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Music Theory Basics

550 bytes added, 04:39, 7 January 2015

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→‎The Major Scale

Notice how C Major has no sharp/flat notes. Again, this is just a naming convention to simplify things. C Major is usually the first key learned on any instrument. On a piano, it represents the white keys (no black keys). Some instruments are designed around C Major. Guitar, unlike piano, is very key-neutral. It is equally simple to play in C Major as any other key.

One octave of a piano from C to C is a great visualization of the key of C Major, showing clearly where the whole and half steps are:

{|class="wikitable

+ C-C Octave on Piano

|-

|  C

|-

|class="blackKey"|  C{{s}}

|-

|  D

|-

|class="blackKey"|  D{{s}}

|-

|  E

|-

|  F

|-

|class="blackKey"|  F{{s}}

|-

|  G

|-

|class="blackKey"|  G{{s}}

|-

|  A

|-

|class="blackKey"|  A{{s}}

|-

|  B

|-

|  C

|}

Each major scale has the same quality as every other. C Major will sound like C{{sharp}} Major will sound like A Major; they just start on different notes. It doesn't matter that C Major has no sharps or flats while C# Major is all sharps (C{{sharp}} D{{sharp}} E{{sharp}} F{{sharp}} G{{sharp}} A{{sharp}} B{{sharp}}) and A Major has 3 sharps (A B C{{sharp}} D E F{{sharp}} G{{sharp}}). What matters is the whole-tone/semi-tone relationships between notes:

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