Kitchieboy's Music Tutor Learning to Read Music (But Not Enough to Hurt Your Playing)
	Scales and Keys What I'm going to call a "scale" is a series of musical tones arranged in a rising or falling sequence. Not the stuff you scrape off when you unwrap a fresh fish, and not the skin on monsters in bad monster movies. Usually this will be seven tones, plus the first tone repeated an octave higher, as shown below. I've numbered the "octave higher" first tone "8" to illustrate the origin of the word "octave". If you played it backwards (descending) it's still a scale.
	There are major and minor scales, and scales in different keys - indicated by the key signature. One sharp (F sharp) for G major (or E minor), two sharps (F sharp and C sharp) for D major and B minor, no sharps or flats (C major or A minor) and so on. "Sharp keys" have sharps in the key signature; one sharp (F sharp) for G major or E minor; two sharps (F sharp and C sharp) for D major or B minor. "Flat keys" have flats; one flat (B flat) for F major or D minor, and two flats (B flat and E flat) for B flat and G minor. And so on. Most folk music, fiddle tunes, Celtic tunes, etc. use only some of the possible keys. There is no "mix and match". I suppose someone could make up a "two sharps and one flat" key signature, but I've never seen anyone try. You change keys and scales when you change key signatures. You change keys and modes, within the same scale when you use the same tones, but start and end on a different place. Treble Clef Trivia tip: The French word "clef" means "key".
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