banjoblogger.com

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.

How do you know which notes are in a major scale? The first note of the C major scale is a C (do) - move up a whole step to D (re) - another whole step to E (me) - half-step to F (fa) -whole step to G (sol) - whole step to A (la) - whole step to B (ti) and a half-step to C (do). The chromatic scale is made up of twelve notes, the major scale has seven distinct notes and ends on the octave (C - one octave higher). The pattern of a major scale is: Whole step : Whole Step : Half-step : Whole Step : Whole Step : Whole Step : Half Step

Now that you know about the major scale and chromatic scale, let’s put this information onto the banjo fretboard. The first note is C (2nd string - 1st fret), move up two frets on the same string to D ( 2nd string -3rd fret), up two more frets to E (2nd string - 5th fret). This time we go up one fret to F (2nd string -6th fret), move up two frets to G (2nd string -8th fret) , two more frets to A ( 2nd string - 10th fret, up two more frets to B (2nd string - 12th fret), and finally up one fret to C (2nd string -13th fret). You have just played a C major scale on the second string. If you move one fret higher, you move up a half-step, up two frets and you’ve jumped up a whole step.

Here is the C scale written out for you:

Listen to the C scale played on the five string banjo.

The C major scale is easy to work with because it has no sharps or flats, our next scale will have one sharp. A lot of bluegrass songs are in the key of G, so the G scale is next.

Popularity: 57% [?]