A Minor Scale for the Piano

Video Transcript

"Hi my name is Omri and today we are going to learn the A Minor scale. The A Minor scale begins on A, any A and goes up all the white keys up to the next A. That is one Octave of the A Minor scale. We can play it up; we can play it down. Now there is another scale that has no sharps and flats which is the C Major scale. Now the reason that we have more than one scale that has this key is because one is Major and one is Minor. What makes a scale sound Major is not just the combination of notes but the combination of intervals. For example, if I played these same white keys but instead of starting on C and going to C which would be the C Major scale, if I started on F for example, it has a totally different sound quality than when I start on C. If I play the same combination of intervals a whole step, a whole step, a half step, a whole step, whole step, whole step, and a half step but I start on a different note that will still be a major scale. For example, if I start on E and pay the same combination of intervals I will get an E Major scale. So it has a sound quality that sounds Major. The C Major and A Minor scales are two scales where when we play that combination of intervals we don’t have to play any of the sharps or flats. Now it is not just a coincidence that C and A are a third apart from each other. If we take any two keys for example, G Major if we count down one, two, three steps we will get to another scale, a Minor scale that is the same exact key signature or number of sharps and flats. The interval we call a relative minor, C is the relative Major of A Minor and A Minor is the relative Minor of C Major."