How to Master Major Scales and their Key Signatures
The Circle of Keys is THE ultimate Circle of LIFE for a musician!
The theory-packed ring breathes life into just about every aspect of music theory--from scales, to chords to harmony. From it, we glean SO much information that boosts theory comprehension and makes connections that ultimately guide creativity.
Understanding the wealth of theory that the Circle of Keys offers takes some patient unpacking!
One place to begin the adventure around the circle is major scales.
Now our ears may be in tune with what a major scale sounds like and our fingers may automatically “fix things” and move to black keys when needed.
That’s great to use your ears!
AND it’s good to know WHY some scales require certain black keys.
The answer to the WHY boils down to a pattern of whole and half steps.
Once that pattern or code is mastered, it can be applied to any key.
A major scale is identified by its key signature so it’s important to master key signatures while playing major scales, too.
The Circle of Keys reveals a systematic way to help memorize these important facts. Once this system is unlocked, major scales can be mastered!
In the tutorial videos below, you see how I move about the circle to master major sharp and flat keys using tetrachords—don’t worry, I explain what those are in the videos.
A few years back, Andrea West designed a Circle of Keys chart. With the chart, I provided about four pages of teaching tips and links to videos. These instructions have been recently updated and now come bundled with the brand-new reminder sheets shown below.
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How to Master Major Scales and Their Key Signatures
As you watch the video, you may want to sit at a keyboard and play along!
Practice Hacks for Sharp Keys
Memorize Fat Cats Go Down Alleys Eating Bananas.
As you play each major scale memorize the number of sharps.
When viewing a key signature, a half step up from the LAST sharp is the key.
To find the relative minor of a major key, count three half steps down or find the 6th scale degree.
Sharp major Scale Drills
A fantastic platform to customize drills is MusicTheory.net which has a companion app called Tenuto
Click on the links below and complete these exercises customized to drill major scales that require sharps.
How to Master Major Scales with Flats
Practice Hacks for FLAT Keys
Memorize BEAD GCF (Greatest Common Factor)
As you play each major scale memorize the number of flats.
When viewing a key signature, the second to the last flat is the key.
To find the relative minor of a major key, count three half steps down or find the 6th scale degree.
FLAT MAJOR SCALE DRILLS
Click on the links below and complete these exercises customized to drill major scales that require flats.
What Comes Before Scales?
Although scales are essential to a musician, I’m a HUGE proponent of first mastering five-finger patterns (the first 5 notes of a scale also known as pentascales.) It’s because these patterns naturally fit beneath the hand. And they start training the ears to hear and fingers to play major and minor sounds AND chords, too!
In fact, I believe they are such a crucial training ground for learning chords that I’m preparing a new PRE-QUEL module for The Full Scoop on Chords that dives deep into 5-finger patterns. The colorful graphics and thorough tutorials (like what you see in the videos above) will prepare late beginners and early intermediate students for the first scoop (module) which covers the four qualities of triads.
The pre-quel module will drop in February.
If you’ve been curious about the course but tentative to give it a try, here’s your chance—get ONE month for HALF OFF the low subscription price!
You’ll have access to all four modules currently available and you’ll have access to the Five-Finger Pattern Pre-quel Module as soon as it drops.
It’s a great opportunity for you to have a look around!
A slide from one of the tutorial videos—full of colorful images and clear explanations to relate the known (ice cream) to the unknown—chords!
Use the discount code SCALE5 to get $5 off the first month when you subscribe below!
Discount expires February 28, 2023
