Basic Theory

For absolute beginners

Just in case you are completely new to the piano and making music in general,
here is a quick introduction to the instrument and music theory.
Even though a piano has 88 keys, there are only 12 unique tones:

This group of 12 tones is called an octave and repeats over and over on the keyboard.
There are 7 full octaves and a handful of extra keys on a piano:

You can recognize the notes by looking at the pattern of black and white keys. There are
always 2 black keys, then 3 black keys, again 2 black keys, again 3 black keys, and so on.
The white key immediately to the left of each set of 2 black keys is called C. If you learn
to locate C, you can always find the other notes.
The black keys sometimes seem to scare beginners, but they arent any more special
than white keys. They are only shorter to put all 12 tones in reach of the average hand,
and colored black to give the eye an easy pattern to recognize. Thats all.
Keys on the left of the keyboard produce low tones, keys on the right produce high tones.
The C key that is roughly in the center of the keyboard is referred to as middle C.
Like I said, there are only 12 unique tones that repeat over and over. This means a tone
in one octave sounds the same as that same tone an octave above or below, just lower or
higher. In other words: a C is always a C, no matter if you play it high or low.
As you can see in the picture above, each of the black keys has two names. The black key
to the right of C can be called C# pronounce C sharp or Db pronounce D
flat.

We call these tones enharmonically equivalent. This means they sound the same
after all, they share the same key on the piano but that we still consider them two
different tones. Which name is right depends on the context.
Not all pianos have 88 keys. Some digital pianos have 76 keys, electronic keyboards only
61. This is still enough to play most music. In the time of Bach and Mozart, instruments
didnt have that many keys anyway.

The pedals
The piano has one or more foot pedals, which form an essential part of piano playing.
The most important pedal is the damper pedal (or sustain pedal). To play the piano,
you need at least a damper pedal.
On an acoustic piano, the strings are held in place by a damper that rests on the string.
When you press a key, the damper is lifted and the string can vibrate freely. Release the
key and the damper falls down on the string again and muffles the sound.
However, when you step on the damper pedal, it lifts the dampers from all the strings.
Now releasing a key wont stop the string from vibrating because the damper pedal
keeps the damper up.
This way you can sustain the sound of the strings even though you have released the
keys, which makes for a smoother sound. Learning to pedal properly is an important
part of playing the piano.

Terminology
Here are some common terms that musicians throw around:
Interval. An interval is the distance between two keys on the piano. We often speak
about music in terms of intervals. Read more about intervals
Half-step and whole-step. When we say: Go up a half-step, we mean that you
should go one key to the right. So a half-step up from C is the black key C#. A half-step
down is one key to the left: from C to B.
A whole-step is simply two half-steps. In other words, you skip a key: a whole-step up
from C is D, so we skipped C#.

Chord. A chord is nothing more than several tones played at the same time. You cant
just hit any random notes and call it a chord; there are certain rules for forming chords.
You use chords to harmonize melodies. In other words, the chord adds additional
tones to make the melody sound fuller. All music is based on chords, even classical.
Scale. Often we group notes in a specific pattern called a scale. Scales are used to create
melodies and improvisations. There are several different types of scales but the most
important one is the major scale.
An example is the C major scale: C D E F G A B C (from low to high). These are just the
white keys on the keyboard. Its often the scale beginning players start with because its
the easiest to remember and visualize
Key. Sometimes you hear people say: This tune is in the key of C. That means the
melody and chords are both based on the C major scale (see above).
The key of a musical piece determines what notes are used, thats all. Different keys,
different notes. Some people also claim that different keys express different moods, but
this seems to be somewhat subjective.
Many composers like to change keys in the middle of the piece, a process that is called
modulation. You can also play the whole piece in a different key. This is called
transposition.

How to play the piano

Of course I cant explain everything there is to know about playing the piano in a few
paragraphs, but generally speaking, we play the melody in the right hand and harmony
(the chords) in the left.
Because melody uses higher tones than the harmony, it stands out more. Thats good,
because melody is the most important part of the music. The second most important are
the lowest tones, also known as the bass tones. Everything in between those two is
more flexible.
Not everyone plays melody. Some pianists just accompany other instrumentalists or
vocalists, in which case they only play the harmony parts (with both hands).

Classical music is often played from sheet music by sight-reading or from memory.
Contemporary music, such as jazz and pop, is often played by ear and uses a lot of
improvisation, where the pianist makes up the melody and/or harmony on the spot.
There are many different styles of piano playing, each with its own rules and techniques.
You dont have to start by learning classical if you dont want to. There are many piano
teachers that focus on modern music.
And you can always self-teach with the many courses that are available on the internet
these days.

The three building blocks of music

Music is made up of three building blocks that continuously interact with each
other:

melody

harmony

rhythm

On the piano, melody is most often played in the right hand. It is the most recognizable
part of a piece: this is the part that people remember and hum along with.
Melody is often played a little louder than the other parts of the arrangement to make it
stand out more.
Melody is also flexible. It can be distorted in many ways and still be recognizable as a
particular song. Jazz improvisers take advantage of this principle all the time.
Harmony is the chords. On the piano, we play harmony mostly in the left hand, but
sometimes we put harmony tones in the right hand as well.

Melody is usually the highest tone and harmony tones are filled in below that. The most
important harmony tone is the lowest tone: the bass.
Harmony is also fairly flexible: you can harmonize the same melody in many different
ways, although certain chords are easier on the ear than others.
Rhythm keeps music from becoming boring. Its the thing you can dance to. A drummer
plays nothing but rhythm but on the piano we have to put the rhythm into the melody
and the harmony.
For us, rhythm is the difference between short tones and long tones, and where you put
the accents on those tones.
There you have it. Master those three areas of making music and nothing will be able to
stop you!

How to construct the major scales

The major scale is the most commonly used scale in our music. You should learn
all major scales by heart, but its also good to know how they actually work. In this
article, well learn to build the major scales from scratch.
Because Western music only has 12 unique tones, there are also 12 possible major
scales: one beginning on each of these tones.
You have probably seen the C major scale before. It consists of just the white keys on the
piano.
The C major scale: C D E F G A B C
There are many other types of scales besides the major scale: several minor scales, the
pentatonic scale, the whole-tone scale, the blues scale, and so on.

What is the difference between all these scales? Answer: the distances between the
tones!
If you play the C major scale on your piano, notice that even though youre playing only
white keys, some of these white keys have a black key in between (e.g. C and D) while
others havent (e.g. E and F).
In other words, not all tones in the major scale are spaced evenly apart: sometimes they
skip a tone.
Each type of scale has its own interval formula. You apply this formula to any of the
12 possible tones to build that particular scale on that tone. (Read more about intervals
here)
The interval formula for the major scale is: W W H W W W H
Where W is a whole-step and H is a half-step.
So in order to construct a major scale, we need to pick a starting tone and apply this
formula.

Example 1: C major scale

Lets build the C major scale using the formula.

We start at C, that will be the first tone in our scale.

Our formula says we need to move up a whole-step, so we skip C# and end up at D. That
is the second tone in our scale.
To find the third tone we again move up by a whole-step, so skip D# to arrive at E.
According to the formula we now only have to move up only a half-step, from E to F.
Then another whole-step to G, a whole-step to A, and a whole-step to B.
Finally, one last half-step up from B brings us back to C (but one octave higher).

Thats how you do it!

Example 2: Eb major scale

Lets look at another major scale, the Eb major scale.
We start at Eb and apply the formula. A whole-step up from Eb is F. A whole step up
from F is G. So far, so good.
Then the formula calls for a half-step and we go up from G to Ab.
Now why is this called Ab and not G#? The reason is simple: in the major scale, we use
each note name only once.
We already used G so we cannot also use G#. Therefore, we must take the letter that
follows G, which is A. And because we only moved up a half-step, we add the flat to
make it Ab.
Of course Ab and G# are the same key on the piano, so it will sound the same no matter
what you call it, but its a good idea to learn the proper note names for the scales.
From Ab we go up a whole-step again to find Bb, and so on.
If you apply the rest of the formula, youll find the Eb major scale: Eb F G Ab Bb C D
Eb

Example 3: C# major scale

One more example: the C# major scale.
You know the drill by now: Start at C# and count up the proper number of whole and
half-steps. Try it for yourself!
The C# major scale is: C# D# E# F# G# A# B# C#
Wait a minute what on earth are E# and B#?!
Remember that I said we only use each letter once? When you go a whole-step up from
D#, the next tone must be some kind of E. Even though on the keyboard it is technically
the F key, we cannot call it F yet otherwise we would have skipped the letter E.

Just like C# is a half-step up from C and D# is a half-step up from D, E# is a half-step up

from E.
The same goes for B#, which is a half-step up from B.
You already know that we can refer to each of the black keys using two different names
(e.g. C# and Db) but the same goes for several of the white keys. In some of the major
scales it is necessary to refer to F as E# and to C as B#.
(Note that on certain instruments E# and F are actually slightly different tones. On the
piano, however, they share the same key and are therefore enharmonically
equivalent.)
In case you were wondering: In some other major scales we refer to the E key as Fb and
to the B key as Cb. Fortunately for us, this only happens in the less-often used scales.
I hope this article has given you insight into the construction of the major scale. From
now on you should be able to build all 12 of them from scratch, as long as you remember
the formula:
WWHWWWH

The minor scales

We have already seen the major scale and how it is constructed. Now it is time to
talk about another important scale: the minor scale. In fact, there is not just one minor
scale, there are three.

The natural minor scale

The natural minor scale is the original minor scale and the foundation for the two
other minor scales.

The interval formula for this scale is: W H W W H W W

As always, W means a whole-step and H is a half-step.
If we choose the note C as our starting point and apply this formula, we get the scale of C
minor: C D Eb F G Ab Bb C
Explanation: C to D is a whole step, D to Eb is a half-step, Eb to F is a whole-step, F to G
is a whole-step, and so on until we have reached another C.
Contrast this with the scale of C major: C D E F G A B C
They have four tones in common C, D, F and G but three tones are flattened in the
minor scale: Eb, Ab and Bb.
The same is true for all natural minor scales, so there you have another method of
forming the natural minor scale: you take a major scale and lower the 3rd, 6th and 7th
tones.
Lets do that on the scale of E major. If youve practiced your major scales, you know this
is: E F# G# A B C# D# E
Now lower the 3rd, 6th and 7th tones: G# becomes G, C# becomes C and D# becomes D.
The scale of E natural minor is then: E F# G A B C D E
The two other minor scales harmonic minor and melodic minor are both derived
from the natural minor scale. Lets look at the harmonic scale first.

The harmonic minor scale

This scale is almost identical to the natural minor scale, except for one tone. I could give
you an interval formula for the harmonic minor scale, but the following rule is much
easier to remember:
Harmonic minor scale = natural minor scale but with #7
In other words, the only different tone is the 7th, which must be sharpened.

Lets make the harmonic scale of C minor. Weve seen that C natural minor is: C D Eb F
G Ab Bb C
The 7th tone in that scale is Bb. If we sharpen this tone (raise it by a half-step), it
becomes B.
Then the harmonic C minor scale is: C D Eb F G Ab B C
Thats all there is to it. Now youre probably wondering: what is the purpose of this
harmonic minor scale? It has something to do with chords (as its name implies).
We havent discussed this yet, but you can build a chord on each tone of the scale. If you
build a chord on the 5th tone of the natural scale of C minor then it would be a G minor
chord consisting of the tones: G Bb D
However, in a lot of music this so-called 5-chord (or V-chord in Roman Numerals)
sounds better as a major chord or a dominant-7 chord, and the chord G major consists
of the tones: G B D
To make this possible, the tone Bb must become a B. Playing the 5-chord with a major
sound is important enough that the musicians of the past thought it warranted the use
of a new minor scale: the harmonic minor scale.
If that went way over your head, dont worry. Just remember that the harmonic minor
scale is the same as the natural minor scale, except for the 7th which must be raised.

The melodic minor scale

Were not done yet. If you look at the harmonic scale of C minor C D Eb F G Ab B C
youll see that there is a big gap of 3 half-steps between Ab and B. That big jump
doesnt sound so good in melodies.
To fix that, another scale was introduced: the melodic minor scale. Its the same as the
harmonic minor scale but with the 6th tone raised a half-step also.
The melodic scale of C minor is then: C D Eb F G A B C
As you can see, this is almost the same as the scale of C major, except for one tone: Eb

So now you have three ways to create the melodic minor scale:
1. Take the natural minor scale but #6 and #7
2. Take the harmonic minor scale but #6
3. Take the major scale but b3
As you can guess from its name, the melodic minor scale is often used for melodies.
There is one complication: in classical music, this scale is used only when the melody
goes up but notes going back down use the regular plain-old natural minor scale. This is
not a strict rule, and is much less applied in contemporary music, but still something to
be aware of.

Relative major and relative minor

This is the major scale of C: C D E F G A B C
This is the natural minor scale of A: A B C D E F G A
Notice anything? Thats right, they both use the same tones!
When the tones in a piece come primarily from the C major scale, we say that the piece
is in the key of C major or just in the key of C.
When the tones in a piece come form the A natural minor scale, we say that the piece is
in the key of A minor.
Since both of these scales contain the same tones, the key signature of both the C
major key and the A minor key are identical: white keys only, no sharps or flats.
Because of this, the key of A minor is called the relative minor of C major.

Conversely, C major is called the relative major of A minor.

Finding the relative key

Here are the rules:

The 6th tone from a major scale names its relative minor.
The 3rd tone from a minor scale names its relative major.

The 6th tone from the C major scale is A, so A minor is the relative minor of C. The 3rd
tone from the A natural minor scale is C, so C major is the relative major of A minor.
If youve read the article on inverting intervals, this should make sense to you because: 9
6 = 3 and 9 3 = 6.
You can also count it out in half-steps:

To go from major to relative minor, go three half-steps down.

To go from minor to relative major, go three half-steps up.

What is the right name?

From the key signature alone it is impossible to find out which key major or minor
youre really in. Youll also have to look at the melody tones and at the chords.
Pay attention to the following:

The name of the piece. If its called Sonatina in C major, its probably in C

major.
If the piece begins or ends with a major chord, it is most likely in a major key.

If the piece begins or ends with a minor chord, it is most likely in a minor key.

Most of the time, the melody tone the piece ends on names the key. So if the
choice is between the keys of C major and A minor and the piece ends on a C
tone, then the answer is C major.

If the melody contains accidentals (sharps and flats that are not in the key
signature) then you could be in a minor key. The harmonic and melodic minor
scales may be used for the melody and chords, and they contain sharpened tones.

Note: often a piece begins in minor but ends in major. Somewhere along the way it
modulates from the minor key to the relative major key. It starts out sad but ends
happy.
Songs that begin in major will often switch to a minor key on the bridge (this may be the
relative minor, but it could also be another minor key) and then modulate back to major
for a new verse or the chorus.

Key signatures
The key of a piece determines what tones can be used by the melody and which
chords will harmonize the melody.
There are 12 major keys and 12 related minor keys.
The notes that can be used are given in the key signature. In written music, you can
find the key signature on the left of each line.
The key signature consists of one or more sharps or flats, or none at all. For example, if
you see the following bit of music:

This means the scale for this piece has two flat tones (black keys) and five regular tones
(white keys). Specifically, B should be played as Bb and E should be played as Eb. This is
either the key of Bb major or G minor.
Likewise for a key signature with sharps:

Now we have three sharpened tones F#, C# and G# making this either the key of A
major or F# minor.
Note: The key signature is not only important for written music. If you play by ear, youll
still have to work with keys and so youll still have to know which notes are sharps and
which are flats.
Here is a handy table that lists all major and minor keys with their scales and key
signatures:

Major
key

Minor Signat
key
ure

Scale tones

A min

CDEFGAB

D min

F G A Bb C D E

Bb

G min

Bb C D Eb F G A

Eb

C min

Eb F G Ab Bb C D

Ab

F min

Ab Bb C Db Eb F
G

Db

Bb min

Db Eb F Gb Ab Bb
C

Gb

Eb min

Gb Ab Bb Cb Db
Eb F

Cb

Ab min

Cb Db Eb Fb Gb
Ab Bb

C#

A# min

C# D# E# F# G#
A# B#

F#

D# min

F# G# A# B C#

D# E#
B

G# min

B C# D# E F#
G# A#

C# min

E F# G# A B C#
D#

F# min

A B C# D E F#
G#

B min

D E F# G A B C#

E min

G A B C D E F#

Of course, melody and chords will from time to time use tones that are not in the key
signature. Such tones are called accidentals. More about them later.

The names of intervals

An interval is nothing more than the distance between two tones. It is often
convenient to speak about music in terms of intervals, so its important that you know
the terminology.
We distinguish between two kinds of intervals:
A melodic interval is the distance between two tones played after each other:

A harmonic interval is the distance between two tones played at the same time:

The rules for both types of intervals are the same.

The problem we are trying to solve is: If you have two tones, then what is the interval
between them called?
There are several ways to approach this:

Method 1
Count the number of half-steps between the two tones and look it up in a table.
A half-step (or semitone) means: go one key on the keyboard to the left or right.
Suppose we start at the C key. A half-step up from C is C#, a half-step up from C# is D.
Conversely, a half-step down from C is B, a half-step down from B is Bb.

In other words, a half-step is the distance between two adjacent notes. There is also
something called a whole-step (or whole tone) which is simply two half-steps. You
can also think of a whole-step as skipping a note.
Example: find the interval C to E.

We begin at C on the keyboard and count up: to C# is one half-step, to D is two halfsteps, to D# is three half-steps, and finally to E is four half-steps.
Look it up in the table:

Name
Half steps
Unison
0
Minor second
1
Major second
2
Minor third
3
Major third
4
Perfect fourth
5
Augmented fourth
6

Diminished fifth
Perfect fifth
Augmented fifth
Minor sixth
Major sixth
Diminished seventh
Minor seventh
Major seventh
Octave (or eight)

6
7
8
8
9
9
10
11
12

We find that C to E is called a major third interval.

Example: find the interval G to Bb.

Again we count the half-steps: G to G# is 1, to A is 2, to Bb is 3. According to the table, 3

half-steps is a minor third interval.
Note that both intervals from the examples are called a third, although one is major
and the other is minor. There are three other qualifiers in addition to major and
minor: perfect, augmented and diminished.
Perfect applies only to unison (1), fourth (4), fifth (5) and octave (8) intervals. Major and
minor apply only to second (2), third (3), sixth (6) and seventh (7). There is a reason for
this distinction, but we wont go into that here.
All intervals may be diminished or augmented. Diminished means the interval is made a
half-step smaller. Augmented means the interval is made a half-step larger.
Sometimes people drop the qualifier and just say: From C to E is a third, without
specifying exactly what kind of third it is.

Method 2
As you can see in the table above, different intervals can have the same number of halfsteps: an augmented fourth and a diminished fifth are both 6 half-steps apart. Which
one should you choose?

Here is a more precise way to find the interval names: First, you drop the sharps and
flats and just use the note names. Then you count the number of notes in that interval.
Finally, you adjust for the sharps and flats that you removed.
Example: the interval C to F#.

We drop the # from F# so the interval becomes C to F.

Then we count the number of tones in this interval, starting at 1: C = 1, D = 2, E = 3, F =
4. That means the interval C to F# is some kind of fourth because we counted four
tones.
However, we need to find F# and not F, so we sharpen (or raise) the interval to make
it a half-step larger. After all, F# is a half-step above F. A fourth plus a half-step is called
an augmented fourth.
Example: the interval C to Gb.

We drop the b from Gb and count C to G, which is 5 tones. The interval is some of kind
of fifth but not a regular fifth because we want Gb instead of G, which is a half-step
lower. So we flatten (or lower) the interval to make it a diminished fifth.
Note that the intervals C to F# and C to Gb sound exactly the same on the piano because
F# and Gb are the same key. We call these intervals enharmonically equivalent.
That doesnt mean you can simply substitute them for each other: if the top note is
named F# then the interval must be a fourth; if the top note is named Gb then the
interval must be a fifth. You cant call a fourth a fifth and vice versa.
Example: the interval F to Ab.

As before, we drop the b and count F to A, which is 3 tones. That means the interval is
some kind of third. Because Ab is a half-step lower than A we flatten the third to make it
a minor third.
Now why is a flattened third called minor but a flattened fifth called diminished? For
the same reason some intervals are called perfect (unison, fourth, fifth and octave) and
others are not (second, third, sixth and seventh).
The rules for interval calculations are:

Perfect intervals can be augmented or diminished.

Major intervals may be augmented or made minor.

Minor intervals may be diminished or made major.

You can also look it up here:

Name
Interval
Unison
1
Augmented unison
#1
Diminished second bb2
Minor second
b2
Major second
2
Augmented second
#2
Diminished third
bb3
Minor third
b3
Major third
3
Augmented third
#3
Diminished fourth
b4
Perfect fourth
4
Augmented fourth
#4
Diminished fifth
b5
Perfect fifth
5
Augmented fifth
#5
Diminished sixth
bb6
Minor sixth
b6

Major sixth
Augmented sixth
Diminished seventh
Minor seventh
Major seventh
Augmented seventh
Diminished octave
Octave

6
#6
bb7
b7
7
#7
b8
8

In this table, b means flatten or lower by a half-step, bb means lower a whole-step, # means sharpen
or raise by a half-step.

In the above examples, we dropped the # and b from the second interval tone, but what
if the first tone has a # or b?
Example: C# to E.

First, we drop the sharps and flats like before, and count: C = 1, D = 2, E = 3. The
interval we are looking for will be some kind of third. However, because the first tone is
C# and not C, we need to make the interval a half-step smaller (not larger!) to find a
minor third.
Here is the full procedure again:
1. Remove flats and sharps from the note names.
2. Count the number of tones in the interval.
3. If the last tone has a #, raise the interval.
4. If the last tone has a b, lower the interval.
5. If the first tone has a #, lower the interval.
6. If the first tone has a b, raise the interval.
7. Look up the interval name in the table.

It may seem complicated but once you get the hang of it, finding the names of intervals
quickly becomes automatic.
Intervals can go beyond an octave, by the way. Then we simply call them a 9th, a 10th,
an 11th, and so on. Such big intervals are also known as compound intervals. For
example, a tenth is also called a compound third.

Inverting intervals
We have already looked at intervals and you now know that going from C up to G,
for example, is called a perfect fifth interval.
But you can also go from C down to G. What is that interval called? Hint: its not a fifth.

As before, you can count the number of half-steps going down from C to G. Or you can
take the elaborate method of counting the number of notes and adjusting for sharps and
flats.
But there is another way: you can invert the interval from C-up-to-G to get the interval
from C-down-to-G.
Here is the rule: inverted interval = 9 interval
Fortunately, that is not too heavy on the mathematics. So C-down-to-G is: 9 5 = a 4th.
The 5th was perfect. Is our 4th also perfect?
A few more rules:

Perfect intervals remain perfect.

Major intervals become minor.

Minor intervals become major.

Augmented becomes diminished.

Diminished becomes augmented.

So inverting a perfect fifth indeed results in a perfect fourth, and vice versa.
Another example: the interval C up to A. This is a major sixth. If we invert this interval,
we get 9 6 = 3 and major becomes minor. So C-down-to-A is a minor third.
To find an interval in the opposite direction, you can also reverse the notes. Instead of
doing C-down-to-G you can consider this G-up-to-C, which is identical. Likewise, Cdown-to-A is equivalent to the interval A-to-up-C.
Fun, fun, fun.

What is a tetrachord?
A tetrachord is a combination of four specific tones. Tetra means four and
chord in this case just means: a collection of tones.
Its not a chord in the sense that you use it to harmonize a melody. Blame the old Greeks
for the terminology.
The interval formula for a tetrachord is: W W H
This means the first three tones are each a whole-step apart (W), but the distance to the
last tone is only a half-step (H).
(Remember that a half-step is simply two notes next to each other, while a whole-step
skips a key.)

Why would you want to know about a tetrachord? Well, you dont really but its fun
anyway.
Heres a trick: By stacking two tetrachords on top of each other, you create a major
scale.
So if we begin at C and build a tetrachord, the tones are: C D E F
Then we skip a whole-step and build a second tetrachord starting on G: G A B C
Verify it for yourself: G to A is a whole-step, A to B is the second whole-step, and B to C
is the final half-step.

That means a tetrachord is exactly half of a major scale. Which half? It doesnt matter!
Heres the fun part: if we build another tetrachord on top of this we get: D E F# G
Did you realize that we have just created the major scale of G?

If we build another tetrachord on top, we get the D major scale:

And so on You can go clockwise around the Circle of Fifths this way until you get back
to where you started.