How to play A Major Scale
Howdy!
Next in our beginner scales series is A major scale. This one has three sharps, so there’s a little more to watch out for – but the finger pattern is simple (just like C major scale and some of the other basic ones).
Enjoy!
A Major Scale
Other beginner scales
Below is a list of the other beginner scales I’ve made videos for so far – Everything on this list is 1 octave, and hands separate. For more scales, please visit the “Categories” page.
A natural minor scale (1 octave)
A harmonic minor scale (1 octave)
D natural and harmonic minor scale (1 octave)
Why scales?
Scales are often thought of as tedious and dry, but they’re extremely useful to know and understand as a musician. Knowing scales – and their individual flavors of sharps or flats – allows you to instantly understand key signatures (the sharps/flats that hover at the beginning of a line of music).
Most songs are based on a “key”. For example, if we say a song is in the “Key of C major”, what we’re saying is that it’s based off C major scale, and therefore has no sharps or flats (unless otherwise indicated in the music).
So in the case of E major scale, if you see a piece that has four sharps in the key signature, you can bet that the piece is based on E major scale.
(Unless it’s not: Every major scale has a minor counterpart. For more info on how that works, check out this video on Major and Minor doppelgangers.
xo,
Allysia
[…] Key Signature: There are three sharps in this piece. That’s a lot of sharps. This is indicative of the key of A major, but we’ll talk about that more in the next video (A major scale). […]