Make it Music Trivia Quiz

Answer: Seven

A diatonic, or heptatonic, scale starts and finishes on notes with the same name, the higher one having twice the frequency of the lower one. The notes in any scale follow a specific pattern, depending both on the starting note and on the type of scale used. The C Major scale, for example, uses the notes C-D-E-F-G-A-B-C.

Pentatonic scales, with five notes, are based on five notes spaced in frequency like the black keys on a piano. Chromatic scales, which use all the white and black keys on a piano, have twelve notes. A scale with 20 notes per octave would need to use frequency intervals that are not used in Western instruments.

Answer: Melodic minor

The melodic minor scale, also called the jazz minor scale among other names, uses an augmented second (the interval from C to D#) between the sixth and seventh notes. If the notes are ascending, this is done by raising the sixth note by a half tone; when they are descending, the seventh note is lowered by a half tone.

Answer: False

The relative minor to a given major key uses the same notes, but has a different starting point, producing a different pattern in the scale. The relative minor of C Major, for example, is A Minor. The natural minor scales are also referred to as being written in Aeolian mode.

Answer: Ionian

Each note of the heptatonic scale can be used as the starting point for a musical scale, using the same notes to produce music which has a different aural impact. The pattern of notes for an Ionian scale is the same as that of C Major - C-D-E-F-G-A-B-C. A Dorian scale is D-E-F-G-A-B-C, Mixolydian is G-A-B-C-D-E-F, and Phrygian is E-F-G-A-B-C.

Answer: F

This key signature might indicate the key of G Major, as is commonly taught in introductory theory lessons. It could also, of course, indicate a number of scales in other modes, but they will all have F sharp instead of F.

Answer: F-C-G-D

Sharps, which indicate that a particular note is to be increased by half a tone, are traditionally written in the order F-C-G-D-A-E-B. The name of the major scale for that key can be determined by looking at the final sharp, and going to the next note in the sequence. One sharp, with F as the final sharp, is the key signature for F Major (or E Minor, etc.).

Answer: False

While that is technically possible, it is not the convention. One writes with sharps (raising tones to produce the desired sequence) or with flats (lowering the tones of the selected notes). It is definitely possible to change in the middle of the piece, and insert a new key signature.

Answer: BEAD

That mnemonic is sufficient to establish the pattern for the rest: B-E-A-D-G-C-F. The name of the major key that is indicated by any number of flats can be found (if there are two or more of them) by looking at the second-last one. Three flats is the key signature for E Flat major (or C Minor, etc.).

Answer: False

Seven sharps is the key signature for C Sharp Major, and seven flats that for C Flat Major - they are a tone apart. Some keys could be described using either sharps or flats (assuming that we are using an instrument for which the process of raising a note half a step and lowering it half a step do produce the same result), and it is convention that determines which is usually used.

The note C Sharp, for example, is the same as D Flat, so that scale can be written as D Flat, using four flats. C Sharp and D Flat are called enharmonic keys.

Answer: Accidental

If the music is in the key of C, for example, but for effect it is desired to use a D# at one point, then the sharp symbol can be written in front of the D. The accidental applies to that note (at all octaves) for that bar of music only. If it needs to be used for more than one bar, then either a new key signature is indicated for that passage, or the accidental must be repeated in each bar.