Now we know that the lines and spaces of the grand staff are laid out in a C major scale pattern. So notes   C, D, E, F, G, A, B  repeat as they rise up from the bass staff—all the way through the treble staff. But by zooming in a little, we can get an even

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

The first thing you might notice about music notation is that the notes are written on a bunch of lines. Musicians call these lines “staves,” and each stave (or “staff”) has five (5) lines. The higher notes fall onto what’s called the “treble” (or high) staff … while the lower notes fall onto the “bass” (or low)

In music notation, all 12 notes are laid out in the chromatic scale pattern. So it’s pretty easy to pick apart. The only thing is … this pattern looks different than how we’re used to seeing it on a piano keyboard. You see, on a piano, the chromatic scale is laid out from left to

In music, it’s good to know about notes and intervals. In fact, it’s essential … because this is the stuff music is made of. Together, notes and intervals are like the nuts and bolts of any scale, melody, chord, and progression. Without these patterns, music would be nothing. So with all this target practice, we’ve been growing

This, my friends, is where things really get good. And that’s because all 12 keys in music are exactly the same. So once you’ve learned the interval patterns for one key (like we did in the key of C), you already know how they work in all the others. You see, any note can be the

So all the colors follow the exact same patterns as the scale degrees in music … which is cool. You can see how the different notes are spaced out at whole-step and half-step intervals. And nothing is really complex at all. But you might still be wondering, “Wait a minute … why do we use both letters and numbers

Now that we’ve seen the six basic interval patterns in music, we can look at how musicians label them. We just have to start back at that old, familiar pattern … the major scale. Of course, we already know this scale includes notes 1, 2, 3, 4 … 5, 6, 7, 8. For example, the C

If you want to make great music, then you need to know more than just the eight notes of a major scale. I mean, the major scale sounds nice and all. But music is full of scales and chords that include those other notes … the ones you skip in the major scale pattern. At

So we’ve been playing the notes in each major scale. And they all follow this same pattern of whole-steps and half-steps. But as you’ve been going through each scale (1, 2, 3, 4 … 5, 6, 7, 8), you might have started thinking, “Hey … what about those other notes? The ones we don’t include