Notes of Joy

I had one of my piano students ask me if Piano Scales were anything like Fish scales?  She wanted to know if those white keys would peel off when you played scales?  Well, the answer to that question is no, but piano scales are important, and over the next few minutes I will explain why that is.

A piano scale is not something that’s reserved just for the piano – it’s actually a musical scale that corresponds to all instruments. Chances are, you’ve played a few scales in your day – maybe more than a few. But did you ever stop to wonder exactly what sclaes are and why we have them?

Instead of getting lost in music theory, let’s talk about the piano scale in more practical terms, and see how we can actually use it. Theory is great, but it’s best when it’s applied to real life – don’t you agree?

A scale is nothing more than a group of notes that act as a kind of foundation for part or all of a piece of music. It gives the composer a structure from which to build melodies and harmonies, and it actually helps musicians improvise within a given piece of music. Most western music is based on one or more of just a few scales, which we’ll talk about here.

Everyone’s Favorite – The Major Scale

The one piano scale – or music scale – practically everyone knows is the major scale. If you’ve ever seen “The Sound Of Music,” you’ve heard a major scale. That’s right – it’s the “DO-RE-MI” scale. Most western scales don’t skip any lines or spaces on the music staff, and they don’t repeat the same note with a different accidental (sharp or flat). This forces the key signature (the little sharps and flats on the staff at the front of a piece of music) to contain just sharps or just flats. Pretty cool, huh? Someone actually thought about all this!

The C major piano scale is the easiest scale to build and remember – it’s just the white notes on the piano, beginning on C: C-D-E-F-G-A-B-[C]. That last C is also the beginning of the scale as it continues on the next octave above the starting C.

If you want to build any major piano scale, you could memorize them all – which is probably a good idea in the long run – or realize that they all have the same structure. First, remember that the half step is the smallest distance between keys – black-to-white, white-to-black, or white-to-white (like E to F). A major scale can be built using the following whole-/half-step pattern: Start on any note, then go up WHOLE-WHOLE-HALF-WHOLE-WHOLE-WHOLE-HALF.

So, looking at the C major scale, starting on C, C to D is a WHOLE step, D to E is a WHOLE step, E to F is a HALF step, F to G is a WHOLE step, G to A is a WHOLE step, A to B is a WHOLE step, and B to C is a HALF step. Got it? Good! Now, let’s try another one.

How about Ab? Ab?! That’s right – piece of cake when you know the pattern: Ab (WHOLE) Bb (WHOLE) C (HALF) Db (WHOLE) Eb (WHOLE) F (WHOLE) G (HALF) Ab.

Click Here to Download some major scale charts

Enough Theory Already – How Are Scales Used?

You might have noticed that last scale had 4 flats – Bb, Eb, Ab, and Db – which is exactly what the key signature for the key of Ab has – 4 flats. Remember how we said that a piano scale – and any music scale – is the foundation for a piece of music? Well, the key signature is the way of representing that scale in the written music. So, a piece is said to be in the key of Ab if its key signature contains 4 flats – Bb, Eb, Ab, and Db – which means it relies on the Ab major scale. (By the way, the same key signature is used for F minor, so you’ll need to use your ears also!)

For a piece of music written in a major key, the notes which will sound best in the melody are the notes of that major scale, and the piece will usually end on either the root (the first note of the scale) or one of the notes of the major chord (the third note of the scale or the fifth note of the scale).

When you’re playing a piece of music written in a particular key, you can easily improvise your own melody simply by playing the notes of the piano scale that corresponds to that key signature. So, if you’re playing music with no sharps or flats, that music is in the key of C major (or, possibly, A minor). If you make up your own melody using only the white keys on the piano, you will be improvising, and it probably won’t sound half bad! We’ll talk more about keys, scales, and chords when we dig more deeply into improvisation.

Yes, There Are Minor Scales, Too

Just as there are major scales, there are also minor scales, but there are three different types of minor scales. The first type is the natural minor scale, which has the same key signature as its “relative major” scale that starts a minor third higher.

WHAT?!

Every major key has a relative minor key. For the key of C major, the relative minor key is A minor. A is a minor third (3 half steps) below C. The A natural minor scale is the scale that begins on A and uses only white keys – A-B-C-D-E-F-G-A. So, it has the same key signature as C major. Notice the whole-/half-step structure is WHOLE-HALF-WHOLE-WHOLE-HALF-WHOLE-WHOLE. And yes, you can build any natural minor scale with that structure.

For reasons dealing with harmony and what composers though sounded good, two other minor scales came to be used – the harmonic and melodic minor scales.

The harmonic minor scale raises the second-to-last note one half step. So, A harmonic minor is A-B-C-D-E-F-G#-A, or WHOLE-HALF-WHOLE-WHOLE-HALF-(WHOLE+HALF)-HALF. You may notice that scale sounds somewhat “Middle Eastern” – in fact, you’ll find it used extensively in Disney’s “Aladdin” for that very reason.

The melodic minor scale raises both the third-to-last AND second-to-last notes on half step, but only when going up, or ascending. The scale is the same as the natural minor scale when descending, or going down. So, A melodic minor, going up then back down again, is A-B-C-D-E-F#-G#-A-G-F-E-D-C-B-A. Crazy, isn’t it? Once again, the structure is the same for any melodic minor scale: WHOLE-HALF-WHOLE-WHOLE-WHOLE-WHOLE-HALF (for the ascending portion only).

Well, that’s enough about the piano scale for now. We could go on and on, but it’s best that you play around with some of these ideas first and get back to making and listening to more piano music now!

Here’s a simple diagram of the piano or keyboard layout. As you may have noticed, this pattern of keys repeats itself up and down the piano, which should help you feel better about learning to play! Yes, you’ll need to learn to play with both hands and multiple fingers, but it’s best to break the piano down into its most basic components and learn them one at a time.

This Piano Layout shows how piano notes relate to notes on a music staff.

What About The Black Keys?

First, a bit of music theory…

A “half step” is the smallest unit of measure on the piano keyboard. The distance from C to the black key just to its right is a half step, as is the distance from E to F. Got it?

The black keys are represented by sharps (#) and flats (b) applied to the “white key” notes. A sharp sign raises the pitch one half step – either to the black key just to the right (as in C# or D#) or, if there is no black key, to the next white key (as in E#, which is actually F).

A flat sign lowers the pitch one half step, to the nearest black key (as in Db or Eb) or white key (as in Fb, which is actually E).

Here’s a diagram that should help explain things:

This shows the black key layout on a piano or keyboard.

If you are wanting to learn how to play the piano by ear then this little trick is for you. No more trying to pick out the melody and in the end what your playing doesn’t match what you are hearing. And best of all no more being bound down by sheet music.

Playing the piano by ear is actually very simple if you know the right way to do it. Some people don’t even know where to start they try and fail. And they believe it is only for those with some kind of special talent. But ITS NOT! If you can hear one single note on the piano and you are able to pick it out yourself then you can do this.

Ok so what is my secret on how to play piano by Ear? Well first off to do this you have to not be a beginner. You need to know Scales and Chords, Major, Minor, Diminished and all those beginning basics that you need to know. So if you have come that far or you are just tired of sheet music then give this a try.

What you do is when you are listening to a song, and this will take practice so don’t think you can learn to play songs you hear just after one time right off.

But if you are hearing a song what you do is listen very closely, find the BASS note that the bass player is playing or just the bass note that you are hearing. Ok that is the real secret, not the melody note, the bass note is the foundation to the chord you are hearing at that time. Ok then if you can pick that bass note out on the piano then from there you use the scale that the song is being played in. And I am not going to cover how to pick the key out of a song or the scale the song is in that will be for another lesson.

But say it is in the key of C alright first you hear the C note in the bass so that is off the 1 of the scale. Now if you know your major and minor chords and how they are relevant to each note in the scale you will know that the 1 note of the scale is going to be a major chord.

Ok just so we understand this the 1st note of the scale is going to be a major chord.
The 2nd note of the scale is going to be a minor chord,
The 3rd note is a minor
4th note is a major
5th note is a major
6th note is a minor
7th note is a diminished chord.

Ok so when you are trying to pick out the bass note say you hear the bass note progress from the 1 chord to the 4 chord. Well you will know that if you are in the key of C the song will move from a C major to a F major. And if you want you can put the melody note on tope but if you are singing to it its not necessary.

Ok so now you hear the bass note go from the 6th to the 2nd to the 5th, Ok so you know if you are in the C scale that you are going to play a Am then Dm then G major. Its very simple if you understand it in this way and when you do you can play a song you hear just exactly like you hear it. People that just try to pick out the melody usually end up with a song that sounds kind of like it but leaving a lot out.

What I do is print out the lyrics then I listen to the song and it may take hearing it a couple times or a certain part a couple times. But once I get the bass note then I write the number of that note above the lyrics where that note is in the song. Like for this for instance-

1 4 1
Amazing Grace How sweet the sound
6 2 5
That saved a wretch like me

Se then I go threw the whole song like that So when I am done I look at the lyrics I have and like in Amazing grace I know that the one is a major off the 1st note of the scale then I know the 4th is a major. Then The 6th is a minor chord, 2nd minor chord then the 5th is a major chord. So that song in the Key of C would Be C major moving to F major. Then Back to C major to Am to Dm to G major.

Then you can just put the melody note on top and you will have a chord sound just like what you are hearing and you can add your own stuff to it also.

Ok so how to play piano by ear is very simple if you have not got this far yet to understand chords and progressions then you may not understand this concept. Because after you do this for a few songs you will learn that most songs use the same progressions and movements over and over. Like that 6, 4, 5 that is actually a 6 4 5 chord progression and is used over and over in almost every song there is. Like that 1 to the 4 that is used over and over.

In this article you will read how to form piano chords for beginners, or the most basic piano chords that you will definitely need to know. Piano chords are like the building blocks, that in a certain kind of movement from one to the other they form songs. Now there is all kinds of advanced Piano chords that sound really good but no matter how complicated a chord may sound or look it is still just build off of the basic piano chords.

Now if you are a beginner at the piano and you are wanting to learn the basic piano chords for beginners by just memorizing them from a chart or something. Then you are really hurting yourself because what you really are wanting to do is know how they are formed. It is always a plus to have the understanding of why you are doing what your doing then just memorizing the notes that make up a chord.

So the first piano chords that you will want to know how to form will be the major chord. The major chord are the most basic piano chord and the most important. Every other chord is typically build off of the major chord and once you know the right formula for building a major chord, then after that its just basically moving one note down or up to make up the other chords.

So the basic formula for making up a major chord is knowing that each note on the keyboard represents a half step. So from C to D is a whole step, and from D to Eb is a half step. From E to F is a half step and from B to C is a half step. So to make up a major chord the formula is you take any note on the keyboard like lets take D. Ok so lets make a D chord your first note will be D. Ok from there you go up two whole steps and you have a Gb. Then from there you go up one step and a half and you get A, that is how you form a D major chord. So a D major chord is D Gb A and you can use that same formula to find any major chord off the piano. There is only 12 because there is only 12 possible notes on the piano but you should learn how to form a major chord off of each one of them. So the formula is a Note like C go up
Two steps, second note
One step and a half third note.
So a C major chord would be C E and G. Ok that is very simple so learn all the major chords on the Piano.

So the second kind of piano chords for beginners I am going to show you is the minor chord. Ok once you understand how to form a major chord then making that major a minor is very simple. All you do is take the second note in the major chord. Like a C major would be C E and G, well you take the second note which is E and lower it a half step. So you have C Eb G. And that is a C minor chord. So these two types of piano chords are the most basic piano chords for beginners. And your first step is to get every note on the piano memorized with its major chord and minor chord.

Today, we will be exploring blues piano or more specifically the 12 bar blues progression for piano. We will be working in 4/4 time which means that each “bar” or “measure” will have 4 beats. This gives the 12 bar blues progression a total of 48 beats (12 X 4 = 48). Briefly, so as not to get confusing, a beat for our purposes is one tap of the foot. This would give you 4 foot taps for each bar or measure. It goes like this…1,2,3,4 (one bar or measure), 1,2,3,4 (our second bar or measure), 1,2,3,4 (third bar or measure), etc. for 12 bars. Notice we start over after 4 beats. We do not count 1,2,3,4…5,6,7,8, we only give each bar or measure 4 beats or foot taps.

Blues piano is based upon the I-IV-V chord progression. If you have studied our lesson on chord progressions you know this means you will be using the 1st, 4th, and 5th scale tone chords of a major scale. In the key of “C” this would give you a C major chord (I), F major chord (IV), and G major chord (V). This is based upon the student using “triad or 3-note scale tone chords”. However, in blues piano we will be adding a lowered or flatted 7th (seventh) tone to each major chord making them 7th or dominant 7th chords. This lowered 7th tone or note is called a “blues” note. Using the key of “C” this would give you C7 (notes are C,E,G, and Bb) as the I chord, F7 (notes are F,A,C, and Eb) as the IV chord, and G7 (notes are G,B,D, and F) as the V chord.

For our basic blues piano we have established the amount of bars or measures to use (12), the beats per bar or measure (4), and the chords we will be using (C7, F7, and G7). Now it is time to specify how many bars or measures each chord will be played. We shall begin with C7 and play this chord for 4 bars or measures. So, play or strike the C7 chord and tap with your foot 4 beats. You will do this 4 times for a total of 16 beats. Then, play the F7 chord for 2 bars or measures. Play the F7 chord and tap with your foot 4 beats. You will do this twice (2 times) for a total of 8 beats. Now, go back to C7 chord for 2 more bars or measures. Play the C7 chord and tap with your foot 4 beats. Do this 2 times for a total of 8 beats.

Now for our grand finish. Play the G7 chord for 1 bar or measure. Play the chord and tap with your foot 4 beats. Move down to the F7 chord for 1 bar or measure. Play the chord and tap with your foot 4 beats. Finish with the C7 chord for 2 bars or measures. Play the C7 chord and tap with your foot 4 beats. Do this twice for a total of 8 beats. You are now playing basic blues piano! I have provided a graphic showing the chords written above the beats you will tap out. Work on moving from one chord to the next smoothly and without any interruption in your tapping out the beats. And of course, practice playing this blues progression in all 12 keys!

The graphic used for this screen shot was created using DrawMusic Chord software. You can download your own copy by going to DrawMusic.com

Here, you will find the 3-note (triad) I-IV-V chord progression chords for each of the twelve (12) keys. We shall begin with the key of “C” and proceed through to “B”. Practice the I-IV-V chord progression in all twelve keys…and have fun!

Remember, while you are forming the chords and practicing the I-IV-V chord progression you can always go to Chordhouse.com piano chord/scale finder if you need help or want to see how a chord looks on the piano keyboard. Experiment with all the new chords you now know how to make on the keyboard! Try playing the 3-note (triad) I-IV-V chord progression chords with your left hand, while playing the major scale for each chord with your right.

When you feel comfortable with the triad chords, go to 7th progression chords for the I-IV-V chord progression. Here you will be playing major 7th and dominant 7th chords. This will be slightly more challenging but will give a richer, fuller sound to the I-IV-V chord progression.