“Can you please explain to me how scales work.”

How many of the major scales do you know:

“To be true, none.”

“My biggest problem is timing there’s no one with me to tell me my timing is way out. Now I’m use to that way. I need to get out of that habit, I’m a very shy person only play in my garage if this any help. What I play on the Tenor I play on the alto.”

“I play it by ear.  What ever song pop into my head easy ones to play along.”

Practices:

Sometimes three days or one.  On and off about 5years.

-Waikite (New Zealand)

My response:

Basically scales are a group of notes that define a key.

A key is linked to the sound and feeling of the music.

There are 12 different notes in a chromatic octave.

The major scale, for example, has seven notes. If you play the seven notes in order, they have a certain relationship to each other. Many people think of the major sound as being happy.

Probably the best way to understand what scales are though is to play them yourself and listen to their sound.

There are many types of scales. The scale we often learn first is the major scale. Let’s say we look at the C major scale,

C D E F G A B C (for a single octave)

The intervals between the notes of the scale give it a certain sound.

And that sound depends very much on what note you start on.

If you start that scale on the second note, it has a very different sound. It actually becomes a minor scale that way.

D E F G A B C D

There are also blue scales, whole tone scales, diminished skills, Etc.

And within the major scale, there are modes.

If you would like to learn more, I made a class about scales.

https://saxstation.com/saxophone-scales-book-class-2