Notes, intervals and scales
This part of the manual is a short course in harmony, with Ferrous Lineup as the instrument. Each chapter explains an idea, then shows where the app shows it or lets you hear it. Nothing here needs more than the piano roll and the harmony keys; the music glossary has every word in one place.
Twelve notes
A piano has 88 keys, but only twelve different notes, which repeat in every octave:
C C♯ D D♯ E F F♯ G G♯ A A♯ B C
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
The distance from one key to the next, white or black, is a semitone. Twelve semitones make an octave: the same note again, higher. A note’s name without its octave (C, rather than “the C in the middle of the piano”) is its pitch class. Harmony mostly works with pitch classes: a C major chord is C, E and G, in any octave and in any order.
The piano roll writes the octave after the name: C4 is middle C, C5 the C an octave above it, A4 the A an orchestra tunes to.
Sharps, flats and spelling
Each black key has two names. The key between C and D is C♯ (“C sharp”, a semitone above C) and also D♭ (“D flat”, a semitone below D). Which name is right depends on the music around it, and the rule is simple: a scale uses each of the seven letters once.
- F major is F G A B♭ C D E: it already has an A, so the fourth note is B♭, not A♯.
- F♯ major is F♯ G♯ A♯ B C♯ D♯ E♯: it already has an F (F♯), so the seventh note is E♯, which sounds like F but is written as a kind of E.
- D harmonic minor raises its seventh note, C, to C♯, even though its key signature has a flat.
- Some notes need two sharps or two flats: the seventh of G♯ harmonic minor is F𝄪 (F double sharp, which sounds as G), and the seventh of a C diminished seventh chord is B𝄫 (B double flat, which sounds as A).
Ferrous Lineup spells every note this way, in the piano roll, on the chord sheet, on the harmony keys and in the lead sheet. A note from outside the key is written the way musicians most often meet it, counted from the key’s first note: a flat second, third, sixth or seventh, and a sharp fourth.
Letters or solfège
English-speaking musicians name notes with letters, C D E F G A B. Spanish, Italian and French musicians use solfège: Do Re Mi Fa Sol La Si. Ferrous Lineup can show either: Edit > Settings… > Harmony > Note naming. Chord symbols follow the same setting, so Am7 is written Lam7 in solfège. Until you choose, the app follows its language: letters in English, solfège in Spanish.
Intervals
An interval is the distance between two notes. Musicians name it with two words: a number, counted in letters, and a quality, counted in semitones.
The number counts the letters from the lower note to the upper one, both included: C up to E is a third (C, D, E), C up to G a fifth. So C up to D♯ is a second (C, D), even though D♯ sounds the same as E♭, and C up to E♭ is a third.
The quality says which kind of that number it is:
| Interval | Semitones | Example from C | Sound |
|---|---|---|---|
| minor second | 1 | C–D♭ | the tightest rub |
| major second | 2 | C–D | a step of a scale |
| minor third | 3 | C–E♭ | the third of a minor chord |
| major third | 4 | C–E | the third of a major chord |
| perfect fourth | 5 | C–F | open, like a bugle call |
| augmented fourth / diminished fifth | 6 | C–F♯ / C–G♭ | the tritone: restless, it wants to move |
| perfect fifth | 7 | C–G | the most open sound after the octave |
| minor sixth | 8 | C–A♭ | |
| major sixth | 9 | C–A | |
| minor seventh | 10 | C–B♭ | the seventh of G7 and Am7 |
| major seventh | 11 | C–B | the seventh of Cmaj7 |
| octave | 12 | C–C | the same note again |
The ear training window asks you to name intervals by ear, and explains each answer with its notes (see Practising).
Scales
A scale is a choice of some of the twelve notes, starting from a first note called the tonic. The major scale is the white keys from C: C D E F G A B. In semitones above the tonic, that is 0 2 4 5 7 9 11: steps of two semitones, except between the third and fourth notes and between the seventh and the octave. The same pattern started on another note gives the major scale of that key: from D, it is D E F♯ G A B C♯.
The scales the app knows:
| Scale | From C | What it sounds like |
|---|---|---|
| major | C D E F G A B | bright, settled: most songs you know |
| natural minor | C D E♭ F G A♭ B♭ | darker |
| harmonic minor | C D E♭ F G A♭ B | minor with a raised seventh, which pulls up to the tonic; the scale of tangos and flamenco |
| melodic minor | C D E♭ F G A B | minor with a raised sixth and seventh, smooth going up; jazz uses it both ways |
| major pentatonic | C D E G A | five notes, no half steps: folk songs all over the world |
| minor pentatonic | C E♭ F G B♭ | the rock and blues guitar scale |
| blues | C E♭ F F♯ G B♭ | the minor pentatonic with the “blue note” between the fourth and fifth |
| chromatic | all twelve | no key at all |
The modes, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian and Locrian, are the major scale started on another of its notes. Keys and modes explains them, and how a scale becomes a key.
Seeing and hearing it in the app
- The piano roll has Key menus above its grid. Pick a key, and its notes get a dot on the keyboard at the left of the grid and are written next to the menus: C D E F G A B for C major. Snap to scale makes the notes you draw, move or play land on the key’s notes. See The piano roll.
- The harmony keys at the bottom of the window show the key’s chords; What chords do explains them.
- Any note you click in the piano roll’s keyboard plays, so you can play a scale with the mouse, or with the computer’s keys (MIDI > Typing keyboard to piano: Z X C V B N M are C D E F G A B).