Lesson 16: Introduction to Scales
- Play C, G, and F major scales evenly, both directions.
- Recognise the whole-step / half-step pattern that defines a major scale.
- Lessons 11 and 14 — G major and F major scales.
- Three major scales.
- Whole-step / half-step pattern.
- Scale as melody.
A scale is a melody in eight notes.
A scale is not a punishment exercise — it is a melody of eight notes, and many famous tunes (Joy to the World, the opening of Doe a Deer) are scales lightly disguised. The major scale is defined by a fixed pattern of whole and half steps: W·W·H·W·W·W·H. Apply that pattern starting on any note and you get a major scale in that key.
The three scales you know
You have already played all three; this lesson is about feeling them as related, not as three separate finger sequences.
On your alto staff these same fingerings read as F major (one flat: Bb), C major (no sharps or flats — the alto's home key), and Bb major (two flats: Bb, Eb). The titles below name the soprano keys; the notation has been transposed a fifth lower for the alto staff.
Play: Joy to the World
Handel's tune (he wrote it though it is attributed to him). The opening phrase is the C major scale, descending, in dotted rhythms. A scale you already know — presented as a melody.
Now play these
- Joy to the World (full)
- The complete carol. A scale, repeated and varied.
- Ode to Joy
- Beethoven's tune. Almost entirely stepwise — a melody made of scale fragments.
- Branle Gay
- A Renaissance dance moving by step in G major. F# pervasive.
When you can play all three scales from memory at quarter = 96, both directions, with no audible gap on the half-step (E–F in C major, B–C in G major, A–B-flat in F major) on a phone recording, and you can point to the W-W-H-W-W-W-H pattern on each, move on to Lesson 17.