How to Play a Major Scale

1. How to Play a Major Scale A Step by Step Guide

2. What is a major scale? • Scale: a sequence of musical notes going up or down • Major: A scale made up of eight distinct notes • Commonly known as “Do Re MiFa So La Ti Do” • To understand completely, you also have to know about the two types of steps.

3. Types of Steps: • Half Step: the interval between two adjacent notes • Whole Step: Two half steps Half Steps Whole Steps

4. Major Scale Step Pattern • Now start on any key, and follow this step pattern: • Whole – Whole – Half – Whole – Whole – Whole – Half • In other words, two wholes and a half, then three wholes and a half.No matter where you start, this pattern creates the major scale. • W-W-H, W-W-W-H

5. What’s in a key? • How do you know what major scale you played? • It all depends on where you started. • There are 13 distinct notes on the piano, and they’re all right here. The white keys are named for the first 7 letters of the alphabet, and follow each other again and again. C D E F G A B C D E

6. What’s in a key? • The black keys are sharps (#) and flats (♭). Sharp means higher, flat means lower. • The black key above C is C#. It’s also the key below D, so it’s called D♭. All black keys have two names, and they’re fairly interchangeable. • If you started on D# and played the right steps, then the scale you played was D# Major! C# D# F# G# A# C# D# D♭ E♭ G♭ A♭ B♭ D♭ E♭ C D E F G A B C D E