Pop Music Theory


Lessons in Order

1-7 (Intro & Pitch) +
8-18 (Major Scale) +
18: Major Scale Games
19-29 (Chord Progressions) +
30-34 (Hook Chords) +
35-41 (Written Notes) +
42-50 (Song Chorus) +

Lessons by Topic

Strategy +
Pitches +
Scales +
18: Major Scale Games
Written Notes +
Chords +
Chord Progressions +
Melody +
Songwriting Steps +
Science +
Games & Tools -
18: Major Scale Games
Song Examples: Crazy +
Song Examples: Rolling Stone +

Detailed Contents

Lesson 18: Major Scale Games

These games let you practice the major scale.

Before playing these games, you should study Lesson 17: Major Scale 1-8.

This page tests you on just the five easiest major scales; I think that's enough to learn at one time.

This first game gives you a piano keyboard to click:

Click notes 1-8 of the major scale:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
1:



In the next game, you have just the pitch names, no keyboard. This can be a lot harder:

Click notes 1-8 of the
major scale:
1:
C♭ C C♯
B♭ B B♯
A♭ A A♯
G♭ G G♯
F♭ F F♯
E♭ E E♯
D♭ D D♯
C♭ C C♯
B♭ B B♯
A♭ A A♯
G♭ G G♯
F♭ F F♯
E♭ E E♯
D♭ D D♯
C♭ C C♯


Why black pitches?

Finally, we can answer why there are black pitches grouped in 2's and 3's between the white pitches. When you practiced the major scales above, perhaps you noticed that there's exactly one major scale that you can play with only white pitches: the C major scale (C-D-E-F-G-A-B-C). It's the pattern of black pitches in 2's and 3's which makes this one all-white-pitch major scale possible.

That's actually explaining it kind of backward, because in actual history, early keyboards had only the "white" keys, no "black" (♯/♭) keys. Thus, they could only play that one major scale; the black keys were added later so the keyboard could play other major scales (and other kinds of scales, and other chords).

Next:
If you now know major scales and major and minor triads (Lesson 16: Minor Triad Games), then you're ready to study one of these:


Lessons in Order

1-7 (Intro & Pitch) +
8-18 (Major Scale) +
18: Major Scale Games
19-29 (Chord Progressions) +
30-34 (Hook Chords) +
35-41 (Written Notes) +
42-50 (Song Chorus) +

Lessons by Topic

Strategy +
Pitches +
Scales +
18: Major Scale Games
Written Notes +
Chords +
Chord Progressions +
Melody +
Songwriting Steps +
Science +
Games & Tools -
18: Major Scale Games
Song Examples: Crazy +
Song Examples: Rolling Stone +

Detailed Contents

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