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a Scale is any set of musical notes ordered by fundamental frequency or pitch. A scale ordered by increasing pitch is an ascending scale, and a scale ordered by decreasing pitch is a descending scale.
The Major Scale is a diatonic scale….
Diatonic meaning only notes proper to the prevailing key without chromatic alteration.
You can think of The Major Scale as a collection of notes that sound good when you play them together. This because these notes pertain to a Key.
The Key of a music piece is the group of pitches, or scale, that forms the basis of music composition in classical, Western art, and Western pop music.
If this isn’t making sense, understand that a scale is a collection of notes that sound good when played together.
*Now that you know about semitones and whole steps, you can construct the Major Scale.
With the knowledge of semitones and whole steps, we will go step by step on how to make a Major Scale. Let’s get to it.*
Major Scale Construction
I know this is a lot of information to take in but just follow these steps and you will be able to make the major scale for any note you pick. There are 7 Notes in the Major Scale.
1) Pick a Note to start on.
C is our Note.
For these examples, we will reference the C Major Scale:
*It is the easiest to understand and see visually… If you have ever played the white keys on a piano(or seen them), they are part of the C Major Scale.*
-If you start on C as your root note. The Scale goes as follows.
C, D, E, F, G, A, B(7 Notes) Then it repeats back to C on a higher or lower octave.
C Major Scale, because The Root Note is C.
The Root Note is the starting note of a scale or chord progression. It will be the basis of all the notes that will revolve around the scale or chords.
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2) Why are the notes C, D, E, F, G, A, B?
It has to do with the pitch frequencies. This topic is more advance so I will skip details on that.
Just understand that these notes are sound waves being produced. The scales tell us what intervals to play to give distance to the notes to make it sound good.
*We will instead use the intervals of the scale.
Intervals: In music theory, an interval is the difference in pitch between two sounds. An interval may be described as horizontal, linear, or melodic if it refers to successively sounding tones, such as two adjacent pitches in a melody, and vertical or harmonic if it pertains to simultaneously sounding tones, such as in a chord.
Intervals of the C major scale:
C = 1st Interval
D = 2nd Interval
E = 3rd Interval
F = 4th Interval
G = 5th Interval
A = 6th Interval
B = 7th Interval
Repeats back:
C = 1st interval (You can say 8th interval since it is an octave C. Since you can keep writing up in that pitch of C, you can see it better as the first interval because it is the root note C.)
D = 2nd
and etc.
*** Keep this in mind, it is important. Plus giving notes this number helps you remember the notes in the given scale.
3) Remember this Interval pattern to construct the major scale:
W,W,S,W,W,W,S
(1)Whole step, (2)Whole step, (3)Semitone, (4)Whole step, (5)Whole step, (6)Whole step, (7)Semitone.
I numbered them because these are steps we will follow.
| C Major Scale Construction Steps |
I will be explaining this in the text below in case more info is needed. ⬇
Start on the note C (1st interval)
-Step(1) Whole step:
We need to go a Whole step to the right. A whole step apart from C is D.
Now on note D. (2nd interval)
-Step(2) Whole step:
We need another Whole step to the right. A whole step apart from D is E.
Now on the E note. (3rd interval)
-Step(3) Semitone:
We need to move a Semitone to the right. A semitone from E is F.
Now on the F note. (4th interval)
-Step(4) Whole step:
We need a (4)Whole step. A whole step from F is G.
Now on the G note. (5th interval)
-Step(5) Whole step:
We need another (5)Whole step. A whole step from G is A.
Now on the A note. (6th interval)
-Step(6) Whole step:
We need a (6)Whole step. A whole step from A is B.
Now on the B note. (7th interval)
-Step(7) Semitone:
We need a (7)Semitone. A semitone from B takes us back to C.
Finally back on the C key. (the 8th interval [or 1st])
Quick Review.
What it visually looks like.
Relation?
These are the collections of notes that make up the C Major Scale.
You don’t have to only go up on the scale, it can be either ascending or descending. As long as you only play these notes:
C, D, E, F, G, A, B.
You remain in the key of C Major.
This is a lot of information to take in!
Ultimately, if you remember the steps of building a major scale, you can apply the pattern to another root note to create its major scale.
What can we do with the major scale?
The Major Scale is widely used to create a lot of popular songs that you hear in western music. It is widely used in Pop Music if that makes more sense.
This scale is important because you can create so much music with it.
Practice it because, when you learn this scale, you too will be able to create melodies by just messing around with this scale. You can write a full song with just this scale.
Now you can write music in a musical key of your choice.
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