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The Major scale
The theory behind it
In western music, scales are the building blocks of harmony and melody, and at the center of this all lies the Major scale. The Major scale is made up of 7 notes and can also be called Ionian scale/mode; if you have read the lesson on modes you will already know why.
Construction of a Major scale
If you start on any given note, using the following "formula" will give you the equivalent Major scale:
Tone - Tone - Semitone - Tone - Tone - Tone - Semitone
or Whole - Whole - Half - Whole - Whole - Whole - Half
What this means is that, the 1st note needs to be a Tone apart from the 2nd note, the 2nd note needs to be a Tone apart from the 3rd note, the 3rd note a Semitone apart from the 4th note etc. Here is an example in the key of C Major:
| C | D | E | F | G | A | B | C | |||||||
| Tone | Tone | Semitone | Tone | Tone | Tone | Semitone |
or in notation:
Major scales with Key Signatures
The C Major scale is the only Major scale which contains no sharp or flat notes, i.e. it can be played using just the white keys on a piano, starting and ending on a C. Every other Major scale has a key signature which indicates which notes in the scale will be sharpened or flattened; this is shown in the beginning of the staff:
In this case, the key signature is an F#, which is the only sharpened note needed to make the G Major scale. By adding these sharps or flats, the formula of the Major scale shown above is preserved. For example, if we played the above G Major scale, without sharpening the F, the distance between the 6th note (E) and 7th note (F) would be a Semitone and the distance between the 7th (F) and the Octave (G) would be a Tone, which would not follow the Major scale formula.
The sharps and flats, though, are not added in any order as desired. The order that the sharps are added is: F C G D A E B and the order of the flats is B E A D G C F (the sharps order but reversed.) Here is a list of all the Major scales and their corresponding sharps or flats in order of number of sharps and number of flats:
| Scale | Sharps/Flats |
| C Major | - |
| G Major | F# |
| D Major | F#, C# |
| A Major | F#, C#, G# |
| E Major | F#, C#, G#, D# |
| B Major | F#, C#, G#, D#, A# |
| F# Major | F#, C#, G#, D#, A#, E# |
| C# Major | F#, C#, G#, D#, A#, E#, B# |
| Scales with flats | |
| F Major | Bb |
| Bb Major | Bb, Eb |
| Eb Major | Bb, Eb, Ab |
| Ab Major | Bb, Eb, Ab, Db |
| Db Major | Bb, Eb, Ab, Db, Gb |
| Gb Major | Bb, Eb, Ab, Db, Gb, Cb |
| Cb Major | Bb, Eb, Ab, Db, Gb, Cb, Fb |
Note: C# Major is the enharmonic equivalent of Dd Major (C# = Db) so usually pieces are thought of as being in the key of Db Major rather than C# Major, because of the less note alterations, i.e. C# Major has 7 sharps whereas Db Major has 5 flats. Similarly Cb Major (7 flats) is often thought of as B Major (5 sharps.)
Remembering Key Signatures
You can either memorize the key signatures (best way) or use this little trick to think about them:
The root note of a Major scale with sharps is the note a semitone above the last sharp. For example, what is the scale with F# and C#? A semitone above C# is D, so the scale is D Major.
For the scales with flats, the root note is the key signature note before the last flat. For example, which scale has Bb, Eb and Ab? The note before the last flat is Eb, so Eb Major is the scale with three flats in its key signature.
Names of scale degrees
All seven of the notes in a Major scale have names, which are often used in conversations about theory or harmony, so they are useful but not essential to know. Here they are:
| Note degree | Name |
| 1 | Tonic |
| 2 | Supertonic |
| 3 | Mediant |
| 4 | Subdominant |
| 5 | Dominant |
| 6 | Submediant |
| 7 | Leading note (Leading tone) |
| 8 (Octave) | Tonic |