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47-547: The instrument has the same scale length as a mandolin (about 14 inches); with 4 courses of strings tuned identically to the violin and mandolin (low to high: GDAE). The movable bridge stands on a resonant banjo-like head typically 10 inches in diameter and currently usually made of plastic. Originally heads were made of skin and varied in diameter to as small as five inches. Larger heads were favored, however, as they were louder, and thus more audible in band settings. Inventors were experimenting to create amplified instruments in

94-457: A scale is "any consecutive series of notes that form a progression between one note and its octave ", typically by order of pitch or fundamental frequency . The word "scale" originates from the Latin scala , which literally means " ladder ". Therefore, any scale is distinguishable by its "step-pattern", or how its intervals interact with each other. Often, especially in the context of

141-406: A "tonic" diatonic scale and modulate to the "dominant" scale a fifth above. In the 19th century (to a certain extent), but more in the 20th century, additional types of scales were explored: A large variety of other scales exists, some of the more common being: Scales such as the pentatonic scale may be considered gapped relative to the diatonic scale. An auxiliary scale is a scale other than

188-576: A binary system of twelve zeros or ones to represent each of the twelve notes of a chromatic scale . The most common binary numbering scheme defines lower pitches to have lower numeric value (as opposed to low pitches having a high numeric value). Thus a single pitch class n in the pitch class set is represented by 2^n. This maps the entire power set of all pitch class sets in 12-TET to the numbers 0 to 4095. The binary digits read as ascending pitches from right to left, which some find discombobulating because they are used to low to high reading left to right, as on

235-554: A composition, such as in Claude Debussy 's L'Isle Joyeuse . To the right, the first scale is a whole-tone scale, while the second and third scales are diatonic scales. All three are used in the opening pages of Debussy's piece. Scales in traditional Western music generally consist of seven notes and repeat at the octave. Notes in the commonly used scales (see just below) are separated by whole and half step intervals of tones and semitones. The harmonic minor scale includes

282-403: A division of the octave space into a certain number of scale steps, a scale step being the recognizable distance (or interval ) between two successive notes of the scale. However, there is no need for scale steps to be equal within any scale and, particularly as demonstrated by microtonal music , there is no limit to how many notes can be injected within any given musical interval. A measure of

329-463: A metallic back that made a "tinny" metallic sound. The American instruments he said were open backed, "and they call Mandoline-Banjo or Bandoline what we call Banjoline." He said that amateurs and professionals alike preferred the single string instrument to the double stringed version, because of the "nice clear sound," which he said resembled the violin pizzicato . During the Hawaiian music craze of

376-427: A moveable seven-note scale . Indian Rāgas often use intervals smaller than a semitone. Turkish music Turkish makams and Arabic music maqamat may use quarter tone intervals. In both rāgas and maqamat, the distance between a note and an inflection (e.g., śruti ) of that same note may be less than a semitone. Salvador Leonardi Salvator Léonardi (2 July 1872, Catania – 23 February 1938, Paris )

423-422: A note between G and G ♯ or a note moving between both. In blues, a pentatonic scale is often used. In jazz, many different modes and scales are used, often within the same piece of music. Chromatic scales are common, especially in modern jazz. In Western music, scale notes are often separated by equally tempered tones or semitones, creating 12 intervals per octave. Each interval separates two tones;

470-449: A piano keyboard. In this scheme, the major scale is 101010110101 = 2741. This binary representation permits easy calculation of interval vectors and common tones, using logical binary operators. It also provides a perfect index for every possible combination of tones, as every scale has its own number. Scales may also be shown as semitones from the tonic. For instance, 0 2 4 5 7 9 11 denotes any major scale such as C–D–E–F–G–A–B, in which

517-400: A semitone. The blue note is an interval that is technically neither major nor minor but "in the middle", giving it a characteristic flavour. A regular piano cannot play blue notes, but with electric guitar , saxophone , trombone and trumpet , performers can "bend" notes a fraction of a tone sharp or flat to create blue notes. For instance, in the key of E, the blue note would be either

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564-599: A third (in this case a major third); D and F also create a third (in this case a minor third). A single scale can be manifested at many different pitch levels. For example, a C major scale can be started at C4 (middle C; see scientific pitch notation ) and ascending an octave to C5; or it could be started at C6, ascending an octave to C7. Scales may be described according to the number of different pitch classes they contain: Scales may also be described by their constituent intervals, such as being hemitonic , cohemitonic , or having imperfections. Many music theorists concur that

611-711: A three-semitone step; the anhemitonic pentatonic includes two of those and no semitones. Western music in the Medieval and Renaissance periods (1100–1600) tends to use the white-note diatonic scale C–D–E–F–G–A–B. Accidentals are rare, and somewhat unsystematically used, often to avoid the tritone . Music of the common practice periods (1600–1900) uses three types of scale: These scales are used in all of their transpositions. The music of this period introduces modulation, which involves systematic changes from one scale to another. Modulation occurs in relatively conventionalized ways. For example, major-mode pieces typically begin in

658-425: A tritone), and one without tritones is atritonic . A scale or chord that contains semitones is called hemitonic, and without semitones is anhemitonic . Scales can be abstracted from performance or composition . They are also often used precompositionally to guide or limit a composition. Explicit instruction in scales has been part of compositional training for many centuries. One or more scales may be used in

705-445: Is C–B–A–G–F–E–D–[C], with the bracket indicating an octave lower than the first note in the scale. The distance between two successive notes in a scale is called a scale step . The notes of a scale are numbered by their steps from the first degree of the scale. For example, in a C major scale the first note is C, the second D, the third E and so on. Two notes can also be numbered in relation to each other: C and E create an interval of

752-477: Is D–E–F ♯ in Chromatic transposition). Since the steps of a scale can have various sizes, this process introduces subtle melodic and harmonic variation into the music. In Western tonal music, the simplest and most common type of modulation (or changing keys) is to shift from one major key to another key built on the first key's fifth (or dominant) scale degree. In the key of C major, this would involve moving to

799-522: Is defined by its characteristic interval pattern and by a special note, known as its first degree (or tonic ). The tonic of a scale is the note selected as the beginning of the octave, and therefore as the beginning of the adopted interval pattern. Typically, the name of the scale specifies both its tonic and its interval pattern. For example, C major indicates a major scale with a C tonic. Scales are typically listed from low to high pitch. Most scales are octave -repeating , meaning their pattern of notes

846-447: Is not universal; John Farris patented an instrument with 8 strings calling it a banjolin by name in 1885. The Farris banjolin was offered in soprano , alto , tenor , and bass models. However, he "converted it to a four-string instrument," maintaining the mandolin and violin scale length and tuning (GDAE). Banjo hybrids normally take their names from the Banjo- prefix, and then

893-405: Is one of the hybrids that resulted. It enabled mandolinists to produce a banjo sound without having to learn that instrument's fingerings. The instrument adds the banjo's volume to the mandolin. The banjolin is different from the banjo-mandolin in the number of strings that it has. Banjolins today are supposed to have four strings instead of 8 strings (in courses or pairs). However, that distinction

940-454: Is the same in every octave (the Bohlen–Pierce scale is one exception). An octave-repeating scale can be represented as a circular arrangement of pitch classes, ordered by increasing (or decreasing) pitch class. For instance, the increasing C major scale is C–D–E–F–G–A–B–[C], with the bracket indicating that the last note is an octave higher than the first note, and the decreasing C major scale

987-411: The common practice period , most or all of the melody and harmony of a musical work is built using the notes of a single scale, which can be conveniently represented on a staff with a standard key signature . Due to the principle of octave equivalence, scales are generally considered to span a single octave, with higher or lower octaves simply repeating the pattern. A musical scale represents

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1034-556: The harmonic overtones series. Many musical scales in the world are based on this system, except most of the musical scales from Indonesia and the Indochina Peninsulae, which are based on inharmonic resonance of the dominant metalophone and xylophone instruments. Some scales use a different number of pitches. A common scale in Eastern music is the pentatonic scale, which consists of five notes that span an octave. For example, in

1081-615: The Chinese culture, the pentatonic scale is usually used for folk music and consists of C, D, E, G and A, commonly known as gong, shang, jue, chi and yu. Some scales span part of an octave; several such short scales are typically combined to form a scale spanning a full octave or more, and usually called with a third name of its own. The Turkish and Middle Eastern music has around a dozen such basic short scales that are combined to form hundreds of full-octave spanning scales. Among these scales Hejaz scale has one scale step spanning 14 intervals (of

1128-516: The English company Windsor, who all built and sold 4 and 8 string banjos in the early 20th century. Today mandolins-banjos are being manufactured by Vintage, GoldTone, Rogue, Cumbus , Morgan Monroe and Musikalia - Dr. Alfio Leone. GoldTone makes the MB-850+ Mandolin-Banjo , with a removable maple resonator (converting the instrument to an open-backed instrument). The selection is not large and

1175-409: The constituent intervals of a scale have a large role in the cognitive perception of its sonority, or tonal character. "The number of the notes that make up a scale as well as the quality of the intervals between successive notes of the scale help to give the music of a culture area its peculiar sound quality." "The pitch distances or intervals among the notes of a scale tell us more about the sound of

1222-495: The days before electric amplification. The first patent for a mandolin-banjo was taken out in 1882 by Benjamin Bradbury of Brooklyn. The name banjolin was first patented by John Farris in 1885. The instrument was popularized prior to the 1920s, when the tenor banjo became more popular. In the heyday of mandolin orchestras and banjo bands (late 19th–early 20th century), all sorts of instruments were produced. The mandolin-banjo

1269-524: The double-string instruments, but escaped their problems with tuning and overtones. In his 1921 book Méthode for the Banjoline or Mandoline-Banjo , Salvador Leonardi said that naming conventions between the United States and France had applied similar names to different instruments. In France and England, the Banjoline was an open-backed instrument, and the mandoline-banjo was a closed back instrument (with

1316-547: The early 20th century, instrument makers tried to capitalize on the widespread desire to learn an instrument. Makers of zithers applied the names of known instruments to their zithers as a theme. The Banjolin name was applied in this way to a type of bowed fretless zither . Compared to mandolins and banjos, manufacture of mandolin banjos grew scarce in the late 20th century. Historically, mass produced mandolin-banjos were made by companies including Gibson , Weymann & Son of Philadelphia, Vega , S.S. Stewart , Lange , and

1363-439: The first degree is, obviously, 0 semitones from the tonic (and therefore coincides with it), the second is 2 semitones from the tonic, the third is 4 semitones from the tonic, and so on. Again, this implies that the notes are drawn from a chromatic scale tuned with 12-tone equal temperament. For some fretted string instruments, such as the guitar and the bass guitar , scales can be notated in tabulature , an approach which indicates

1410-438: The fret number and string upon which each scale degree is played. Composers transform musical patterns by moving every note in the pattern by a constant number of scale steps: thus, in the C major scale, the pattern C–D–E might be shifted up, or transposed , a single scale step to become D–E–F. This process is called "scalar transposition" or "shifting to a new key" and can often be found in musical sequences and patterns. (It

1457-449: The higher tone has an oscillation frequency of a fixed ratio (by a factor equal to the twelfth root of two , or approximately 1.059463) higher than the frequency of the lower one. A scale uses a subset consisting typically of 7 of these 12 as scale steps. Many other musical traditions use scales that include other intervals. These scales originate within the derivation of the harmonic series . Musical intervals are complementary values of

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1504-413: The instrument was soaring in popularity in the shape of the banjo. He did not just recycle old material for his book, but also included his own compositions, including Souvenir de Malta , Caminando (a tango), Souvenir de Rome , Un Beso Por Teléfono , Qui-Pro-Quo , Rêverie , and Capriccio (a polka). As a music teacher, Léonardi was unsure of whether to include jazz in his book, saying he thought it

1551-864: The instruments are not common in stores. Morgan Monroe has recently made three models, the MM-MB1 Mandolin Banjo the MM-MB2 Mandolin Banjo, and the Banjolin DLX (8 strings). The Morgan Monroe banjos look like traditional mandolin-banjos and have wooden resonators. The Cumbus model has a spun aluminum resonator. Prices currently range from around US$ 150 to $ 700. In Italy, Musikalia manufactures three models of Mandolin Banjo, always with wooden resonator (mahogany, padouk or maple root wood veneered), animal skin, but gives an alternative between simple or double aluminium ring. Most instruction books concentrate on either

1598-475: The key of G major (which uses an F ♯ ). Composers also often modulate to other related keys. In some Romantic music era pieces and contemporary music, composers modulate to "remote keys" that are not related to or close to the tonic. An example of a remote modulation would be taking a song that begins in C major and modulating (changing keys) to F ♯ major. Through the introduction of blue notes , jazz and blues employ scale intervals smaller than

1645-435: The mandolin or the banjo. Mandolinists need more than just mandolin method because the physical differences between the two types of instruments creates problems to a novice learning to set up and tune the instrument. One of the first books to address the mandolin-banjo was Méthode pour Banjoline ou Mandoline-Banjo (Method for Banjolin and Mandolin-Banjo ) by Salvador Leonardi . Scale (music) In music theory ,

1692-477: The middle eastern type found 53 in an octave) roughly similar to 3 semitones (of the western type found 12 in an octave), while Saba scale , another of these middle eastern scales, has 3 consecutive scale steps within 14 commas, i.e. separated by roughly one western semitone either side of the middle tone. Gamelan music uses a small variety of scales including Pélog and Sléndro , none including equally tempered nor harmonic intervals. Indian classical music uses

1739-498: The music than does the mere number of tones." Scales may also be described by their symmetry, such as being palindromic , chiral , or having rotational symmetry as in Messiaen's modes of limited transposition . The notes of a scale form intervals with each of the other notes of the chord in combination . A 5-note scale has 10 of these harmonic intervals, a 6-note scale has 15, a 7-note scale has 21, an 8-note scale has 28. Though

1786-486: The notes of a scale, it is customary that each scale degree be assigned its own letter name: for example, the A major scale is written A–B–C ♯ –D–E–F ♯ –G ♯ rather than A–B–D ♭ –D–E–E [REDACTED] –G ♯ . However, it is impossible to do this in scales that contain more than seven notes, at least in the English-language nomenclature system. Scales may also be identified by using

1833-403: The notes of the C major scale using A = 1, B = 2, C = 3, and so on. When we do so, we create a new scale called the A minor scale . See the musical note article for how the notes are customarily named in different countries. The scale degrees of a heptatonic (7-note) scale can also be named using the terms tonic , supertonic , mediant , subdominant , dominant , submediant , subtonic . If

1880-444: The primary or original scale. See: modulation (music) and Auxiliary diminished scale . In many musical circumstances, a specific note of the scale is chosen as the tonic —the central and most stable note of the scale. In Western tonal music, simple songs or pieces typically start and end on the tonic note. Relative to a choice of a certain tonic, the notes of a scale are often labeled with numbers recording how many scale steps above

1927-483: The scale is not a chord , and might never be heard more than one note at a time, still the absence, presence, and placement of certain key intervals plays a large part in the sound of the scale, the natural movement of melody within the scale, and the selection of chords taken naturally from the scale. A musical scale that contains tritones is called tritonic (though the expression is also used for any scale with just three notes per octave, whether or not it includes

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1974-427: The second half of the other instrument's name, such as banjocello , banjo guitar , and banjo ukulele which implies the banjolin is a sort of mandolin/banjo hybrid. In the advertisement, Farris did not mention where the name came from, but did say that it was "fingered like the violin." In the United States, the term "melody banjo" was often used for four-string mandolin-banjos, which lacked the jazz-orchestra volume of

2021-405: The subtonic is a semitone away from the tonic, then it is usually called the leading-tone (or leading-note); otherwise the leading-tone refers to the raised subtonic. Also commonly used is the (movable do) solfège naming convention in which each scale degree is denoted by a syllable. In the major scale, the solfège syllables are: do, re, mi, fa, so (or sol), la, ti (or si), do (or ut). In naming

2068-425: The tonic they are. For example, the notes of the C major scale (C, D, E, F, G, A, B) can be labeled {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7}, reflecting the choice of C as tonic. The expression scale degree refers to these numerical labels. Such labeling requires the choice of a "first" note; hence scale-degree labels are not intrinsic to the scale itself, but rather to its modes. For example, if we choose A as tonic, then we can label

2115-532: The width of each scale step provides a method to classify scales. For instance, in a chromatic scale each scale step represents a semitone interval, while a major scale is defined by the interval pattern W–W–H–W–W–W–H, where W stands for whole step (an interval spanning two semitones, e.g. from C to D), and H stands for half-step (e.g. from C to D ♭ ). Based on their interval patterns, scales are put into categories including pentatonic , diatonic , chromatic , major , minor , and others. A specific scale

2162-504: Was a mandolin virtuoso , teacher and composer. He taught in Egypt, Malta, London and Paris for more than 20 years, and also toured as a performer. Léonardi learned mandolin and guitar from an uncle, but went on to become a professional musician, studying the violin at a Naples conservatory . He won awards as a solo mandolinist at international music competitions in Florence and Rome. Léonardi

2209-486: Was the author of the Méthode pour Banjoline ou Mandoline-Banjo ( Method for Banjolin and Mandolin-Banjo ). The book was rare among texts teaching mandolin, because it taught his method in three languages at once, English, French and Spanish. In the third edition of his mandolin-banjo method (1921), he stated in the introduction that the mandolin had been declining in popularity from previous times. In writing his book, he noted

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