Learning the notes of the piano (01)

Whole & Half Step Intervals (02)

Note: Please pay attention to this lesson as you will need to know about whole & half step intervals to
learn scales, chords, and other concepts.

Whole Steps = Tones

Half Steps = Semi Tones
Sharps & Flats (03)
 The key to learning major scales

“Scales are the basis of everything in music”

Using the above rule you should be able to play any major scale. The rule is applied as follows:
Play your first note (e.g. C)
Go up a tone to D
Go up a tone to E
Up a semi tone to F
Up a tone to G
Up a tone to A
Up a tone to B
Up a semi tone to C

You should learn all the 12 major scales in the following order:
C major
F major
A# major
D# major
G# major
C# major
F# major
B major
E major
A major
D major
G major

This sequence will be very important to you in the near future it is known as the ‘circle of
fifths’ (this is because each note is a fifth away from the proceeding note). You will notice that c
starts off with having
So now use the rule to play all twelve major scales.
Remember play your first note e.g. C#
Up a tone – D#
Up a tone- F
Up a semi tone – F#
Up a tone – G#
 Up a tone – A#
Up a tone- C
Up a semi tone – C#
This is the scale of C# major.
Practice the other major scales.
 Fingerings for major scales
By now you should know the notes in all twelve major scales. But, how can you play these
comfortably and fast? There are set fingerings that you should learn for the scales. Some of these
fingerings can be repeated for different scales e.g. fingerings for C major and D major are he
same.
Apart from making your scale playing stable being able to play scales with the correct fingering
improves your coordination and speed and also your ability to play complex melody lines.
Now practice ever single major scale with the correct fingering until you can play them correctly.
You can decide to practice one scale each day. Speed is not the most important thing, it will come
over time.

- TECHNIQUE (i.e. fingering)

- EVEN TIMING
These are the most important things to watch out for when practicing the scales. There are
various other scales (e.g. minor scales, blues scales, etc) each has a particular function, which
will explained in due time, but for now you should be able to play all twelve major scales nicely.
 More about Scales

Every note in a scale has a number or a name.

Let’s use the major scale of C as an example.

The notes are:

CDEFGABC

Each note is given a number between 1 – 8. Therefore:

C–1
D–2
E- 3
…etc

This is different for every major scale. So if we are in the major scale of C#, where the notes are:
C# D# F F# G# A# C C#

In C# major:
C# - 1
C–7
G# - 5

What would 6 be in the major scale of G#?

Work out the notes and hen count up 1 – 6.
You should get F as being note 6.

Now as you know all the major scales you should be able to work out what number each note
would be in the different scales.

For example what number is D in the scale of F major?

What note is note 4 in D major?
You should get 6 and G respectively for the two questions.
These numbers are usually given as roman numerals and also have names, which are less
important in everyday music.

I. Tonic
II. Supertonic
III. Mediant
IV. Sub- dominant
V. Dominant
VI. Sub- mediant
VII. Leading note
VIII. Tonic
NOTE: MAKE SURE YOU KNOW THESE NUMBERS (not necessarily the names) BEFORE
YOU GO ANY FURTHER!
This is the basic of chords and progressions.
NOTE: THE KEY OF A SONG IS THE LAST NOTE WHICH IS PLAYED OR SUNG.
THIS WILL ALWAYS BE THE TONIC OR NUMBER I OF THAT SCALE.

For example if the last note of a song is E, you know that you will use the scale of E major.

Know how do we use these scales?

Intervals
 NOTE- INTERVALS ARE COUNTED IN THE MAJOR SCALE THAT YOU ARE USING
THESE AEXAMPLES ARE BASD ON C MAJOR.

For example a major third interval from D would lead to F#, as this is the third note of the scale.

A perfect fifth interval from e would lead to B , as B is the fifth note in the E major scale.
 Minor, Augmented and Diminished Intervals

Note: Please pay close attention to this lesson as you will need to know about minor, augmented, and
diminished intervals when forming various chords.
 How to form Major Chords
Note: This lesson covers major chords. Remember, chords make up "chord progressions" so pay close
attention as you will need to know major chords when playing different songs!

Now try playing all the twelve major triads, e.g. D major chord, A major chord, F# major chord.
Just use the above formula.

NOTE- CHORDS I, IV AND V of a scale are always major chords, these are the chords
formed from the first, fourth and fifth notes of a major scale.
How to form Minor Chords
 Relating these to the Scales

We’ve now seen how scales are formed using intervals, but how does this all relate to the scales
we learnt earlier.

Let’s use the scale of F as an example:

Use the rule to find the notes in the major scale and number the notes so we get;

I F

II G

III A

IV Bb

V C

VI D

VII E

VIII F

This is the rule to build a chord on any note of a scale.

Therefore, what is chord one in F major?

The notes for F major are shown above.
Now we play one which is F as it is the first note
Miss one which is the G
Play one which is the A
Miss one, which is the Bb
Play one which is the C
And there you have it chord 1 is the notes F A C which is F major (look at the intervals).

What is chord 6 in F major?

Play the sixth note, which is D
Miss the E
Play the F
Miss the G
Play the A
Chord VI in F major is – D F A or D minor
 What is chord 6 in D major?
Play the sixth note which is B
Miss the C#
Play the D
Miss the E
Play the F#
There you have B minor – B D F#

Now starting from C major play all the chords from I to VII. Do this in every scale.

NOTE- CHORDS I IV AND V ARE ALWAYS IN ANY SCALE MAJOR

CHORDS II III AND VI ARE ALWAYS MINOR!

Therefore if you see that chord five in C major starts on the G which is the fifth note of that scale
you should know the chord name is G major.

Likewise if you see that the sixth chord in F# major starts on D#, then you should know the
chord is D# minor, as chord six is always a minor chord.

CHORD VII IN ANY SCALE IS ALWAYS A DIMINISHED CHORD.

 How to form Diminished and Augmented Chords

Contrary to the diminished chord, the augmented chord is formed by raising the
perfect fifth a half step.
 Seventh Chords

Seventh chords are very simply four note chords. To form a seventh chord in a scale you simply
carry on the rule: i.e. play one, miss one…etc.

This rule can be extended to allow you to play five or six note chords as well.
There fore if you want to play a seventh chord on chord I in the key of C you do this:
Remember the first note in the key of C is C
You miss the D
Play the E
Miss the F
Play the G
Miss the A
Play the B
You are now playing C E G B
Remember Chord I is always a major chord so this is C MAJOR 7

What if you want to play a seventh chord on chord 6 of C major?

Remember the sixth note of c major is A,
so start with the A
Miss the B
Play the C
Miss the D
Play the E
Miss the F
Play the G
You now have A C E G Remember chord VI is always minor so this is A minor 7.

**Special case (Chord V)- The dominant

What if you want to play a seventh chord on chord V in C major?
- Play note V on the scale which is G
- Miss the A
- Play the B
- Miss the C
- Play the D
- Miss the E
- Play the F
- Note the intervals of a major chord on the following page)
- The notes being played here are G B D F
We know that chord V is always a major chord, however when
it forms a seventh chord it is neither major nor minor. It forms a special chord called the
DOMINANT SEVENTH CHORD (THE BASIS OF ALL GOSPEL AND BLUES MUSIC).
 Dominant Seventh Chords
Note: These are commonly used in blues and heavily in gospel music.
 Ninth Chords

A ninth chord is a five note chord and we use the same rule to build them up on a scale as we
have used i.e. play one, miss one…etc.

When playing these bigger chords it might be hard to use only one hand so they can be spread
out over 2 hands.

The ninth chord for Chord I in C major is:

C major 9 – C E G B D
This can be played with C on your left hand and the E G B D on your right.
To play a ninth chord on chord IV in C# major use the rule…
You get F# major 9- F# A# C# F G#
We can now go onto Eleventh chords, which are six note chords, but they follow the same
principle.
Now how do you use these chords?
 Chord Progressions

By now you should be familiar with the chords in the different scales.
For example in C major:
Chord I in C E G
II is D F A
III is E G B
IV is F A C
V is G B D
VI is A C E
VII is B D F
Of course you should know all of this already.

This is where you put everything together. A chord progression is the basis of playing music any
song. I is a sequence of song that form a piece of music.

For example: If you start on Chord I, then go to Chord III, and then Chord IV, you have just
played a chord progression. This is probably the most important thing in playing music in a
church or by ear in general.

Common Chord Progressions:

When you play music more and more you come to recognise certain patterns.
This is when you come to realise there are certain chord progressions that are used over and over
again in music.

52. The I – IV- V Progression

This is one of the most popular that comes up again and again in music. For example in ‘Lord I
lift your Name on High’

1 4 5
Lord I lift your name on high
1 4 5
Lord I love to sing your praises
1 4 5
I’m so glad your in my life

You should comfortably play this progression and be able to do so using inversions (playing the
notes of a chord in a different order e.g. playing c major as E G C OR G C E). Practice it and pay
attention to how it sounds so you can pick it out of a song.
 The I- III – IV – V
This is also very popular in music both slow and fast songs. You should memorise how this
sounds as well.
e.g. in ‘Comforter’

1
Faithful; friend and father:
3
I’ve known you through the years
4
You’ve been great physician
5
When sickness ligers near

Yet again you need to learn this and think of other songs it can apply to.
 Inversions

Chord inversions or voicings can make a chord both more accessible to play and also give it a
more interesting sound. An inversion is basically when you take the notes in a chord and put
them in a different order.

e.g. Chord I in C is C major- C E G

You can play these notes in any order and it still makes the same chord so you can have:
CEG
EGC
GCE

E.g. Chord III in C is e minor- E G B

This can be played as:
EGB
GBE
BEG

What are he different ways you can play the other chords in the scale?

Imagine you are at a chord I in C and you need to go to chord III. You would have to jump from:
C E G to E G B
However you can invert the III chord so you go from C E G to B E G, as you can see it is a lot
easier.

The same applies to seventh, ninth and eleven chords. Due to the fact that these chords have
more notes there are more ways of playing them.

E.g. C major 9- C E G B D
can be played as:
DEGB\C
BDEG\C
The backwards slash indicates that you play the last note on your left hand.
The list goes on.