Key Signature – Key of A Major
Source: Kids Guitar Theory
Notes in the A scale:
We have worked with songs in the C Scale, which has no sharps or flats in the Key Signature and the G Scale, which has 1 F# in the Key Signature and finally we worked in the key of D major which has two sharps – 1 F# and 2 C#. Now we are going to move on to the A Scale which adds one additional sharp to the D Scale, which is the G#. So the Key of A Major has all F’s, C’s and G’s played sharp, unless the music tells us otherwise. We will go over the A Scale notes and have you memorize just where they are and teach you how to play them. Ready? Here they are!
There are 7 notes in the musical alphabet. In the A scale they are A B C# D E F# G# A. When we reach the A note the notes start over again. When we play A through the Second A, it is called one Octave. If we were to play 2 Octaves we would play A B C# D E F# G# A B C# D E F# G# A. So that shows 2 complete octaves from A to A to A:
Look at the diagram above and you will start to understand just where these notes are on the guitar.
So the lower octave of the A scale starts on the 5th string Open and it is played like this;
A 5th String; Open
B 5th String; 2nd Fret
C# 5th String; 4th Fret
D 4th String; Open
E 4th String; 2nd Fret
F# 4th String; 4rd Fret
G# 3rd String; 1st Fret
Then moving on to the next higher octave, you would play the A scale like this:
A 3rd String; 2nd Fret
B 2nd String; Open
C# 2nd String; 2nd Fret
D 2nd String; 3rd Fret
E 1st String; Open
F# 1st String; 2nd Fret
G# 1st String; 4th Fret
A 1st String; 5th Fret
Memorize this scale and be able to play it smoothly and s-l-o-w-l-y. Another good tip is to say each note as you play it to begin memorizing the notes.
Note in this above diagram, we have 2 octaves in the key of A Major. This corresponds to the actual notes shown in the fingerboard diagram above.
Maintaining Your Half Whole Step Patterns:
Are you wondering what the F#s , C#s and G#s are doing in the scale? In music we have certain rules that have to be kept. One of these is that there is a set pattern of half and whole steps between notes and that pattern has to be kept no matter what.
In order to keep the pattern we need to add sharp and flat notes to make the pattern. We won’t go into detail on how to do that here as that is getting into more advanced theory. For right now just know that in the A scale, you will be dealing with three sharps – that is the F# , C# and the G#. Unless told in the music otherwise, you will play every F, C and G as a sharp.
While you are studying this study the TAB staff also, which is the lower staff. Remember that each of these lines represent a string. The top line is the First String and the bottom line is the 6th String. The numbers stand for the fret number that you play for each string. Try to relate each TAB note to the actual notes on the staff and also on the fretboard diagram at the top of the page.
Tags: a major scale, A scale notes, how to play guitar scales, kids guitar theory
