The Piano ScaleMajor Minor and Modal Scales.The Piano scale: To help you find the patterns of the most common scales, you can use the white keys on the piano as “templates”. In the video below you will see me explain how to “build” a major scale and about the half and whole step patterns being used.Diatonic Piano Scales:In this video lesson I will show you the construction of, and how to play a major scale. You will also learn about whole and half steps, and what fingering to use. Easy! Let's play!
The 7 Modal Scales on the Piano Keyboard:It is so easy to find all these scales on the piano keyboard! Using only the white keys, you get the "templates" for the 7 Modal Scales. The modal scales are also called Diatonic, and they consist of two kinds of steps: whole steps and half steps, or tones and semitones. (Whole step = W, Half step = H) Starting from:
They are also referred to as modal, church modes, or modes. You can move or transpose all scales and modes by starting from another note of course! To keep the specific mode- you just need to keep the particular pattern of half and whole steps, by using black keys where necessary.
Minor scales:As you saw above- the natural minor, also called aeolian mode, can easily be found on the white keys on the piano. There are two more variations of the minor pattern: One is called harmonic minor and the other is called melodic minor. It is the same basic pattern- it just alternates the 6th and the 7th steps. In harmonic minor the 7th step is raised 1/2 step higher, both going up and down: 
In melodic minor the 6th and the 7th step is raised 1/2 step when the scale moves up, but when it goes down it lowers them, or simply; it becomes natural again: 
Now why confusing things like that? Well- you could ask the renaissance and baroque guys about that ;)! In the western "classical" music- up to approximately 1600 -it was common to use the "church modes" I showed above. 
During the Baroque and Classical era it became more and more popular to use mainly major and minor tonalities. Simplicity! Clarity! This was the beginning of the Age of Enlightenment! No confusing harmonies and modes from the Renaissance with polyphony and stuff. No- it should be either happy or sad- nothing in between- and simpler clear melodies with accompaniment; not four or five equal melodies weaving around each other. -How was people supposed to know what to sing along with? Even J. S Bach with his (marvelous!) fugues (polyphonic)and stuff was considered by many contemporaries to be really old fashioned. Out with the old- in with the new! The new invention of the Opera had surely something to do with the popularity of major and minor modes as well- people had to know when to laugh and when to cry! But combining the old melodies made from the church modes with minor chords just didn’t sound so good. So altering the 7th step and even the 6th sometimes, was a compromise to solve the dilemma. And by raising the 7th step in a minor scale you also get this feeling of a really strong pull back to the first (or last) note - thus strengthening the sense of tonality- or a tonal center. Get your free printable piano music scales here! Some music vocabulary that is good to know:
Interval: Is the word we use to describe the distance from one note to the next. A half step or semi-tone: Is the smallest distance from one note to the next on the piano. A whole step or tone: is the distance of two half steps. Micro tones or micro intervals: Are steps smaller that a half step. Used in a lot of music styles all over the world. You can't play micro tones on a piano! Diatonic scales: Consists of a pattern of only half and whole steps. Major, minor and the church modes belong to this category. Modes: Is a term to generally speak about different scale-patterns and the specific sound they produce. I like the way the Greek "Rebetika" players refer to modes as "roads" [dromoi] ("-What road should we take today, guys?") Modality: Is usually used to talk about scales that are not major or minor. Tonality: Refers to the scales/modes that have a specific tonal center, or centers around one note that feels like "home". Usually major and minor. Atonality: The scales that avoid any feeling of "home". Continue to part 2: Blues, Chromatic, Pentatonic and more!
Return from The Piano Scale: Part 1 to Piano Scales
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