"Knowing Your Major Scale
Gets The Wheels Spinning!"

What's the benefit of learning a simple major scale anyway? Lots! Learning what it is certainly helps. Learning how you can have fun with it is even more valuable, don't you think? Well that's what we're about here. It's a nice way to get the motor turning. Learn a little, apply it while having fun - that will be my approach with you.

Okay, so what is a scale, in general terms?

You can put all the "spin" you want on the definition, and you'll see it written a lot of different ways. I like simplicity, so here it is: a scale is simply a series of musical notes in ascending or descending order. There are tons of them! Tons and tons!

But...

You don't need to know all of them to sit down at the piano to get "down and dirty" and play music. Really, you don't. As a matter of fact, your finest professional players don't know all of the scales that exist. It's simply not practical. Remember what we said here about learning piano.

Let me ask you a question: what would have happened if, as a child, you were told that you weren't allowed to talk until you learned all the words in the English language? As ridiculous as that question may sound, please answer it out loudly (there's a reason I'm asking for this).

Hmmmm, it seems you are able to answer that question within your means of speaking, right? If you had the entire English vocabulary memorized and understood, chances are pretty good that your answer would have sounded differently, based on the word choices you had to pick from.

But, the real point: does it matter? Within your means (your current vocabulary), were you able to verbalize an answer? Of course you were!

Friend, it's the same way with music. And let me add... it's the same every step of the way of your piano learning experience. You can learn something ever so small and say (play) a whole lot with it.

Please read that last paragraph one more time and fully understand what I'm getting at here. It's truth forms the basis of the reason this entire site exists.

Okay... today, we are discussing the Major Scale. That could be compared to learning a whole array of words! Really, you'll see.

As we said, a scale in the general sense is a series of musical notes that ascends or descends (goes up or down). Well, a Major Scale is a scale that follows a specific pattern of construction. Let's take a look at it:

Here is the C Major Scale:

C D E F G A B C

From C to D is a whole step.

From D to E is a whole step.

From E to F is a half step.

From F to G is a whole step.

From G to A is a whole step.

From A to B is a whole step.

From B to C is a half step.

Now you have the formula:

(W = whole step, H = half step)

W W H W W W H

That's how every major scale is constructed. Yes, there are more. Actually, there are 12 Major Scales altogether. But for this particular lesson, we're focusing on the C Major Scale only.

Notice above that I chose to show the C Major Scale starting one octave below Middle C (shaded gray), but I didn't have to. Anywhere on the piano would have been fine. In other words, anytime you have a collection of white keys from a "C" to the next "C," you have the C Major Scale. You can play it in any range, higher or lower.

In this audio example of the C Major Scale being played ascending and descending, I am actually starting on Middle C and playing up to the C above that:

Also, speaking of white keys, here's an interesting point about the C Major Scale. It's the only major scale that consists of only white keys on the piano.

Another way of looking at it: if you were to piece together a bunch of C Major Scales, you would form the entire piano keyboard, pretty much, with the exception of the black keys. In other words it simply continues in both directions:

<...... C D E F G A B C D E F G A B C D E F G A B C D E F G A B ......>

That's pretty easy to see, yes? Great.

The best part of all this? You just learned enough information to play for hours and hours on the piano. Just knowing the C Major Scale has equipped you with a foundation to start playing right now!

"Uhhhh," you might be thinking, "How? What do I do with this information?"

Glad you asked. Place your fingers on the piano right now, similar to what you see in the illustration below... go ahead, just do it. By the way, how many fingers on each hand do you have (counting your thumb as a finger)? Right, five. Okay, now place each of those fingers on one key of that C Major Scale.

Did I hear you say "what fingers on what notes?" ... not important here. When you place your fingers on the piano keyboard, they will almost naturally fall into a position where you have five consecutive keys under them.

By the way, do this with both hands. No reason not to! So your left hand will be on five white keys to the left of the five white keys under your right hand fingers. Remember, no matter which white keys you are playing, they are all part of the C Major Scale, right?

"What do I do next?" you ask.

My answer:

Play.

"Play what?"

Play the keys in an order, pressing each key with the finger that corresponds to it. Play one key at a time for now. Get a feel for what it's like to play with each of your fingers.

Does it feel awkward? This is part of the' "learning curve" your hands and fingers have to go through. You'll be fine. As long as you maintain a good hand form, this will start to feel more and more comfortable.

Play one key at a time with your left hand... then with your right hand... then switch back and forth - one key with your left hand...one key with your right hand... mix it up... important rule here:

No rules other than what we already mentioned! Don't judge what you are doing. Play, play play!

Don't think about what you're doing. Remember, no judging. Oh, did I say play, play, play?

I am having you do this for a couple of reasons:

1) To get your fingers to start feeling comfortable playing the keys individually.

2) To stimulate your creative juices.

Keep this in mind: creativity stems from a lack of judgement. So there you have it.

Don't worry about any of this... play, play, play. There will be plenty of time and plenty of places on the site where we can approach things in a more "understandable" fashion, like when we discuss Diatonic playing, but that's not the point of this. The point is: play, play, play, create, listen, don't judge, play, play, play some more!

Also, let's keep this more interesting by making one slight modification (as often as you wish): take your both hands and move them to the left or right, or one hand to the left, one to the right, etc.

Just maintain the hand position that keeps one finger above one key and the five keys you are playing on the piano are five that are "together" ... what I mean is there are no white keys in between the ones that your fingers are playing. Another way of saying it: keep it alphabetical. Easy enough?

So, if you were playing this:

Left Hand: C D E F G Right Hand: E F G A B

you might switch that to this:

Left Hand: D E F G A Right Hand: F G A B C

(in the above example, your left hand would have moved up by a distance of just one white key and your right hand would have done the same)

Just another switch:

Left Hand: G A B C D Right Hand: B C D E F

See? It doesn't matter where you move your hands to, but I think it's important that you make these position changes. Doing so keeps it interesting, and each position is just as easy as the other. Variety is good!

Again, one finger and one key at a time. At the beginning, your fingers may have the tendency to "move together." What I mean is that when you play your 4th finger, your 5th (pinkie) just might want to follow.

That's normal for now. That's why your playing with this more than just a few times... don't judge this occurrence, just be aware of it. As days and weeks go by, you'll start feeling an independence in your fingers that you didn't previously think possible! That's called finger dexterity.

Keep at this, not because you have to, but because you want to. Get as creative as you possibly can, alternating keys, alternating hands, really mixing it up, etc.

Have fun with this... and smile a lot!

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