Lesson-26 : The Flattened Major Scales : Part-1

Hi All,

Let us continue our analysis of ....what else…same Major Scales…!

Just earlier we saw the Major scales with sharps ..in increasing order...!

This time we will study about the Major scales with Flats !

Though all of you are familiar, let me repeat the pattern of Major Scale which is

(Whole + Whole + Semi ) + Whole + (Whole + Whole + Semi)

The pure white keys make the C-Major : C – D – E – F – G – A – B – C

Jusr refer the following figure of keyboard also for easy reference!



While enlisting Sharps usage in Major…..we went for Perfect 5th upward every time from the previous one…..!

This time can you guess…what…we are going to do....?

Just travel Perfect 5th downward each time….! That’s all….!
Starting from C….! travel perfect 5th in reverse direction.....You will land up in F…. !

[Alternatively… A perfect 5th downward means… Perfect 4th upwards…which is easy for you…! ..

but sharp means going upward… and flat means going downward….

So this convention…

Also we are traveling symmetrically on either side left (upward) and right (downward) of C…Major........by a Perfect 5th distance…..! ]

So our first flat major is F-Major…..

Follow the standard pattern of major scale… and you will get these

F – G – A – ………

Now if you select B for the next letter, you will land up in whole tone against the requirement of Semitone… So what…?

Come to the black note before B and express it as B-Flat…..

and then proceed with C – D – E – F …..

Yes….the last Semi between E & F automatically got matched…!

So the major scale on F is constructed as follows :

F – G – A – B-Flat – C – D – E – F

So the new black key is the 4th note ie the Sub-Dominant ….

Hope you don’t get baffled by the jargons, finding etc….now….! Are you ??

So for the next 2-flats major, we should travel a Perfect 5th downward from the present F-Major … (or travel Perfect 4th upwards…)….

Which is nothing but the B-Flat ….the note just now blackened…sorry… flattened….!

So this is another finding…that….

Every time the next Major scale in the flat-major scales series is nothing but the latest additional note Flattened in the previous scale…..! (and located as 4th note of previous Major….) …

( Let me use the small letter (b) for the flat to take care of HTML constraints of the posting )

So B(b) – Major is as follows :

B(b) – C – D – E(b) – F – G – A – B(b)

So next major scale is naturally the 4th note E(b) – Major which is as follows :

E(b) – F – G – A(b) – B(b) – C – D – E(b)

If we proceed on these series in this manner… …..

we will first exhaust all 5 black keys …….and then …..

add the two white keys as B & E representing them as C-Flat and F-Flat……

then onwards….add double flats to represent remaining white keys….!

Everything is same as the case of Sharp Majors…..!

So easy to learn mathematically ! Of course a lot of efforts and practice required for practical usage !