The Keyboard

The first thing you need to do is learn the names of the keys on

the keyboard, this is not as difficult a task as it sounds, there are only

12 unique keys on the keyboard. The musical alphabet goes from A

through to G, so every white key on any keyboard will take one of

these letter names(forget about the black keys for the moment).

Now if we look at the keyboard below all the unique white keys

have their letters written under them. Notice that the black keys

come in a group of two followed by a group of three, this is what we

can use to identify the white keys. For example, the white key

immedately to the left of a group of the two black keys is called C.

The white key in the middle of the two black keys is D, the white

key to the left of the three black keys group is F and so on. The note

names repeat after every 8 white keys as can be seen on the

keyboard below. You only need to learn the positionsn and names of

the seven unique white keys, this allows you to name any white key

on the keyboard.

Picture1

Practise 1

Once you think you know them fairly well, try closing your eyes, pressing a

white key at random, opening your eyes and trying to name what

key it is.

I've focused on the white keys so far, and thats because the

black keys are easy to learn once you know your white keys. In fact

the names of the black keys are based on the white keys near them.

There are only 5 unique black keys on the keyboard, these have been

named and shown below.

Picture 2

I must explain to you what sharp and flat means before you can

understand the black key names. Basically sharpening a note means

raising it to the next note immidately to the right of it. So if we find

the F key and sharpen it, the note immidiately to the right of it is

a black key and is called F sharpor F#. Similarly the note immidiately

to the right of G is the black key G# and so on.

Picture 3

I must explain before moving on is that each black

key has two names, this is because of the flat operator. The flat

operator is the opposite of the sharp operator, instead of going up to

the next note above, you go down to the next note immidiately

below.

Picture 4

So the black key immidiately below G becomes G flat or Gb, the

black key below A becomes Ab and so on. It is important to learn

and remember both the names for each black key (the sharp and the

flat name) because both names are used in music.

This should be your next task, to learn both the names for each of

the black keys on the keyboard. Spend a little bit of time on this to

get it right, because you are going to be using it all the time

throughout this webpage as well as any piece of music you may

decide to play.

Chords

A chord is a group of notes played at the same time. it gets a bit more

complicated, because the exact notesthat are being played determine

the type of chord. Common chords are usually played with 2, 3, 4, 5

or indeed any number of notes that people can possibly play with their

hands. The chord is the basic building block of all modern rock and pop

music. In a piece of music the melody is usually based on the chord

being played at that time.

Whole Tones and Half Tones

Before I can give you the formula I just need to take a second to

explain to you what a whole tone is and what a half tone is.

A half tone is the smallest possible interval between two notes on

the piano, so looking at the keyboard below C to C# would be a

half-tone, C# to D would be a half-tone, D to Eb would be a half

tone. Interestingly E to F and B to C are also half tones because

they do not have a black note separating them

Now very simply, a whole tone is twice the width of the half tone

interval(strange that, isnt it?). So looking at the keyboard below we

see some whole tones as being C to D, D to E, E to F#, F# to Aflat,

Aflat to Bflat and Bflat to C. There are of course more, A to B, B to

C# etc, these are all whole tones

Scale

A scale is basically a sequence of notes, it might be best to

demonstrate with an example. The most popular scale is the C Major

scale, you can play this yourself right now. Start at the note C and

play every white note in succession until you get to the C above the

one on which you started. You'll notice this scale as you've no doubt

heard it many times before.Now this is just one possible scale, there

are hundreds of different types of musical scales, thankfully we will

only need to know a couple to be able to play rock and pop music.

Formula for finding Major and Minor scale

Major Scale:- wholetone, wholetone, halftone, wholetone, wholetone ,wholetone,halftone

C Scale:- C - D - E - F - G - A - B - C

G Scale:- G - A - B - C - D - E - F# - G

C Chord A chord

Minor Scale:- wholetone, halftone, wholetone, wholetone,halftone, wholetone,wholetone

C Minor:- C - D - Eb - F - G - Ab - Bb - C

Major Chords

The Major chord consists of the an interval of 4 half tones

followed by an interval of 3 half tones

A Major chord.

Find the root note, in this case A.

Count up 4 half tones from A to get C#.

Count up 3 half tones from C# to get E

we have the A major chord, A - C# - E!

C Major chord.

Find the root note, in this case C.

Count up 4 half tones from C to get E.

Count up 3 half tones from E to get G

we have the C major chord, C - E - G!

Minor Chord

The Minor chord cosists of an interval of 3 half tones followed

by an interval of 4 half tones

What does this mean? Well the process is the same as the process to

work out the major chord. Suppose we wanted the G minor chord

(commonly denoted as Gm) we would start by finding the root note,

in this case G. Now count up 3 half tones from G to get Bflat, now

count up 4 half tones from Bflat to get D and theres your Gm chord,

G - Bflat - D!

Dm:-D - F - A

The 7th chord consists of an interval of 4 half tones followed by

an interval of 3 half tones followed by an interval of 3 half tones

The 7th chord thus is comprised of four notes, not three like the

previous chords.

Suppose we want E7, we find the root note - E on the keyboard.

Now count up 4 half tones from E to get to G#

Now count up 3 half tones from G# to get you to B

Now count up 3 half tones from B to get you to D

So your E7 chord would consist of E - G# - B - D

Try to work out the following 7th chords

G7 = G B D F

A7 = A C# E G

E7 = E G# B D

II-V-I chord progression 3-note chords for all 12 major keys

Scale II Chord V Chord I Chord

C Major D Minor G Major C Major

C#/Db Major D#/Eb Minor G#/Ab Major C#/Db Major

D Major E Minor A Major D Major

D#/Eb Major F Minor A#/Bb Major D#/Eb Major

E Major F#/Gb Minor B Major E Major

F Major G Minor C Major F Major

F#/Gb Major G#/Ab Minor C#/Db Major F#/Gb Major

G Major A Minor D Major G Major

G#/Ab Major A#/Bb Minor D#/Eb Major G#/Ab Major

A Major B Minor E Major A Major

A#/Bb Major C Minor F Major A#/Bb Major

B Major C#/Db Minor F#/Gb Major B Major