Shape Of Piano Scales

Shape Of Piano Scales

Shape of Piano Scales by Rockmaster 

Learn piano scales using the shapes of tetrachords

 Shape Of Piano Scales by Rockmaster

Explanation

Piano scales have shapes similar to piano chords.
We will use broken lines to distinguish between scales and chords.
Table 1 gives C Major (Ionian) scale and the sharp major scales.
Table 2 gives C Major (Ionian) scale and the flat major scales.
Scales are built in two halves called tetrachords. Each tetrachord contains four notes.
The bottom four notes are called the lower tetrachord, and the upper four notes are called the upper tetrachord.
If you take the upper tetrachord of the C major scale and add tetrachords to the right you get all the scales for the sharp keys.
If you take the lower tetrachord of the C major scale and add a tatrachord to the left you get all the scales for the flat keys.

Observation:

All the scales in the area of the two black keys (C, Db, D, Eb, E) have the same shape for both tetrachords.

The name of the scale is given in the lower tetrachord of the scale. That plus the tetrachord to the right will complete the scale.