Re: MINOR THEORY

[ah567@xxxxxxxxxxx (George W. Miklas)]

>
>>>SOME MINOR THEORY
>>>Minor keys are based on scales having a flatted third.
>>        This is vague.  Actually, it is incorrect because a minor
>>        scale is not different from a major scale simply on a flatted
>>        third, but other intervalic changes as well.
>
Harv,
Your response to my comment is evidence that you didn't understand it.
For clarification, my commentary is not concerned with the language or
verbage of the original post, but specifically, the pre-school definition
that "minor keys are based on scales having a flatted third."  Minor scales
are minor scales!  They are based on NOTHING except a particular mode of a
given key.
 
What kind of "scale" did the orginal author mean, afterall, no "quality" was
indicated.  In that case, it is proper to assume that "major" was intended
which still leaves the comment vague because a minor scale is not BASED on
another scale (even a major one), it is based on a key signature.  A minor
is NOT based on a C major scale, nor is it based on an A major scale with
the flatted 3,6,&7.  The key of A minor is infact a mode.  A mode in the key
signature of no sharps and no flats.  Again, it is not based on the C major
scale, nor is it based on the A major scale (which is the key signature of
three sharps), but is based on a key signature which dictates the type of
notes in its scale.

>...there is a common 'reative pitch' vernacular...
This has nothing to do with 'relative pitch.'  It has all to do
with key signature.

Each key signature has within it two keys, which are commonly known as
major and natural minor.  For instance, the key signature of no sharps 
and no flats has in it the keys of C major (Ionian mode) and A minor (Aeolian
mode).  But in addition to those two popular ones, are five more modes 
including Dorian, Phrygian, Mixolidian, Lydian, and Locrian.  As key 
signatures change, the modal names do not.  The names of the modes correspond
with the scale step of the Ionian mode (which we call the major scale).

Best to all,
George Miklas, Harmonicat