Lesson in Singing - Musical Scales

Voice Training with Scales.

A musical scale is a set of pitches arranged in from low to high, or alternatively, from high to low. We can sing musical scales to build up our vocal flexibility and train our ears. After all, singers ARE musicians. Basically there are only 12 notes which repeat themselves up and down the keyboard. The pitch difference between thoes 12 steps is called a semitone or half step. Semitones are quite small steps and are easy to sing but harder to hear. If we sang all thoes 12 steps one after the other we would be singing a chromatic scale. The major scale, all minor scales and all modes only contain 8 out of thoes 12 notes and thoes notes are very specific. It the specific distances between thoes notes that give the particular scale it's quality. The pentatonic scales, as it's name suggests, only contain 5 out of thoes 8 notes. When we learn the aural differences between the scales we are said to be 'ear training'. A good ear is one of the most useful tools a singer can cultivate.

As you sing up in the pitch your larynx moves up and as you sing down in pitch your larynx moves down. Also, the muslces that move the vocal chords are contracting or relaxing according to what pitch you are singing. So by practicing scales we are giving our muscles a workout. By training your voice in this way, you will be on your way to having a well developed voice. All good singing teachers during their singing lessons will take the student through a series of musical scales to keep their voice flexible. During a Speech Level Singing Lesson the student normally does voice training on an extended major arpeggio.