Music Fundamentals THAT I WISH I KNEW FIRST!
A beginner's intro to the Major Scale.
I Wish I Knew
The more I teach music, the more I realize that there are fundamentals of music that get neglected. This can be for a variety of reasons, like waiting to explain advanced material after a student has learned the basics. While this makes sense up front, it creates commonalities in missed knowledge.
My main instrument is the guitar. When I explain advanced material to someone at the beginner to early intermediate levels, I find that many people don’t understand concepts like the Circle of Fifths, Roman Numeral Analysis, or Functional Harmony. That means I have to reply on concepts like Chord Names, Chord Forms, and the C Major Scale as building blocks that I can work from. Of course that is assuming that the other person knows any of that.
To be honest with you, I just said something that doesn’t help musical students. The word “level” makes it seem like music has to be learned in a linear set of lessons. It also makes it sound like musical knowledge is some sort of “thing” that can be possessed and accumulated. I’ve found that everyone has the same starting point when learning new material, which is they know nothing. Zip, zilch, nada. Leaning music is a lot like learning to crawl. We can’t get to walking, running, or jumping if we don’t learn the beginner material first. That includes some struggling. Everyone learns at their own rate and eventually gets it. After that there really is no such thing as a “level”. There are only experiences. So an “intermediate level” should really be thought of as having a wide enough variety of experiences to become more confident in a subject.
So, I’d like to go over some of the topics in music that I wish were covered earlier on so that you can build upon them as you experience your own learning process. We’ll stick to the Major Scale at bit and jump around a little. My end goal is to get you to see how these topics are all related. If there is something that YOU wish was covered here, then please comment and let me know.
The Major Scale… The Cheater Way
I’ve seen this scale taught many ways, but there is only one that frustrates me to no end: counting steps. I hate counting steps. Whole step, whole step, half step, whole step, whole step, whole step, half step, repeat. Are you lost yet? Are you bored? Mark me down for both because counting steps is meaningless. It doesn’t tell me anything about the notes I’m using or the reason of using them. To make music meaningful we should start with numbers. Can you count to seven? If you ca, then you’re already halfway there.
Above is the Major Scale. It doesn’t look like much, but it’s really the best way of understanding this scale because it highlights the intervals. The smallest interval between two different notes is a half-step (shown above in red). Two half-steps make a whole step (shown above in blue). Now check out the piano below. The number 1 is on the C key. We don’t need to jump into lettered notes to see that the Major Scale as numbers shows us that there are two half-steps from 3 to 4 and from 7 to 1. There are no other half-steps.
So instead of counting steps we can simply say that there is a whole step from each note to the next, unless we are going from 3 to 4 or 7 to 1. The reason for the placement of the half-steps is that it breaks up multiple whole steps. At least that’s a very simple version of the reason. So take a look at the blue and red step sequence again. The scale starts with two whole steps and then gets three whole steps in the back half of the scale. Separating the groups of whole steps are half-steps. This let’s us use the half-steps as a “break point” between groups of two or three whole steps.
Let’s work this out starting on a black key. The key that the below chart starts on is either G♯ or A♭. It really doesn’t matter what we call it as long as the first note in the Major Scale is always 1. The blue lines take us a whole step at a time and the red lines are the half-steps. Letters, sharps, and flats are not needed. At least not yet. Right now learning numbers is far more important.
Letters are Secondary
Most of us who have learned music have learned notes by letters. We usually learn this from the C Major Scale. Before we jump into that, let’s talk about the letters themselves. All fifteen major scales use the letters A through G. Each scale starts on it’s own letter and then proceeds alphabetically. Any letter after G will be A again.
Above we have the C and G Major Scales. The C Major Scale starts on C, moves through each letter only once, and returns to C. There are no sharp or flat notes because E and F happen to be on steps 3 and 4. We also have B and C on steps 7 and 1. Now remember how we have all of these extra keys on the piano. Well that is how it is on all instruments. So even it you are playing the C Major Scale on just the white keys, the black keys still exist. That means between C and D is another note. Depending on the context of the music, this can be either C♯ or D♭.
The G Major Scale starts on G, moves through alphabetically, and only uses each letter once. B and C happen to be on steps 3 and 4 this time. By the time get to steps 7 and 1 we get F♯ and G. In the C Major Scale there is a half-step from E to F. In the G Major Scale we have a whole step after E, so go one notch higher to F♯ to have a whole step from 6 to 7. We did not use G♭ as the 7th step because we have to have each letter once and only once.
This makes figuring out notes so much easier. Let’s say we have a key like A Major. There are three sharp notes in this key. Without knowing which notes are sharp we can assume three things about the scale. (1) It starts on A, (2) it is in alphabetical order, and (3) each letter is used only once.
Above we have the A Major Scale. I put the three sharps in, but take a look and think about it from the point of view of the C Major Scale. In C Major, the only half-steps were from E to F and B to C. In A Major we have a whole step after B, so the next “C” note is sharpened by a half-step to create C♯. When we get to E as the 5th of the scale, we take a whole step to get to F♯ and then another whole step to get to G♯. The last half-step from 7 to 1 is from G♯ to A.
The Order of Sharps & Flats
So how do we know how many sharps or flats there are in a key without having to memorize all fifteen keys? That’s where the Circle of Fifths comes in. I’ve already done quite a few lessons on the circle, so let me give you a rundown of how I wish it was taught to me.
The Order of Sharps is F C G D A E B.
Memorize it! Start with F C G. Write it down. Say it a few times at 10 a.m., 11 a.m., noon, etc. Say it forwards and backwards. Repeat it every so often until you know those three letters. Then do the same with D A E. Repeat just D A E. Then add it to the first three to get F C G D A E. Continue to write them and say them out loud. Then add on B as the tail end. Once you have this order down you can move on to…
The Order of Flats, which is B E A D G C F. This is the reverse order of the Order of Sharps. Good thing you memorized that forwards and backwards already.
Now that the hard work is done we start to use it. Below is the circle with the key signatures shown, which are the sharps and flats. Focusing on the red letters we have all of the Major keys. The Order of Sharps starts with F C G, which happens to be the letters at the top of the circle. D A E are next and are found on the right side with B following them. To find the names of the flat keys we use the Order of Flats. To the left of F on the circle is B♭ E♭ A♭ D♭. Well the Order of Flats starts B E A D, so flat keys on the left side of the circle start with B♭ E♭ A♭ D♭. Continuing through the order gives us G♭ and C♭.
The three keys at the bottom have enharmonic equivalents, which is a way of saying two keys are equal to each other. So C♯ = D♭, F♯ = G♭, and B = C♭. The other keys are all alone because creating an enharmonic equivalent would create a key with double sharps or double flats. That’s no fun for beginners, so let’s not go there.
Another great feature is that this is like a clock. The top of the clock has no sharps or flats. The right side of the clock count how many sharps are in each key as we go until we get seven sharps. The left side is like a mirror on a clock that counts flats from one to seven. To figure out which notes are sharp or flat we use the corresponding order. C is at the top and has no sharps or flats, G has one sharp, D has two sharps, and A has three sharps. We already used A Major earlier, so let’s use it again.
A major has three sharps due it its position on the circle. The first three letters in the Order of Sharps is F C G, so A Major’s sharp notes are F♯, C♯, and G♯.
This works with the Order of Flats. Let’s try it out on A♭ Major, which according to its position on the circle has four flat notes. The first four notes in the Order of Flats is B E A D, so A♭ Major contains B♭, E♭, A♭, and D♭.
Recap Time
The numbers, or degrees, or the Major Scale are 1 through 7.
The only two half-steps are from degrees 3 to 4 and 7 to 1.
Each Major Scale starts on it’s letter, is in alphabetical order, and uses each letter only once.
The Order of Sharps is F C G D A E B. The Order of Flats is B E A D G C F.
The orders help you to build the Circle of Fifths so you know how many sharps or flats are in each key.
The orders tell you which letters in a key are sharp or flat based on the key’s position on the circle.
The chart below uses all of these rules.
This is a lot, but it’s where I wish I started because I could then relate everything else I was learning to this list of concepts. I could look at some sheet music and see one sharp and think, “Oh, right. The letter to the right of C on the circle is G, so this is G Major. And the first letter in the Order of Sharps is F, so F# is the only sharp note. That means the notes and degrees are 1G, 2A, 3B, 4C, 5D, 6E, and 7F♯. Cool!”
I’d even know where I am in the world of music. I could be playing with C, G, D, and A Major for a while and know that I was using sharp notes and keys that are to the upper right of the circle. If I found myself with three flats notes in a key signature, then I could think of this key as being in another neighborhood of the circle. E♭ Major has three flats and I could then learn some songs in that key while looking for songs in F and B♭ as well. This way I could get used to playing in keys in the upper right and upper left of the circle. This is how I treat the circle today. I’ll read some music in a key, think of it as being part of neighborhood on this circular map, and when key changes occur I just think of it as traveling around the circle to gain or lose sharps and flats. Some neighborhoods love sharps and flats and are at the bottom of the circle. People who don’t care for sharps or flats hang out at the top of the circle.
Either way I still have the numbers 1 through 7 to rely on. As long as I keep the two half-steps in mind, then I can find my way around the notes of any key.
