3 Types of Notes Musicians Use
Why do certain notes sound better to our ears than others
Last time, I talked about all of the notes that were possible for a musician to choose when composing a melody, and also about one of the famous and often used scales, ‘The Major Scale’. So this time, I want to expand on why certain notes within the scale itself would be favoured over others.
In order to do this, I must touch on harmony for just a moment. Let’s take the C major scale as an example;
C D E F G A B
As you can see it contains seven notes. If I pick the 1st, 3rd and 5th notes, I get this;
C E G
These three notes if played together create a chord, in this case a C major chord (a chord is when many notes are played at the same time. There is some disagreement as to whether you need to play three notes or if two together qualifies as a chord but for now, let’s use these three.
This chord will now act as something in the background that will sustain and support any potential melody that we can play on top.
Three levels of dissonance
I usually categorise my melodic choices into three groups. Level 1 is the safest where the melody notes are just the same as the ones in the chord underneath. For example, if I use that C chord (C E G) and then my melody also consists of those notes, it will sound pleasant and safe, possibly dull if I did nothing else, but not offensive.
Level 2
would be notes in the scale but not it the chord. So imagine, this is the chord
C E G = C Chord
and we use the C major scale
C D E F G A B
so if I play either D or F or A or B
that would level 2, and at level 2, the notes are a little more on the edge. Now, with our modern ears, many of these notes may sound rich, lush and beautiful because we are familiar with music that use these colours. D and A especially will sound rich over our basic C chord. However…
Playing the F note over the C chord can come with harshness…
Our C chord has C E G, and F is closer to E than the others. I will write out the chromatic scale from my previous newsletter
C C# D D# E F F# G G# A A# B
So the notes D, A and B (I know B is also the same distance to C, as F is to E but for some reason, it never sounds as harsh, maybe due to exposure), sound lush to modern ears as they have one note between them and the other notes in the C chord.
However E and F are right beside each other, which creates a very harsh sound. That’s not to say you can’t play it, it is sometimes referred to as an ‘avoid note’ but that’s not a great term, because we don’t want to discourage people. No music theory is required really, your ear will let you know.
If you cringe when you hear it, you might want to pick another note or….just play another note quickly after so the ear doesn’t hear the harshness for too long.
And now for level 3 …
Level 3 is every other note that we haven’t played yet. So remember, here is the scale;
C D E F G A B
and here are the other notes that are not in the key
C# between C and D
D# between D and E
F# between F and G
G# between G and A
and finally
A# between A and B
Playing any of these notes over are C chord (C E G) will create even more unusual sounds or what musicians call dissonance. Dissonance is not necessarily bad, I think of it as musical drama. So as long as the drama is resolved people can enjoy the ride.
In fact, just like in other mediums like film, creators sometimes leave drama unresolved just to make the audience uncomfortable on purpose and musicians can do the same with sound. However, most the time, resolution occurs.
So we need these notes. If we only play the notes in the chord, yes it’s nice, but it’s also too safe, and the best music you have ever heard - I would bet on it - did leave the notes of the chords somewhere, because drama is interesting.
However, constant harshness with no resolution will leave the listener confused and annoyed, so as with many things, it is a balancing act.
The Baseball Analogy?
Another Analogy that I like when thinking about these choices would be with Baseball or Rounders. Think of the bases as notes in the chords or chord tones, so when you are on them, you are safe, and then when you’re running between the bases, that might be like playing notes outside the chord, whether that be other notes in the scale or especially the notes outside the scale.
Next time, I will be talking about specific melodic devices that can be used to manipulate the notes that we have been discussing.
Warm Regards