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Quick Guide To Major Scale

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The Major Scales In music

Major Scales In Music

The major scale is one of the most common scales used in music and is an important building block of Western music.

In our Beginner’s Guide to Scales in Music post, we define what a scale is in music. We need to define it here again just to remind us what it is.

Basically, a scale is a succession of notes in ascending or descending order, usually based on the interval relationship of notes.

This interval relationship is used to create a fixed formula that is identified with every defined type of scale.

Moreover, we have different types of scales in music, and the major scale is one of them. A major scale is one of several eight-note scales known as diatonic scales that we have around.

This diatonic type of scale is commonly used in modern music and is the dominant scale of Western classical music.

Of course, the major scale is the most important scale we need to learn. The scale is a useful tool for musicians to improvise, construct chords, build diatonic harmony, and much more.

Actually, if we understood how scales in music are formed, how musical keys and chords are formed, it would make real sense to us.

In short, good mastery of a major scale will help every learner of a musical instrument learn and play the instrument quickly in any key.

In this article, we are going to discuss major scales in detail. We will learn how a major scale is formed and discuss the different major scales that we have.

What Is A Major Scale?

A major scale is a musical scale with seven different notes or pitch classes that span a single octave.

This scale has five whole steps and two half-step interval relationships between the eight notes that make up an octave of the scale.

Basically, the third and fourth notes, as well as the seventh and the octave note of the scale, have half steps between them. Note that the octave note is a repeat of the first note but at a higher pitch.

Besides the two adjacent notes mentioned above, other adjacent notes in major scales have whole steps between them.

A major scale is known for its bright and stable sound that is related to happy-sounding music.

Apart from the most common pentatonic scale, the major scale is the first scale most musicians learn at the beginning of their journey. Noticeably, it is the first scale every new student of music can relate to and recognize.

How Do We Construct Or Build The Major Scales

Specifically, the major scale is constructed with eight unique notes, where the eighth note is an octave and a repetition of the first note.

And as we have said earlier, it is constructed with the interval model of five whole steps and two half steps.

However, it is very important to know where each whole step (or tone) or half step (or semitone) is located within the major scale.

Also, we should remember that a half step is the distance from one note directly to the next note. The half step is also known as the semitone.

On the other hand, the whole step is equivalent to two half steps and is also known as a tone.

With this in mind, the major scale is built with the WS-WS-HS-WS-WS-WS-HS formula. Note that “WS” represents the whole step and “HS” represents the half step.

Also, we can have the major scale formula as T-T-S-T-T-T-S, where T is for Tone and S for Semitone.

This formula WS-WS-HS-WS-WS-WS-HS can be used to create different major scales by starting on any note using the musical alphabets. Similarly, we can build the major scale on a keyboard instrument like a piano by starting on any of the white or black keys.

The resulting major scales would sound similar because of the same pattern of interval relationship that they all follow as defined in the formula above.

The Formula Breakdown

As we already know, the interval relationship of whole steps and half steps in the major scale is the same at all times.

Because of this constancy in the pattern of whole steps and half steps in the scale, we can apply number labeling to each note.

The number labeling will create the scale degree of each note in relation to a specified keynote.

To establish the scale degree, we would use scale degree number labeling and scale degree names. As a result, we have the following:

1st note: The tonic (or keynote) is the first note.

2nd note: The Supertonic is the second note.

3rd note-The Mediant is the third note.

4th note: The subdominant is the fourth note.

5th note: The dominant is the fifth note.

6th note: The Submediant is the sixth note.

7th note: The leading tone is the seventh note.

8th note: The tonic (known as an Octave) is the 8th note.

The Interval Relationship

If we put scale labelling into consideration, using the major scale WS-WS-HS-WS-WS-WS-HS formula, movement from the 1st note to the 2nd note is a whole step.

If we continue with the formula, moving from the 2nd note to the 3rd note is also a whole step. However, moving from the 3rd note to the 4th note is a half step, as is moving from the 7th note.

Following the same formula (interval model), movement from the 4th to the 5th note is a whole step. Similarly, moving from the 5th to the 6th and 6th to the 7th notes is a full step.

After the 7th note, the notes of the scale will start again on the 8th note, which is an octave of the first note. In this case, the movement from the 7th note to the 8th note is half-stepped just like the 3rd to 4th note.

In other words, we have half steps between the third and fourth degree and also between the seventh and eighth-degree notes. We have whole steps between all other scale degrees.

This is what we have when considering scale degree for the interval relationship between the major scales.

 

Major Scales As Two Tetrachords

Major Scales As Two Tetrachords

We can simply classify a major scale as two tetrachords in ascending order. That means breaking the major scale into two scale segments of four notes each.

The first four notes are known as the lower tetrachord. The lower tetrachord consists of notes in a whole step, half step pattern (W-W-H).

The second four notes are known as the upper tetrachord. Also, the upper tetrachord consists of notes in the whole step, half step (W-W-H) pattern.

The two tetrachords lower and upper are joined together in the middle by a whole step.

As we can see from the diagram above, the two tetrachords have the same order of tones and semitones. Basically, the two tetrachords were built with the same pattern of intervals.  

The semitones come in exactly the same place both in the lower tetrachord and upper tetrachord. Each has two consecutive whole steps followed by a half step.

In the lower tetrachord, the semitones come between the 3rd and 4th-degree notes. Also, in the upper tetrachord, semitones come between the 7th and 8th-degree notes.

How to build any major scale becomes easy once we understand and know how to build tetrachords.  

Different Major Scales In Music

As of today, we have fifteen major scales in existence. The fifteen comes with seven sharp keys, seven flat keys, and the key of C without sharp or flats.

Each major scale has a defined starting note known as the Root note, Tonic, or Keynote.

The keynote of the scale gives the scale its name. The keynote can be any of the 12 notes from the chromatic scale.

Note that in building major scales, all musical alphabet notes used should be in order. Specifically, no notes should be skipped and no note should appear more than once.

For instance, if can have D-E-F#-G-A-B-C#-D and not D-E-Gb-G-A-B-Db-D. From the alphabetical representation of the D major scale above, we can see both G and C twice. This is not allowed.

Also, the alphabet should be consecutive like A-B-C-D-E-F-G-A’ and not like A-B-C-D-D#-E-F-Gb.

Of course,  F should be between E and G and not be skipped for another G like we have Gb.

Now, let us look into the different major scales and how they are built.

C Major scale

C Major Scale

The C Major scale starts with C as the root or keynote. This scale is built with alphabetical notes: C-D-E-F-G-A-B-C’ where C’ is an octave.

D Major Scale

D Major Scale

The scale of D-Major begins on the note or key D. With D as a root or keynotes the scale is made up of the following alphabetical notes: D-E-F#-G-A-B-C#-D’. Note that D’ is an octave of the root note.

E Major Scale

E Major Scale
E major Scale

The scale of E Major is the scale with E as its keynote. It contains the following alphabetical notes: E-F#-G#-A-B-C#-D#-E’ where E’ is the octave of the keynote.

F Major Scale

F Major Scale
F major scale

The scale of F Major uses flat notes in its build-up. It uses F as its keynote and has the alphabetical note of F-G-A-Bb-C-D-E-F’ where F’ is the keynote octave.

G Major Scale

The scale of G-Major has G as the root note and is made up of the following alphabetical note G-A-B-C-D-E-F#-G’. Note that G’ is the octave of the root note.

A Major Scale

The scale of A Major comes with three sharp notes and uses note A as its root note. The following alphabetical notes are the notes of the A major scale: A-B-C-D-E-F-G-A’ where A’ is the octave of the root note.

B Major Scale

The scale of B-Major uses note B as the root note and has five sharps in its build-up. 

In ascending order, the following alphabetical notes are the notes of the B major scale: B-C-D-E-F-G-A-B’. The last note B’ is the first octave of the root note.

C-Sharp Major

The scale of C sharp major used the C# note as its root note. And using the major scale WS-WS-HS-WS-WS-WS-HS formula to build the scale from C#, all the notes of the scale are sharp.

With the alphabetical note, we have C#-D#-E#-F#-G#-A#-B#-C#’ as the notes of the C# major scale.

D-Flat Major

The scale of D-Flat Major is another class of major scale. It starts on a D-Flat note and builds up with a major scale defined interval relationship to have Db-Eb-F-Gb-Ab-Bb-C-Db’.

This scale comprises five flats. Also, we can see that both D-Flat Major and C-Sharp major start on the same keyboard key but they are expressed and notated differently. As a result of that, the two scales are enharmonic equivalents.

E-Flat Major

The scale of E-flat Major starts on the E-flat key and its build-up contains three flats. The alphabetical note representation of the E-flat major scale is Eb-F-G-Ab-Bb-C-D-Eb’ where Eb’ is the octave of the root note.

G-Flat Major

The scale of G-Flat major starts its formation on a G-flat note. This scale comprises the following alphabetical notes in ascending order: Gb-Ab-Bb-Cb-Db-Eb-F-Gb’. Note that the last note Gb’ is the octave of the root note.

This scale utilized all the black keys of the piano keyboard. As we can see, it has six flat notes.

F-Sharp Major

The scale of F-Sharp Major begins with the F-sharp as the root note. The scale-like others used the interval relationship model of the major scale for its build-up. 

The scale has the following notes F#-G#-A#-B-C#-D#-E#-F#’ in ascending order.

This key uses the same key as the G-Flat major on the keyboard instrument. 

The two scales start on the first black key from the group of three black keys. This means the F-Sharp major and G-Flat major scales are enharmonic equivalents.

A-Flat Major Scale

The scale of A-Flat Major uses the A-flat key as its root note. Starting from the A-flat key we have the following notes Ab-Bb-C-Db-Eb-F-G-Ab’ in ascending for the A-Flat major scale.

Note that the Ab’ is the octave of the root note.

B-Flat Major Scale

The scale of B-flat Major starts on B-flat which serves as the root note of the scale. Following the major scale interval relationship formula, we have B-C-D-Eb-F-G-A-Bb’ notes in ascending order.


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