Climbing Those Scales, Part 2: Major Scales - Music Tutorial #6

When we last met for a tutorial, I was introducing you to the idea of musical scales, and explained a little about what a Chromatic scale is.

In Part 2 of my “Climbing Those Scales” tutorials, I will discuss Major scales.

First, let me quote author Michael Miller from his The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Music Theory book.

“A scale is, quite simply, eight successive pitches within a one-octave range. All scales start on one note and end on that same note one octave higher.”

What makes any particular musical scale a Major scale are the specific intervals between the notes in that scale. Each Major scale has eight notes in it and is constructed using the following pattern:

whole step, whole step, half step, whole step, whole step, whole step, half step

Each whole step equals two half steps (if that makes it easier for you).

“But wait!”, you say. “What are whole steps and half steps?”

Whole steps and half steps are the intervals in which you move to get to the next note in a scale.

Let’s take the easiest Major scale as an example. This would be the C Major scale. The scale of C Major is considered the easiest to learn because there are no accidentals (sharps or flats) in this particular scale. (Note: When referring to Major scales, the letters of the scale - in this case, C - is capitalized. This helps to differentiate between Major and minor scales as minor scales are marked in lower case letters.)

If we build a C Major scale, we begin with the note C. In order to obtain the next note in the C Major scale, we need an interval of one whole step (or two half steps). A whole step would move us from the C to a D. (If we only took a half step, we would be on that note in between the two known as C# - or as it is sometimes noted - Db. If we had moved from a C to a C#, that is only a half step, and in the case of a Major scale, the first interval needs to be a whole step which is why we end up on a D as our second note.)

Following this method, this is what a C Major scale would look like using the interval pattern for Major scales as mentioned above (W,W, H, W, W, W, H). W = whole step, H = half step.

And remember, the interval between E and F, and B and C are only half steps as there are no notes in between them.

This website shows the construction of a Major scale very simply and nicely.

http://musictheory.net/lessons/html/id21_en.html

For an example of another Major scale, (which will now include accidentals as C Major is the only scale with no accidentals), let us try the scale of D Major. Again, we are following the W,W,H,W,W,W,H interval pattern to determine what the notes will be.

The scale of D Major would be: D, E, F#, G, A, B, C#, D

You can see that there are two sharps (F# and C#) in the D Major scale. This is because we need to make a whole step from the note E to our next note in the scale. As mentioned above, since there are no notes between E and F, this interval would only be a half step, so a complete whole step would take us from E to F#. The same situation occurs when we reach the note of B in the scale.

If you follow the interval pattern as demonstrated in the previous two examples, you can create any of the Major scales from A to G#.

In part 3 of my “Climbing Those Scales” series, I will introduce you to minor scales.

Until then, how about a little Solfège anyone?

Do Re Mi Fa So La Ti Do…

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