The Major Scale

We're now entering the part of the course about scales and keys. This is where the twelve rows of the piano roll, which you know well by now, start forming families. The first family we'll study is the major scale. It may not be the one you'll use most in trap or techno, but it's the reference point: every other scale in this part is described in relation to it.

A melody on the white keys

Before we name anything, listen. The next figure holds a short two-bar melody, over a bass that holds the note C3. Every note in the melody comes from the white keys, and the last one is C4.

You heard it: nothing rubs, the melody sounds clear, almost like a nursery rhyme, and the last note feels like you've safely arrived. That clarity is the color of the major scale. People often describe it as bright, happy or serene. Those words are vague, but your ear already knows what they mean.

Seven notes and a pattern of distances

Now play the white keys in order, from C4 to C5. You get the C major scale: C, D, E, F, G, A, B, then C again, one octave higher. That's seven different notes; the eighth is just the first one repeated.

What matters isn't the list of notes but the distances between them. Count the rows on the grid. From C to D, you skip one row, the one for C♯: that's a whole step. From D to E, another whole step. But from E to F, there's no black key in between: that's a half step. If you keep going to the end, you get the complete pattern of the major scale: whole, whole, half, whole, whole, whole, half.

Add it up: two, plus two, plus one, plus two, plus two, plus two, plus one makes twelve half steps, exactly one octave. So the pattern goes all the way around the twelve rows while keeping only seven of them. The two half steps always fall in the same places: between the third and fourth notes, and between the seventh and eighth.

Numbering the degrees

Each note of the scale has a number, called its scale degree. In C major, C is the first degree, D the second, E the third, and so on up to B, the seventh. These numbers are more useful than note names, because they don't depend on the starting note: the third degree of a major scale is always four half steps above the first, whatever note you start on.

You'll run into these numbers all through the rest of the course. When we say a melody lands on the fifth degree, or that a chord is built on the fourth, you'll know we're talking about a place in the scale, not a specific note. The first degree even has a name of its own, the tonic; in the lesson on keys, we'll see why it plays the role of home.

The same pattern on another note

Now here's the point that will make you self-sufficient. What happens if you play the white keys starting from G3 instead of C4? Listen to the first version below, then the second, where only one note has changed.

In the first version, the next-to-last note, F, doesn't pull toward G: the scale arrives without any momentum. That's because the pattern has changed. From E to F, there's a half step, then from F to G a whole step, while the major scale asks for the opposite at that point: a whole step, then a half step to finish. To respect the pattern, you have to raise F by one row and play F♯. You get G major: G, A, B, C, D, E and F♯.

That doesn't mean the first version was wrong: it's a different color, which we'll meet again in the lesson on modes. But it's no longer a major scale. The method for building one is always the same. Put your finger on the starting note, then move along the grid following the pattern: two rows, two rows, one row, then two, two, two and one. You don't have to memorize anything; you count. The next table gives the result for a few common keys.

Notice that each scale uses all seven letters, once each. That's why we write B♭ and not A♯ in F major: the scale already has an A, so it needs a B. Your piano roll, on the other hand, often shows only one name per row. Don't worry if the names don't quite match: the row is the same, only its name changes depending on the scale.

Where its brightness comes from

Why does this scale sound so clear? Largely because of its third degree. It sits four half steps above the first note, a wide, open gap. The seventh degree plays a part too: it's only a half step below the note you're heading for, and it makes you want to go up to it. First, listen to the first and third notes together, then to two scale endings, one with B, the other with B♭.

The pair of notes sounds stable and bright. Of the two endings, the version with B seems pulled up into C, while the version with B♭ arrives more limply. Above all, remember the third degree: it's the one that changes first in the next lesson, and it's the one that flips the color.

Your first scale, built by hand

Keep this scale in mind as your reference point: in the next lesson, we'll lower three of its notes to get the minor scale, its darker sibling.