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