to try, before you look at the solution. i'm not gonna walk you through this one, so just look at it for a second and see what you come up with, without using the formula.




+---------------------------------------+
+=======================================+
+---------------------------------------+


G, A, B, C, D, E, F#, G.

See what I did? I simply removed one sharp from every note, since we're going down from G# to G. So if we had've learned G first, and I asked you to write out G#, you could do the same thing by adding one SHARP to each letter. Crazy eh?

So.. what is the C flat major scale then? did a lightbulb just go off in your head? ****in a' man. feels good huh

We havn't used flats yet, but if they come up, they're the same deal as sharps but down half a note, instead of up. and to put one in plain text, just use a lowercase b after the letter.. for example,

Cb, Db, Eb, Fb, Gb, Ab, Bb, Cb.



Now before moving on, let's try and make some scales of our own just to make sure you got this before i teach you the next thing

(which I promise is gonna blow your ****in mind, but i gotta make sure you have this first.)

So first of all, i'm gonna write out some scales, and you're gonna apply the formula
(Tone, Tone, Half-Tone, Tone, Tone, Tone, Half tone.)
And check if they're correct. If not, edit in the appropriate corrections.


It might help to write em out on paper and write the formula next to them. remember, write each letter first, make sure the first and last are the same, and then conform all the others to the formula. if you forget the formula, it's:

Tone, Tone, Half-tone, Tone, Tone, Tone, Half-tone (which goes back to the "root" note.)

C D E F G A B C

A B C D E F G A

B C D E F G A B

Gb A B C D E F G

F# G A B C D E F

Answers below:




















C D E F G A B C (right)

A B C# D E F# G# A

B C# D# E F# G# A# B

Gb Ab Bb Cb Db Eb F Gb

F# G# A# B C# D# E# F#



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wow, did i say quick theory lessons? that turned into a textbook pretty quick. ****, that took like 2 hours, but don't worry, i enjoyed typing it and i hope you learned somethin

now.. *dodges books and tomatoes* ah ****, sorry, ok, ok, CONTRA!





THE INTRO
Basically read this from left to right, if there's 2 notes on top of each other, then you play them at the same time.

The bottom part is the low Note, so your left hand, the upper part is your right hand, the higher note.




Might be hard to figure out whether you're going to a lower C or a higher C
for example, but you should be able to handle it

Intro, when you turn on the game is this:

and just so you know, this is in C major as you can clearly see on the bottom line,
and the harmony is also C major, but technically you're using the 4th mode

F C B G A D E(hold------)
C A G D E(hold-------------)

Notice the tension created when that first E is held, and then your other hand plays
a higher D, then E, and then both the E's are held together, providing relief and musical awesomeness. i think that's the theory anyway.


phew.. i think i'm all typed out for now. more some other time

[superhairycamel]

It depends on the music college, i think it was a bit over the top to say your f u c k e d.
But at least a baisic understanding of theory and reading will be important, google key trainer, reading notation and see what comes up.

good luck

[MFB]

Yeah...it was a bit extreme but the point remains the same that it's a key thing you need to know for the music world

[postofficebuddy]

cheers man, and MFB **** off, im going to college to learn.

[jono]

I think you should be a little scared if you don't know anything because there are going to be folks on your course who will be lightyears ahead of you in some aspects of the course.

I'd say it boils down to one of two situations for you, either you'll flunk the audition, because you don't have one of the prerequisite skills (ie reading music) or you'll have enough talent to get in, but need to spend a lot more time studying to get yourself up to passing the courses that require music theory,

There might be an option three, where you'll be able to take modules that focus on practical aspects of music that mean you won't even need to learn to read.

which ever way it turns out, if you actually want a career in music in the UK (rather than going on X-Factor ), it's my understanding that you really need to be able to read the little black dots because the rest of your competition certainly will.

[postofficebuddy]

Originally Posted by jono

I think you should be a little scared if you don't know anything because there are going to be folks on your course who will be lightyears ahead of you in some aspects of the course.

I'd say it boils down to one of two situations for you, either you'll flunk the audition, because you don't have one of the prerequisite skills (ie reading music) or you'll have enough talent to get in, but need to spend a lot more time studying to get yourself up to passing the courses that require music theory,

There might be an option three, where you'll be able to take modules that focus on practical aspects of music that mean you won't even need to learn to read.

which ever way it turns out, if you actually want a career in music in the UK (rather than going on X-Factor ), it's my understanding that you really need to be able to read the little black dots because the rest of your competition certainly will.

i can play pretty decently, ive been playing for about 8 years and practice quite seriously, its just reading music has never been an issue for me, but ive just bought a book on it and im gonna study like crazy and really spend every day learning as much as i can. cheers for the comment

[Andelusion]

If you're studying popular music then it's likely you won't have to have a strong knowledge of notation, if you're studying jazz or music studies (anything which is more classical based) then you will definately find being able to read notation a benefit.

[postofficebuddy]

Originally Posted by Andelusion

If you're studying popular music then it's likely you won't have to have a strong knowledge of notation, if you're studying jazz or music studies (anything which is more classical based) then you will definately find being able to read notation a benefit.

im not studying jazz or classical, but there is pieces in the course so basic knowledge is needed, but i bought a great book that explains it very well

[ShellyOFG]

im interested as to where you are auditioning for ? is it BIMM or ACM ?