Natural, Enharmonic, Sharp and Flat notes.
Keys, Intervals, Triads and Four note chord structures. - Part One [Advanced Beginner Lesson]
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Beginner and Intermediate music theory can be like trying to learn a new language. Advanced music theory is like trying to write a screenplay in that new language. It can be truly overwhelming to learn music theory, even on the most basic of levels; but it is necessary to know these basics, so they can be used to understand formulas and applications in music - Such as, chord structures and progressions, scales and melody, keys and intervals, etc. All of these things help you become a better instrumentalist and musician. This article takes a look at some of the basics in understanding music theory.
Advanced Beginner Lesson
How many actual "Keys" are there in music?
Would you believe that technically, there are 30 keys? There are 15 major keys and 15 minor keys in music. Okay, so how many of these keys do we really, REALLY need to know? As guitar players, we really only need to know 12 keys in music.
These 12 keys are the major keys. In this article, we're not going to cover the minor keys. Yes, there are songs written in minor keys, but all you really need to do is look at the “6th note” in any major key, and you will have your minor key note.
For examples, the key of C major is the same thing as the key of A minor. The key of F# major is the same thing as the key of D# minor.
We will just stick to the major keys for this article.
If you take a look at the top of the chart in the diagram below, you will notice notes shaded in green. These notes are "Natural"notes. They are the first seven letters in the alphabet. (C, D, E, F, G, A and B).
Since we need twelve keys, we also need twelve notes. That means along with these seven natural notes, there are five other notes called "enharmonic" notes. (C#/Db, D#/Eb, F#/Gb, G#/Ab and A#/Bb). These notes are shaded in other colors.
As you may have noticed, enharmonic notes have "dual" names. Yes, they are the same exact note (tonally), but the name of the note used depends on which key the note is in.
As guitar players, we really only need to know the following list of twelve keys:
C, G, D, A, B, F#, Db, Ab, Eb, Bb and F. All the other keys are considered "secondary", and won't be used in practical applications in music. Technically, they do indeed exist, but to make things easier, we'll use the twelve I just listed.
Notice, the key of "C" has no sharp or flat notes, but all the other keys have at least one or more sharps OR one or more flats in their key. Also, (and this is important), you will not use both sharps and flats in the same key. There are some exotic scales that do use natural notes along with both sharp and flat notes.
The key of G major has one sharp note - the F#. The key of F has one flat note - the Bb. So, if you study some of the other keys listed in the diagram above, you will see that some keys have more sharps than natural notes, while some keys have more flat notes than natural notes. There must be a reason for this, right?
How do we understand the structure of a key?
As I mentioned earlier, there are twelve notes (that we will use as keys) in music. Each of these twelve notes has its own family or group of seven notes, known as a key.
In the above diagram you can see rows of seven notes. Each row has at least one or more natural notes. Some of these rows have sharp notes and some have flat notes. On the far right of the chart, you can see which key has the amount of sharps or flats in the corresponding key in that row.
The Major structure.
We must have all seven notes for each key, but five of the boxes in each row, don't have any notes. This means we have to subdivide a total of twelve notes into the structure.
We will use the first key "C major" to learn this structure. The notes in order, in the key of C are - C, D, E, F, G, A and B.
This structure requires a box between the C and the D notes. This is called a "whole step" (W). You can also see this between the notes D and E. But wait, there's no space between E and F. This is called a "half-step" (H).
Whole step between F and G, whole step between G and A, whole step between A and B and then we go back to the C note, which gives us a half-step between B and C. So the formula used for major is: W-W-H-W-W-W-H.
The Enharmonic Keys.
There are three keys in the above diagram "B, F# and Db'' that have corresponding "italicized" keys "Cb, Gb and C#". As I mentioned earlier, we are only concerned about the other twelve keys.
If you notice in the diagram, "F#" is the only "sharp" key used. The other four enharmonic keys are "Db, Ab, Eb and Bb". These five enharmonic keys "F#, Db, Ab, Eb and Bb'', require the basic understanding that, just like the natural keys, the enharmonic keys also must have one version of the first seven letters of the alphabet, to be a valid key.
Why is "knowing your keys" so important?
The chords you play on your guitar don't just magically come from thin air. They come from notes, and notes come from keys. Understanding the major and minor positions of all notes in every key, will also help you better understand the structure of all chords in music and where they come from. I will be covering this topic in an upcoming article on "Chord structures you need to know”.
Knowing your keys also helps you to know your scales and how to create melodies. Every song you have ever sung has a melody in it. That melody comes from scales, which come from notes, which ultimately come from keys.
Music theory can be very layered. That is why I will be breaking up this series into two parts. The next part will have to do with understanding "Intervals" and what you need to know to build triads and four note chord structures.
Study the above diagram carefully. If you have any questions, please feel free to comment below.