Making music came before writing and theorizing about it, but as humans we like to organize and classify. The concept of organizing notes into scales and naming notes goes all the way back to the ancient Greeks. Music notation on a staff came much later in the 10th century and started with just a horizontal line (F) as a reference point for the pitches going up or down.
The practice of singing scales is a tool that helps us understand the music intellectually and to get our ears accustomed to the sound of the "majorness" or "minorness" of a song. Singing the scales with solfege (do, re, mi...) also prepares us for reading the music on a staff after we have the sound in our ears.
So, having said all of that, here are your scale exercises for this week. I put each scale in a separate file so that you could work on them individually. Note which scales, if any, are easier or harder for you to sing. Follow the tonal ladder for major scales as a reference as you echo the exercises. It is important to listen and then echo so that you can hear your own voice. Also, remember to relax and breathe. Take your breath on the last two notes that I sing.
C Major
D Major
E Major
F Major
G Major
