Major Scales and Key Signatures
Senior 2 · Music
Major Scales and Key Signatures
Lesson 5 of 5
22 min
Knowing scales on paper is only half the skill; the other half is making music with them. To compose even a short melody you must choose a key, keep to its notes and decide where the music comes to rest. This lesson gives you a simple method you can use for a class performance, a choir warm-up or a song of your own.
A simple, satisfying melody often has two phrases. The first asks a question and ends away from home; the second answers it and ends on the tonic. Here is an eight-bar melody composed by Ganzaa in G major, in four-four time, with the sol-fa under each note.
Why it works:
Tip
Question away from home, answer at home. End phrase 1 on r, s or t, and end phrase 2 on d. If the ending sounds weak, approach the final d from t below it or r above it.
Try each question first, then check the worked solution underneath.
Name the notes of the tonic chord (d m s) in G major.
Solution: G, B and D.
Phrase 1 of Ganzaa's melody ends on A. Give the degree number, technical name and sol-fa name of A in G major.
Solution: Degree 2, the supertonic, sol-fa r. That is why the phrase sounds unfinished.
Count the beats in bar 2 of the melody (crotchet, crotchet, minim).
Solution: 1 + 1 + 2 = 4 beats, which fills a bar of four-four time.
Transpose bar 1 (G A B G) into D major.
Solution: D E F♯ D. The sol-fa stays d r m d.
Compose a two-bar ending for a melody in C major, in four-four time, that finishes on the tonic.
Solution: One model answer: E D C B, then C held for four beats (sol-fa m r d t, then d). Every note is in C major, each bar holds four beats, and the leading note B rises to the tonic C. Other endings are fine if they follow the same rules.
Remember
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