Notation

ScalePlay's notation view is often hidden to give the instrument view full berth, yet it offers a lot valuable information. The view is updated whenever a chord/scale is changed. This can happen when ScalePlay moves to a new chord during playback or when the user makes a new chord selection in the chord slider. So not only can we look up the fingering of a specific scale in the instrument view, but we also can review the notation details of that scale. Of particular interest here are the application of flats, sharps and other accidentals. ScalePlay will apply these according to the laws of music theory and help in cases where there might be doubt whether a note is written as a natural or double flat for example.

Note: You may have noticed the gray speaker icon in the lower right corner of the notation view. You can use it to have the current scale played for you. This will also highlight those notes in the instrument view. Additionally you can tap on any of the individual notes as well to play them.

 

Semitones

At the bottom of the notation view is a display of semitones given in simple numbers like 2, 2, 1, 2, 2, 2, 1 as seen above. Semitones are the smallest interval available in the instruments in ScalePlay. They represent exactly 1 MIDI value. Where middle C for example is 60 and the next note Db is 61, we can count the semitones in the interval between those two notes (1). Going from C to D would be 2 and going from C to F 5. This information is of relevance because the series of semitones between intervals is exactly what defines a scale. It is the one piece of information that allows us to transpose a scale from C to Gb for example.

 

Note Options

The slashed circle symbol as well as the stylized g-clef are toolbar options that can be used to change the appearance of the notation view. The clef button switches the display between 6 clef choices. There are treble, bass, alto, tenor, treble 8va and bass 8va clefs.

The slashed circle, has been applied above to change the informational tidbits below each note from note name to interval. This is the interval in relation to the root of the scale. Here is a breakdown of the intervals that may occur:

Rt	root
m2	minor second
M2	major second
#2	augmented second
m3	minor third
M3	major third
b4	lowered fourth
p4	perfect fourth
#4	raised fourth
b5	diminished fifth
p5	perfect fifth
#5	augmented fifth
m6	minor sixth
M6	major sixth
#6	raised sixth
d7	diminished seventh
m7	minor seventh
M7	major seventh
Oc	octave

 

The third click on the slashed circle button will display MIDI values of the current scale sample. A fourth tap removes scale specific information and finally a fifth tap removes semitone information as well.

 

Summary

Music notation is not everyone's cup of tea, but a reference to all 200+ of ScalePlay's scales in all available keys is a great resource to have. In particular the breakdown into semitones (or half-tone steps) can come in handy.

And now it is finally time to head over to Settings and see what is available there.