Rules for Naming the Notes of

Musical Scales, by James Boyk

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Copyright © (C) 2000 James W. Boyk

Naming the notes of musical scales (October 12, 2000)
by James Boyk

I give two rules here that let you play a "major scale" starting on any
note on the piano keyboard, and let you name the notes correctly,
given the name of the starting note. (A major scale is the kind
explored in the song, "Doe, a Deer.")

Rule 1:  The intervals in an ascending major scale, in order, are 1, 1,

1/2, 1, 1, 1, 1/2.

An "ascending" scale is one that moves from left to right on the

keyboard. A "descending" major scale is the same set of notes but
in the opposite order.

An "interval" is the distance between two notes. Major-scale

intervals are either "half-steps" (1/2) or "whole steps" (1). A half-
step is the interval between any two immediately adjacent notes,
whether white key to black, or white to white. A whole step is two
half-steps. Thus, C to D (see next paragraph for how to locate these
keys) is a whole step, because there's a black key in between. From
C to the black key is 1/2; from the black key to D, another 1/2. The
interval E to F, by contrast, is a half-step, because no other keys
intervene.
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 (To find C, notice that black keys are grouped in twos and threes. C
is any white key just to the left of a group of two black keys. D is the
white key to the right of C, while E and F are the next two white keys.
"To the right" is called "higher" because it's higher in pitch.)

"Middle C" is the C nearest the middle of the keyboard.

To remember the structure of a major scale, play an ascending C

major scale by playing any C and then the other white keys moving
upward, ending on the next C. Note the intervals as you go.

  Rule 2:  Every major scale has one and only one note of each "note
name," and they occur in (cyclic) alphabetic order.

The note names are A, B, C, D, E, F, G. Possible variants are "sharp"

and "flat," and occasionally "double-sharp" and "double-flat." The
white keys are given the unadorned note names. "Sharp" means the
note a half-step higher (to the right); "flat," a half-step lower (to the
left). "Double-sharp" and "double-flat" are a half-step further in
each case. Note that some sharps and some flats, and some
double-sharps and double-flats, are white keys. E# ("E-sharp") is
physically the same key as F; C-flat is the same as B; Fx ("F double
sharp") is the same as G.

Thus, every major scale has an A, but it might be plain A, A-sharp or

A-flat. Every scale has a B, which might be just plain B or might be
B-flat (a black key) or B-sharp (a white key the same as C). If a scale
starts on some sort of D (that is, either plain D, D-flat, or D-sharp),
the next note will be some sort of E; then some sort of F; and so on.

  Exercises:
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 Play major scales starting on various notes on the keyboard, without
troubling about the names of the notes. (This requires only Rule 1.)

Play the G major scale, naming the notes as you go. This means find
any G and play the scale notes up to and including the next G. You
should get G, A, B, C, D, E, F#, G. The one black key in this scale
must be called F# because, by Rule 2, it must be some sort of F.
Since it's higher than (to the right of) the white key that is just plain
F, it must be F#.

Play the A-flat major scale. You should get A-flat, B-flat, C, D-flat, E-
flat, F, G, A-flat. Now start on G# (the same physical key as A-flat).
The physical notes you play are identical, but the names are now
G#, A#, B#, C#, D#, E#, Fx, G#.

If your scale ends up on a different physical key or a different name

from the ones you started on, something went wrong somewhere!

  Your feedback is welcome!

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