Music Theory for the Banjo – The C Scale
I hope I don’t scare you away by mentioning music theory, but knowing a little theory will help you a lot. If you remember the next group of words, you already know a little bit of theory – do – re – me – fa – sol – la – ti – do. This a major scale; in the key of C - these notes are C – D – E – F – G – A – B – C.
The following scale is the C chromatic scale : C – C#/Db – D – D#/Eb – E – F -F#/Gb – G – G#/Ab – A -A#/Bb – B. The interval between the notes is known as a half-step or semitone and a whole step is equal to two half-steps. Notice that there is an extra note between each note of the major scale except between E and F, and B and C, these notes are known as flats (b) or sharps (#). All that a sharp means, is that the note was raised a half-step; a flat is lowered by a half step. Depending on where you start, you can describe the same note as flat or a sharp, for example C# and Db are the same note.