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When you play a scale only on white keys, ascending from the 5th step of the C major
scale, G to G', you get another series of intervals: tone, tone, semitone, tone, tone, semitone,
tone. This is known as the Mixolydian mode.
Creating different scales this way, each with its special emotional feeling, is an age-old trick.
These scales are sometimes referred to as 'church modes' and were largely unused for
centuries but rediscovered by jazz musicians in the 1950s and 1960s. They are now widely
used in western music.
5.5.1.1. Selecting Scales
In the KeyStep Pro, if you select a scale using the 'Shift' + Scale key feature, everything in
the currently selected track – what you play on the keyboard, the track sequence and the
track arpeggio – will play in that scale. It's a Track setting.
♪: You can use this feature to your advantage by creating Tracks with different Scale and Root
settings. By muting and unmuting tracks, you can drastically alter the tonal effect of your performance.
The Scale option works as a filter, selecting eight notes from the chromatic scale. For each
scale, it's a different set of notes. In technical terminology, it
quantizes
the default chromatic
scale (C, Db, D, Eb, E, F, Gb, G, Ab, A, Bb, B) to either the:
• Major scale (C, D, E, F, G, A, B)
• Minor scale (C, D, Eb, F, G, Ab, Bb, B)
• Dorian mode (C, D, Eb, F, G, A, Bb)
• Mixolydian mode (C, D, E, F, G, A, Bb)
• Harmonic Minor scale (C, D, E, F, G, Ab, B)
• Blues scale (C, Eb, F, Gb, G, Bb)
To hear (and see) the effect of selecting a scale on your KeyStep Pro, switch it ON if it isn't
on already (do you ever switch it off?) and select a preset on your external synth with a
fairly simple sound.
Press 'Shift' + Scale key B to select the Major scale. When you play the white keys, you'll
now hear the major scale. The odd thing is that the black keys also play the major scale! The
black key that normally plays C# now plays C natural. All black keys are 'stripped' of their
normal pitch and have been lowered a semitone to fit in the C major scale. Whatever chord
you play on the keyboard, it will always be a chord of the major scale!
Let's explore these scales. Press play to activate the Arpeggiator and, starting from C, hold
down the first, third and fifth steps of the major scale; you're now playing a C major chord.
Press 'Shift' + a Scale key to select other scales. You'll hear the third step change when you
select the Minor scale, the Dorian mode or the Blues scale.
Arturia - User Manual Keystep Pro - Making Tracks 109
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