C Major Diatonic Scale (including octave)
As discussed in class, all major diatonic scales have the same relationship of whole steps and half steps. A half step is the distance between any two ascending and descending notes. On a keyboard that could be any key, white or black. Whole steps are two consecutive half steps. Many of the white keys on the piano are a whole step apart -- in other words they are separated by a black key. E & F and B & C are not. Therefore, we say that they are a half step apart.
In order to play the C major diatonic scale (all white keys on the piano) we follow a pattern of whole step-whole step-half step-whole step-whole step-whole step-half-step. You can try this on the key board posted below and observe it on the video posted above.
When transposing the C scale into a different key that starts on a different home note, the pattern of whole and half steps is the same. Look at the video of the D scale above. You can see that to maintain the pattern of whole-whole-half-whole-whole-whole-half, it is necessary to play and F# and a C# instead of F and C.
Section One's assignment for Wednesday, 1/21 is to figure out how to construct a diatonic major scale is F, G and one other key of your own choosing (not C or D) and write them down using notation on staff paper indicating the correct accidentals.
Section 1 -- here is a list of all the key signatures in both tremble and bass clef. As we discovered in class, minor scales have a flatted third, sixth and seventh meaning that those key signatures may require additional sharps or flats. It also means that every major key has a corresponding minor key with the same key signature -- what we call the relative minor.
