The Major Scale

When it comes to understanding theory, the Major Scale is our foundation.  Not only is the major scale the most commonly used scale in music, but it’s also the template that we use to analyze and understand all other scales.  As we’ll see in a later lesson, understanding the major scale is also crucial for understanding how we create chords and chord progressions.   

The Major Scale is a 7-note Scale, meaning we have 7 unique notes, and we conveniently label these notes from 1 through 7.  

The intervallic formula is known as WHOLE-WHOLE-HALF-WHOLE-WHOLE-WHOLE- HALF but it’s easier to see it like this:

Similarly to the chromatic scale (our musical alphabet), once we play through each note, the scale starts over again at the end.

Like any other scale, we can start our formula off any note, thus creating a major scale in the key of that note.

Let’s see how the formula works over the musical alphabet to create a C Major scale:

As seen above, it just so happens that the whole steps and half steps in the C Major scale skip over all the Sharp and Flat notes, creating a scale that’s very easy to read for most people. C Major is the only Major key with no sharps or flats. 

Again, you can use this formula to create a major scale on ANY note, but each time, the major scale will be unique!  In other words, no two major scales have exactly the same 7 notes; we need at least one different note for each scale.

Let’s try creating a scale off the note G. 

We have built a G-Major scale, and along with that, we have a new note.  The 7th note is an F# that was not present in our C Major scale.  There is only one note difference between the keys of C Major and G Major.  G Major has just this one sharp, and it’s the only key to have one sharp.

Let’s try creating a scale in the key of (starting on) E.

The E Major scale is quite a bit different.  The formula has given us four sharps, and again, E Major is the only key with four sharps.  We can see these notes on the 2nd, 3rd, 6th, and 7th degrees of the scale.  

Below, I have created a chart showing the major scale built off each note of our 12-note musical alphabet. Again, it’s the same intervallic formula, but depending on the note we start with, we get a unique 7-note scale.