F major scale, notes and fingering.

The F major scale is F, G, A, Bb, C, D and E, then F again at the top. It has 1 flat in its key signature (Bb), and one of its seven notes are black keys. Its relative minor is D minor. In steps it goes whole, whole, half, whole, whole, whole, half, the same pattern as every major scale.

How to play F major on piano

1. Find F. F is the white key just left 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 F. 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 5 on F.
5. Click One octave to see only the first eight notes, F to F, 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 F on F and C on C.
7. Open Note names. Choose Sharps or Flats to see the black keys written the other way, for example Bb as A#.

The notes, one by one

Worked example: the right hand starts on F4 on this page. That key is 4 semitones below A4, so on a piano tuned to A4 = 440 Hz its frequency is 440 × 2^(-4/12), which is about 349.23 Hz. The top F, one octave higher, doubles that to about 698.46 Hz. Counting the steps in between, 2 + 2 + 1 + 2 + 2 + 2 + 1 = 12 semitones. The fifth note, C, is 7 of them above the root.

Key signature of F major

F major has 1 flat: Bb. Flats are always added in the same order, B E A D G C F, so a signature with one flat uses the first one of them. Written once at the start of the staff, they apply to every B in the piece, in every octave.

To see why, go up from F by whole, whole, half, whole, whole, whole, half. The notes that land on black keys are number 4 of the seven, and they are written Bb. Each letter name is used once in a scale, so the marks go on B, and the signature lists exactly those letters.

What is particular about F major

F major has one flat, Bb, which is the fourth note. Among the twelve major scales on this site it is the only one whose right hand fingering starts 1 2 3 4: finger 4 plays the Bb, and the thumb crosses under after it. The left hand uses the same fingers as C major. The flat key signature is Bb, the first flat in the order B, E, A, D, G, C, F.

Fingering for both hands

The usual teaching fingering for F major in the right hand is 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 1 for the first octave, and for two octaves 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4. In the left hand it is 5 4 3 2 1 3 2 1 for the first octave, and for two octaves 5 4 3 2 1 3 2 1 4 3 2 1 3 2 1. The right thumb lands on F and C and the left thumb on C and F; 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 F 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 F major that gives F, Gm, Am, Bb, C, Dm and Edim. The three major chords, F, Bb and C, are the ones that fit most simply together, for example in the order F, Bb, C, F.

A way to practise it

Play the right hand slowly and listen for the Bb: finger 4 lands on it, and the thumb goes under right after. Do not use the C major fingering by habit. Then play the left hand, which is the same as C major, and put the hands together an octave apart.

A common slip

Using the C major fingering by habit. In F major the thumb would land on Bb, a black key, so finger 4 must play it instead.

Nearby keys

The relative minor of F major is D minor. It uses the same notes and the same key signature, starting on D. The parallel minor, F minor, starts on the same note but has 4 flats in its key signature.

The key a fifth higher is C major and the key a fifth lower is Bb major. F 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 B flat major and C 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.