subject: Guitar Lesson -- Constructing Major Scales [print this page] Almost all music is played in what are called "keys". Having a basic knowledge of how to construct major scales is the starting point in understanding them.
What is a key anyway? Well, there are major keys and there are minor keys. Because minor keys can be said to come from major keys, we will discuss major keys in this article.
The starting point of a major key is a major scale, and like just about anything else in music it has a formula:
1 + 1 + 1/2 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1/2
This is what is called a "step" formula, and it defines the distances or numeric intervals between each note in the scale.
To construct, or make a major scale,start with the letter name of the scale you are trying to make. To start with, let's start with the letter "C". This first letter is not only the starting point of the scale, it is actually the key name.Then just go up the musical alphabet until you reach the starting point again.
C D E F G A B C
But we're not done yet. There are rules to making these things:
1. You must use every letter of the musical alphabet
2. You must use the formula
3. You must not mix sharps and flats if any exist
Let's put up the Chromatic Scale so that we can see the 1/2 step distances from note to note:
A A#/Bb B C C#/Db D D#/Eb E F F#/Gb G G#/Ab A
Okay, so we followed rule number one so far, but now we have to apply rule number 2, and that's the step formula. Again, it's 1 +1 + 1/2 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1/2
We do this by asking ourselves what is the numeric step distance between each note. Starting from the first note C, and using the formula, the question is: "What is 1 step higher than C"?
C D
Now we ask: "What's 1 step higher than D"?
C D E
Moving on with the formula, we now need a 1/2 step above E.
C D E F
1 step above F:
C D E F G
1 step above G:
C D E F G A
1 step above A:
C D E F G A B
Lastly, we need 1/2 step above B:
C D E F G A B C
So, this is the C major scale.
Let's do another scale -- The G major scale.
Rule number 1 -- Use every letter:
G A B C D E F G
Rule number 2 - use the formula:
G -> 1 step to A -> 1 step to B -> 1/2 step to C -> 1 step to D -> 1 step to E -> 1 step to F# -> 1/2 step to G
G A B C D E F# G
Note that we used an F# here and not a Gb. Why? Because we could not break rule number 1 which demands that we use every letter.
Let's try another scale -- this time F.
Rule number 1:
F G A B C D E F
Now we use the formula. Because we have already used every letter, the only thing left to decide is whether or not there are any sharps OR flats in this thing
F -> 1 step to G -> 1 step to A -> 1/2 step to Bb -> 1 step to C -> 1 step to D -> 1 step to E -> 1/2 step to F
F G A Bb C D E F
Note the Bb and NOT an A#. WE can never violate rule number 1.
What you need to do (for homework) is to construct the following scales on your own:
C, G, D, A, E, F, Bb, Eb, Ab
These are the keys mostly used in popular music. But when you're done with those, you may as well do these as well:
B, F#, Db, Gb
You can do this. Just remember the 3 rules, and don't break them. You can also see that knowing and understanding the Chromatic Scale also helps. If you have this scale memorized, you will be able in a short while to construct major scales in your head. That's the point you want to get to.
If you understand major scales, and the Chromatic Scale, it's only a short leap from there to understand major and minor keys.
