Last Updated on April 1, 2015 by Karmyn

It’s important to understand some basic concepts of music for singing. Piano is the most common musical instrument to learn. It helps you understand notes, scales, key signatures, pitch, etc. In this module, I’ll be referring to a major scale. (If you are not enrolled in vocal and piano lessons, please seriously consider both. I currently do not teach piano, but I know some fantastically gifted pianists that I can refer.)

Let’s take a look at the basics of a singing scale.

The Musical alphabet has only 7 letters A-B-C-D-E-F-G and it just repeats.

Let’s take a quick look at the C scale. In this scale there are no sharps or flats (black keys.).

Now if we start with C, we would spell the scale out: C-D-E-F-G-A-B and then the C above the first one – an octave C.

The entire scale would be:

C-D-E-F-G-A-B-C

Now let’s add numbers to this scale where C is the beginning tone:

If I had you sing the consonant/vowel combination “ning” on a 1-3-5-8.
You would sing the notes C-E-G-C where as the second C would be the octave of the first.

Now let’s add Solfedge (you know…Do[e], a deer, a female deer).

I usually do numbers simply because that’s how I learned! 🙂

Practice!

Now, here is one of my FAVORITE music websites to teach you about the grand scale!
Simply use you forward or back arrows or your mouse to follow along.

Lesson: http://www.musictheory.net/lessons/10

When you are finished, try to identify these notes:
Exercises: http://www.musictheory.net/exercises/note/bgpyryyynyb

Don’t worry! I gave you a little help! 🙂