The major scale

A scale is not a piece of music. It is the list of notes that belong together, named for the note you start and end on. Start on C and come back to C, and the list is C major. A tune steps through the list one note at a time. The next page takes notes 1, 3, and 5 of the same list and plays them together as a chord.

The five-finger shape stops on G. The scale has two more notes, A and B, and then C again. That top C is the same letter, eight scale notes higher. That distance is an octave — the C your left hand started on, an octave below middle C, is the same kind of step in the other direction.

Five fingers, C to G C major, up to C

Number the notes. These numbers are scale degrees, and the chord page uses them as names.

Degree	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	1 again
Note	C	D	E	F	G	A	B	C

Degree 1 is home. Songs in C major want to end on it. C major sounds bright and settled because the steps between these notes are uneven in a particular way — which is the pattern below, once you can hear the scale.

Before the formula means anything, the two kinds of step have to be keys you can point at.

A half step is the very next key, the one touching this one. E to F is a half step: there is no black key between them. B to C is the other one. Those are the gaps you already saw, where the black keys come in twos and threes.

A whole step skips one key. C to D skips C♯, the black key just to the right of C. That black key is what the last page called a sharp.

Every key on the piano, white or black, is one half step from the next. Twelve of them bring the same letter back:

C · C♯ · D · D♯ · E · F · F♯ · G · G♯ · A · A♯ · B · (C)

The major scale uses these two steps in one order: whole, whole, half, whole, whole, whole, half. Written short, W–W–H–W–W–W–H. W means skip one key. H means the next key. Walk it from C:

Move	What to do	Keys you pass	Land on
start	middle C, thumb	—	C
W	skip one key	C → C♯ → D	D
W	skip one key	D → D♯ → E	E
H	the next key	E → F	F
W	skip one key	F → F♯ → G	G
W	skip one key	G → G♯ → A	A
W	skip one key	A → A♯ → B	B
H	the next key	B → C	C

The two half steps landed on E–F and B–C, the places with no black key. Every whole step jumped over a black key and landed on a white one. That is why C major is all white keys. The white keys are this scale because you started on C. Start somewhere else and a black key has to join, or the pattern breaks.

Start on G and take the same steps. Most of the landings are still white keys. One of them is not:

G ^W→ A ^W→ B ^H→ C ^W→ D ^W→ E ^W→ F♯ ^H→ G.

From E, a whole step has to skip one key. The next key is F, so skipping it lands on F♯ — the black key to the right of F. If you played F instead, the step would be a half step, and it would no longer be a major scale. That one black key is G major's one sharp. G major

Any starting note works the same way. Keep W–W–H–W–W–W–H, and use a black key wherever a white key would make the wrong size of step. C is first because it needs none.

Eight notes, five fingers. The thumb has to pass under the hand, or you run out of fingers at G — which is exactly where the five-finger shape stopped.

Right hand, going up from middle C. After E, the thumb (1) passes under the palm and plays F. The wrist stays quiet and low. Then the other fingers finish:

	C	D	E	F	G	A	B	C
Finger	1	2	3	1	2	3	4	5

Left hand, going up from the C below middle C — the one your pinky already knows. The thumb arrives on G. Finger 3 then crosses over the thumb onto A, and the thumb plays middle C at the end. You have arrived where the right hand started.

	C	D	E	F	G	A	B	C
Finger	5	4	3	2	1	3	2	1

Coming down, use those fingers in reverse. Right hand: 5 on the high C, back to the thumb on F, then finger 3 crosses over onto E. Left hand: the thumb is on middle C, and after G the pinky side takes over again. Hands separately. The tuck, done slowly, is the whole difficulty.

1. Right hand, one octave, saying the letter of each note. Metronome near 60, one note per beat. Stop on the high C.
2. The same hand, saying the degrees: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 1.
3. Left hand alone, from the lower C up to middle C. The cross of finger 3 is the spot to slow down.
4. Only then, hands together, still slow. They play the same letters. The finger numbers do not match, so look at one hand until the tuck is boring.