Lesson Twelve: Major and Minor

This lesson is where we separate off from general music theory to practical music theory. Honestly, even a very diligent student could study the structure of music every day and still have more to learn when they run out of days. If playing one-dimensional chess bores you, you can find three-dimensional chess, right? Music has deep and complex connections within itself and the people who teach for a living (not me for sure) can take you on some epic mental journeys. 

But this is the next-to-last lesson in this series and when we come to major and minor scales/keys, what I'm sharing here is what you need to know to be able to use the information to play an instrument and/or sing from sheet music: where the half-steps are. 

When I left you last, we determined without a shred of doubt in our minds that there is no black piano key between the white keys B and C. Nor is there a black key between E and F. Since we know the sharps (going up) and flats (going down) are played with the black keys, then we can become Sherlock Holmes or Miss Marple and deduce that there is neither a B-sharp nor a C-flat between B and C. And between E and F, there is no E-sharp and no F-flat. 


In the last lesson, I compared the intervals between notes in Western music to the steps in a spiral staircase, an artistic spiral in which each step is not uniform. To make the classic do-re-mi scale, the step design has to include two short steps. If you had such a spiral staircase in real life, you would find it handy -- and probably life-saving -- to know where the two short steps were. 

Unlike the magical stairs in the Harry Potter movies, happily, the musical steps don't change around. No matter where you start, the steps always follow one of two set patterns. They are pretty easy to understand, but they require more of that rote-memory learning I love so well. 

Because we are doing practical music theory now, and because if you don't know where the half-steps are in a musical key, you are nowhere, man, nowhere, we need to get this solid and permanently. You do not actually need to know what a half-step is, but you do need to know where to find it. 


In the key of C major, we find the two half-steps where there aren't any black keys (sharps or flats) between two white keys. The half-steps are between B and C, and between E and F.

The pattern for a major scale goes "Whole step, whole step, half step, whole step, whole step, whole step, half step." This is the rote-memory part. You really, really need to learn the pattern. You can do it, "whole whole half, whole whole whole half."  Or "two wholes and a half, three wholes and a half." Whatever works for you. but you need to be able to sit down with a piece of paper and instantly come up with WWH, WWWH or something. 

I'll assume you'll get to work on that if it's new to you. Okay, moving on. . .

Let's see if that counting pattern matches the C major scale on the keyboard. We know the C key is the one to the left of two black keys. C to D has a black key in between. D to E has a black key. So that's a whole step and a whole step. Now E to F, no black key. There's our half-step. F to G, whole step with a black key in the middle. G to A, a whole step. A to B a whole step. So that's whole step, whole step, whole step. B to C is a half step. So we end with a half. Does that match our pattern? Why yes, it does! How conveeeeenient, as the Church Lady used to say.

But we can't count just on the lack of black keys to tell us where the half-steps are. Because only the C major both starts on the C note and uses the "whole, whole, half, whole whole, whole, half" pattern. If we start on a different note, or we play in a minor key, we can't just look for two white keys together to find a scale. 

Let's look at F major, since F is the other key we've learned to find instantly. It's the one to the left of three black keys. 

The pattern for major scales and keys is two whole steps, a half step, three whole steps and a half step. And we know we want to start and end on the note F.

F to G is a whole step, with the F-sharp black key in the middle. 

G to A is a whole step, with the G-sharp black key in the middle. 

A to B, is a whole step, with A-sharp in the middle,  but it's a whole step and we need a half-step. 

In practical terms, a half-step is from a white key to a black key or a black key to a white key, except for the two jumps with no black key in the middle: B to C, or E to F. Any other time, the interval from a black key to a white key or a white key to a black key is a half-step.

In musical terms, an interval between a "natural" note, a note without a sharp or flat, is a half step. So F to F-sharp is a half step. And a note with a sharp or flat in it which goes to a natural note is also a half-step. So B to B-flat is a half step down. 


The key of C major is the only one where the half-steps in the pattern are found just by spotting the E to F and B to C jumps from one white key to another. Now we are working on the F major key and we are finding out how to get the half-step we need to keep the pattern going. 

 Continuing with the F scale. . .

We'd started F to G, whole step, and then gone G to A, whole step. But now we need a half-step so we can't use A to B. Since we are going up, we need a sharp. So we choose A-sharp, as it's a jump from a natural note, A, to a note with a sharp or flat, which is A-sharp. That's a half-step and we need that. 

Now we have half the F major scale done. F, G, A, A-sharp.

Next we need a whole note. A-sharp to B is a black key going to the next white key, and that's only a half-step. And there is no B-sharp, because the B and C white keys are only a half-step apart with no black key between them. 

So we jump from A-sharp to C. That gives us a whole step, since A-sharp to B is a half-step and B to C is a half-step. We add the two little jumps and get a whole jump.  For the next whole step we can go C to D. And D to E is also a whole step.  We have F, G, A, A-sharp, C, D, and E. Now just a half-step is needed to finish the pattern of a major scale, and since E to F is a half step -- two white keys with no black key in the middle -- we've done it, by George!

NOTE: Sharps go up and flats go down, but here's another of those music conventional things. . . when people notate the F scale, they almost always write it the way I did it here under the way we just worked it out, with the note after A being called B-flat of A-sharp. It has to do with making a tidy "Circle of Fifths" diagram. Don't ask. 

Finding the notes of a minor scale work the same way, with a small adjustment to the jumping pattern. For minor scales, the pattern is whole step, half step, whole step whole step half step, whole step, whole step.  You count it out just the way we did here, just using the minor pattern.

Exhausting, eh? In real life, by the time you tuned up and went through all that, your allotted music time would be over for the day. 

So in the last lesson, we'll learn how people find the notes to play in the real world. 

Next time: Choosing the keys you need, and the importance of using your left thumb to find the chord notes