The Major Scale

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A major scale is comprised of 7 individual notes and has the interval pattern, "T T S T T T S", where T represents a tone, and S a semitone. A C major scale is the simplest major scale on a piano, as it is comprised of the white keys. We shall therefore use the C major scale to clarify the concept of the major scale.

Figure 20 shows a C major scale. As it is a C major scale this scale starts and finishes on a C, so this is called the "Base Note". The next note is a tone above the base note, i.e. a whole step above, which in this case is a D. The note above the D is a tone above it again, and is therefore an E. Then an F as it is a semitone above E, and so on and so forth until the scale is complete.

As all major scales have the same interval pattern it is easy to compile other major scales. For example we could compile the E major scale as shown in figure 21.

For the E major scale we would start from the E, i.e. the base note, and follow the same interval pattern as before (TTSTTTS). The red keys in figure 21 show 1 octave of the E major scale, and the blue keys represent notes in other octaves.

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