The Gist Of Scales Uncovered!

I was just wondering.. how do ppl ever memorise scales?? Those of you out there who do music theory should know wat i mean by dat. It's hellish work memorising scale after scale and those are only the natural scales. How bout those key sigs with flats and sharps in them?? Dats hell upon hell!

As usual for the past 2 days or so, i have been struggling to memorise and memorise scales and key signature after key signature.. and it was just so tough i really didnt know wat best to do to absorb all dat crap in.. i was at a dead end, down but not out yet. Dat was until i was at the library at my designated corner as with last week.

I plucked my books out of my bag, laid them on the ground and started to memorise them by writing them out one by one and rewriting them for 10s of times in the hopes dat i would finally get them in my thick head~ but no.. dat wasnt the case, i was back to square one, and still stuck.. Just then, i stared at wat i wrote down and noticed a very perculiar pattern dat formed from one key sig to the other. For example, in the key sig of A Major, it is as so:

A B C# D E F# G# A

the last A being high A to complete the octave~


AND in the key of Ab Major:

Ab Bb C Db Eb F G Ab

with yet again Ab completing the octave~

Notice the pattern there betw the two key signatures? yes..? no..? dunno..??

ok, anyway, if you see, both key sigs have the following order in A B C D E F G A.
2ndly, notice dat keys C F and G in A Major are sharps (#)?? However, when we look at Ab Major, those keys C F and G are natural!
AND THEN, the keys of A B D and E which are natural in A Major, are flat (b) in Ab Major!

So all in all, it's only a matter of shifting sharps/flats into naturals and naturals into sharps or flats! It's dat simple! Bingo! Now we've killed two birds with one freakin stone! And finally, I CAN ACTUALLY MEMORISE THOSE DARN MAJOR SCALES!!!

By the way, this same principle holds true for the key sigs of B/Bb Major and E/Eb Major. As for the other 6 key sigs in the major scale.. well those are.. well a little more complicated with additional elements thrown in BUT the basic principle holds true for ALL Major Scales :) Haha~ scales are truly extraordinary and i think all serious musicians should learn to love em~ lol! I think with this, i've learnt to look at scales in a whole new light~ makes learning mroe fun really~