The Major Scale

Introduction

If you’re sick and tired of the incessant blues licks that come out of your fingers, or if you want to improvise or compose, learning about modes is a really good idea.

I realise that many of you don’t play the guitar, so I’ll try to make this as generic as possible for all instruments, using the piano keyboard for examples. For those of you who do play the guitar though, I have put together a handout that I give to my students. Click here to download it.  It opens with Microsoft Excel. Make sure you save this file to your computer and print it off so you can write on the page.

The Major Scale - you can play it here: or click here to download it.

To begin to understand what the modes are, you must know about the Major Scale.  Simply put, a scale is a series of notes played one after the other to create a mood or colour. Sit at a piano and play a C note (the white key that is directly to the left of the two black keys). To play the C Major Scale, play the C note, and then the next seven white keys moving to the right. The names of these notes are very important to know, so refer to the diagram below:

Use a pencil and write the letter names of the notes on the white keys of the piano. As you play the scale, say (or even better, SING!) the name of each note. For guitarists and bassists, refer to the page you downloaded from my website called “The C Major Scale” and say the names of the notes as you work through the C Major Scale running up one string (the 2nd string for guitar, and the 3rd string for bass). Once you are comfortable with moving up and down the one string, try playing the scale in the first and second positions. Remember to say the names of the notes (with your outside voice, not just in your head) as you play through the scale. This scale should be a very familiar sound for you – all Western music is based on the major scale.

The major scale is constructed using two different intervals: 
            - The Tone or Whole Step (a distance of 2 frets on the guitar), and;
            - The Semitone or Half Step (a distance of 1 fret).

Order of Tones and Semitones for the Major Scale

The pattern of Tones and Semitones for every Major Scale is:

Tone-Tone-Semitone-Tone-Tone-Tone-Semitone. 

Say it a few times until you have it memorized: TTSTTTS, TTSTTTS, TTSTTTS… (Actually saying stuff like this out loud will help you to internalize it faster.) What this means is that the distance from C to D is a Tone (2 frets for you guitar players), from D to E is a Tone, from E to F is a Semitone (or 1 fret). Remember that the terms Tone and Semitone refer to the distance between two notes.

Spend a day or two really working on the C Major Scale before you move on to the next article.

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