Major scale - The major scale or Ionian scale is one of the most commonly used musical scales, especially in Western music. It is one of the diatonic scales. Like many musical scales it is made up of seven notes: the eighth duplicates the first at double its frequency so that it is called a higher octave of the same note (from Latin "octavus", the eighth).
Major scale
In music theory, the major scale or Ionian scale is one of the diatonic scales. It is made up of seven separate notes, plus an eighth which is the same as the first an octave higher. In solfege these notes correspond to the syllables "Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Ti/Si, Do". The simplest major scale to write or play on the piano is C major, the only major scale not to require sharps or flats, using only the white keys on the piano keyboard:
A major scale is a set of steps in the order "Whole:Whole:Half:Whole:Whole:Whole:Half" (tone, tone, semitone, tone, tone, tone, semitone). Western scales do not skip any line or space on the staff, and they do not repeat any note with a different accidental. This means that the key signature of the scale will feature just sharps "or" just flats.
The Circle of Fifths was first described in 1728 by Johann David Heinichen in his book "Der General-bass". It has been used ever since as a way to show the relations between scales.
The numbers inside the circle show the number of sharps or flats in the key signature, with the sharp keys going clockwise, and the flat keys counterclockwise from C major (which has no sharps or flats.) The circle depends on enharmonic relationships in the circle, which is six sharps or flats for the major keys of F = G and D = E for minor keys (Drabkin 2001). Seven sharps or flats make major keys (C major and C major) that are more easy to spell with five flats or sharps (as D major or B major).
The major scale is used more often than the minor scale in Western music because of its unique harmonic properties. For example, the major third is much stronger in the harmonic series (it is the 5th, 10th and 20th harmonic – see below) than the minor third (the 19th harmonic).
Minor scale
A minor scale in music theory is any scale that has at least three scale degrees: the tonic, the minor third above the tonic, and the perfect fifth above the tonic. Together they make the minor triad. This includes many scales and modes such as Dorian mode and the Phrygian mode.
In simple terms, a minor scale is a series of notes with a sad, somber character (exaggerated when heard back-to-back with a major scale). A minor scale begins on the sixth note of its relative major scale, and is built with the following pattern of half steps and whole steps:
i_whole_ii°_half_III_whole_iv_whole_v_half_VI_whole_VII_whole _i (next octave)
Usually, when people talk about minor scales, they mean natural minor, harmonic minor, or melodic minor scales, which are the most common in Western music.
The natural minor scale is the same as the 6th mode (or Aeolian mode) of the major scale. For example, the white notes of a keyboard from one C to the next C up makes a C major scale. If the white notes are played starting from the sixth step of that C scale, (from any A to the next A), then an A natural minor scale (the "relative minor" of C) is produced.
The harmonic minor scale is the same as the natural minor but with the seventh note raised by a semitone.
Harmonic Minor Scale: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
For example, in the key of A minor, the harmonic minor scale is:
A B C D E F G A
One way the harmonic minor is different to the natural minor is that it has two chords which have the same structure when inverted, so they do not belong to any key. These are the diminished seventh chord (2nd, 4th, 6th and 7th degrees) and the augmented chord (the 3rd, 5th and 7th degrees).
The harmonic minor is also sometimes called the Mohammedan scale because its upper tetrachord is the same as the Hijaz jins, often found in Middle Eastern music. The harmonic minor scale as a whole is sometimes called "Nahawand-Hijaz" in Arabic, or as "Bûselik Hicaz" in Turkish.
The interval between the sixth and seventh degrees of this scale (in this case F and G) is an augmented second. While some composers, like Mozart, have used this interval in melodic composition, other composers found it awkward. They thought that a whole step between these two scale degrees was better for smooth melody writing, so they used the subtonic seventh, or raised the sixth scale degree. These two options are called the ascending melodic minor scale and descending melodic minor scale. The ascending has the same upper tetrachord to the major scale, and the descending is the same as the natural minor:
A B C D E F G A' and then
A' G F E D C B A respectively.
Many composers do not stick to the notes of only one of these scales when writing music. Using the triad of the relative major is very common, but because this is based on the third degree of the minor scale, the raised seventh degree of the harmonic scale would cause an augmented triad. In this case, composers usually use the natural minor. In jazz, usually only the ascending minor is used.
Major and minor keys that share the same key signature are called "relative"; so C major is the relative major of A minor, and C minor is the relative minor of E major. The relative major is a minor third above the tonic of the minor. For example, since the key signature of G major has one sharp (see major scales for how to find this), its relative minor, E minor, also has one sharp in its key signature.
Music may be written in an enharmonic scale (e.g. A major, which only has four flats in its key signature, compared to the eight sharps required for G major). The following are enharmonic equivalents:
Yeast
Yeast are microorganisms. They are single-celled fungi. There are about 1,500 different species of yeast. Most reproduce asexually, by budding. Some use binary fission to reproduce asexually.
A particular species of yeast, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, has been used for thousands of years. It is used for baking bread because the yeast makes carbon dioxide as a by-product of it eating sugar. Yeast is also used for making beer due to a process known as fermentation. This process produces both ethyl alcohol and carbon dioxide. Ethanol is also used as fuel, and to make other organic chemicals.
Yeast can be used to make electricity. Yeast is also a model organism for studying cell biology. Some yeasts can cause infections in humans (they are pathogens).
Budding
Budding is a method of asexual reproduction. With budding, a new organism grows on another one. It stays attached, while it grows. Only when it is fully grown does it detach from the parent organism. Since the reproduction is asexual, the newly created organism is a clone and is genetically identical to the parent organism.
Budding is very common in plants and fungi. Sometimes it can also be found with animals, for example with hydras or sponges.
Binary fission
Binary fission ("division in half") is a kind of asexual reproduction. It is the most common form of reproduction in prokaryotes such as bacteria. It occurs in some single-celled Eukaryotes like the "Amoeba" and the "Paramoecium". In binary fission DNA replication and segregation occur simultaneously.
In binary fission, the fully grown parent cell splits into two halves, producing two pools. After replicating its genetic material, the parent cell divides into two equal sized daughter cells. The genetic material is replicated, then equally split. The daughter cells are genetically identical (unless a mutation occurs during replication).
During binary fission, the DNA molecule divides and forms two DNA molecules. The cell then grows to create room for each molecule to move towards the opposite side of the bacterium. At the same time, the cell membrane divides to form 2 daughter cells. After division, the new cells grow and the process repeats itself.