Most of us have heard of scales before. No, not the dreaded machines you reluctantly step onto after a gluttonous outing at the dining hall buffet. I’m of course referring to musical scales, those pesky runs of notes that every music instructor is constantly harping on for practice regimens. I assure you, this is for good reason. Scales are vital, as much of Western music is based around major/minor key centers (we’ll cover this more in the future).
But wait, I mentioned major and minor. What does this mean within the context of scales? It might be easiest just to show you.
First, it’s important to know that there are twelve notes in Western music, each with a unique pitch or frequency. Here they are, on the keyboard:
Note: Black keys are labelled with two equivalent notations.
If you’re curious why there are only twelve, this might be an interesting read. Warning: it gets rather technical.
It is easiest to understand how major and minor scales are constructed if we continue using the keyboard as a reference. A half step can be defined as the distance from a key on the keyboard to the next adjacent key. A whole step can be defined as two half steps.
The steps of the ascending major scale are as follows: whole, whole, half, whole, whole, whole, half.
Note: In this image of the C major scale, “W” denotes whole step and “H” denotes half step.
The steps of the natural minor scale are as follows: whole, half, whole, whole, half, whole, whole.
The harmonic minor scale is identical to the natural, except for one special feature: there is a distance of 1.5 steps between the sixth and seventh notes. See below:
And finally, the melodic minor scale, which is identical to the harmonic, except the sixth note is raised a half step. See below:
Note: “1/2” denotes a half step.
There exists a major, natural minor, harmonic minor, and melodic minor scale for all twelve keys in Western music. This brings us to our next topic: key signatures.
Immediately following a treble or bass clef symbol on sheet music, you may notice tiny hashtags or lowercase b’s resting on the staff. The hashtag is the symbol for sharp, and the lowercase b is the symbol for flat. Sharps and flats are what we call accidentals–the black keys on the keyboard. Key signatures list the accidentals of the key in which the piece is written (this avoids having to repeatedly mark accidentals throughout the piece). For example, below is an image of the key signature for Eb major in treble clef:
Note: The C minor key signature looks identical to that of Eb major, as they share the same accidentals. If a harmonic or melodic minor sound is incorporated into the piece, accidentals for the sixth and seventh are denoted individually as they occur in the piece.
Now, with a foundational knowledge of major and minor keys, we can study one of the richest aspects of music theory next week: harmony!
Although I am no expert in the Piano, I have a slight understanding of how to play from when I was younger. My mom put me in piano lessons when I was a kid, and I found it so difficult to learn. Yet, I found your post to be fascinating. The way you dove in why theirs only 12 keys, or the kinds of scales there are seems so interesting. I definitely learned a lot about major and minor scales after reading your post, and maybe I can now apply that to my subpar piano playing. Overall I think the way your blog as a whole is super fascinating and something you seem very passionate about, keep up the good work!