Scales and keys

There are twelve notes. Most songs use seven, and a good few get by on five.

— the Slopwright

A piano has twelve different notes before they repeat an octave higher. A scale picks some of them. The major scale is a pattern of whole and half steps (W W H W W W H) from any starting note; that starting note is the tonic, and the song is "in the key" of it.

Minor scales lower the third (and usually the sixth and seventh): same tonic, darker light. Modes like dorian keep the minor third but raise the sixth, which is why Scene Change sounds minor without sounding sad.

The pentatonic scale keeps five notes and drops the two that sit a half step from a neighbour. With no half steps left, almost nothing in it can clash, which is why the workshop’s games use it for every melody they make up as they go.

Try this

1. Pick D and Major pentatonic, then play only the lit keys, in any order. Nothing sounds wrong.
2. Switch the same root between Major and Natural minor and play the scale up. Listen to the third note.
3. Try Dorian on E, then play along with Scene Change.