Piano Lesson 1 Scale Degrees

I don't know how many piano "lessons" I'm going to post, but I know that I'll do a few, just to get people who don't know that much just a little bit smarter on the keys.

The first lesson is about Scale Degrees. Scale Degrees are the names of the notes in a scale -- how people refer to each note. Before I get too confusing let me ask you this. Have you ever heard someone say something like the 'Tonic" or the "Dominant" when referring to the piano? If so, and you have no idea what they are saying, I will help you understand with this article.

Since C Major is the most popular scale, let's work with it.

So there are 7 notes in every major and minor scale. In the case of C Major (or C+ for short) the notes are:

C D E F G A B

Now each of these notes have their own names. Let's start with the numeration first though. 'C' is the first note so it is number 1 (I). Roman numerals are typically used in these instances. If 'C' is I, then can you guess what 'D' is? Yes. It's that simple. D is 'II'. This part isn't rocket science. So let's add these number to the corresponding notes:

C - I
D - II
E - III
F - IV
G - V
A - VI
B - VII

Great. So far we know that there are 7 notes in a scale and each are represented by roman numerals. Now when someone says "What is the 4 chord of C major?" you can easily reply F major.

***Note: It will not always be a major chord. The 4 chord of C is F major because the chord is F-A-C, which is indeed F major, but if someone asks what the 2 chord is, you would have to say D minor. D major would be D-F#-A, but since F# is not in the scale of C major, you cannot use it, which means you need to make it a minor chord by shifting the F# down 1 semitone to and F natural.

Ok, now on to the actual lesson. What is a tonic and dominant? Let's refer back to our C+ scale. The tonic simply means the first note of the scale, which is C. If the scale was D major, the tonic would be D etc., etc.

C - Tonic ( I )
D - Supertonic ( II )
E - Mediant ( III )
F - Subdominant ( IV )
G - Dominant ( V )
A - Submediant ( VI )
B - Leading Tone ( VII )

When coming up with chord progressions, people usually start on the tonic chord and end on the dominant chord. They end on the dominant chord because it sort of pushes you back to the tonic, making the piece sound rounded. Try it out yourself. Play the tonic chord ( C-E-G ) then play a different chord, let's say the 4 chord ( F-A-C ), now the dominant chord ( G-B-D ) and end on the tonic. Doesn't it sound like the piano just wanted to finish on the tonic after you played the dominant? Well, that progression that I just showed you is actually a very popular progression used a lot. You should take some time to practice naming and moving through each note of each scale and in no time, your theory game will be up another notch.

Hope this helped. More to come.

R.A