Hi,
I'm a newbie to this group and to music theory in general. I have high-
school experience of music theory in that I can read sheet music and
understand the definitions of some music terms.
I'm trying to learn a new instrument, without instruction. I want to
be able to play improv.
I have a question, or two, below.
"The degrees of the traditional major and minor scales may be
identified several ways...in English, by the names tonic, supertonic,
mediant, subdominant, dominant, submediant, (subtonic or leading
tone)...These names are derived from a scheme where the tonic note is
the 'center'. Supertonic and subtonic are, respectively, one step
above and one step below the tonic; mediant and submediant are each
one third above and below the tonic, and dominant and subdominant are
one fifth above and below the tonic." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Scale_degree)
Q: The degrees of the scale are described here as steps above/below
the tonic, why does this conflict with my thinking that tonic is the
first note of the scale? Isn't sub-dominant the middle note in the
scale?
Kind regards
Dylan
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