Alteration signs (about sharp, flat, bekar). Gamma in F sharp minor: varieties, signs, triads, parallel major Random and key signs

In the magical and wonderful world of music, every step brings new impressions, unique emotions. Despite the seemingly insignificant distance to the neighboring piano key (semitone) - this is exactly the smallest step of music, this interval is very significant if we talk about the harmonic component.

Musical angles

You can draw a parallel with photography: one step to the side brings a change in perspective, and the subject sometimes appears in a completely different, hitherto unseen light.

And since sound waves and light are the driving force of photography, from the point of view of physics (and, as you know, it is useless to argue with the exact sciences), these phenomena are of the same order and often obey the same laws, which means that a change in indicators can cause a similar effect.

The wisdom of the classics

This circumstance, as a rule, is neglected by pop composers, songwriters, whose creations, at the request of the performer, can be transposed into any key. Using our system of images, one can liken such a composer to a photographer who does not care if the frame is underexposed or overexposed - after all, he shoots the same landscape.

The classical composers, and after them the entire academic school, were well aware of the above circumstance, especially since among them there were scientists in the field of physics and chemistry. The classics were very scrupulous about the choice of the tonality of their works. They often included the tonality in the name itself, which means that it could not be changed at the whim of this or that capricious performer.

Colorful music

And such outstanding figures of musical art as Scriabin, Rimsky-Korsakov, being endowed with the so-called "color hearing", perceived each tonality as a certain color scale.

The phenomenon of color hearing is explained by the existence of the psychological phenomenon "synesthesia", which denotes the process of an involuntary response of one type of receptor to stimulation of another.

Alexander Nikolayevich Scriabin used the term "color tone" to denote the color scale inherent in a particular musical tonality. It is interesting that the word "tone", which is the root of the lexeme "tonality", is also used in fine arts and photography.

In addition to color associations, Scriabin endowed tonalities with such epithets as "spiritual" tonalities, such as F-sharp minor, F-sharp major and "earthly, material", including C major, F major and others.

Color tone

Colors, in turn, for Scriabin, were symbols of the fundamental components of the universe. So, red in this system is associated with the "color of hell", violet and blue - denote the spiritual component of being. On the basis of this unique perception of the world, Scriabin wrote the symphonic poem "Prometheus". In addition to the instruments of the symphony orchestra, the part of the light was included in the score of this work. At the premiere of "Prometheus" in 1910, for the first time in history, light and music equipment was used. This event anticipated the widespread use of such equipment during concerts today, as well as all kinds of laser shows.

However, Scriabin was deeply mistaken, arguing that the color-sound perception of all owners of such hearing is no different from each other.

Many composers had an individual vision of sounds and tonalities, sometimes radically different from those of Scriabin.

A bit of theory

In this article, we will consider just one key - F-sharp minor - and compare the ideas about this key among different composers.

To begin with, here's a little theoretical background on the tonality itself. It has the Latin designation fis-moll. In the key of F-sharp minor, the signs at the key are sharp in F, C and G. Random signs can vary depending on the minor type (natural, harmonic, melodic, etc.). The scale in F sharp minor (natural) consists of the following sounds:

• F-sharp;
• G-sharp;
• C sharp;

Despite the fact that this tonality is not among the most common, there are many examples of musical art written in this vein. Among the famous pieces of music written in this key: "Piano Sonata No. 1" by Schumann, etudes in F sharp minor by Scriabin and Leshhorn. It is impossible to ignore the "Concerto for Piano and Orchestra, Op. 20" by Scriabin. Rachmaninoff's Prelude in F sharp minor No. 1 is also widely known.

The taste and color ...

So, Alexander Nikolaevich Scriabin gave the following characteristic of the key in F-sharp minor: he saw the tone of F-sharp in a bright blue color. The composer called this color "the color of pure consciousness".

It is worth noting that Scriabin called his "Sonata in F-sharp minor for piano No. 3, Op. 23" "States of the Soul", where each of the four movements is named in honor of a certain emotional experience.

Nikolai Andreevich Rimsky-Korsakov saw this tonality in a pale grayish greenish color.

Soviet composer Boris Vladimirovich Asafiev compared F sharp minor to the skin of a ripe orange.

The Belgian composer and musicologist Auguste Guevart, who did not have a colored ear, but who composed his own system, consisting exclusively of the keys of the major scale, wrote that the expressive potential of the minor key does not differ much, in contrast to the major key. F-sharp minor, in his opinion, is dull, foggy and blurry.

In 1977-1978. students of the Tver Musical College I. Bynkova, M. Dobrynskaya, T. Zaitseva, E. Zubryakova, S. Shcherbakova, N. Yakovleva set out to refute Gevart's statement, and in the course of analyzing a number of musical works to reveal the characteristics of the range of minor keys. In the course of this study, F-sharp minor was given the characterization "agitated".

The following conclusion is logical: how many composers - so many opinions. That's how different F-sharp minor can be! Most instrumental music is abstract and perceived subjectively. But this is its beauty!

In this article, we will continue our conversation about musical notation - we will study the signs of alteration. What is alteration? Alteration- this is a change in the main steps of the scale (the main steps are do re mi fa sol la si ). What exactly is changing? Their height and name are changing slightly.

Sharp- this is an increase in the sound by half a tone, flat- lowering it by half a tone. After the note is changed, one word is simply added to its main name - respectively, sharp or flat. For example, C sharp, F sharp, A flat, E flat etc. In notes, sharps and flats are indicated by special signs, which are also called sharp and flat... Another sign is also used - natural, it cancels any alteration, and then, instead of a sharp or flat, we play the main sound.

See how it looks in sheet music:

What is a semitone?

Now let's take a closer look at everything. What are these semitones? Semitone Is the shortest distance between two adjacent sounds. Let's take a look at the piano keyboard as an example. Here is an octave with signed keys in front of you:

What do we see? We have 7 white keys and the main steps are located on them. It seems that there is a rather short distance between them, but, nevertheless, there are black keys between the white keys. We have 5 black keys. It turns out that in total there are 12 sounds in an octave, 12 keys. So, each of these keys in relation to the nearest neighbor is located at a semitone distance. That is, if we play all 12 keys in a row, we will play all 12 semitones.

Double sharp and double flat

In addition to simple sharps and flats in musical practice, double sharp and double flat... What are doubles - these are double step changes. In other words, double sharp raises the note by two semitones at once (that is, by a whole tone), and double flat- lowers the note by a whole tone ( one tone is two semitones).

Natural- this is a sign of cancellation of alteration, it acts in relation to takes in exactly the same way as to ordinary sharps and flats. For example, if we played f-take-sharp, and then after a while before the note F a bekar appears, then we play a "clean" note "F".

Random and key characters

So, let's summarize.

We talked about alteration: we learned what alteration is and what alteration signs are. Sharp- this is a sign of a semitone rise, flat Is a sign of lowering the note by a semitone, and natural- alteration cancellation sign. In addition, there are so-called doubles: double sharp and double flat- they raise or lower the sound at once by a whole tone (whole tone Is two semitones).

That's all! I wish you continued success in mastering musical literacy. Visit us more often, we will discuss other interesting topics. If you liked the material, click "Like" and share the information with your friends. Now I suggest you digress a little and listen to good music beautifully performed by the brilliant contemporary pianist Yevgeny Kissin.

Ludwig van Beethoven - Rondo "Rage over the lost penny"

The F chord is the barre trick that all beginners dread. You can avoid it, thereby limiting your repertoire. But, if you really want to learn how to play the guitar, sooner or later you will have to learn how to play the barre. Moreover, there is nothing complicated in it. If you practice regularly, you can quickly master the F chord.

Fingering and Chord Recording

Chords are indicated by capital Latin letters (A, B, C, D, E, F, G). F is in F major. Additional letters and numbers after a capital letter indicate a specific chord variation. For example, the letter m means that it is a minor consonance. The number 7 indicates that this is a seventh chord, etc.

Unlike a piano keyboard, a guitar fretboard allows you to play the same harmony in different positions. Fingering is used to specify how a chord should be played. It looks like this.

The fingering depicts where on the fretboard you need to press a particular string.

The structure of major and minor triads F

F major (F) consists of sounds: fa (F), to (C), la (A).

F minor (Fm) consists of sounds: fa (F), C (C), G sharp (G #).

The notes included in the consonance must be memorized in order to play a chord anywhere on the fretboard. This is very useful when you are playing in an ensemble or rock band with two guitars.

F (F major) and Fm (F minor) on guitar

Pick up your guitar and start pinching the chord fingerings.

F major in first position

Pick up the barre at 1 fret. With your middle finger, press the 3rd string to the 2nd fret, place your ring finger and little finger on the 3rd fret, on the 5th and 4 strings.

Play a chord. Surely the first two strings sound dull or don't sound at all. If this is the case, then bend and twist your index finger slightly towards the guitar deck. Find the optimal position where all strings sound. In doing so, in no case turn your index finger into a gnarled claw. It should be either straight or gently bent.

IMPORTANT! Thumb position

When playing barre chords, place your thumb in the middle of the back of the neck. This will focus your effort on your fingers rather than your hand and forearm. In this position, the hand will be much less tired.

F minor in first position

Fm differs from F only in the position of the middle finger. When playing a minor triad, it remains free.

F at 3rd fret

You can take F from the 3rd fret. This will make the fingering look like a D major shape. Try placing your fingers as shown in the image below and playing a chord.

Fm at 3rd fret

The minor F triad from the 3rd fret has the form of a D minor chord. In practice, it is not used due to the fact that it is inconvenient to move from this position to other consonances.

F with small barre at 5 fret

And this variation of F is similar to C major. Only played not on the 1st, but on the 6th fret.

Fm at the 5th fret

This unusual fingering of Fm can only be found in the compositions of guitar freaks like Robert Fripp and Frank Zappa. The average F minor guitarist would never play that way.

F and Fm c barre in eighth position

The F and Fm fingering with 8-position barre is used when playing electric guitar when you want to give the instrument a brighter sound.

The fingering is as follows.

Major triad.

Minor triad.

F and Fm after 12th fret.

After the 12th fret, all chord fingerings are repeated because the notes on the guitar fretboard are repeated. They just get an octave higher. For example, an F at the 17th fret looks the same as at the 5th.

If you can't play F major

Beginners usually put off learning F major until the last minute. If you find it hard to hold the barre, there is another way to play F major at the first frets. Look at the fingering and clamp the strings as shown.

Please note that the first 2 strings must be clamped with one index finger.

IMPORTANT! About difficulties

Learn barre anyway. The method of playing F major described above is necessary so that your learning does not slow down. But this fingering is not a full-fledged replacement for the usual F major.

Popular variations of the F chord

Due to the fact that the F accords are played with the barre, there are not too many popular variations. In practice, guitarists use the sharp and fifth chord variations. Less commonly, non-chords and seventh chords.

F major major seventh chord (F7)

The fingering of this variation looks like this.

To get F7, hold F and remove the little finger from the fretboard.

F sharp minor (F # m)

F-sharp minor is the most popular variation of F accords. It is clamped in the same way as F minor, but not at 1 fret, but at 2.

Large nonchord F (F9)

F9 is clamped like F7 with pinky on string 1, fret 3.

Quint chord F (F5)

Note that only three strings need to be played in a fifth chord. The rest you must muffle with the palm of your left hand.

The F5 fifth chord can be played in both 1 and 8 positions.

1 position

8 position

In the musical environment, fifth chords are called "fifths", or "power chords" (from the English. Power chords).

INTERESTING.

Some guitarists drop the 6th string a tone lower. This allows the fifth chord to be pressed with one finger.

This technique is called drop-tuning. It is often used by musicians working in the hard genres of rock music.

Exercise Popular Sequences

Before you start learning songs with F, spend some time practicing the transitions from barre to open chords and back again. The biggest problem for beginners is the inability to quickly grip all the strings with the index finger and put the rest of the fingers in the desired positions. But you can get rid of this problem only with regular exercise.

Below are the chord progressions you need to practice.

Open Chord Sequences

Most popular progression: Am F C E.

Having learned this combination of consonances, you can easily play such songs as "Everything is going according to plan", "I was looking for you", "Whistled", "My enemy, fear me", "Half" and a dozen others.

Combination: Dm F E.

As you play this sequence, you practice the transition Dm - F, and then F - E. When changing position for the first time, keep your middle finger on the 3 strings. Move only the index, ring and pinky fingers. On the second change of position, simply move your hand without changing the position of your fingers.

It turns out that you grip E major with your middle, ring and little fingers. This is wrong in terms of E fingering, but very convenient in practice.

Barre sequences

First sequence with barre: F C G.

When you play it, you are practicing the transition from one type of barre to another. If you ever plan to pick up an electric guitar, then you definitely need to master this sequence.

The next row of chords: Am, G, F, E.

Here all the chords need to be played with the barre. It turns out that you are moving down the bar. In this order, these 4 chords played with a barre are sometimes referred to as the "Spanish sequence".

The third barre progression includes a sharp chord: F # m, Bm, A, G.

Once you've mastered the previous two chord progressions, this one should be easy to play. F # m is often found in songs. And almost always it is paired with Bm.

TIP: Think ahead

When you are going to play a song, look at the sequence of accordions before starting the performance. Imagine how you will change one chord to another. Determine comfortable positions. Where to play with open strings, and where to get a barre.

It is better to sit for half a minute studying the chords than to stop in the middle of the song, choosing the desired fingering.

Later, when you already have some experience, the entire sequence analysis process will take a fraction of a second. But at the beginning of the training, this should be given more time.

Popular Guitar Songs Using F Chords

Below is a list of popular songs containing F, F7, F # m, Fm. First, take 1 or 2 songs to study. Learn them so that you can play from memory. Expand your repertoire gradually. Try to add only songs that you like. Because they are more enjoyable to play.

• Chizh- "Phantom"
• civil defense- "Everything goes according to plan"
• Chaif- "Oh-yo"
• Bi-2 and Chicherina- "My rock and roll"
• Night sniper s - "You gave me roses"
• Army song- "When is the order"
• Buckwheat- "Love me Love"
• Nirvana- "Smells like Teen Spirit"
• Cinema- "Blood type"
• King and the Clown- "I'll jump off a cliff"
• Lube- "You carry me, river"
• Beetles- "Battery"
• Aria- "Lost heaven"
• Cinema- "Good night"
• 5'nizza- "Soldier"
• 25/17 - "Star"
• A. Prikhodko- "Faith"
• Natalie- "Oh, God, what a man!"
• M. Krug- "Kolshchik"
• "Golden ray of sunshine"

Attention! Increased difficulty level

If you're feeling empowered, try playing the opening riff of the band's "Song 2" Blur... This song uses the F fifth chord.

Keys F dur (F major) and F moll (F minor)

The table lists the tones that can be used when playing in the keys of F.

• Although F major is often used in songs, it is very rare for songs to start with this harmony.
• Of all the chords, the F variation (F sharp, F sharp minor) is most commonly used in popular music (e.g. Cinema- "Blood type", Rage against the machine- "Bulls on the parade" etc.).

Things to Remember

1. F major with barre can be replaced with a different fingering, but only for the first time.
2. Once you have learned F major, you can play with the barre and any other chord. This technique will greatly expand your technical capabilities.
3. In F chords, you only need to memorize one fingering (with a barre on the first fret).
4. The combination of the Am, F, C, E chords allows you to play dozens of popular songs.

When studying solfeggio, students have to deal with many scales. One of them - in F sharp minor - will be discussed in our article. It is not too complicated, since it contains only three signs at the key, in contrast to scales and sequences, which can have up to seven basic signs, not counting double-sharp and double-flat.

F sharp minor: signs

Gamma is the most common minor sequence, and, as already mentioned, contains only three signs in the form of sharps: f, do and g.

The whole sequence is built on the basis of this. It is designated as F # moll or fis-moll, which is customary in a guitar score or chord fingering.

The tonic is fa #, the subdominant is si, and the dominant is do #. On these three steps, the main triads of the scale are built, which will be discussed below.

Parallel Major

Like everyone else, the F sharp minor scale has a parallel major. This is in A major. The determination technique is very simple. So, for a minor key, build a semitone up from the last character with a key. In our case, this is a semitone from G #, which gives a pure A note.

Two methods can be used to determine a parallel minor. The first one implies building a minor third downward from the tonic (in our case, from a pure note A we get F #. The second method is to count the third from the right in the signs at the key. This will be the desired minor corresponding to the major.

Many composers have and are referring to these keys. There are also quite a few of them among Russian classics, since these tonalities have a very warm sound for the human ear.

Varieties of the minor scale

Like any other minor scale, F sharp minor has three main varieties: natural, harmonic, and melodic.

The difference between these types of scale sequences is that in natural minor, forward and backward order is played without changing signs.

In the harmonic scale, when constructing a direct and reverse sequence, the VII step rises by a semitone (for the F-sharp minor scale, we get mi #).

As for the melodic minor key, when an ascending scale is played, the VI and VII steps are raised by semitones, and when a descending scale is played, the increase is canceled (the bekar sign is placed in the scale itself). For F # minor, such steps are d and mi.

Minor chords and triads: general principles of construction

If you look at the construction of triads and chords, the general principle is that when creating a chord, a note is simply added to the triad with an offset up or down. In the simplest case, this is the tonic, an octave higher. But, depending on the type of chord, the interval between the note from which the construction is made may be different.

In the case of the F-sharp minor scale, the tonic triad contains the notes F #, A, and C #. If, for example, it is built with the tonic of the first octave, adding F sharp in the second octave will give the simplest chord.

For a triad based on a subdominant, this will be a combination of B-re-fa #, for a dominant - up to # -mi # -salt #. Please note: a triad in the V step is always based on a harmonic minor, since it is this step that is responsible for the sound of the dominant seventh chord, and in it, as you know, the VII step rises by semitone.

In general, there is a single rule for all minor triads that are built upwards. From the main note, the minor third is first built, and the major third is built from the next. If you look at the construction of the triad down, it is easy to see that it represents one of the inversions (when each triad is built from each next note with the transfer of the previous one an octave higher).

So it turns out that the triad downward from the tonic F-sharp gives a combination of F # -to ​​# -L, but only two octaves lower than the standard upward inversion. When building down, a clean fourth down is used first, and then a large third is added to it.

Instead of an afterword

If you look at the F-sharp minor scale itself, it is very popular among many composers and performers, only because it corresponds to the parallel A major. This is especially pronounced among guitarists, since A major itself in the fingering refers to the simplest chords and is played with only three fingers on the second fret while pressing the second, third and fourth strings.

With F-sharp minor, the situation is a little more complicated, because to extract a standard chord, you need to master the barre technique.

For pianists, however, this minor scale does not cause any particular difficulties even with a high-speed performance.

There are many examples of using this key in conjunction with a parallel major, even rockers performing glam or soft metal music, for the most part, refer to these scales and sequences based on them. In addition, both keys are suitable for both male and female voices. It is not surprising that it is in these genres that the majority of compositions are found, based precisely on the standard "Italian square" (A major-F # E-major) and its varieties.