Nov 03 2008
Introduction to major scales
Major scales are easy to play because their notes correspond to the familiar “Do-Re-Mi-Fa-So-La-Ti-Do” mu sic syllables. A major scale is made up of seven distint notes with different letter names and the first note is repeated an octave higher (which brings us back to Doe!). Depending on which scale you are in, the order and letters of the notes will be different, but the name of the note within the scale is the same.
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- 1st – Tonic- key note - DO
- 2nd – Supertonic - RE
- 3rd – Mediant - MI
- 4th – Subdominant - FA
- 5th – Dominant - SO
- 6th – Submediant - LA
- 7th – Leading Tone (or Leading Note) - TI
- 8th – Tonic ( or Octave ) - DO
Doe is the root note. The root note determines the key of the scale. It is helpful to think of the names as positions or ranks held by each note. When the root note changes the configuration of the 2nd to 7th notes change. A B flat could go from the 4rth Subdominant position (Fa) over to the leading tone position (Ti).
C Major Scale -C - D - E - F - G - A - B - C
C major or just C is an important benchmark to stringed instruments. C is the simplest scale to play on a piano because it doesn’t require any sharps or flats meaning only the white keys are played. It is equally important to the guitar as you will no doubt have noticed all of the open string notes on a standard tuned guitar fall in the C major scale.
guitar string:|---3-1---4-5-2---|
note on C scale:|-C-D-E-F-G-A-B-C-|
Here is a simple guitar exercise that uses notes in the C major scale in a pattern that covers all six strings.
E|------------------------------0-1-3--| B|------------------------0-1-3--------| G|--------------------0-2--------------| D|--------------0-2-3------------------| A|--------0-2-3------------------------| E|--0-1-3------------------------------|
Practice this pattern slowly at first. Start by going through it forwards then backwards striking the first and last notes twice. Then attempt to speed it up and keep doing that until you have it.
Any comments, questions, corrections and suggestions are welcome!
