Scales

A scale is a set of notes arranged in order of pitch inside one octave, going up or coming down. The first note is the home note (the tonic): melodies made from the scale tend to come back and rest on it.

An octave is the distance from one note to the next note with the same name. Its higher note vibrates exactly twice as fast: A at 440 Hz and the next A at 880 Hz. Western music divides the octave into twelve equal half steps, and every scale here chooses some of those twelve.

On a piano, a half step is the move to the very next key. On a guitar, ukulele or charango it is one fret. Two half steps make a whole step.

The white keys carry the letters C D E F G A B. Most neighbors are a whole step apart, with a black key between them. E to F and B to C have no black key between them: they are half steps. That is why a scale can be written as a pattern of steps.

The staff has five lines and four spaces, counted from the bottom. Each line and space is one letter, so the notes climb line, space, line, space. When a note goes above or below the staff, short ledger lines carry the staff on for it.

The treble clef curls round the second line and marks it G: the lines are E G B D F and the spaces F A C E. The bass clef puts its two dots round the fourth line and marks it F: the lines are G B D F A and the spaces A C E G. This page writes bass scales in bass clef.

Middle C sits on one ledger line between the two staffs; it is called C4, and the number goes up by one at every C. A sharp, flat or natural sign in the music lasts until the end of the bar.

The major scale follows one pattern from any starting note: whole, whole, half, whole, whole, whole, half. From C it uses only the white keys: C D E F G A B C.

Look at it as two groups of four notes joined by a whole step. C D E F and G A B C both go whole, whole, half. Start on G and the pattern needs one sharp, F♯, to keep its shape.

Each note of a scale is a degree, counted from the home note: 1, 2, 3 and so on. Musicians also name them:

• 1 tonic, the home note
• 2 supertonic, just above the tonic
• 3 mediant, halfway from tonic to dominant
• 4 subdominant, as far below the tonic as the dominant is above
• 5 dominant, second in importance to the tonic
• 6 submediant, a third below the tonic, as the mediant is a third above
• 7 leading tone, a half step below home and pulling up to it. In natural minor the seventh is a whole step below home and is called the subtonic.

A flat or sharp before a number, like ♭3, means that degree is a half step lower or higher than in the major scale.

Natural minor goes whole, half, whole, whole, half, whole, whole. Compared with major it has a lowered third, sixth and seventh: 1 2 ♭3 4 5 ♭6 ♭7.

Harmonic minor raises the seventh by a half step, so the scale has a leading tone and the chord on the fifth note becomes major. Between the sixth and seventh notes it leaves a gap of a step and a half, an augmented second, which sounds like a minor third (A♭ to B in C minor).

Melodic minor raises the sixth as well, to smooth that gap. In classical music it is used this way going up, where the raised notes lead up to home, and comes down as natural minor. Jazz musicians use the raised form in both directions.

All three are the same key and share one key signature; the raised notes are written as accidentals in the music.

Every major scale shares its notes with a natural minor scale that starts on its sixth note. C major and A minor use the same seven notes; they are relative keys and have the same key signature.

Major and minor scales on the same home note, like C major and C minor, are parallel. They share the tonic but not all the notes. The circle of fifths shows every relative pair and its key signature.

Play the notes of C major from D to D and you get D Dorian; from E to E, E Phrygian; and so on round all seven notes. The notes stay the same; the home note moves, and with it the sound.

Three modes have a major third and sound major: Lydian (♯4), Ionian and Mixolydian (♭7). Four have a minor third and sound minor: Dorian (♭3, ♭7), Aeolian (♭3, ♭6, ♭7), Phrygian (adds ♭2) and Locrian (adds ♭5). In that order they run from brightest to darkest. The note that differs from major or natural minor is the one to lean on to hear the mode.

In a seven-note scale each letter appears once. D major is written D E F♯ G A B C♯, not with G♭: the F slot needs a raised F, because G is already used. That is why the same key on the piano can have two names, and why this page sometimes writes double sharps (𝄪) or double flats (𝄫).

The sharps or flats a major scale needs become its key signature, written once at the start of each line of music.

Turn an interval upside down by moving its lower note up an octave. The numbers of an interval and its inversion always add up to nine: a third becomes a sixth, a second a seventh. Major becomes minor and minor becomes major; perfect stays perfect; augmented becomes diminished and diminished becomes augmented.

The intervals from the home note give each scale its character. Major has a major third; minor has a minor third. That one note is the first thing the ear hears.

Take any note of a scale, skip one, take the next, skip one, take the next: you have a triad. Do it from every degree and you have the chords of the key. In major they run major, minor, minor, major, major, minor, diminished: in C, C Dm Em F G Am B°.

Roman numerals name them by degree, capitals for major and small letters for minor: I ii iii IV V vi vii°. The chords I, IV and V carry a great many songs. See them in every key on Chord progressions.

Not every tradition divides the octave into twelve equal steps. Arabic and Turkish maqam music uses notes that fall between the piano keys. Indonesian gamelan tunes its slendro and pelog scales in its own way, and tunings differ from one ensemble to the next. Indian raga is a whole melodic grammar, not only a set of notes.

The scales here with names from those traditions are the closest twelve-note versions. They are a door into that music, not the whole of it.

• Start with the major and the minor pentatonic: five notes, no half steps, nothing that sounds wrong.
• Play slowly with a steady click, one note to each beat, on the tempo page. Speed comes from playing evenly, not from hurrying.
• Turn on Drone and sing the scale over the home note, saying the degree numbers. Your ear learns how each degree feels against home.
• Learn one octave in one place on the neck, then two octaves, then the same scale along a single string.
• Make up short tunes with it. A scale becomes music when it carries words.