Scales

All scales and chords are simply patterns of intervals, and intervals are simply the distances between notes. They are measured in "steps." The distance between adjacent white and black keys on the piano, or adjacent frets on the guitar, is one half-step. The distance between two white keys separated by a black key, or two frets separated by another, is a whole step. All intervals have names corresponding to the distance between the notes in them.

The following musical example shows intervals as distances from middle C to notes above it, and between notes selected at random.

The names for intervals wider than an octave are found by moving the upper note down an octave and adding the resultant interval to the number seven (not eight). For example, the interval from middle C to Db above high C would be a minor 9th (7 plus a minor 2nd).

These are the only intervals normally referred to in the octave-plus range; the other notes above an octave — 10th, 12th, and 14th — duplicate notes already present as the 3rd, 5th, or 7th in most chords with members (notes) more than an octave above their roots. It's also worth noting that there is more than one way to refer to many of these intervals. Beyond the octave, it's probably more common to refer to intervals containing sharped or flatted notes as "sharp" or "flat" rather than "augmented" or "minor." So, for example, a flat 9th (or [??]9, or flatted 9th) is the same as a minor 9th, and a sharp 9th (or #9) is the same as an augmented 9th.

Don't be frightened by all of these intervals; their names are simply a convenient form of musical shorthand which musicians use to make communicating with each other easier. If you spend much time with other musicians, you'll get used to hearing and using these interval names in short order.

Major Scales

The most familiar scale is the major scale, do-re-mi-fa-sol-la-ti-do. The easiest way to the think of the major scale (C major in this case) is as the white keys of the piano, with the scale beginning and ending on C.

The distances between the notes in the C major scale are not equal. The notes E and F (the third and fourth degrees — notes — of the scale) and B and C (seventh and first degrees) are adjacent on the piano, while all of the other notes in the scale have a black key between them. The distance from E to F and from B to C is a half-step, or minor 2nd; the distance between the other notes in the scale is a whole step, or major 2nd.

All other major scales have the same arrangement of whole steps and half-steps as the C major scale. Here are two examples, the D major and E[??] major scales:

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At this point you might be wondering how you can figure out where the major scale starts in various key signatures. The easiest way in sharp key signatures is to remember that the major scale starts a half-step above the last sharp (the sharp farthest to the right). So, for example, when the last sharp is C#, the key is D major, and when the last sharp is G#, the key is A major.

The procedure is almost as simple with flat key signatures. When only one flat is present in the key signature, that key signature is F major — in other words, the major scale begins and ends on F. When more than one flat is present, the key signature is that of the next-to-the-last flat to the right. So,