Quora Question: Does the Major Scale Formula Work with Sharp Notes?

by Ari 28 Mar 2017 1 minute read

When I see questions like this I love to jump in. There is someone trying to piece it together on their own, typically using some bits of music theory that help somewhat but are not the complete picture. Probably this person had heard of WWHWWWH. But then, yes, the question arises – how to name the notes? With sharps? With flats?

Read my reply. This is why we have the cycle of fifths, by the way. It takes all that guess work out for you.

Does the major scale formula work with sharp notes?

I’ve tried this with A# and the scale I get is: A#, C, D, D#, F, G, A, and A# Is this right or wrong? If so, how? Any help would be much appreciated.

Read Ariane Cap‘s answer to Does the major scale formula work with sharp notes? on Quora

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Hi. I'm Ari.

As a bassist, I have toured/played/recorded with a variety of rock, Jazz, and funk bands, I have worked with some incredible producers (Keith Olsen) and musicians (Paul Hanson, Muriel Anderson) and I toured Brazil with Stu Hamm as a duo.

 

As a bass teacher, I have taught at London Bass Day, Gerald Veasley’s Bass Boot Camp, SBL, Truefire, notreble… I even ran my own music school for a few years before gigs took me back on the road.

 

One thing to know about me is that I teach because I am absolutely fascinated with the learning process. And I am obsessed with helping others realize their musical potential.

 

When I started playing bass, I excelled very quickly because I had an amazing teacher who taught me using a powerful method. This method transformed my playing so quickly that I passed a bunch of high-level university auditions and even tested out of entire classes at university even though I had been playing for only a very short time.

 

That’s what, many years later turned into one of my books, co-written with Wolf Wein, called “The Pattern System for the Bass Player”. I created entire systems of learning based on some of these ideas and wrote books and created courses together with Wolf. Our bass books have sold over 30,000 copies and garnered rave reviews.

 

I started teaching online in 2009 and have embraced technology as a powerful learning tool since then, never losing sight of the importance of providing feedback and personalized guidance to learners.

 

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