Joined: 13 Dec 2007 Lessons: 6 Karma

The Structure of Major and Minor Scales by KicknGuitar 19 Dec 2007 Views: 554

The Structure of Major and Minor Scales

This lesson assumes you know all twelve notes chromatically and understand accidentals (sharps, # and flats, b).
i.e. D, D#/Eb, E/Fb, E#/F, F#/Gb, G...

This lesson also assumes you have some basic experience with Half and Whole steps.
i.e. B to C is a Half step. F to G is a Whole step. G# to Bb is a Half step, etc.


The Major Scale: Foundation to Music

The Major scale is a specific pattern. This pattern is applied to many branches of music, especially other scales and chords.
This pattern uses "Whole Steps" (W) and "Half Steps" (H) between each interval in the scale.

Interval: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8(1)

Steps:     W W H W W W H



 W-W-H-W-W-W-H-W-W-H-W-W-W-H-W-W-H-W-W-W-H... and so on.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

1st and 2nd Intervals: a Whole step
For our first example we will use C as the first interval. From C we go up a whole step. C to C#/Db is a half step, and C# to D is another half step, giving us one whole step between C and D.
2nd and 3rd intervals: a Whole step
D to E is yet again another whole step (D,D#/Eb,E).
3rd and 4th Intervals: a Half step
E to F is a half step. Remember, E to F and B to C do not contain any space in between, thus they are a half step away from each other.

Continue this process, your results should be the following,

Interval: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8(1)

Steps:     W W H W W W H

Note:     C D E F G A B C

Side note:
The importance here is to not remember C is always the first but is always the first in the C Major Scale.
Same goes for remembering any other note with any interval. Make sure you are referring to the proper key. C may be the first in C Major, but is it really the first in E Major?

The Major Scale pattern can be used to find the notes in any Major and minor scale. In fact that is the next part of this lesson, learning the minor scale pattern.

The Minor Scale: The Relative of the Major

We already studied the major scale pattern which is what we need to find the minor scale pattern which starts on the sixth interval.

Interval: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1

Steps:     W W H W W W H W W H W W W H

From here, we merely recount our intervals,

Interval: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1

Steps:     W W H W W W H W W H W W W H

Interval:           1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

With the newly organized interval scheme, we must look over the steps,

Steps:     W H W W H W W

Interval: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

As you can see, we did not change the pattern, we merely started in a different part of the pattern. The new order W-H-W-W-H-W-W is the Minor scale pattern. Let's apply this to our C Major scale.

Our C Major scale is,

Interval: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8(1)

Steps:     W W H W W W H

Note:     C D E F G A B C

As stated from before, starting on the sixth interval gives us a minor scale. The sixth interval of the C Major scale is A. We start on A and of course, end on A,

Interval: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1 2 3 4 5

Steps:     W W H W W W H W W H W W

Note:     C D E F G A B C D E F G A

Interval:           1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

We now have what we call the "Relative minor" of C Major. Every sixth interval of any major scale gives us the relative minor of that key.

The relative of C Major is A minor.

Interval: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8(1)

Steps:     W H W W H W W

Note:     A B C D E F G A

Give this formula a try with the rest of the notes. You can check by looking at bodom's lesson on Keys found here,
http://www.all-guitar-chords.com/lesson.php?id=3

I hope you now understand Major and minor scales. Feel free to question, comment and Kvetch.
Last Edited on Dec 18, 2007.