Discover What is the Famous Piano Scale All About

So, what is scale?

Now, think of the piano scale as a ladder. Climbing up the ladder is ascending in pitch while climbing down the ladder is descending in pitch.

In this topic, I will show you how piano scales or music scales are formed using some easy formulas. They are not rocket science, trust me. But first….

Why Need to Learn Piano Scale?

Many people wonder why the scale is so important and why do they need to learn it at all.

Well, the scale is as important as 1+1 equals to 2 in Mathematics. I know you hate Maths but bear with me as I make my point.

With 1+1 equals to 2 in Maths, other more complex things can be made out of 1+1 equals to 2 for example, you need 1 part alkali and 1 part acid to form a neutral substance. Alright, I won’t bring you back to high school but I am sure you get my point.

Similar to 1+1 equals to 2, the scale is very important in piano playing because melodies, chords, progression, etc. are all made of scales.

The Basic Piano Scale 

If we play the most basic scale of C major ascending on the piano, it would have the notes C, D, E, F, G, A, B, and C.

We can play the scale with any note on the piano starting and ending with the same note. However, playing scale other than the scale C major would require you to introduce one or more sharps or flats to the scale.

For example, if we play the scale of G major, it would have the notes G, A, B, C, D, E, F# and G. The F# in that scale is what we call as the key signature for the key G major.

From the examples of the C major and G major scales above, if you look closer, you will notice that they are built upon some kinda formation.

Yes, the scales for major and minor keys are built upon some formulas. Let’s look at the formula that formed a major scale first shall we?

The Major Scales Formula

The scales of the major keys are constructed by a mixture of tones(T) and semitones(S). Below is the scale of C major with the tone and semitones in it.

This series of T T S T T T S is what a major scale is made of and that’s the so-called “formula” by the way.

The same can be applied to any note of a major scale. Again, if the scale starts on the note other than C, one or more of black notes or key signatures is required in order to preserve the series T T S T T T S.

You can try to play the scale of G major without any black note and see how you feel about it. It doesn’t sound right, isn’t it? Can you identify which note is wrong?

More examples on major scales:-

F major

D major

The Minor Scales Formula

There are two types of scale for the minor keys. They are the:

• melodic minor scale
• harmonic minor scale

Melodic Minor Scale

The melodic minor scale is quite special in the sense that, ascending and descending the scales give you a different set of keys signatures.

Ascending the melodic minor scale would require the 6th and 7th degrees to be raised a semitone higher.

For example, in an A minor melodic minor scale, the 6th and 7th degrees are F and G. Raising both a semitone higher would produce F# and G#.

On the other hand, descending the melodic minor scale would have the key signature the same as its relative major key.

What this means is, for an A minor melodic minor, descending the scale would have no key signature which is the same as its relative major key, C major.

All minor keys have their own relative major keys and vice versa. The trick to knowing the relative minor of a major key is to count six degrees higher.

For example, for C major, if you count six degrees higher, you would land on the note A (C, D, E, F, G, and A). This means that the relative minor of C major is A minor.

To help you remember easier, the series that make up the ascending the melodic minor scale is T S T T T T S. 

The series for descending the melodic minor scale, on the other hand, is T T S T T S T.

Harmonic Minor Scale

Another type of minor scale is the harmonic minor scale where the ascending and descending are the same.

It means that ascending the scale would have the same set of key signatures as descending the scale. However, the 7th degree of the scale is to be raised a semitone higher.

The series that make up the harmonic minor scale is T S T T S (T +S) S. T+S in this series means one tone plus another half tone. Simply reverse this series when descending the scale.

For the purpose of learning the piano chords, I would like to suggest that you focus on the descending melodic minor scale or some would call it as natural minor scale.

Descending the melodic minor scale has the same key signature as its relative major key which some people would name it as the natural minor scale and that’s all that matter when playing chords for minor keys.

So there you go! I hope you do try out the piano scales and let me know how you go. I’d love to hear from you. Do share with me on how the piano scale helps you in your piano playing. Have fun and keep playing!