What You Will Achieve During This Task

Through research, you will learn how certain scales and modes developed. You will also be introduced to common (mostly Western) scales and modes and learn to recognize them.

How To Complete This Task

Answer the following research task and questions (1 to 8) (individually or as a group) as thoroughly as possible. Your group may use any reliable sources of information, such as books or the suggested (or similar) websites. All sources must be noted in your answers. You may wish to research and prepare all the answers before filling in the answers on this page. Email your answers to your teacher by clicking on the button at the bottom of the page.

How You Will Be Assessed On This Task

The emailed answers will be assessed for accuracy, thoroughness, grammar and spelling, layout, and the reliabilty of the sources used to prepare your group's answers.

Details

Your class:

Your (or your group's) name:

Group members and their job titles (optional):

Teacher's email address that your answers will be sent to for marking:

Your email address that your teacher will email your marked answers back to:

When you (or your group) has finished, click the "Email your Pitch Task 3 answers to your teacher" button at the bottom of the page to send your answers to your teacher for marking.

Task Questions and Activities

Scales and Modes - Research

Pitch is very interesting from a scientific point of view, but the really interesting and worthwhile use for pitch is to organise arrangements of a collection of pitches which can then be used to create music.

When various pitches are organised in a paticular order they are collectively called scales or modes.

Using books and websites, research how the most common scales in a particular country or culture developed. You will need at least two reliable sources of information. For example, in Western music detail how major and minor scales originated and developed to their current form. You could use the following websites, or do web search engine searches for terms such as "music scales major" or "culture music scales modes":

• http://cnx.rice.edu/content/m11636/latest/ - mostly deals with the scales in western music
• http://www.sbgmusic.com/html/teacher/reference/cultures.html - has links to many many different cultures and their music
• http://cnx.rice.edu/content/m11633/latest/ - deals with historical and some non-Western scales and modes

Scales and Modes - Listening

Below are some of the most common scales and modes. Click on the play button to hear them all in sequence, or click on a scale to start the sequence playing from that scale. There are three pages of scales and modes. You can even print them if you want. (Please note: If you can't see the intervals, get the Sibelius Scorch plug-in here. Created using Sibelius.)

Scales and Modes - Recognition

1) The following scale is an example of a scale.

2) The following scale is an example of a scale.

3) The following scale is an example of a scale.

4) The following scale is an example of a scale.

5) The following scale is an example of a scale.

6) The following scale is an example of a scale.

7) The following scale is an example of a scale.

8) The following scale is an example of a scale.

Extension - Just how many scales are there?

If you are very interested in some of the many, many scales that are currently devised, go to http://www.xs4all.nl/~huygensf/scala/downloads.html and download the Scala software, which is an amazing freeware program that can play literally any scale or chord in existence, or that you could imagine. You can even make up your own scales. The associated scales file at http://www.xs4all.nl/~huygensf/doc/scales.zip contains over 3,000 scales!