Please note this is an archived topic, so it is locked and unable to be replied to. You may, however, start a new topic and refer to this topic with a link: http://www.fiddlehangout.com/archive/50105
DavidFord - Posted - 10/26/2018: 00:29:23
I found some violin sheet music for Wade In The Water, the old spiritual. The key on the page is G. I'm newer at playing in G, and wondering if that song is in a modal scale, or pentatonic. Pretty damned easy to play in G on the fiddle, from a beginner perspective, even though I've only played one song in G so far.
Let me know if this is the wrong subforum for this question. Thanks.
Slide - Posted - 10/26/2018: 08:45:29
I found some sheet music for it and it appears to be in E minor actually. E minor is the exact same scale as G major (Major just means the "normal" G scale you've played before). The only difference is E minor centers itself around the E note and an E minor chord a lot more. You can tell it's in E minor due the prominence of the E minor chord in the sheet music and because the song also ends on an E note.
thru-comp0sed - Posted - 10/26/2018: 09:06:44
Yep. Notice that when played in the key notated on your sheet music, the melody ends on an E. This is a 99.99% surefire way to judge whether a tune is in the major key, or its relative minor. Also yes, that melody is pentatonic but we don't have a separate designation for pentatonic modes in Western notation.
Edited by - thru-comp0sed on 10/26/2018 09:07:15
'Woodchoppers reel' 6 hrs
'Finger Placement' 15 hrs
'Back To Fiddling' 2 days
