The major scale is the very foundation of music as we know it. Nearly every other scale we will ever use may be seen as either a mode of the major scale, or an alteration of it.
Before proceeding any further, be sure that you have read, understood, and practiced the material found in my blog entitled “The ABC’s of Music.”
The Major Scale is made by beginning from one of the notes, and then proceeding in alphabetical order until you reach that note again. In other words, one ‘octave.’
But wait, there’s more.
The notes must be separated by a very specific sequence of whole steps and half steps.
That sequence is as follows:
Whole step, whole step, half step,
whole step, whole step, whole step, half step. (Memorize this. It’s important.)
So, if we just use numbers to represent the notes, with 1 being the tonic (or root),
we will get this:
w w h w w w h
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1(8)
w=whole step
h= half step
(Just a caveat, some teachers explain the major scale using ‘tetrachords.’
For simplicity’s sake, I’m not doing that here. If you are curious, may ask about it during your lesson.)
Anyway, let’s move on to an easy exercise which will help you to visualize this, as well as learn the major scale on every string.
Begin by picking the open E string (either one.) For our exercise, this will be note number one (the ‘root’ or ‘tonic.’)
Next, go up a whole step. Play the second fret on the E string. This is note number two.
Now go up another whole step and play the fourth fret on the E string. This is note number three.
Next, go up a half step and play the fifth fret of the E string. This is note number four.
Now go up a whole step and play the seventh fret on the E string. This is note number five.
Next, go up another whole step and play the ninth fret on the E string. This is note number six.
Now go up a whole step and play the eleventh fret on the E string. This is note number seven. (Almost done!)
Finally, go up a half step and play the twelfth fret on the E string. This brings us back to our original note, which is note number one ( also called note number eight, or the ‘octave.’)
So simple, right?
This exercise works on every string.
Once you are familiar with the pattern, you should practice it on every string.
This is a great exercise to use as part of your daily warm ups.
Obviously, there is a lot further that we can go with this, and the purpose of this exercise is simply to teach you how the scale is constructed and to familiarize you with it. During your lessons we will learn more about how to use the major scale to make music.
We will also learn how to use this scale to easily learn all of the chords in every key, but that is a subject for a future blog.
Until then, have fun with this!
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