A-Flat Major Scale: A Complete Guide

Learning about A-Flat major scale? In this post, we’ve put together a complete guide to everything you need to know when learning about the scale.

We’ll be looking at the notes of A-Flat major scale, what it looks like in the treble, bass, alto, and tenor clefs, the degrees of the scale, its key signature, and lots more. Let’s get started.

Notes in A-Flat Major Scale

The A-Flat major scale is made up of seven notes starting on A-Flat (which is known as the keynote). It then follows the major scale formula of whole and half steps.

Those notes are: Ab Bb C Db Eb F G

As you can see, it has four flat notes: Bb, Eb, Ab and Db.

A-Flat Major in the Treble Clef

Here are all the notes of A-Flat major scale in the treble clef, ascending and descending.

A-Flat Major Scale Ascending in the Treble Clef

A-Flat Major Scale Descending in the Treble Clef

A-Flat Major in the Bass Clef

Next, we have all the notes of A-Flat major scale in the bass clef, ascending and descending.

A-Flat Major Scale Ascending in the Bass Clef

A-Flat Major Scale Descending in the Bass Clef

A-Flat Major in the Alto Clef

Here are all the notes of A-Flat major scale in the alto clef, ascending and descending.

A-Flat Major Scale Ascending in the Alto Clef

A-Flat Major Scale Descending in the Alto Clef

A-Flat Major in the Tenor Clef

And last of the clefs, here are all the notes of A-Flat major scale in the tenor clef, ascending and descending.

A-Flat Major Scale Ascending in the Tenor Clef

A-Flat Major Scale Descending in the Tenor Clef

A-Flat Major Scale Formula

Like every major scale, A-Flat major follows a certain formula of whole and half steps which is:

Whole step, whole step, half step, whole step, whole step, whole step, half step.

This is abbreviated to W W H W W W H.

A-Flat Major Scale With Whole and Half Steps

Using the British terminology of tones and semitones, this would be:

Tone, tone, semitone, tone, tone, tone, semitone

Which gets abbreviated to T T S T T T S.

A-Flat Major Scale With Tones and Semitones

A-Flat Major Scale Degrees and Technical Names

In music theory, we can refer to each note of a scale by numbers which we call the degrees of a scale.

The first note is the 1st degree, the second is the 2nd degree, the third note is the 3rd degree, etc.

But, each scale degree has another name which is called the technical names of the scale.

Here are the technical names and scale degrees of A-Flat major scale.

• 1st – Tonic – Ab
• 2nd – Supertonic – Bb
• 3rd – Mediant – C
• 4th – Subdominant – Db
• 5th – Dominant – Eb
• 6th – Submediant – F
• 7th – Leading tone – G

A-Flat Major Key Signature

To make playing in a certain key easier for the musician to read, we can use a key signature.

This helps us know to play certain notes sharp or flat without having to read an accidental each time.

A-Flat major has four flats in its key signature: Bb, Eb, Ab and Db

Here’s the key signature for A-Flat major in the treble, alto, tenor, and bass clefs.

A-Flat Major Key Signature

What is the Relative Minor of A-Flat Major?

Every major key has a relative minor key. What makes them related is that they both share the same key signature.

The relative minor key of A-Flat major is F Minor.

Here is F natural minor scale, which uses all the same notes as A-Flat major but starts on D, which is its keynote: C D Eb F G Ab Bb 

F Natural Minor Scale Ascending in the Treble Clef

F Natural Minor Scale Descending in the Treble Clef

But how do we know that F minor is the relative minor of A-Flat major? Well, to work out the relative minor key of a major one, all we have to do is go down three half steps (semitones).

So from Ab, we go down one half step to G, a second half step to Gb, and a third half step to F: Ab > G > Gb > F

Conclusion

That’s it for the scale of A-Flat major! We hope it helped make a bit more sense of everything.

Feel free to use this post as a reference when referring to the notes of A-Flat major scale.