A couple of questions for all violinist...?

Question

can u help me on the scale? why are there all these notes? what is Eb, Bb.... what is a flat? a sharp? a minor? major??? ahhh its so confusing. oh yeah, what is an octave? thankyou so much!!

Answer 1

Eb, Bb = Eflat, Bflat

A flat is the black keys on a keyboard, hard to explain but

imagine this

C D E F G A B

Cb Db Eb Fb Gb Ab Bb OR

-----Cs Ds Es Fs Gs As Bs

(sorry cant do sharp sign on keyboard)

flats are basically opposites of sharps, some people call them flats, some people call them sharps, it's the opposite of the other.

I know when I first learnt instruments I thought.. What the heck is a minor and major? They are basically chords, you can remember them by, major is happy sound. minor is sad.

An octave is when it's the 8th note. e.g.

(C)DEFGAB(C)

C is the octave note

(F)GABCDE(F)

F is the octave note

GOOD LUCK <3

Answer 2

Notes are what songs are comprised of. Notes are like the alphabet but end on G. Example: abcdefg and inbetween the notes are flats and sharps. If you look a the keys on a piano, the black keys are flats and sharps. An octave means the notes are 8  notes apart. If you're looking for A's octave, you would count 8 notes beginning with note A; AbcdegA

Answer 3

All music in the West is built on whole and half steps. On a violin, placing the finger next to the nut will make a half step above the open string.  (The nut is tiny piece of raised ebony at the end of the fingerboard, just before the strings enter the boxy area inside the scroll.) Move the index finger up a bit to make a whole step.  Squeeze the middle finger (second finger) next to the first finger for the next half step and further away for the next whole step and so on through the four fingers. Since the violin has no frets, you have to use your ear.

Guess work?  Yeah.

All major scales have the half steps between the third and fourth degrees of the scale and the seventh and eighth degrees.  The half step relationship is exactly the same for every major scale.  C major has no sharps or flats and would begin on the third finger of the G string.  To start with the open G string, the half steps would be between B and C, and F sharp and G.  (Sharps raise a note a half step and flats lower them a half step)

There are three kinds of minor scales, Natural, Melodic, and Harmonic. The a minor scale is Natural Minor scale and is also called the Aeolian mode.  It contains no sharps or flats, like the C Major scale, but it starts on A.  That places its half steps between the second and third degrees of the scale and the sixth and seventh degrees of the scale.

There are eight degrees (notes) in a scale.  The starting and ending notes are the same but an octave (eight notes apart). Notice that the scale has two parts, the first four notes and the last four.  They are called tetrachords.  At the beginning of a piece there is a key signature.  The key signature is determined by what the half step relationships have to be for the starting note, called the tonic.  C Major and a minor are called relative keys, because they share a key signature.  Parallel keys start on the same note but have different key signatures.

Back to the minor scales.  The melodic minor scale modifies only the third degree in its ascension.  In other words it is a minor interval or a step and a half. Otherwise it is identical to its parallel major key.  Descending it reverts to the Natural Minor half step relationship.

The Harmonic Minor scale raises the seventh degree so that it is again close to the tonic note or eighth note.  This is the most obvious minor key, becaue it feels like it is going some where.  The seventh note is called the "leading tone".  As a half step it demands a resolution. The other minor scales are more ambiguous in that feeling of completion.

It's actually not complicated at all.  It's quite gratifying, because it is always the same.  If you have staff paper, write some scales down in the treble or "G Clef". That's the one that looks like a badly deformed dollar sign. The curly-q encircles the "G" above your open string, yep, the octave.  It's the third finger on the D String. It should match the G String  if you play them together.  Write some scales starting on different notes, find the half step relationships and write in the key signature. Play them on your violin, and listen carefully.  Most importantly, find a good teacher and treat yourself to the King of instruments.