Building a Proper Foundation with the Major Keys

Understanding music theory can open up entire new worlds for you and will make learning new styles and techniques much easier along with song writing, improv playing and just overall enjoyment. The question that remains is where do you start? Having a solid foundation to build on is critical and that foundation is understanding the major scale and major keys.

Let's assume that you already know your string names (E A D G B e) and the Musical Alphabet (A, A#/Bb, B, C, C#/Db, D, D#/Eb, E, F, F#/Gb, G, G#/Ab), the next thing you should work on is memorizing your major scales and the triad chords in each of those keys. Since there are 12 major keys, we will be breaking this down into 2 lessons: Natural + Sharp Keys in this lesson and then Natural + Flat Keys in the next lesson. The Keys of B, Gb and Db will be covered in a later lesson as they can be converted into either sharp of flat keys. There are lots of other things to cover that are related to this such as the circle of 5ths, how the triad chords are built (stacked 3rds), and many more, but those will have to wait for future theory lessons.

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Short Cuts

There are 2 big short cuts to take in memorizing these keys as you start recognize certain patterns emerging in each key. The first pattern is the moveable major scale. You will notice that they Key of G, D, A all have the same pattern but moved to a different spot on the neck. You can actually play all 12 Major key using this moveable shape, however, for the key of C we wanted to start you off with the easiest one and for the key of E we decided to give you the open version which will be more useful to you. The second pattern to notice is what I call the "Order of Triads". There is 1 triad chord per note in the major scale with the stacked 3rds system and the chord types always happen in the same order: Major, minor, minor, Major, Major, minor, diminished (MmmMMmD).

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The Exercise

The exercise is to start by memorizing the C Major Scale. First, memorize the scale pattern, then say the notes out loud as you play the scale until you have that also memorized. You can combine this with playing through and memorizing all of the Triad Chords in the Key of C shown below. Next move on to the key of G and memorize its scale pattern and its notes along with the triad chords in its key. You should only try memorizing 2 keys at a time and then adding 1 additional key. Do this at the beginning of each practice session staring with C and then going as far as you can until you reach the last sharp key, the key of E.

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Learn from the TABs below, or the VIDEO at the bottom. Good luck and remember that taking on 1-3 keys per week is a good pace.

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Step 1: Memorize the C Major Scale and Triads in the Key of C

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Step 2: Memorize the G Major Scale and Triads in the Key of G

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Step 3: Memorize the D Major Scale and Triads in the Key of D

Step 4: Memorize the A Major Scale and Triads in the Key of A

Step 5: Memorize the E Major Scale and Triads in the Key of E

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The Star System:

Use the star system to help motive and track your progress through songs and exercises. Here is the breakdown for this exercise:

• 2 Star **              = Memorize the key of C
• 3 Star ***            = Memorize the key of C and G
• 4 Star ****          = Memorize the key of C,G, D, A
• 5 Star *****        = Memorize the key of C, G, D, A, and E

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