Lesson 6 – What is a Scale? | Major Scales and Minor Scales | How to build Major Scales

In this lesson, we’re going to learn about Scales, Major Scales, Minor Scales and how to build Major Scales. It is very important that you know all the 12 Major Scales because a lot of songs are based on the Major Scale i.e. there are songs that use most of the notes or all of the notes of the Major Scale. Before I talk about how to build a Major Scale, let me first define what a Scale is. A Musical Scale is a group of musical notes that are ordered by pitch. A scale that is ordered by increasing pitch is known as an ascending scale and a scale that is ordered by decreasing pitch is known as a descending scale. We have different types of scales. Moreover, we have Major and Minor Scales. A Major Scale is made up of the same notes irregardless of whether it is played in an ascending way or a descending way i.e. a Major Scale can be played in an ascending and in a descending way with the same musical notes.

Before I talk about how to build a Major Scale, there are 2 musical intervals that you need to know. What is a musical interval? A musical interval is the difference or distance in pitch between 2 musical notes. If you move from one musical note to the next musical note on the left or to the right of the Piano, then that means that you have moved by a half step (a half step is also known as a semitone). If you move by 2 half steps to the right or to the left of the Piano i.e. if you skip one musical note and you move to the note that is after the note that you skipped (e.g. if you move from the note C to the note D), then that means that you have moved by a whole step (a whole step is also known as a whole tone).

Now let me talk about how to build a Major Scale. You can build a Major Scale for each of the 12 musical notes.

The musical note that you want to build a Major Scale for will be the first note of that particular Major Scale and that Major Scale will also be named with the name of its first musical note. So, if we want to build a Major Scale for the note C, the first note of the Major Scale will be the note C and the Major Scale will be known as the C Major Scale.

The 2nd note of a Major Scale will be the note that is a whole step away on the right of the first note of that Major Scale. So, in the C Major Scale, the note that is a whole step away from the note C on the right is the note D.

The 3rd note of a Major Scale will be the note that is a whole step away on the right of the 2nd note of that Major Scale. So, in the C Major Scale, the note that is a whole step away from the note D on the right is the note E.

The 4th note of a Major Scale will be the note that is a half step away on the right of the 3rd note of that Major Scale. So, in the C Major Scale, the note that is a half step away from the note E on the right is the note F.

The 5th note of a Major Scale will be the note that is a whole step away on the right of the 4th note of that Major Scale. So, in the C Major Scale, the note that is a whole step away from the note F on the right is the note G.

The 6th note of a Major Scale will be the note that is a whole step away on the right of the 5th note of that Major Scale. So, in the C Major Scale, the note that is a whole step away from the note G on the right is the note A.

The 7th note of a Major Scale will be the note that is a whole step away on the right of the 6th note of that Major Scale. So, in the C Major Scale, the note that is a whole step away from the note A on the right is the note B.

The 8th note of a Major Scale will be the note that is a half step away on the right of the 7th note of that Major Scale. So, in the C Major Scale, the note that is a half step away from the note B on the right is the note C.

So, the musical notes of the C Major Scale are: C , D , E , F , G , A , B , C

The musical intervals between the notes of a Major Scale looks like this:

Whole Step , Whole Step , Half Step , Whole Step , Whole Step , Whole Step , Half Step

Please don’t forget that a Whole Step can also be called a Whole Tone. Also, a Half Step can also be called a Semitone.

So, whenever you want to build a Major Scale for any musical note, all you need to do is to move by the musical intervals that I’ve listed above from the musical note that you want to build a Major Scale for. Just to remind you, a Major Scale can be played in an ascending and in a descending way i.e. a Major Scale can be played in an ascending and in a descending way with the same musical notes. 

So, the musical formula for building a Major Scale is:

Whole Step , Whole Step , Half Step , Whole Step , Whole Step , Whole Step , Half Step

If you were to build a Major Scale for each of the 12 musical notes, this is what you would get:

C Major Scale

Note 1: C 

Note 2: D 

Note 3: E 

Note 4: F 

Note 5: G 

Note 6: A 

Note 7: B 

Note 8: C 

C# Major Scale

Note 1: C# 

Note 2: D# 

Note 3: E# 

Note 4: F# 

Note 5: G# 

Note 6: A# 

Note 7: B# 

Note 8: C#

D Major Scale 

Note 1: D 

Note 2: E 

Note 3: F# 

Note 4: G

Note 5: A 

Note 6: B 

Note 7: C# 

Note 8: D

E flat Major Scale 

Note 1: E flat 

Note 2: F 

Note 3: G 

Note 4: A flat 

Note 5: B flat 

Note 6: C 

Note 7: D 

Note 8: E flat

E Major Scale 

Note 1: E 

Note 2: F# 

Note 3: G#

Note 4: A 

Note 5: B 

Note 6: C# 

Note 7: D# 

Note 8: E

F Major Scale 

Note 1: F 

Note 2: G 

Note 3: A 

Note 4: B flat 

Note 5: C 

Note 6: D 

Note 7: E 

Note 8: F

F# Major Scale 

Note 1: F# 

Note 2: G# 

Note 3: A# 

Note 4: B 

Note 5: C# 

Note 6: D# 

Note 7: E# 

Note 8: F#

G Major Scale 

Note 1: G 

Note 2: A 

Note 3: B 

Note 4: C 

Note 5: D 

Note 6: E 

Note 7: F# 

Note 8: G

A flat Major Scale 

Note 1: A flat 

Note 2: B flat 

Note 3: C 

Note 4: D flat 

Note 5: E flat 

Note 6: F 

Note 7: G 

Note 8: A flat

A Major Scale 

Note 1: A 

Note 2: B 

Note 3: C# 

Note 4: D 

Note 5: E 

Note 6: F# 

Note 7: G# 

Note 8: A

B flat Major Scale 

Note 1: B flat 

Note 2: C 

Note 3: D 

Note 4: E flat 

Note 5: F 

Note 6: G 

Note 7: A 

Note 8: B flat

B Major Scale 

Note 1: B 

Note 2: C# 

Note 3: D# 

Note 4: E 

Note 5: F# 

Note 6: G# 

Note 7: A# 

Note 8: B

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