The chromatic scale is important because it’s the basic layout of all 12 notes in music. In other words, it includes every interval of half-steps and whole-steps. But, as we’ve seen before, the chromatic scale is also kind of boring … because it doesn’t sound very interesting. The major scale, on the other hand, sounds really good.

After playing through each major scale, you may have noticed that some of the keys have a lot of sharp (#) symbols … while others have a lot of flat (b) symbols. For example, check out the B major scale, which has a total of five (count ‘em … 5) sharp symbols: Seriously, can you imagine

So … music notation is just another way of showing the 12 notes of the chromatic scale. Which means we are—yet again—back to square one (or circle one … pardon the pun). You see, nothing has changed about the 12 notes in this pattern. It’s just that we now have the advantage of being able

So … music notation was designed to favor the key of C. And that’s why the grand staff is centered around the note we call “middle C.” But back in the day, when musicians developed notation, they decided to take things even further … and they actually based the layout of the staves on the C major

Sometimes, life is strange. And you notice interesting patterns in things. Maybe you’ll start seeing the same random number on signs, or in magazines, or on buildings. Or maybe you’ll notice a common theme in the names of the towns and cities you visit. I don’t know … it could be a coincidence. But whatever it