Understand Scales & Key Signatures using this chart

Key Signatures: Every song is based on one!

When you hear somebody saying that a song is in the key of C, what he/she means is that the song uses notes from the C scale, and its Key Signature is the C scale.

The composer may throw in a few sharp or flat notes to create some tension in the song but it will always return back to the notes from the C scale.

Every song is based on a particular key; it is more like a home to that song.

On a music sheet, a key is identified by its key signature – the sharps and flats that are placed right at the beginning of the first bar.

A song could be based on any of the 12 different key signatures; each of these will tell you what sharps or flats will be used in the song.

Why so many keys?
There are 12 different keys – each for the 7 white keys (C D E F G A B) and the 5 black keys (their sharps and flats). Though a song’s overall structure does not change irrespective of which key it is based on, every key has its own feel and a range of sound which can be used by the composer. Based on that a composer chooses a key signature which he/she feels will be the best fit for the song.

Transposing
Composers and performers find keys very useful because it helps them to change the range of the sound. For example, if a singer has a limited range and cannot sing high notes but at the same time his/her tone quality is unique which the composer wants to use, the composer can change the song to a lower key to accommodate the singer’s sound range. This is a win-win situation for both the composer as well as the singer. By the way, changing the key of a song is also known as “Transposing”.

Scales vs Keys vs Modes

• A scale is a collection of notes (on which a melody is based).
• A key is a like a nickname for a specific scale.
• Not all scales can be completely described by a key (especially the ones in world music)
• A Key usually covers only the the basic major/minor ones.
• The modes of a scale are what you get when you start the scale on different degrees. Keys don’t have modes; scales do.

 

Watch: Understand Major and Minor Keys (Music Theory)

 

All Key Signatures (major and their relative minor)

Major Scale in Music

Here’s How to Play the Major Scale & Sound Happy!

Every scale is recognized by the combination of whole steps and half steps among the notes of that particular scale. Major scales also are built in their own unique way. These scales, in general, sound happier compared to the minor scales.

Guide to the 12 Major Scales
Every octave has seven white keys and five black keys, making it a total of 12 different keys. So any type of scale you take, you can actually play it in 12 different keys; same is the case with major scales.

Here I will give you a quick overview of the 12 different Major scales with the appropriate fingering to be used. Remember, thumb is finger number one. RH stands for right hand. LH stands for left hand.

C Major scale – Only white notes! No sharps or flats.

RH 123 1234 123 12345

LH 54321 321 4321 321

G – Only one black key i.e. F sharp

RH 123 1234 123 12345

LH 54321 321 4321 321

D – Two black keys. F sharp and C sharp

RH 123 1234 123 12345

LH 54321 321 4321 321

A – Three black keys. F sharp, C sharp, and G sharp

RH 123 1234 123 12345

LH 54321 321 4321 321

E – Four black keys. F sharp, C sharp, G sharp, and D sharp

RH 123 1234 123 12345

LH 54321 321 4321 321

B – Five black keys. F sharp, C sharp, G sharp, D sharp, and A sharp

RH 123 1234 123 12345

LH 4321 4321 321 4321

Now that covers all the keys having sharps. Next we will move onto the keys having flats.

F Major scale – One black key i.e. B flat

RH 1234 123 1234 1234

LH 54321 321 4321 321

B flat – Two black keys. B flat and E flat

RH 2123 1234 123 1234

LH 321 4321 321 43212

E flat – Three black keys. B flat, E flat, and A flat

RH 2 1234 123 1234 123

LH 321 4321 321 4321 2

A flat – Four black keys. B flat, E flat, A flat, and D flat

RH 23 123 1234 123 123

LH 321 4321 321 4321 2

D flat – Five black keys. B flat, E flat, A flat, D flat, and G flat

RH 23 1234 123 1234 12

LH 321 4321 321 4321 2

G flat – Six black keys. B flat, E flat, A flat, D flat, G flat, and C flat

RH 234 123 1234 123 12

LH 4321 321 4321 321 2

We covered all the Major scales used in music here.

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The Complete Book of Scales, Chords, Arpeggios and Cadences

 

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Minor Scale

Learn How to Play the Minor Scale – Its As important as the Major!

If you carefully listen to the songs that are based on the minor scale, you will realize that the songs tend to have a sad feeling to it. Songs based on the Major scale, on the other hand, sound happy. It does not mean that the minor scale is less important; the only thing is that the songs based on this scale tend to have a tinge of sadness and it gives you a totally different feeling.

Consists of Eight Notes
The Minor scale is similar to the major scale in the sense that minor scales also have eight notes with the first and the last notes having the same name. But that’s where the difference ends. The combination of whole steps and half steps is different in this scale from the major scale.

The minor scale can contain both white keys as well as black keys and just like the major scales, they can be based on 12 different keys.

Three different Minor Scales
When people refer to minor scale, most of the time they mean the natural minor scale. There are also two other variations of minor scale, known as Harmonic minor scale and Melodic minor scale but here we will discuss only the Natural minor scale.

Example of a Natural Minor Scale
The easiest Minor scale to remember is the A minor scale. Reason being it is exactly similar to the C Major scale.

A Minor scale – Only white notes! No sharps or flats.

Notes – A B C D E F G A

The fingering for this scale based on 2 octaves will be as follows.

RH 123 1234 123 12345

LH 54321 321 4321 321

A Minor Scale Piano – Natural Minor, Melodic Minor and Harmonic Minor

Here’s a video showing how to play the A Minor Scale on Piano (relative to C Major), all three variations that is Natural Minor, Melodic Minor and Harmonic Minor, and how to practice them.

 

 

Read: How to play the harmonic minor scale

The A minor scale is usually the first of all the minor scales that a beginner piano student learns. That is because it has the maximum number of white keys and most beginners are comfortable playing on the white keys initially.

Here is the key signatures chart that explains which sharps and flat notes are there in every key signature (scale)

Chromatic Scale

Importance of the Chromatic scale and how to play it on the Piano.

The Chromatic scale is another scale which you will have to learn as you start developing as a pianist. As a beginner you can just stick to the Major and Minor scales but once you are past that stage, you should constantly try to learn something new. You can then include this scale in your repertoire.

Structure of a Chromatic scale
The chromatic scale is a scale, which includes all the notes in an octave, i.e. all the white keys as well as the black keys. Since it contains all the notes, you can use it while playing any song.

So if you start on the C note, the scale would contain the following notes.

C C# D D# E F F# G G# A A# B C

What about the fingering? The fingering for this scale will be as follows.

RH 1313 123 1313 12

LH 1313 213 1313 21

How do you use it?
Since this scale uses all the notes, you can use it with any song. Players generally use notes of the chromatic scale to fill gaps within songs. One way they do is to start on any note of a chord and then play the chromatic notes to reach some other note of the same chord that is being played with the left hand. You can do some fiddling and figure out other ways to do it as well. As long as it sounds good, it is probably correct.

Whole Tone Scale

Whole Tone Scale: The name of the scale should give you some indication as to how the notes would be arranged within the scale. In this case, you have guessed it right! It consists of only whole tones and no semitones. It means the distance between two consecutive notes in this scale is one whole tone (or 2 semi tones).

Example
So let us take an example for the Whole Tone scale. The example will clearly show you how the notes are arranged in this scale.

Notes on the Whole Tone scale!

C D E F# G# A# C

The fingering for this scale based on 2 octaves will be as follows.

RH 1,2,1,2,3,4,1,2,1,2,3,4,5

LH 3,2,1,4,3,2,1,2,1,4,3,2,1

Uses

Every scale has its own unique sound, depending on which you play the notes to give it a particular feel. If you play and hear the notes on the Whole tone scale, you will realize that you have probably heard this sound being played behind many movie scenes. This is a common background sound whenever somebody goes from reality into his dreams.

This was a brief overview on this scale. Just keep on exploring and improvising on your own. See how you can play this scale to suit different situations. Music is all about improvising and you should not limit yourself in any way.

Now you have enough information to start exploring on your own. Keep practicing and have fun.

You can go through this site for information on many other scales as well as for information on how to play the piano better. Please browse through the rest of this site for more such lessons on playing the piano.

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