Notes in The E Major Scale 

In the E major scale, the tonic is ‘E’ and the scale starts with the Tonic ‘E’. As in all other scales, the scale comes to the Perfect major at the eighth position of the scale and it is again called the ‘E’. There are 12 notes in the octave and 8 keys generally denote the scale. As one walks through the octave the keys to be played are the following:

• The first is always the Tonic, in this case, “E”.
• Then a major note in the Second position called F#
• The third position is for the major G#
• The fourth scale position is Perfect fourth ‘A’
• B is the fifth perfect key
• The major sixth is C Sharp key
• Major Seventh is the DSharp key
• The perfect octave is given by the ‘E’ which is also a Tonic.

Degrees of The E major Scale

Explaining the Degrees of the E major scale in piano, require some basics of understanding in the Degrees of a scale, and once understood a person will easily play the same in other instruments. Playing the major scale with the guitar is not a big deal if one is smooth with the E major scale chords. 

The Tonic of E major scale is the first note played in piano or E major scale guitar. The Supertonic is always the note above Tonic. In this case, The Supertonic is F#.

The mediant played on this scale is G#. Medians on a scale are generally placed in the third position. The submediant comes after two other notes of the E major scale are played. In this case, the submediant is C sharp. 

Each scale has a dominant. For the E major scale, the dominant happens to be the ‘B’. The precedent of the dominant note is the subdominant which played using the “A” key.

The seventh tone of the E major scale octave is the leading tone. The tone that has the ‘leading’ degree happens to be the D#.

E Major Scale and the Major scale formula:

The E major Scale follows the major scale formula W-W-H-W-W-W-H and has the following characteristics:

1. The E major scale has 8 notes.
2. It has 5 whole notes.
3. Each whole note is played by skipping one half note
4. Each whole note in e major scale piano comes after 2 half steps on the keyboard.
5. There are two half steps on the scale.
6. Two times in the scale the player plays consequent keys.

Playing the E Major Scale on Piano

The scale names of the E major scale piano follows the conventional rule of nomenclature in Western Music. Though each of the keys on the keyboard has two names, i.e. they are two enharmonic notes, in the present case, information of a major scale consecutive letters are used for naming the keys. 

For playing the keys on the keyboard, a conventional method is followed:

1. The right hand is used to play the keys as 54321321.
2. The numbers 54321 are referred to as the thumb, index finger, middle finger, ring finger, and the pinky respectively.
3. First, the E, F#, G#, A, and B are played using the thumb, index finger, middle finger, ring finger, and the pinky respectively.
4. Then, C#, D#, and E are played using the middle finger, ring finger, and the pinky respectively in a flow.
5. The playing rules are just the opposite of the right hand. 
6. With the right hand, thee major scale is played as 12345345.
7. This means that the pinky finger, ring finger, middle finger, index finger, and thumb are used to play the E, F#, G#, A, and B, one after another.
8. Then the middle finger, index finger, and the thumb are again used to play C#, D#, and E respectively.