19-Mar-2025
I’ll keep it as simple as possible, there’s just a few things to describe here that are necessary to cover the basics. Latin is definitely not required .
| 1st | The first note of a key’s scale, the key is named by this note, eg: for D Major it’s D; for Bb Major it’s Bb. |
| 4th | The fourth note of a key’s scale, eg: for D Major it’s G; for Bb Major it’s Eb. |
| 7th | The seventh note of a key’s scale (cheat: it’s 1 note down from the 1st), eg: for D Major it’s C#; for Bb Major it’s A. |
| dominant | another name for the 5th; depending on the context this is either the 5th note of the scale or the 5th chord of the key |
| dominant chord | the 5th, 7th, & 2nd (generally above the 7th) notes of the scale all played at the same time |
| key | A fundamental grouping of notes that provides the tonal “feel” for any piece of music. The key is named after the 1st note in its scale. |
| key signature | The statement of which notes make up the key. By convention, and to make it easier to read the key signature, all notes are treated as natural unless specifically mentioned. For this reason a key’s signature is only described by the notes which are either sharp or flat. Eg: for D Major the key signature is: F#, C#; this is commonly spoken as “2 sharps: F & C”; for Bb Major the key signature is: Bb, Eb; this is commonly spoken as “2 flats: B & E”. |
| note | One of the elements of a key’s scale, eg: for D Major the notes are: D, E, F#, G, A, B, C#; for Bb Major the notes are: Bb, C, D, Eb, F, G, A. |
| semi-tone | An octave is divided into 12 semi-tones. Every piano key, both black & white, is 1 semi-tone higher or lower than the piano key next to it. |
| tonic | another name for the 1st; depending on the context this is either the 1st note of the scale or the 1st chord of the key |
| tonic chord | the 1st, 3rd, & 5th notes of the scale all played at the same time |