Scales & Modes Cheat Sheet
Stop struggling with scales & chords
For years I have been a using a cheat sheet that I’ve made with various elements of music theory printed on it. It has become such a useful tool in my daily music production that I want share it with you all for free.
This cheat sheet breaks down a some simple elements of music theory: scales & modes.
SCALES
The scales chart shows all seven notes within any major key. Simply find what major key you’re looking for and you can quickly find the notes within that scale. You can also use the theory of Relative Scales to quickly find minor scales using the same chart. The chart is color coded to to quickly search for major (blue) or minor (purple) scales.
MODES
The modes chart shows the structure of how the scales are created. You can use this chart to understand the theory behind the structure for how all 7 modes are created. There are two ways this information is displayed. One is based on their modifications from the major scale and the other shows the semitone steps to the next note in the scale from the previous note. Memorizing these formulas will allow you to create any scale in any mode with just a root note, and in turn making any chord within those scales.
On the back side of the sheet is a full lesson on how to use these charts as well as a quick overview on some of the music theory behind these charts.
Melodizer Black is a probabilistic melody generator in the form of a Max For Live MIDI effect which can be used in Ableton Live. It can generate notes in any scale you desire and has a rich feature set including 14 built-in scales, polyphonic/monophonic modes, individual note probability sliders, external trigger mode and note/velocity range sliders. The end results is a rather expressive stochastic melody machine with a ton of power!
Probabilistic note generators can be useful for a myriad of explorative tasks but some of my inspiration in building Melodizer Black was to have a device that could be used as:
Accompaniment to any track.
Performance/conducting tool, changing parameters as you play.
Core platform for generative, ambient synthesis.
Exploration tool to find new melodies and chord progressions.