the notes/keys of the Key of C on the piano. Letters with the sharp sign (#) represent the black keys on the piano which are the accidental notes of the Key of C. The white keys are its natural notes.
Imagine also a "cylinder" with pegs or pins on its surface that can strike the teeth of the steel plate, one by one, from left to right.
On "rotation" of the cylinder, these pegs will produce the following series of musical notes, C, C#, D, D#, E, F, F#, G, G#, A, A#, B, C’. The progression of the notes is only by a
semitone interval. Such progression is called chromatic.
A musical scale that progresses in semitone interval is called a chromatic scale. Let us assign numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6,
7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, and 13 to the pegs.
Next, let us remove the pegs that strike the teeth hitting the black keys, leaving behind only pegs numbers 1,
3, 5, 6, 8, 10, 12 and 13 in place. These pegs will strike C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C’. These are the natural notes of a major diatonic scale, the Key of C. Key of C because the
reference/tonic note is C. Let us call this cylinder the major
If we slide this major diatonic template one tooth to the right, the pegs will strike notes C#, D#, F, F#, G#, A#, C’ and C’#.
These are the natural notes of another major
diatonic scale, the Key of C#. Notice that there are black
keys in this C# Scale. The black keys are accidental notes only as far as the C major diatonic scale on the piano is concerned. Among the 12 major diatonic scales only the Key of C has all its natural notes in the white keys of the piano.
Sliding the template another tooth to the right will align the numbers of the template to the natural notes of the Key
of D.
Identifying the natural notes of any major diatonic scale will then be easy, just as easy remembering the sequence 1, 3, 5, 6, 8, 10, 12, 13. Peg 1 aligns with the tonic and defines/names the Key.
This happens because even if the template is moved/transposed, the intervals of notes with the tonic are maintained/preserved. All resulting groups of notes can be sung Do- Re- Mi- Fa- Sol- La- Ti- Do and “sound the same”. They will only differ in pitch/key but they will produce/create the same mood/atmosphere or melody. We can see then how melodies/songs can easily be transposed from one Key to another to adapt to the note/frequency range of a music instrument or a singer.
Music sheets are easily available for the piano. Transposing melodies for any music instrument from music sheets for an instrument with a different pitch/key can then be done by anyone with this knowledge.
We are familiar how the major diatonic template was created and how it is used. A template for any combination or sequence of intervals can thus be easily made and put to use. Example, a major chord triad which is made up of the 1st, 3rd and 5th natural notes of a Key. In the Key of C, these notes are C, E and G. The semitone numbers of these notes are 1, 5 and 8. Because 1 defines the tonic we do not have to memorize this number. We need to memorize only nos. 5 and 8 to identify the notes of a major chord triad.
the note 1, F# as the note 2(F# is the 5th semitone from D) and A as note 3 (A is the 8th semitone from D).
Transposing or changing of pitch or key of a melody, music scale and chords to fit a musical instrument, will then be possible without consulting charts and the like.
CHAPTER 5
Diatonic Scales, Major and Minor
A diatonic scale is a progression of musical notes, which has 2 kinds of intervals between adjacent natural notes. The interval between natural notes can either be (1) a
whole tone or (2) a semitone. The whole tone interval is
16/18 (or 0.89) or 18/16 (or 1.125). The semitone interval is 16/17 (or 0.94) or 17/16 (or 1.0625).
The Key of C has 7 natural notes, 8 if we include the octave (note C’).
Let us include the semitone numbers:
The Key of C is called a major diatonic scale because the interval between its 1snd 3rd natural notes is 5
semitones. A 5 semitone interval is also known as a Major
3rd or M3. The semitone template of a major diatonic
scale is 1, 3, 5, 6, 8, 10, 12 and 13.
A diatonic scale whose interval between its 1st and 3rd
natural notes is 4 semitones is called a minor diatonic
The semitone template for a minor diatonic scale is 1, 3, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12 and 13. By remembering these 2 semitone templates, 1, 3, 5, 6, 8,10,12,13 and 1, 3, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 13, we can now easily identify the notes of the major and the minor diatonic scales in all the 12 Keys. We can now build 24 diatonic scales by memory, remembering only 2 diatonic templates. We need not remember how many sharps or flats there are nor memorize where they are, to be able to identify the different diatonic scales. All we need is to know the following letters of alphabet (A, B, C, D, E, F and G), with a little modification to insert the 5 accidental notes (C#, D#, F#, G# and A#,) and the semitone templates of the major and minor keys (1, 3, 5, 6, 8, 10, 12 and 13 or 1, 3, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12 and 13).
To demonstrate: To identify the notes of the Key of G, write the chromatic alphabet starting with note G together with its now assigned semitone numbers.
Following the semitone template for the major diatonic scale (1, 3, 5, 6, 8, 10, 12 and 13), let us underline them:
The notes of the Key of G major then are,
The notes of the Key of G minor can be identified using the same method. Write the chromatic with the corresponding minor diatonic semitone template;
Identify the notes of the Key of G minor;
With practice it will now be easy to identify the notes of all Keys, major or minor.
The use of the semitone template for major and minor diatonic scale facilitates identifying notes of any Key. The
following illustrations depict how conveniently the semitone template works. These illustrations are presented only to clarify the concept, other methods convenient to the readers may be devised:
The minor diatonic scales can likewise be easily identified by using the semitone template for the minor diatonic scale:
CHAPTER SIX