Why are scales important when making melodies?

[YoungCapone]

I’m trying to wrap my head around the concept of tonality and how scales fit into it. From what I understand, the relationships between notes (intervals) is at the core of how we write melodies and why they make us feel the way we do. It also seems that scales are built on top of those relationships and then chords are built on top of those scales. I still feel like I’m missing something there. Does anyone else have some insight into this? Wouldn't it be easier to just base everything off of the chromatic scale instead of having a million different scales and chords? Every interval relationship is already in the chromatic scale, why do we need others??

 

[crosstevsky]

Maybe this documentary will answer your question.

 

[2GooD Productions]

Mathematics has a lot to do with music, especially western music, as the 12 notes within an octave are based on mathematical principles by Pythagoras. Going from one octave to a higher one is just a matter of doubling the frequency of the note, and going down an octave is simply a matter of halving the frequency.

Sound also has a lot in common with light, they share the same frequency spectrum, just at greatly different parts of it. Changing a chord from major to minor can really change the way it feels, what emotions are being portrayed.

Then to make things even more complicated, you also have modes, which is changing one note within the chord to change how it feels.

The one most important thing Ive learned in music, is that the more you learn the more you realise how little you know and how much more there is to learn.

 

[YoungCapone]

Ok, cool. So, the relationships between notes are based on frequency which is what effects how the music feels within melodies. My question is, why do we use so many scales to represent those chanmges. I feel like major, minor etc. just complicates things. Wouldn't it be easier to base everything off the chromatic scale because it already contains every note?

 

[2GooD Productions]

 

[crosstevsky]

Ok, cool. So, the relationships between notes are based on frequency which is what effects how the music feels within melodies. My question is, why do we use so many scales to represent those chanmges. I feel like major, minor etc. just complicates things. Wouldn't it be easier to base everything off the chromatic scale because it already contains every note?

the key word here is "key"...so if you want to compose using all 12 tones not thinking about key, that is ok...but if you and I are playing music together we need to know in which musical key we are or it would be chaos... I hope this clear things up...

 

[YoungCapone]

Thanks! So why is that exactly? On a fundamental level why does playing music in different keys make it sound off?

 

[crosstevsky]

Because of mathematics as @2GooD Productions said. Certain frequency ratios related to intervals we percieve as sounding not so pleasant, for ex. minor second (that is C and C# played together) this interval is called dissonant interval, and on the opostite there are more perfect ratios of frequencies in intervals that are consonant (perfect fifth C and G played together) that are pleasant sounding and in harmony with each other. This doesn't mean that you can't use both disonnance and consonance in music, by using it cleverly (like the greats Mozzart or Beethoven) you achieve tension and releave which make music more interesting.