Major keys?

[Myopic Squirrel]

Just beginning basic music theory and wondering about the 12 major keys. A through G I understand, but curious about the remaining 5 - why only those 5 (B flat, E flat, A flat, D flat, G flat) and not C flat and E flat?   

Thank you in advance.

[William2]

You are leaving out F major which is one flat as the starting of the flat keys. C flat is an enharmonic key.

[Pilgrim]

12-note scale with half steps between each note except B/C and E/F (C-flat is B, and F-flat is E, i.e. no half steps between those).

[fantex]

There are 12 major keys. As a beginner to music theory you're probably just learning the easier and most common keys.

C - No sharps, no flats
F - 1 flat (Bb)
Bb - 2 flats (Bb, Eb)
Eb - 3 flats (Eb, Ab, Bb)
Ab - 4 flats (Ab, Bb, Db, Eb)
Db/C# - 5 flats (Db, Eb, Gb, Ab, Bb)
Gb/F# - 6 flats (Gb, Ab, Bb, Cb, Db, Eb)
B - 5 sharps (C#, D#, F#, G#, A#) could also be Cb but not common
E - 4 sharps (F#, G#, C#, D#)
A - 3 Sharps (C#, F#, G#)
D - 2 sharps (C#, F#)
G - 1 sharp (F#)

[Myopic Squirrel]

Gentlemen,

Thank you for your interest and posts. While I'm very early into this, already it's been helpful in understanding just the chords I'm playing.

William2 - while I've seen the same note posted as a #/b, hadn't yet seen the enharmonic term.

Pilgrim - was interesting learning regardless of the root note, the whole - whole - 1/2 - whole - whole - whole - 1/2 formula is used consistently.

fantex - the sequence I posted is from "No Bull: Music Theory for Guitarists" - James Shipway. Found it interesting that your sequence listed increasing flats to decreasing sharps. Is there a significance to that order?

[skyline]

Gentlemen,

Thank you for your interest and posts. While I'm very early into this, already it's been helpful in understanding just the chords I'm playing.

William2 - while I've seen the same note posted as a #/b, hadn't yet seen the enharmonic term.

Pilgrim - was interesting learning regardless of the root note, the whole - whole - 1/2 - whole - whole - whole - 1/2 formula is used consistently.

fantex - the sequence I posted is from "No Bull: Music Theory for Guitarists" - James Shipway. Found it interesting that your sequence listed increasing flats to decreasing sharps. Is there a significance to that order?

< Pedantic Mode ON! >

It may be helpful to regularly remind yourself that this is "theory".

There are 12 "notes" available in the "fretted" / "keyboarded" western approach. They each have multiple "enharmonic" names - ie by pitch/sound C# is the same note as Db.  As an example of how this system can whack out, "C" is the same note as "Dbb" (aka "D double-flat")

In the western music tradition, what you've referred to as "whole" is usually called a "tone" and "1/2" is a "semi-tone". Semantics yup, but it does roll off the tongue smoother.

In this way a "major scale" is:
tone, tone, semi-tone, tone, tone, tone, semit-tone.

For someone who wants to understand western scales and chords it is probably easiest to start with the theory of  "the circle of fifths"

Start from "C Major" (no sharps or flats) count up five notes to G and then build the major scale structure (tone, tone, semi-tone, tone, tone, tone, semit-tone) you'll find you need to raise the seventh note by a semi-tone - ie from F to F#.
So G Major has one sharp aka F#

Count up five notes from G and you'll get to D. Build you major scale structure starting from D and you will still need to raise the F to F#, and again you will need to raise the seventh note by a semi-tone, from C to C#.

The pattern continues from D, up five notes to A, you will keep the F# and C#, then when you reach the seventh note, G, you will need to raise it from G to a G# to maintain your tone, tone, semi-tone, tone, tone, tone, semit-tone pattern, which defines the western major scale.

So the circle of fifths will map out to the scales of C, G, D, A, E, B, F#, C#
(C# Major has every note raised, so it has seven sharps)

As you work up adding five notes, through the circle of fifths - the new sharp will always be added to the seventh note.

There is a similar process for defining keys with "flats", but it's a circle of fourths, defined by moving up four notes each time and applying the major scale structure, you will wind up with C, F, Bb, Eb, Ab, Db, Gb, Cb (each adding a flat each time)

Hopefully clearer than mud?

[fantex]

fantex - the sequence I posted is from "No Bull: Music Theory for Guitarists" - James Shipway. Found it interesting that your sequence listed increasing flats to decreasing sharps. Is there a significance to that order?

I just used the Circle of fifths backwards, which makes it the circle of fourths.

[Myopic Squirrel]

Skyline - thank you for your interest. Read your post a couple of days ago - a little less muddy and slowly digesting it. And agree the "tone" description definitely is more appropriate than "step".

fantex - still working on frontwards, so no idea if you're serious 

[fantex]

fantex - still working on frontwards, so no idea if you're serious 

Yes.

Looking at the Circle of 5ths diagram, starting at C and going clockwise we get G, which is the 5th in the C major scale. Each one after that is a 5th to the previous one. G to D...etc.

If we go counter-clockwise we get F, which is the 4th in the C major scale. Hence, the Circle of 4ths. Each one after that is a 4th to the previous one. F to Bb...etc.

We can also see each relative minor key beneath the Major key and the number of sharps and flats above. I hope this helps.

[skyline]

If it's driving a bit nutty, it's good to remember, it is just theory. It's all about patterns of notes and the relations between notes (how many tones or semi-tones) and it takes time to get familiar with those patterns and relationships.

Great thing about guitar, once you have the structure of a scale (or the pattern on the fretboard) you can just move it up and down. You can also move it across, but in standard tuning (EADGBE) you'll have to watch the "B" string as it breaks the pattern of tuning by fourths, and tunes by a third.

Knowing the structure of scales will be rewarded as you start to see how they relate to chords.

Well worth reading Flatlanders "pinned" post at the top of this forum. A lot of it may not be familiar yet, but reading different explanations sometimes really helps.

http://www.larriveeforum.com/forum/index.php?topic=38910.0