I know this is not really EDM specific, but it's still in line with music theory. Here is an unusual trick I found to determine any flats and sharps of any major scale without counting whole tones(whole steps) and semitones(half steps) or learning them by heart WHICH IS BORING RIGHT?. I really don't know if anyone will find this useful but here it is in 4 simple steps :
1) Learn this simple series of notes. It's called the order of sharps : F - C - G - D - A - E - B These are all perfect fifth(7 semitones) apart starting from F(circle of fifth).
2) Identify the note one whole tone below the root note of the desired scale in the order of sharps. For exemple, for the B major scale, A is the note one whole tone below the root note.
3) Count every notes of the order of sharps till you reach the note determined at step 2) including this one. Congratulation you just found the sharps of the scale! For our exemple, F, C, G, D and A are the sharps of the B major scale!
For flat scales, you can do something similar using the order of flats which is the inverted order of sharps: B - E - A - D - G - C - F
1) Identify the root note of the desired scale in the order of flats.
2) Count every notes of the order of flats till you reach your root note and include the next one too. Congratulation you just found the flats of the scale! For example, D flat major's flats are B, E, A, D and G.
Of course there is some limitations :
- Does not work for C major (duh)
- Does not work for F major
- And probably a lot more
That trick was really useful when writing key signatures back in music class.
Cheers
Submitted November 30, 2017 at 11:08PM by MinorSeventhMusic https://www.reddit.com/r/edmproduction/comments/7grpps/my_weird_a_trick_to_figure_out_sharps_and_flats/?utm_source=ifttt
Javier Rodriguez
Thursday, November 30, 2017