Common mistake

Believing the same notes always make the same scale

It sounds like this

“C major and A minor use exactly the same notes, so they're really the same scale.”

Why it’s wrong

Start from a different home note and the pattern of steps above it changes — including the third, which decides the colour.

The lesson that fixes it

→Major and minor scalesA major scale follows the pattern whole, whole, half, whole, whole, whole, half; the natural minor lowers the third, sixth and seventh notes by a half step — and because the pattern depends on which note feels like home, the same seven notes can make a major key or a minor one.read free

Cognosc spots mistakes like this.

When you explain something in your own words, Cognosc can tell exactly which mistake you’re making — not just that you’re wrong — and gives you a short lesson to fix that one thing.

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