Originally Posted By: Bass Thumper
Gracie Terzian seems to use "scale" and "key" interchangably. Are they the same?
Not quite, but probably close enough for the moment. A song is in a key and that key, by default, uses the notes from the scale, however there are other scales that could also be used with that key. A prominent example is that all major keys have a "relative minor key", that uses exactly the same notes. But also, a player could also use the blues scale over the key and the blues scale includes note that are not in the key. Be aware of it but don't get hung up on it. Each major's relative minor starts exactly 3 semitones below the root of the major. The key signature is exactly the same. A fairly reliable check of whether a song is in major or relative minor it to look at the final chord from the song. Usually(!) that will be the key.

Originally Posted By: Bass Thumper
E-F#-G#-A-B-C#-D# we see it's root is located at clock position 4 on the circle and we have 4 sharps. (I'm thinking these 4's are unrelated since at clock position 11, F we, certainly can't have 11 sharps or 11 flats).

They are related, but we stop the sharps and flats at 7 as that's all we can have in an octave.. on a piano, that's the five black keys plus the 'odd' B#/Cb and E#/Fb.

Originally Posted By: Bass Thumper

I also notice in this table that for all keys/scales the 1,4 and 5 scale numbers correspond to "major chords". Do you know what that is telling me or what the significance of that is?

It's just how a major scale is defined.
Don't worry about the following for now, but at some stage it may well become of interest ... there are also "modes" aka "church modes", which use exactly the same notes as the major scale, but each mode starts on a different note from the scale. They're a powerful concept, but will likely give you a headache if you try to understand them now.

Originally Posted By: Bass Thumper
Also, this table is restricted to major keys. Is there a separate table restricted to minor keys? If so, would the next inner circle dictate these keys/scales?

The key we normally know as minor is the relative minor. It's the most common of the modes I mention above. There are many scales and they have sometimes remarkably different characters. Again, don't worry about them now.
The one other scale that is probably well worth knowing is "the blues scale". It's fairly common, it's fairly easy to get to grips with and it has that nice blues feel.

Jazz relative beginner, starting at a much older age than was helpful.
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