can someone help me complete the scale list?

[Caine123]

hey guys, so im still learning different scales. why and when you use a specific scale. mostly you read major is for happy and minor for darker/sad songs. well you can have a melody in c major but with a darker? chord progression and then no happy sound . but yeah i compare different controllers and scales and cannot get my head around...

e.g. i made this list of 2 daw controllers they contain the following scales


so i wonder why the Akai Fire doesnt have Harmonic Major? Melodic Major? and why is it only called Major, where is only Minor?
what is the difference to Harmonic minor <-> Melodic Minor <-> Natural Minor?

and when you go to beatport you see just C Min, or g# Minor, but what minor? in the scales i see different Minor, not "Minor" itself.

i guess it sounds totally dumb but yeah maybe i am hope someone can clarify so i can write down all scales thx

[jcrisman]

Perhaps this link can be helpful?
https://www.dolmetsch.com/musictheory25.htm

[envlpx]

Maybe this link will help? It's a list of "all" musical scales and modes. It's useful because it has a play button, so you can hear them:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_m ... _and_modes

[hexqm]

Perhaps this link can be helpful?
https://www.dolmetsch.com/musictheory25.htm

Thanks!

[gExpectations]

Scales are a set of notes that when played together, give a characteristic sound. The characteristic sound is produced by how the wave forms of notes relate to each other (a) at the same time and (basically but not technically harmony) (b) over time (basically but not technically melody). You can take the C major scale and play 2 notes at the same time or in succession with different distances to hear that specific distances sound more consonant and others more dissonant. This can be can also be described as numeric relationship. E.g. a perfect 5th is two tones in a relation ship of 3:2, meaning, when one wave repeats three time the other repeats twice.

The characteristic sound you get from scales stems from how the notes in the scale are distanced from each other and what note you start on. The note you start on, is usually very important because it anchors your ear to a "home" location: this is what i know first, this is where i start my adventure.

Now, major and minor are just the two 'basic' sets of scales. They order 7 of our 12 notes in a specific order. I.e. form the note you start on, "whole, whole, half, whole, whole, whole, half" for a major scale. Especially the minor scale is often given as natural, melodic and harmonic minor because of reasons explained above: it has certain note relations that when played melodically or harmonically (as chords) create dissonance in a way that is hard to use musically. So just from a functional perspective (what does it do), you could say there are multiple minor scales to solve problems in composing.

But while certain scales lead themselves to certain types of expression, i wouldn't bother too much. You can do a sad song in c major too! Just pick a scale and try exploring it, next time try another scale or use the same and try to make a song with a different feel. If you want to learn more, i can for example recommend the book "music theory for computer musicians", although there are a lot of options now and maybe also better books. This one has hundereds of pages on the characteristics of specific scales though.