How to Figure Out All Notes For Major Keys

Accompanying Blog Post With Helpful Pictures: https://songwritertheory.com/how-to-figure-out-all-notes-for-major-keys FREE GUIDE LINK: https://songwritertheory.com/freeguide/Website: https://songwritertheory.com/Follow Me on Twitter: @josephNVadala Episode Writeup:Do you know what notes you’re working with when someone says “This song is in the Key of E Major”? If you forget what notes are sharp or flat in a key, do you have any way to figure it out?This post is going to make sure you can figure out every note in any major key.And it’s going to be very simple.First thing to understand is that every major key has 7 notes.The second thing to understand is that the intervals between each note is the exact same for all major keys.Whole Step - Whole Step - Half Step - Whole Step - Whole Step - Whole Step - Half StepOk, so what are these steps?A half step is going from one note to the very next note. It is the smallest step possible between notes in western music.So what is a whole step? 2 half steps.Now, let’s figure out each note in the key of C major based on our major key steps:Whole-Whole-Half-Whole-Whole-Whole-HalfThe Notes are those with blue inside the circle.Here is what we didWe started with C as it is the key of C majorWe took a whole step over C# to DWe took a whole step over D# to EWe took a half step to F (there is no E#)We took a whole step over F# to GWe took a whole step over G# to AWe took a whole step over A# to BWe took a half step back to C (there is no B#)Let’s do this with E Major NowWe started with E (lighter blue) as it is the key of E majorWe took a whole step over F to F#We took a whole step over G to G#We took a half step to AWe took a whole step over A# to BWe took a whole step over C to C#We took a whole step over D to D#We took a half step back to EFinally, let’s investigate this for the key of Ab MajorWe started with Ab (lighter blue) as it is the key of Ab majorWe took a whole step over A to BbWe took a whole step over B to CWe took a half step to DbWe took a whole step over D to EbWe took a whole step over E to FWe took a whole step over Gb to GWe took a half step back to AbThat’s all there is to finding notes within a major key!So just memorize Whole-Whole-Half-Whole-Whole-Whole-Half and you can figure out every note of a major key, given the name of the key!