RE: [Harp-L] Majors and Minors

[Patrick Killeen <patrickkilleen@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

If you look at a piano keyboard like this one 
 
http://www.talkbass.com/images/lessons/keyboard.gif
 
the significance of the black keys is that if you’re 
playing in C major they sound the notes you don’t need 
so they have been tucked out of the way.  For example, 
C and D are next to each other at the front of the 
keyboard, with the key between them (C#) shrunken, 
painted black and pushed to the back.
 
If you look at just the black keys you’ll see that they 
fall in alternating groups of 2 and 3 with gaps between 
E and F and between B and C.  So the black keys go 
C# D# [Gap] F# G# A# [Gap] C# D# [Gap] F# etc.
 
The significance of the gaps in the black keys is that 
they indicate where there’s a half step between two 
white keys. 
 
Now, it’s just the first five notes of a scale that give 
it a major or minor feel.  Notes six and seven are a lot 
more fluid, especially when it comes to minor keys, and 
note 8 is the same as note one but an octave higher.  
 
If you take any group of five white keys then you will 
find that they span exactly one gap in the black keys, 
and it’s the position of this gap that controls whether 
the scale you get is major or minor. For a major scale 
you need the gap in the black keys to be after the 3rd 
white key (giving you: whole step, whole step, half 
step, whole step) and there are two places this happens.  
The obvious one is CDEFG, but the same pattern occurs 
for GABCD.  Which is why a C harp can also be used to 
play in G by playing in 2nd position.
 
For a minor scale the 3rd note is flattened so the gap 
in the black keys needs to be move to before the 3rd 
white key (giving you: whole step, half step, whole 
step, whole step), again there are two places where 
this happens: ABCDE and DEFGA.  This gives you the two 
minor keys you can play on a C harp without bending: 
Dm in 3rd position and Am in 4th position.
 
 
Hope that helps.
 
Patrick