The major scale
The major scale is seven notes climbing from a home note in a fixed pattern of steps: whole, whole, half, whole, whole, whole, half. In C it is C, D, E, F, G, A and B, the white keys of a piano, and it is the bright-sounding scale most pop melodies and chords are drawn from. Pick a key and play it, then hear a hook that uses nothing else.
Hear the scale
- W
- W
- H
- W
- W
- W
- H
Tap any note to hear it. W is a whole step (two keys on a piano), H a half step (the very next key); the numbers are the scale degrees.
A hook from these seven notes
- IC
- VG
- viAm
- IVF
Every row of the grid is a note of the scale above, and nothing else is used. Bars 1 to 3 repeat one rhythm on the way down the chords; bar 4 turns and leaves the last note hanging, so the loop wants to start again.
Learn harmony by ear
Mood without music theory. The harmony chapter builds the key, major and minor, chords and home and away by ear. Unit 1 is free with a Google sign-in.
Pick up where you left off
Carry on with Unit 1; the key and major and minor come in Unit 4: Harmony.
The pattern: whole and half steps
A half step is the smallest move in Western music: from one key on a piano to the very next, black or white. A whole step is two half steps. The major scale is always the same chain of them: whole, whole, half, whole, whole, whole, half, which lands you back on the home note an octave up.
The two half steps sit between the 3rd and 4th notes and between the 7th and the octave. In C those are E to F and B to C, the two places where white keys have no black key between them, which is why C major needs no sharps or flats. Tap E then F in the strip above, then C then D, and you hear the difference.
Start the same chain on any other note and you get that key’s major scale. Start it on G and the seventh note has to be F♯ to keep the half step at the top; start it on F and the fourth has to be B♭. That is all a key signature is.
The major scale in every key
Each scale uses every letter once, so the notes are spelled with sharps or with flats, never a mix. The key selector at the top plays any of them.
| Key | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | Signature |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| C major | C | D | E | F | G | A | B | no sharps or flats |
| G major | G | A | B | C | D | E | F♯ | one sharp |
| D major | D | E | F♯ | G | A | B | C♯ | two sharps |
| A major | A | B | C♯ | D | E | F♯ | G♯ | three sharps |
| E major | E | F♯ | G♯ | A | B | C♯ | D♯ | four sharps |
| B major | B | C♯ | D♯ | E | F♯ | G♯ | A♯ | five sharps |
| F♯ major | F♯ | G♯ | A♯ | B | C♯ | D♯ | E♯ | six sharps |
| D♭ major | D♭ | E♭ | F | G♭ | A♭ | B♭ | C | five flats |
| A♭ major | A♭ | B♭ | C | D♭ | E♭ | F | G | four flats |
| E♭ major | E♭ | F | G | A♭ | B♭ | C | D | three flats |
| B♭ major | B♭ | C | D | E♭ | F | G | A | two flats |
| F major | F | G | A | B♭ | C | D | E | one flat |
Numbers instead of letters
Musicians often count the notes instead of naming them: 1 is home, 2 the next note up, and so on to 7. These scale degrees work in every key, so “3 to 1” means E to C in C major and B to G in G major. The hook above is written in degrees, which is why it moves to any key without changing shape.
- 1, the tonic, home: C in C
- 2, the second: D in C
- 3, the third: E in C
- 4, the fourth: F in C
- 5, the fifth: G in C
- 6, the sixth: A in C
- 7, the seventh, the leading note: B in C
Build a chord on each degree from the scale’s own notes and you get the seven chords of the key, the Roman numerals of every chord progression: in C, C, Dm, Em, F, G, Am, B°. The hook’s chords, I, V, vi and IV, are four of them.
Why it sounds bright
The 3rd note sits four half steps above home, a major third, and that interval is most of what the ear hears as bright or settled. The natural minor scale has a third only three half steps up, plus a lower 6th and 7th; the minor scale page plays one loop both ways so you can hear exactly that difference.
The 7th note is a half step under home, so it leans upward and makes the octave feel like arriving. Leave out the 4th and 7th, the two notes that sit a half step from a neighbour, and you have the major pentatonic, the five notes behind countless riffs.
To go further, the scale finder shows any scale in any key, the piano lets you play these notes yourself, and the chord progression generator builds progressions from a key’s chords.