The Major Scale
Seven notes, and the ruler the rest of theory is measured against. Every other scale on this site gets described as this one with something changed, which is the only reason the numbers in all those formulas mean anything.
- 7 notes
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
- none, this is the reference
which styles use it
- Pop
- Rock & folk
- Country
- Gospel
How it is built
Two half steps and five whole steps, in a fixed order: whole, whole, half, whole, whole, whole, half. Those two half steps are what give the scale its shape. Start anywhere on a keyboard and follow that pattern and you have a major scale in that key. On the white keys it starts on C, which is why C major is where everyone begins.
Bright, open and finished. It is the sound most listeners hear as normal, which makes it hard to describe and easy to recognise.
Where to use it
Anywhere you want the music to sound settled. In practice that is most pop, rock, country, gospel and folk. The scale is also the reference for reading: a key signature tells you which major scale a piece is built on.
The chords that go with it
Build a chord on each degree and you get the seven diatonic chords: major, minor, minor, major, major, minor, diminished. That pattern is identical in every major key, which is the whole point of thinking in numbers rather than note names.
What it gets confused with
With its relative minor, which uses exactly the same seven notes starting from the sixth degree. Same keys, different home, completely different mood.