Activity 1-4: Do-Re-Mi Scale

As you look at the piano keyboard, you should notice that the black keys are grouped in patterns of twos and threes. Each note looks different from any other depending on where it fits within those groupings. Any note on the white key just to the left of a set of two black keys, for example, will be the note C. If you play one C and then the next higher or lower C, you have played an octave. If you play the notes on the white keys from C to the next, you are playing a C major scale, sometimes referred to as the "do-re-me" scale because those syllables are used to identify the notes as follows: C = do, D = re, E = mi, F = fa, G = sol (or so), A = la, B = ti. Click below to play a demonstration.