B major scale, notes and fingering.

The B major scale is B, C#, D#, E, F#, G# and A#, then B again at the top. It has 5 sharps in its key signature (F#, C#, G#, D#, A#), and five of its seven notes are black keys. Its relative minor is G# minor. In steps it goes whole, whole, half, whole, whole, whole, half, the same pattern as every major scale.

How to play B major on piano

1. Find B. B is the white key just right of the group of three black keys.
2. Click Right hand and Two octaves. The circles on the keyboard show the finger for each note, starting with finger 1 on B. Finger 1 is the thumb.
3. Press Play scale to hear the scale go up and come back down. Up plays only the way up and Down only the way down. Change Speed if it is too quick.
4. Click Left hand. The left hand plays one octave lower and starts with finger 4 on B.
5. Click One octave to see only the first eight notes, B to B, with the fingers for that run.
6. Under the keyboard, Play on a chord card plays the three-note chord built on that note, such as B on B and F# on F#.
7. Open Note names. Choose Sharps or Flats to see the black keys written the other way, for example C# as Db.

The notes, one by one

Worked example: the right hand starts on B3 on this page. That key is 10 semitones below A4, so on a piano tuned to A4 = 440 Hz its frequency is 440 × 2^(-10/12), which is about 246.94 Hz. The top B, one octave higher, doubles that to about 493.88 Hz. Counting the steps in between, 2 + 2 + 1 + 2 + 2 + 2 + 1 = 12 semitones. The fifth note, F#, is 7 of them above the root.

Key signature of B major

B major has 5 sharps: F#, C#, G#, D# and A#. Sharps are always added in the same order, F C G D A E B, so a signature with five sharps uses the first five of them. Written once at the start of the staff, they apply to every F, C, G, D and A in the piece, in every octave.

To see why, go up from B by whole, whole, half, whole, whole, whole, half. The notes that land on black keys are number 2, 3, 5, 6 and 7 of the seven, and they are written C#, D#, F#, G# and A#. Each letter name is used once in a scale, so the marks go on F, C, G, D and A, and the signature lists exactly those letters.

What is particular about B major

B major has five sharps and uses all five black keys: C#, D#, F#, G# and A#. The only white keys in the scale are B and E. The right hand uses the same finger pattern as C major, 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 1, so the thumb falls on the white keys B and E while the longer fingers 2, 3 and 4 play the black keys. The left hand is different, and its pattern is worth learning on its own.

Fingering for both hands

The usual teaching fingering for B major in the right hand is 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 1 for the first octave, and for two octaves 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5. In the left hand it is 4 3 2 1 4 3 2 1 for the first octave, and for two octaves 4 3 2 1 4 3 2 1 3 2 1 4 3 2 1. The right thumb lands on B and E and the left thumb on E and B; all of those are white keys. Coming down, use the same fingers in reverse order. Other fingerings exist, and a teacher may change them to suit your hand, so treat this as the standard starting point.

Chords in B major

Stack every other note of the scale and you get a three-note chord on each degree. In every major key the pattern is the same: major on I, IV and V, minor on ii, iii and vi, and diminished on vii. In B major that gives B, C#m, D#m, E, F#, G#m and A#dim. The three major chords, B, E and F#, are the ones that fit most simply together, for example in the order B, E, F#, B.

A way to practise it

Start with the right hand only, because its pattern is the one you may already know from C major. Then learn the left hand as 4 3 2 1 4 3 2 1: it starts on finger 4, and the thumb lands on E and B. Play very slowly with the Left hand switch on, and say the finger numbers aloud.

A common slip

Mixing B major up with Bb major. B major starts on the white key B and goes to C#, a whole step up. Bb major starts on the black key and has only two flats.

Nearby keys

The relative minor of B major is G# minor. It uses the same notes and the same key signature, starting on G#. The parallel minor, B minor, starts on the same note but has 2 sharps in its key signature. B major can also be written as Cb major, with seven flats, which uses the same keys on the piano.

The key a fifth higher is F# major and the key a fifth lower is E major. B major shares all but one note with each of them. Keys next to each other on the circle of fifths have signatures that differ by one mark. On this site the neighbours here are E major and F sharp major.

When the scale is steady, play it with the metronome and compare it with the virtual piano. For other scale types, such as minor, modes and pentatonic, use the scale finder.