Learn Major Piano Scales

Major scales play a major role in the principles and techniques that you are going to learn through your piano lessons. For example, one of my favorite techniques is to take a one-fingered melody and replace it with full-sounding chords.

However, in order to successfully master this technique (quickly and efficiently), you will have to know all 12 keys. Keep in mind that this is not a matter of memorizing 12 different major scales, but understanding the theory in how major scales are created so that when necessary, you can quickly play any given scale.

We will be using a concept known as the “Circle of Fifths” to learn all 12 Major Scales.

Two Rules To Learning All 12 Major Scales!

As stated earlier, the goal of these lessons is to make every rule, technique, and principle as easy to understand as possible. Therefore, I have chosen to introduce to you a few rules that will simplify the process of learning all 12 major scales. I also encourage you to practice these scales often, as you will soon memorize them. (However, memorization is not required).

It is also important that you note the order in which we will learn each major scale.

We will be learning the scales in a counter-clockwise order. That is, from C to F to Bb, and so on … I find it much easier for students to learn the major scales using the chart counter clock-wise versus starting clockwise. Let’s get started!

Major Scale Techniques

To explain these two rules, we will start with the major scale that we already know …

The whole point of these two rules is to rely on one scale to form another. For example, the next scale to be learned on the Circle of Fifths charts is the F Major Scale …

So then, the problem is turning a C Major Scale into an F Major Scale. How do we do it? There are two steps which will enable us to perform this simple task:

Step #1:

Identify the seventh degree (note) of the current scale and lower it by one half step.

Step #2:

After lowering the 7th note of the scale one half step, change the starting and ending note to the next scale on the chart …

In this case, we have lowered the 7th note of a C Major Scale and wish to play an F Major Scale. Therefore, all we must do is start and end on F instead of C.

Explanation of Two Steps

By lowering the seventh note of the C major scale (or any scale from which you want to form the next scale), we are no longer playing a C major scale. In actuality, we are playing a C Mixolydian Scale (you will learn different modes of a scale later). In addition, when lowering the seventh degree of C major, we are playing the same exact notes of the F major scale. That is, the only note difference between C major and F major is the [B->Bb]. That is why they are neighboring keys on the “Circle of Fifths” chart. Keep in mind that simply lowering the seventh note does not complete the process of changing from one scale to another. The process is only complete when the scale is played starting and ending on the first note of the new scale.

Summarization

Step One

We started with a C Major Scale …

We identified the seventh note of the scale and lowered it one half step …

Step Two

We played the same scale (in step one) starting and ending on F (instead of C) …

F Major Scale

This concludes our lesson on major scales for today. This lesson doesn’t even include half the information that Hear and Play’s 300-page piano course covers on major scales. If you are serious about taking your piano playing to the next level than I highly recommend that you check it out …  Click HERE Now For More Information.