The Traditional Major Scale Shapes
7 Shapes, 7 Pieces of a Puzzle that Cover the Fretboard
The Major Scale has 7 Shapes that fit together like a Jigsaw Puzzle that cover the entire fretboard. Each shape shares a “wall” with the shape on either side of it. There are no empty spots on the fretboard; once you’ve got to the end of the 7 Shapes of the Major Scale, they just start right back over again!
You might notice that this text above and the idea for diagram below are EXACTLY the same as both the Minor Pentatonic AND Major Pentatonic pages on this site. (Lazy or Efficient?)… That’s because all scales work like jigsaw puzzles that fit together in exactly the same way. Very convenient!
NOTE: For this page we are looking at how each shape works RELATIVE to the Major Scale. This is a VERY IMPORTANT point. Even though I’ve listed the Modal names for each shape, the numbers within the diagrams below relate to Ionian or the parent Major key. If this is confusing, please check out Relative VS. Parallel.
NOTE: As we learned in “There’s More Than One Shape” Lesson, there are also different fingerings and ways to play the scales below. In fact, very often I would even prefer to use a different shape. These shapes below are simply most traditional and academic way to learn these shapes and so worth studying!
