quote: Not every scale with one sharp in it is G major. The one you posted is, in fact, an A harmonic minor scale.

Thanks very much, Stim. I always suspected it was A minor, since the chords are Am, Dm, and E. If I had thought about the fact that each line of the melody ends on b, I probably would have been puzzled by that, but I never thought about it before. Now that you've piqued my curiosity, I'll definitely try to read about those 3 types of minor scales.

Usually when I try to read about music theory it leads to the thing you said -- that it's very complicated and I have to learn a lot of other things first. In college I was taught that one test of whether I really understand something is that I should be able to explain it to an educated person who knows nothing about the subject. Maybe that doesn't apply to music.

I'm not against book-learning. I have 9 years of college, and I take continuing education courses every month and learn new technology almost every day. But music is not my profession and I've never felt the need to learn music theory for what I do, which is just sing and play guitar. I can always find lovely chords to accompany any song, mostly by a process of trial and error which I thoroughly enjoy.

Except for the Apolytikia in Tones 2, 4, 5, and 6. I can't find any chords to fit those four hymns. I'm content to sing them a capella, but I am curious about the fact that I can't find chords to fit them. Maybe they'll turn out to be in one of those 3 types of minor keys.

If you or anyone else wouldn't mind analyzing them, these are the notes used in each, from lowest to highest, with the ending note capitalized:
Apolitikion in Tone 2: a, a#, C, c#, e, f, g
Apolitikion in Tone 4: g, A, a#, c, d, e, f, g
Apolitikion in Tone 5: f, g, A, b, c, d
Apolitikion in Tone 6: g#, a, C, c#, d#, e, g, g#