Stable and unstable steps in different keys

In the music school, solfeggio is often given homework exercises to chase at steady levels. Exercise is simple, beautiful and very useful.

Today, our task is to find out which sounds in the range are stable and which are unstable. As examples, you will be offered written tone scales of up to five characters, inclusive, in which stable and unstable sounds have already been noted.

In each example, two tones are given at once: one major, and the other parallel to its minor one. So that orient.

Which steps are stable and which are unstable?

Resilient is, as you know, first, third and fifth steps (I-III-V)which are related to tonic and together make up the tonic triad. In the examples, these are not shaded notes. Unstable steps are all others, that is second, fourth, sixth and seventh (II-IV-VI-VII). In the examples, these notes are shaded in black. For example:

Stable and unstable steps in C major and A minor

How are unstable steps resolved?

Unstable steps sound a bit stressful, and therefore they “have a great desire” (that is, they are forced to) go (that is, resolve) to stable stages. Stable steps, on the contrary, sound calm and balanced.

Unstable steps are always resolved to the nearest stable ones. For example, the seventh and second steps can be resolved in the first, second and fourth steps in the third, fourth and sixth steps that surround the fifth and therefore it is convenient for them to go into it.

You need to sing the steps in natural major and harmonic minor

You probably already know that the major and minor modes differ in their structure, in the order of tones and semitones. If you forgot, you can read about it here. So, for convenience, the minor in the examples is taken at once in a harmonic form, that is, with an elevated seventh step. Therefore, do not be intimidated by those random alterations that you will all the time come across in minor scales.

How to chase the steps?

Very simple: just sing one of the stable steps and then move on to one of two neighboring unstable ones: first up, then down or vice versa. That is, for example, in in C major we have steady sounds - do, mi and salt, so the chanting will be:

1) to-re-to-si-to - chase before;

2) mi-fa-mi-re-mi - chasing after;

3) salt a la sol fa fa - chase the salt.

Well, now consider the steps in all other keys:

Stable and unstable steps in G major and E minor