Piano Scales

By: Gavin Swift

Introduction: 

A wise man once said:

“Let’s talk about scales, baby – 
Let’s talk about you and me,
Let’s talk about major, minor,
Pentatonic, and blues baby,
Let’s talk about scales”

— Marcus Aurelius (1)

Man that guy was so wise. Howdy! Today we’re going to be covering and discovering the scales of the piano!

By investigating this crucial element of musical theory, we’re able to better compose our own music, and able to better understand the music of others that we might be essaying to learn. Scales are also the OG of finger exercises and training if you’ve got a bit of a Evgeny Kissin type dream going on (I’m personally trying to model his hair) and will teach you the curves and crevices of the piano keyboard in the most beautiful way!

So, if you’re all set to learn, let’s meet at the piano and get stuck in!

What are piano scales?

My friend, you’re not ready yet. First let’s answer:

What are scales?

Great question. A scale is simply a collection of notes played in a particular (usually consecutive) order. We often refer to scales by the key that they belong to – a key being a collection of notes where a certain tone feels like the central or home tone. For example, in both C-Major & C-Minor, the central or home tone is C. We also call that central tone the tonic. Or, just to make this super accessible for everyone, we might number it as ‘1’.

Take a look at the image below:

Now every white note on that keyboard belongs to the key of C-Major. We’ll use this to jump into our study of…

Major Scales

If you were to play:

E, D, C, D, E, E, E, D, D, D, E, G, G (that stone cold classic Mary had a Little Lamb)

You would be playing a tune in the key of C-Major.

But you would not be playing a C-Major scale. The C-Major scale has to be the notes played in the order below:

Or that sequence in reverse – so ascending or descending. Which brings us to some of that sweet musical etymology we so love to explore! The word scale comes from the Latin scala  meaning steps, staircase, or ladder. So we can think of a scale in this way! In the C-Major scale above, the first and last rungs of the ladder are C, our home rungs, everything between those guys are essential steps. 

So what’s a piano scale?

Yes. You’re ready now. A piano scale is just the above information applied to a piano keyboard. Maybe I was wrong ok?! Maybe you were ready!

What other types of scales are there?

The short answer is, there are many different kinds. The good news is that to learn a scale, learning the individual notes is less important, than learning the pattern of each scale. To illustrate this, let’s look at our friend C-Major once more:

And just in case you’re not sitting at a keyboard:

Now we already know that the C Major scale consists of every white key on the keyboard played in consecutive order. So playing every white note going up and every white note going down on the keyboard above would give us a great example of the C Major scale. 

Now notice above, that between certain notes (C&D, D&E, F&G, G&A, A&B) there are black notes, but between other notes (E&F, B&C) there are no such obstructions. These black notes are the sharps (#s) and flats (♭s) of the keyboard.

We call the distance between a  white note and a black note (say, C to C#) a semi-tone, or half-step, and we call the distance between two notes obstructed by a half-step (for example C to D) a whole-tone, or whole-step. So two half-steps = one whole-step.

Keeping our eyes on the diagramatic prize above, we can see that the pattern of the C Major scale clearly goes:

Now that pattern:
1 whole-step 2 whole step 3 half-step 4 whole-step 5 whole step 6 whole-step 7 half step 8

Now wait for it…

…

…

…That’s the pattern of every single major scale every created on this sweet planet called earth. Whoa.

Don’t believe me? Check out this E♭-Major Scale:

 So what’s the pattern here? Follow along with me:

E♭ – F = whole-step; F – G = whole-step; G - A♭= half-step; A♭-B♭= whole-step; B♭-C= whole-step; C-D= whole-step; D-E♭ = half-step. 

Didn’t I tell you! Isn’t music glorious?! Now a quick bit of info about Major scales:

• Major scales are generally described as sounding ‘happy’ or ‘positive’.

• The reason that they’re called Major scales, is because these scales consist primarily of larger, or Major-er intervals (an interval is the posh word we use to describe the distance between notes).

Now for your first assignment!

Assignment 1:

• Sit down to the keyboard (I love you if you’re already there – if you’re not, I still love you)

• Try to play every major scale by starting at all the different notes and applying the major scale pattern. You might find it easiest to work through all the white keys before moving onto the black ones – or maybe you’d like to move chromatically. Either way, take the time to practice and bed in this awesome scale pattern!
  
  

The Chromatic Scale

Now logic probably says that following on from the Major scale we should look at the minor scales – but not me! I laugh in the face of danger! Who needs logic anyhow! (2)

The chromatic scale is cool. The chromatic scale can start on any key (as can any scale really), but consists only of half-step intervals! So a chromatic scale starting on C on the diagram below:

Would then play C#, followed by D, followed by D#, and so on, until you reach the very top C having played every single note in between. Pretty awesome right?! Here’s how a chromatic scale looks when it’s notated:

The above shows a chromatic scale starting on C both ascending and descending for one octave. 

Assignment 2:

• Get thee to a piano keyboard!!!

• Start on the lowest note available at that keyboard – if you’re at full size piano this will most likely be A.

• Play a chromatic scale ALL THE WAY TO THE TOP of your keyboard!

• What goes up must come down! Now play a chromatic scale ALL THE WAY DOWN your keyboard!

• Easy Rachmaninov – you’re sounding great!

The Minor Scale(s)

Oh no! Why is there an S in parenthesis?!

No, don’t be afraid!

I’m kidding, be afraid!

No really don’t be afraid! Although when you hear this scale (or scales as we’ll see) you might get a twinge of fright! While Major scales are associated with positive, happy, sounds, minor scales are generally associated with negative, or gloomy sounds – sometimes they can also sound downright scary! Don’t believe me? Check out this performance of Bach’s Toccata & Fugue in D minor – which essentially begins with a descending D-minor scale!

Now. 

Let’s deal with that parenthesis.

You see, there is not one, not two, but THREE variations of the minor scale! (Play first phrase of Toccata & Fugue in D minor for scary effect there)

The three variations are:

1. The Natural (or ‘Aeolian’) minor scale

2. The Harmonic minor scale

3. The Melodic minor scale
   
   
   

The Natural Minor Scale

Iiiiiiinnn tthhhheee red corner! Is the natural minor scale. Let’s take a look at the A minor natural scale. Which, lucky for us, consists entirely of white notes, just like C-Major!

Or in notation, it looks like this:

The pattern for this scale is:

(Tonic) Whole-step, half-step, whole-step, whole-step, half-step, whole-step, whole-step (tonic).

So actually, this scale has the same number of half-steps as any old Major scale! What’s changed is there position in the scale, happening at the second and fifth intervals. Groovy. Now let’s peek at…

The Harmonic Minor Scale

Ok. So let’s stick on A minor and check out the A harmonic minor scale:

Or in notation it looks like this:

Ok! So who can spot the difference here?!

I’m sure you’ve all seen it, but I’ll be captain state the obvious. What the hey-ho is that G# doing there?!

I’ll tell ya.

In a harmonic minor scale we raise the 7th note by a half-step, essentially increasing the interval between notes 6 & 7 to a distance of 3 half-steps. Whoa! 

Why??? And why isn’t that G# listed in the key signature like you’d expect?

Both very valid questions! If we can let’s answer it with a practical experiment. At your keyboard, play the note G, followed by the note A. How does that sound? Pretty good right? Pretty pleasing? Well hold onto your harmonics, because now I want you to play G# followed by A…

…Did you do it? Oh my gosh how did it feel? Did you get that level of oomph that we all know and love? In essence, that 7th is raised because it feels so good to resolve to the tonic or central tone from a raised 7th. Remember, the root of the word harmony in music stems from things literally working better together sonically – i.e. harmoniously. So when we see the word harmonic attached to something in music theory, you can usually bet you bottom B♭ that it’s because it will sound straight up pleasing. That’s also the reason that this is the most commonly used form of minor scale in Western music!

Why isn’t the raised 7th in the key signature? Well, technically because it’s not in the key. Remember, in a key signature, the first note we would mark as sharp (where appropriate) will always be F. And the first note we would mark as flat would always be B. Well looky here! G# is neither of those! Therefore it’s place in this scale is as a function of harmony rather than key. Phew. This is some heavy stuff.

The tone pattern for a harmonic minor scale is as follows:

(Tonic) Whole-step, half-step, whole-step, whole-step, half-step, three half-steps, half-step (tonic).

Rad.

And finally, 

The Melodic Minor Scale

Probably in my top three variants of minor scales this guy packs a major punch (sorry).

In the melodic minor scale we continue to raise the 7th note of the sequence by a half step, but, we also raise the 6th a half step!

Melodic minor scale, you loco!

But the madness doesn’t stop there! Not by a long chalk! You see on the way up we raise (or sharpen) the 6th and 7th notes by half a step, but on the way down we lower (or flatten) them back to the natural minor sequence. Before you spit out your chicken soup all over the keyboard, let’s take a look at it in the form of a diagram. Just cause we’re so cosy with it, we’ll use the A minor melodic scale:

And as we said, on the way down that F# and G# would become a G♮ and a F♮. To further clarify, let’s see it notated:

Muy infuego. Spicy like a curry.

‘But why?!’

Why indeed! Ok, remember how in the melodic minor scale we saw how that G# to A felt soooooo good (*drool emoji*), well that’s because it instructs the ear to the central tone, the tonic of A in this case. When we flatten the 6th and 7th notes on the way down, this leads our ear to the 5th note, otherwise known as the dominant; in this scale the dominant is E.

Now in a scale, the dominant is the centre of primary discord against the tonic, which is a fancy way of saying it feels incredibly good to resolve from E to A, or any dominant to any tonic. So when we flatten the 6th and 7th going down, we get a sonically greater pay off when we arrive at A, because we’ve had another ‘feels so good’ moment (*drool emoji*) at 6 – 5. 

That’s also the reason that this scale is named ‘melodic’! Because that type of phrasing in a melody works incredibly effectively!

3: The final assignment! (3)

• Go to your keys!

• Try playing through all of the variations of the minor scales. Sure it might be a big as do on every note (12 available pitch classes multiplied by 3 variants of minor scales…arghh!!! My head is exploding with the maths!!!) but even just doing it for A will teach you a cool lesson.

• See if you can identify these patterns in any music that you might know and love! I’ll get you started – I love the use of the melodic minor scale in The Beatles (google them) track Yesterday. What other ones can you find!

Conclusion

We’ve covered a lot today! And this is only the tip of the iceberg of scales! We’ll be looking at a few more examples in further lectures, but if you curiosity is simply unquenchable, why not have a trawl of the internet to see what other kinds you can find!

Happy learning! And most importantly, happy playing!!!

For today, remember, every day in life is filled with new assignments. Never has that been truer than in your study of the art of noise.

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(1) Marcus Aurelius definitely never said that. But I did. So there.
(2) We all do. I, perhaps, need it the most.
(3) For today, remember, every day in life is filled with new assignments. Never has that been truer than in your study of the art of noise.

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Gavin Swift is a film and media composer based in London, England

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C Major Scale on Piano

By: Gavin Swift

Introduction

Hi there! In this article we’re going to be examining the wonders and delights of the C Major Scale!

Maybe you don’t know this yet, but scales are one of the best foundations for learning and navigating any instrument you so desire to learn! And the C Major Scale happens to be the best foundation to learn all of the other scales – and believe me, there are many  *said in scary voice*.

No don’t be scared, this journey is fun! And once you’ve got C Major down you are going to find the following guys easy as pie.

So if you’re feeling down to learn, grab your appetite for knowledge and we’ll meet at the piano!

NB: This article will be using the keys of the piano (or any other keyboard you fancy) to illustrate wondrous little beast – but you’ll be happy to know that the knowledge (other than the specific fingering exercises for piano) transfers to any other instrument you like extremely smoothly! Fear not!

In this lesson we’re going to learn:

• What is a scale? And for that matter what is a key?!

• What is a C Major Scale?

• How in the world can we apply this chap in our day-to-day musical lives!
  
  

What is a Key?

Here we are again mon ami, at the boarders of music theory looking into a vast jungle of dense knowledge. How will we navigate this unfamiliar terrain? Luckily many explorers before us have trod this path, and they left us lots of handy hints, tips and clues to navigate the way. The first of these is the key, or key signature.

A key or key signature is a group of notes/pitches that generally form the basis of a musical composition. There are some exceptions to this where certain pieces of music are without a key (see Schoenberg), but for the most part, and particularly in pop music, this generalization is true.

Arg! What does it MEAN?!

Well let’s take a look at a keyboard for guidance:

‘Simba, everything that the light touches is yours’

And everything that is white (i.e. the white keys) on the keyboard, belong to C Major (or A minor – that’s another article. For now just keep thinking C  *said in a hypnotist’s voice*).

‘But why should all those white notes be regarded as C Major?’

You’re so inquisitive today, and I love it! You’re right you know, there are so many white keys above (A,B,D,E,F,G) – why should this pack belong to C?!

I'll tell ya.

When we call a key ‘C’, or any other of the available letters, we are referring to the central tone, this can also be called the tonic.  So even though, in a C Major scale we have 6 other notes, we ‘hear’ C as the most important note, and all other notes are heard as subordinate to C.

Another way to think about this is to imagine that the central tone, or tonic, is the centre of gravity in a key. When we hear a piece of music using the notes of the C Major Scale, no matter how far away we stray from him, we always feel the pull back to earth – AKA the tonic of C.

GROUND CONTROL TO MAJOR TOM – WHAT DOES THIS MAJOR BUSINESS MEAN ANYWAY???

Ah yes, I’d not forgotten. I promise. Major and minor are words that we use to describe key signatures. The root of these names stems from the intervals between notes in a scale (all coming up don’t worry), but they are easily distinguishable because of the way that they sound. Generally speaking, a Major key is perceived as ‘positive’ and ‘happy’, while a minor key is perceived as ‘negative’ or ‘sad’. 

Let’s take a look at the opening of one of Mozart’s piano sonatas (don’t worry if this looks terrifying, you can get a good idea of this concept by only playing through the right hand part):

You can see that we start the piece with none-other than a C. Have a play through of the first few bars  (as I say, right hand only is fine) and see if you can hear that tonal gravity that the C provides. In this context, can’t you just feel the safety and sense of ‘home’ that Mozart uses the C for? Part of the reason that Mozart was such a genius composer was his intricate understanding of keys and how we sonically relate to them. In this piece (and in so many others), he builds you up the cosy little nest of C, and then plays a game where he sees how far away from it he can take you before bringing you home. Dankeschön Wolfgang!

And of course, this leads us into the scary question:

What is a scale?

Ok, hold on to your hobbits. A scale is the term we use to describe the collection of notes found in a key, played in a consecutive order. Remember this guy:

We said that every white note on the keyboard above belongs to the C Major Scale, and that’s the truth! So the collection of notes that comprise the C Major Scale are:

C, D, E, F, G A & B

Played in a consecutive order!

HOLD UP

I wanna drop a truth bomb right here. What does scale mean anyway?

I’ll tell ya hombre.

Scale comes from the Latin scala, meaning steps, staircase, or ladder. So we can think of a scale in this way! The Cs at the top and bottom are our desired ends (and as we saw with Mozart, it feels real good to get there), and the other notes are all the rungs of our ladder! They don’t feel as good to be in as C, but arriving at C after taking that trip is just the greatest.

So that’s a scale, a collection of notes, found in a key, played in a consecutive order. *hypnotist’s voice again* it would be a good idea to remember that forever.

Scale degrees

YES. AT LAST. You might remember that not so long ago, I described C as the tonic (central tone) of a C Major Scale. I know what you’ve had on your mind since all that time ago, and I’ve got great news for you oh J.S.Bach-a-like:

THE OTHER NOTES IN THE SCALE ALSO HAVE COOL NAMES BEYOND THE LETTERS ASSIGNED TO THEIR PITCHES!

By the beard of Brahms that felt good.

Yes, it’s true! You can think of scale degrees as the rungs of our imaginary ladder. Below are the scale degrees in a C Major scale:

C = 1 = TONIC
D = 2 = SUPER TONIC
E = 3 = MEDIANT
F = 4 = SUBDOMINANT
G = 5 = DOMINANT
A = 6 = SUBMEDIANT
B = 7 = LEADING TONE

*whispers*  ‘if you can, learn these too...’

Pretty cool non? A great little exercise to do right this second (or as soon as you get to your keys) would be to play through each of these intervals always returning to C (i.e. C –D – C; C – E – C; and so on). The best way to learn these intervals and to get an understanding of the power of the central tone is by playing or hearing them, so give it a bash! 

The Major Scale

OK! So we now know:

• What a key is.

• The difference in the sound of major and minor keys

• What a scale is, and it’s degrees

• We’ve even looked at the C Major scale!

So now we’re going to smoosh all this knowledge together and learn what exactly makes a Major scale.

Let’s look again at our keyboard:

Now we already know that the C Major scale consists of every white key on the keyboard played in consecutive order. So playing every white note going up and every white note going down on the keyboard above would give us a glistening example of the C Major scale. If you’re sat at the piano right now why not give that a go?!

Now notice above (and as you play), that between certain notes (C&D, D&E, F&G, G&A, A&B) there are black notes, but between other notes (E&F, B&C) there are no such obstructions. These black notes are the sharps (#s) and flats (♭s) of the keyboard.

We call the distance between a  white note and a black note (say, C to C#) a semi-tone, or half-step, and we call the distance between two notes obstructed by a half-step (for example C to D) a whole-tone, or whole-step. So two half-steps = one whole-step.

Keeping our eyes on the diagramatic prize above, we can see that the pattern of the C Major scale clearly goes:

Now hold onto your helmets, hear comes the most enormous truth bomb ever thus dropped in a Lecture Owl article of learning:

*truth bomb voice* 

THAT IS THE PATTERN OF EVERY MAJOR SCALE

Pretty cool right? If you know one, you basically know them all! And in fact, lucky you, that is what my next article will cover. I know, I know, you can’t wait! You’re so enthralled by the wonders of knowledge! But simmer down Kemosabe, (or KEY-mosabe?!), before we get there we’ve got to put C Major to bed.

Before we look into some fun, practical ways we can apply this, check out how C Major is written when it’s in a score: 

OK, So I’ve learnt the C Major Scale – What now?!

Well first off the bat, I think it might be a pretty good idea to give it a play! If you’ve got a keyboard (or any other instrument) handy, work through the diagram above. Once you get to the top of the scale, come back down! Wow! Doesn’t that feel satisfying?!

Now for some brownie points, as you play each note of the scale, say, or sing the scale degrees, first numerically (1,2,3,4,5,6,7,1) and then with the cool names we learnt earlier (tonic, supertonic (my favourite scale degree name btw), mediant, subdominant, submediant, leading tone, tonic) – this is a great way to start teaching yourself this cool knowledge!

Now that we’ve learnt the scale and it’s degrees, I’d really like us to learn the specific fingering of the C Major Scale for the piano. Why? Because this fingering is also the foundation for all the other scales (with a few notable exceptions – I see you B Flat Major!). Knowing correct fingering means that you’ll be able to zip up and down in this scale and sound seriously awesome. It also means that you’ll have a great bit of keyboard geography under your fingers to start writing your own music in this key signature. If you’d like to do that, that is. I would like you to do that. So… Please?

OK, let’s go! The diagram below shows the scale of C Major with the most efficient fingering – let’s take a peek!

‘So, what do those numbers above mean? They’re not scale degrees!’

Well spotted! They are in fact an indication of the fingers to use in this scale! They mean:

 1 = thumb, 2 = forefinger, 3 = middle finger, 4 = ring finger, and 5 = pinky

So in the right hand, our pattern is: C=thumb, D=forefinger, E=middle finger, F= thumb (slide it under like Indiana Jones), G= forefinger, A=middle finger, and C = pinky! To come down simply reverse (with the middle finger leaping the thumb at F to E).

And the left hand we go: C = pinky, D= ring finger, E = middle finger, F = forefinger, G = thumb, A = middle finger (leap it over the thumb!), B = forefinger, and C = thumb! To come down, simply reverse this order (with the thumb sliding under the third finger Indiana Jones style at the transition from A to G).

And there you have it! The C Major Scale Everybody!

Now you’ve learnt it, why not practice it!  Why not see how many octaves you can go up and down the piano?? Or why not write your own tune! The keyboard is your oyster my friend! 

Until next time!

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Gavin Swift is a film and media composer based in London, England

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