Keys and Scales

What's the difference?

Both Keys and Scales refer to groups of notes but there is a difference.

Scales are a series of musical notes arranged in ascending or descending order. There are many different scales. Each one has its own sound. These include the Major, Minor, Pentatonic, Blues, and various other scales.

A key in music is a group of notes. It holds the set of notes that belong to a particular key. It creates a tonal center. The notes form the harmonic foundation for the piece of music. They are related to each other by their intervals.

The key is determined by the tonic note. This is the note that feels like home. The other notes in the key are then arranged around the tonic note. From this, we can derive the chords of a scale.

So, a scale is a set of notes, whilst a key is a set of notes that are related to each other by their intervals and have a tonic note.

We could say that a scale is a building block and that the key is a house built from those building blocks.

Keys are built around a specific scale, such as the C Major scale. Keys don’t have a specific formula.

Both scales and key signatures have a strong correlation. Both keys and scales can be major or minor. There are the same sharps and flats in every major (or relative minor) scale in the key signature of that scale.

Both major scales and major keys have the same flats and sharps. Likewise, both minor scales and minor keys have the same flats and sharps.

There are the same sharps and flats in every major (or relative minor) scale in the key signature of that scale.

For example, the E major scale has the notes F, G, C, and D sharpened to F#, G#, C#, and D#. Likewise, the Key of E Major also holds the notes F#, G#, C#, and D#.

The key of a piece of music is what gives the music its overall feeling, whilst the scale provides a framework for the melody.

A piece of music based on a major scale would be in a major key. Likewise, a piece of music based on a minor scale would be in a minor key.

A major scale uses all the notes from the major key in ascending order. For example, the notes held in the C major Key would be used to form the C major Scale. These are C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C.

A minor scale uses all the notes from the minor key in ascending order. For example, the notes held in the A minor key would be used to form the A minor scale. These are A, B, C, D, E, F, G. A.

Note that the C major key and the A minor key both contain the same notes. Therefore each key holds the notes for a major scale and for its relative minor scale as they are both the same notes in a different order.

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