Some cousins don’t get along with each other, but others are “kissing cousins”. And that’s exactly what the C major scale and the A minor scale are - kissing cousins.

What makes them like that? They are related because they share the very same notes. If you play the C scale from A to A, what you have is the A natural minor scale. (There are other varieties of minor scales, such as harmonic and melodic, but that’s not our subject here.)

Please watch this 14-minute video and learn which scales are related to each other and why:

For an exhaustive course on scales, come on over to All About Scales & How To Use Them!

Everyone who has ever taken a piano lesson knows what a scale is and has probably had to practice them endlessly. The most common type of music scale is a major scale, but every major scale has a relative minor scale. They are called “relative minor scales” because they are related to a major scale. For example, the A minor scale is related to the C major scale because it uses the same notes — it just starts and ends on a different key. In other words, if I played the C scale but played it from A to A, I would be playing the A minor natural scale.

Watch this short video and you’ll understand:

For a complete course in all kinds of scales, click on All About Scales & How To Use Them

Major chords are formed from major scales by taking the root, 3rd, and 5th of a major scale. But to know which notes are the root, 3rd, and 5th, you need to know how a major scale is formed out of whole steps and half steps.

Here is the formula:

Start on any note, then go up a whole step, whole step, half step, whole step, whole step, whole step, half step until you get to the note an octave above where you started.
It’s easy to see in the Key of C, since all the piano keys are white keys. But in any other major key, there will be one or more black keys in the scale.

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Major chords are composed of the root, 3rd, and 5th of a major scale. And since there are 12 major scales (more if you count all enharmonic possibilities) then there are 12 major chords. Watch this short video and your understand right away:

As you probably know, every major scale has a “kissing cousin” — a minor scale that is related to it’s major scale. To locate the starting point of a minor scale, find the 6th degree of any major scale and that becomes the root (the starting note) of it’s relative minor scale.

For example, in the F major scale the 6th degree of that scale is D, so D becomes the starting point of the relative minor scale to the scale of F, which of course is D minor.

Watch this short video and I think it will become clear to you:

For more information on scales, take a look at All About Scales & How To Use Them!

There are many different kinds of scales, the most-used being major scales followed by minor scales. Many contemporary musicians use the modal scales too, such as Dorian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian, etc.

Most piano students think of scales as boring drills they had to play over and over, but there is much more to them than just finger exercises. Scales are the “playing field” for songs based on a particular key. For example,
the F major scale is: F, G, A, Bb, C, D, E, F, while the D major scale is D, E, F#, G, A, B, C#, D.

Each scale contains primary chords for each key. For example, the primary chords (the most used chords) in the key of Eb are Eb, Ab, and Bb — the I, IV, and V chords of the Bb scale.

Every song is based on some key, and therefore some scale, which is why you need to know scales to figure out the most used notes and the most used chords in that particular key.

For more information, please go to:
playpiano.com/101-tips/Scales-Major-Relative-Minor-Special.htm

A scale is a series of notes in ordered intervals (distances between notes). The notes of a scale appear (and are thought of) as “steps” (tones). Perhaps the best way to understand scales is to

first understand a major scale (Do, Re, Me, Fa, So, La, Ti, Do). The steps of a major scale are: Beginning note - whole step - whole step - half step - whole step - whole  step - whole step - half

step. In the case of a C major scale, the notes would be: C-D-E-F-G-A-B-C with a half step (semitone) between E and F, and B and C. In the case of a G major scale, the notes would be: G-A-B-C-D-E-

F#-G with a half step between B and C, and F# and G. (Another way to “call out” a G major scale would be to say it’s a major scale beginning with the note G.)

A scale’s name is determined by the notes in the scale and their relationship to each other (and is almost always named by the first note of the scale). For example, a minor scale is different than

a major scale in that there is a half step (one piano key up or down) between the second and third notes of the scale, and a whole step (two piano keys up or down) between the third and fourth

notes (as shown in the paragraph above).

Compare this C minor scale with the C major scale above. The C minor scale: C-D-Eb-F-G-A-B-C (the note E is now Eb, a half step or one key lower). And compare this G minor scale with the G major

scale: G-A-Bb-C-D-E-F#-G (the note B is now Bb, a half step or one key lower). (Another way to “call out” a G minor scale would be to say it’s a minor scale beginning with the note G.)

The term “scale” also refers to the type of scale such as chromatic, whole tone, and diminished scales.

A chromatic scale consists of only half steps (semitones). At the piano, you would play every key in succession (up or down—ascending or descending). Here are the notes of a G chromatic scale: G-

G#-A-A#-B-C-C#-D-D#-E-F-F#-G. (Notice that there are no black keys between the notes B and C and E and F. On the piano, these notes are represented by two white keys being next to each other).

Although a chromatic scale always consists of the same notes in the same order, it is named by the note used to begin the scale.
 
A whole tone scale is a scale where each note is separated from another by a whole step. There are only two whole note scales: C, D, E, F#, G#, A#, C and B, Db, Eb, F, G, A, B. Each contains six

notes and are often called hexatonic scales.

Each tone of a diminished scale is one and a half steps apart.

The term modal refers to scale names such as Lydian, Ionian, and Dorian that tell the musician which notes are in the scale. We’ll define those fully at a different time.

Major scales are ladders of notes that lead from the root note up to the octave note. There are 8 notes in a major scale (7 different note names) and they are always arranged in this pattern:
Whole step, whole step, half step, whole step, whole step, whole step, half step.  Watch this 2-minute video and you’ll see how simple it is to understand: