Okay djeggnog, I’ll bite. You said:
But above you said "chord," didn't you? So if we're talking about an F# chord, then this would consist of F#, Bb and C#, but for purposes of this discussion, we'll call these keys F#, A# and C#. If we're talking about an F#-minor chord, then this would consist of F#, A and C#, but for purposes of this discussion, we'll call these keys F#, A and C#. What was your point?
The above is what I had intended to write.
But again, you are mistaken. If you want to talk enharmonic equivalents, you need to say “Gb (major) chord”, which consists of Gb, Bb and Db – there is no F# chord that has a flat in it. F# chords only have sharps and naturals.
I think we both know who it was that contributed the word "quality" as well as the rest of this verbiage to Wikipedia
Huh?? You lost me there. Besides, Wikipedia is not the only source that supports the use of “quality”. Come on now.
From a guitar theory site:
The terms Major, Minor , Augmented and Diminished are used as a suffix to describe the quality of different triads similar to the way these terms are used as a prefix to describe the quality of intervals. (Notice that "perfect" is not used as a suffix for triads)
Oh look, another site teaching music theory (and they even support my other point about the 3 rd scale degree being pivotal as to whether it is major or minor…hmmm:
So what determines major or minor quality ? Getting back to our chapter topic of major / minor tonality, you may have noticed that in the charts above that the 3rd scale degree, our lettered pitch E in the above examples, is consistently in bold type. It's the interval quality of the 3rd scale degree above the starting fundamental or root pitch, that determines whether our scales, arpeggios and chords are either major or minor
I could keep adding to the list, but…moving on.
My only objection is that you don't seem to realize that musicians don't speak in terms of C-natural when they are articulating to someone the notes that they are playing, either in a chord or in a musical scale
If the key, or whether it is major/minor/or whatever, has not been determined or defined, you better believe musicians will speak in terms of whether or not a note they are playing is sharp/flat/natural, especially if there is a debate as to whether or not what is written and being played is correct. And that is exactly the scenario my example is depicting.
Djeggnog, it’s almost as if you are trying to not understand me. If you think I don’t know anything about what musicians speak, you are greatly mistaken. The last conversation I had with a musician occurred last night…I spoke with Christian Lindberg – one of the world’s finest trombone soloists. Although I have much to learn, I am not completely ignorant either. The last email correspondence I had with a musician was Friday night with David Hickman…also a wonderful player -- in fact, a world famous trumpet performer/teacher and a friend of mine. Music is not just a hobby for me. Maybe you could consider giving my input the slightest bit of value…or not.
With respect to the melodic major and minor "triads," it is always the third note in the minor triad that is flatted, so to speak, which is why, as I stated above, I had to have been exhausted to have completely ignored the fact that there are 12 intervals (half-steps) in a musical scale ..
Are you serious?? Or are you just playing around?? Major and minor scalse consist of 7 intervals (varying combinations of whole and half-steps).
12 half-step intervals in a musical scale? We musicians refer to that scale as a chromatic scale. What the heck does the chromatic scale have to do with this??
when I wrote what I did about the harmonic F#-minor chord's fourth interval being a Eb (D#), when the fourth interval will always be a C# (Db), …
We musicians don’t talk about an interval being one note…an interval, by definition, is the interval between two notes. What you are referring to is what we musicians call scale degree defining its position in the scale – i.e. for a C# in the F# minor chord you speak of, it is the “5 th ”. The interval you assign to it will depend on what note you’re comparing it to – i.e. the root to the 5 th is an interval of a perfect fifth in this case.
when this note will always be five half-steps away from the root note .
Huh?? You have got to be pulling my leg!! LOL!
Okay, I’ll play along. Five half-steps from the root note would take you to the 4th note in the scale, which is not a C#. So, the F# is the root in this case. You are talking about C# in the F# harmonic minor scale. We determined that C# is the 5 th scale degree. The interval from the root (F#) to the 5 th (C#) is NOT five half-steps! The interval is what we musicians call a perfect fifth…which would be equivalent to 7 half-steps (although we wouldn’t refer to it that way…we use perfect fifth instead)!
While a minor chord will always be three half-steps away from the root note, a major chord will always be four half-steps away from the root note.
Uhmm…if you mean to say that the 3 rd in a minor chord will always be 3 half-steps away from the root (that interval is what we musicians call a minor third), then yes, you are correct…but that’s not really what you said.
Uhmm…if you mean to say that the 3 rd in a major chord will always be 4 half-steps away from the root (that interval is what we musicians call a major third), then yes, you are correct…but that’s not really what you said either.
Wow…am I missing something critical that would clear up all of your, what appears to be, nonsense?? Is this the kind of approach you take when trying to answer other questions? If so, it should be no surprise to me that you can’t see how your other answers have produced conflicts. Just being honest.
And with this "lesson," I'm done
LOL! Looks to me like you never started. If that was a lesson, I demand a refund! :)
Seriously djeggnog…as amusing as that was, don’t waste my time with nonsense…please. And if you were serious, then…wow.
