​ Notes from The Music Hub June 8, 2026

Major Scales are the Foundation of Western Music

In my opinion, which is based in a lot of personal experience and observation, learning music theory is the best way to learn piano - and music in general - more quickly.

This is because you learn the building blocks of how music is put together and you are able to recognize patterns that show up from piece to piece.

While every piece is different, they all have similar inherent structures.

Kind of like how the same four nucleotides in DNA are used over and over in different combinations to create an infinite amount of variety.

I find this joke very funny, but in today's context we can subsituted "microbiology" for "rocket science."

Music theory is often assumed to be extremely difficult. But it really isn't, especially at the beginner levels.

The Major Scale is the most common scale in Western music. It has been around since Ancient Greece.

Everything else we learn in music theory is derived from this scale: minor scales, all chords, melodic and harmonic function, etc.

This is the stuff they teach to freshmen in college music programs.

However, I have taught scales and chords to elementary school students and functional harmonic theory to high schoolers.

Major scales are not difficult to understand, but if you try to just learn from an online blog post you might get a little confused.

The reason is because theory is most easily learned in the context of piano.

Learning piano and theory together is a perfect combination.

I just opened the Scales and Chords module in The Music Hub and uploaded the first lesson all about Major Scales.

I explain the Major Scale formula and why starting on different notes requires the use of certain accidentals.

I then demonstrate how to play each scale and explain how using body awareness can help you play the scales.

There's a lot of detail in there. Not just on how the scales are put together, but how playing scales can improve your piano playing.

Thank you for being a valued member of The Music Hub Community!

Please contact me by responding to this email if you have any questions or concerns!

Happy Music Making!

Heather Niemi Savage, composer, pianist & educator

Founder of The Music Hub