Keys and scales

There are twelve different notes in Western music before they repeat an octave higher. Most music uses a set of seven of them, called a scale. The grid only shows the notes of the scale, so every note you click fits.

The major scale is the most common. Starting on C it uses only the white keys of a piano: C, D, E, F, G, A, B, then C again.

What makes it major is its pattern of gaps: whole, whole, half, whole, whole, whole, half (a half step is the smallest gap, one key on the piano; a whole step is two). Change the key below: the notes change, but the pattern, and the sound of the scale, stays the same.

Keys

The key is the scale’s home note, the 1. Moving a melody to another key keeps its shape and changes only how high it sits, which is how singers find a key that fits their voice.

Hiding the notes outside the scale is a shortcut. Real keyboards show all twelve, and later chapters use the others on purpose; for now, staying in the scale makes every idea sound right.