Given To Wail 2.0 - The Mike McCready Page

Part 3: The Major Scale, and Keys

Be sure you are familiar with reading music and intervals before continuing.

Introduction

Information about the major scale and its related subjects could probably fill up pages and pages, but I will try to keep it as short as possible so we can get on with our objective, learning about chords. Don't expect to master the major scale based on this lesson (but if you do, more power to you!) What does a scale have to do with chords anyways? Let's find out!

I'll first talk about the major scale, and its structure. Then I'll discuss its relation to the concept of keys, along with some facts about keys. Finally, I'll discuss key signatures, which were introduced in the first lesson, but poorly explained. At the end of the lesson I will include a handy reference chart for all 12 keys that should be of great help to you over the final 3 lessons.

The Major Scale

The major scale, like all scales, is simply a pattern of intervals. What this means is that we pick one of the 12 notes, and starting from that note we pick other notes at certain intervals in order to form a scale. If you're confused, don't fret (no pun intended) - we'll go through an example to help you understand.

The pattern of intervals for the major scale is: whole tone, whole tone, semitone, whole tone, whole tone, whole tone, semitone. Now we'll do that example.

Let's write out the C major scale. In this case, our starting note is the note C. All we do now is follow the pattern of intervals listed above. The first interval is a whole tone, so we go one whole tone higher than C and arrive at the note D. So the first two notes of a C major scale are C and D. The next interval is again a whole tone, and one whole tone higher than D is E. Next, we go up a semitone, to the note F. So far we have C, D, E, and F. The next three intervals are whole tones - one whole tone above F is G, another whole tone gets us to A, and after the third whole tone interval is the note B. The last semitone interval gets us back to the note C, bringing us full circle. That's it! The notes of a C major scale are thus C, D, E, F, G, A, and B. In a C major scale, the note C is called the tonic - the tonic is the starting reference note for the scale. For a D major scale, the tonic is the note D, and so on for the rest of the scales.

Here's what one octave of the C major scale looks like:

The C major scale is special because none of the notes in the scale are sharps or flats - the notes of the scale fit the major scale pattern of intervals so that no sharps or flats are needed. Every other major scale has at least one sharp or flat. Let's try the G major scale. Starting from the note G, we follow the pattern of intervals for the major scale and get the notes A, B, C, D, E, and F#. If we write out the notes of the G major scale with the appropriate intervals listed in between them, this is what we get: G (whole tone) A (whole tone) B (semitone) C (whole tone) D (whole tone) E (whole tone) F# (semitone) G. We can create a major scale using any of the 12 notes as the tonic - and each of the 12 major scales has a different number of sharps or flats.

Let's go back to the C major scale and look at it from another angle. We know the notes in a C major scale are C, D, E, F, G, A, and B. Let's stick with the note C and figure out the intervals between C (the tonic) and the other notes in the scale:

C to D is a major 2nd (one whole tone)

C to E is a major 3rd (two whole tones)

C to F is a perfect 4th (two whole tones plus one semitone)

C to G is a perfect 5th (three whole tones plus one semitone)

C to A is a major 6th (four whole tones plus one semitone)

C to B is a major 7th (five whole tones plus one semitone)

Thus, we have another way of thinking about the major scale - we use the tonic and pick the notes that are a major 2nd, major 3rd, perfect 4th, perfect 5th, major 6th, and major 7th above it to form the major scale. This leads us into our next topic, keys.

Keys

Keys are a difficult topic to explain and unfortunately I won't be going into much detail. In short, a key is the tonal center of a piece of music. Now, what the heck does that mean? Basically, the key of a song will tell you the "home" pitch of the song - sometimes this is the pitch or chord with which the song begins and/or ends, but a somewhat better definition might be that it's the pitch or chord that the song feels like it is returning to as it goes through a progression. The key also tells you the group of notes a song *loosely* follows - because each key is associated with a scale. This association implies that a key will tell you what scale goes with a certain song. We usually talk about keys by saying a song, or a sub-section of a song, is "in the key of," and then the name of the key. For example, the song Yellow Ledbetter is in the key of E major, and if we look at the solo we see that Mike uses the E major pentatonic scale. Also notice that the song begins and ends on the note E, and that during the verses and chorus the song always feels like it's trying to get back to that E major chord. In general, you can tell what key a song is in by looking at the chord progression - in fact, songs are often built by picking a key and choosing chords that are associated with that key.

There are both major keys, and minor keys. For example, there is the key of C major and the key of C minor. The notes (and chords) associated with a key come from the scale that shares its name with the key - so the key of C major is associated with the C major scale, and the key of D minor is associated with the D minor scale (I won't be discussing minor scales or keys in this guide).

Let's go back to the Yellow Ledbetter example mentioned earlier. I stated that the song is in the key of E major. So let's look at the notes of the E major scale - E, F#, G#, A, B, C#, D#. Mike uses this set of notes during the solo to guide his playing - specifically he uses the E major pentatonic scale, which contains the notes E, F#, G#, B, and C#. As you can see, all of these notes are also in the E major scale. You may also notice that the root notes of the chords of the song - E, B, A - are all in the E major scale as well.

The intervals in the major scale give us a way of referring to the notes associated with a key. Let's go through an example with the key of C. The notes in the C major scale are C, D, E, F, G, A, and B. When talking about chords and using the key of C, we call the note C the root (roots are explained more in the next lesson). The second note of the C major scale, D, is a major 2nd above C - so in the key of C, we say the note D is the 2nd. The next note, E, is a major 3rd above C; we call it the 3rd in the key of C. The same goes for the remaining notes - F is the 4th, G is the 5th, and A is the 6th. However, there is one exception - the note B is called the major 7th, rather than just the 7th (in the key of C). This naming scheme is more of an abbreviation that I prefer to use so I don't have to write out major 3rd or perfect 4th everytime, and I will be using this convention in all of the following lessons. The in-between notes (i.e., C#, D#, etc) are also referred to in a similar manner, based on their intervals above C - take a look at the reference chart at the end of the lesson to see what I mean.

Extending the Major Scale

So far, we've just talked about one octave's worth of the major scale. Now we're going to extend it another octave, using the C major scale as an example. In our discussions we started at the note C and went through the rest of the scale, finally arriving back at C again, an octave higher than where we started. Here's what that looks like:

Now, we are going to start from the higher octave C (the note furthest to the right in the picture above), and again follow the pattern of intervals for the major scale. If we count the notes in the picture, this higher octave C is the eighth note in the scale so far. If we go up another whole tone, we arrive at the note D again, which is one octave plus a major 2nd (whole tone) above our original C. As you may recall, the note D is the 2nd in the key of C. But now that we're an octave higher, the note D can also be called the 9th in the key of C. If we go up another whole tone, we arrive at the note E, which is the 3rd in the key of C. While we are an octave higher, it is still referred to as the 3rd. Up a semitone is the note F, which is the 4th in the key of C. But now it can also be called the 11th. Up another whole tone is the note G, the 5th in the key of C. Just as with the 3rd, no matter what octave we're in this is still referred to as the 5th. Another whole tone higher lies the note A, which is the 6th, but now can also be called the 13th. The next highest note, A, is called the major 7th, no matter what octave it's in. So...let's see what two octaves of the C major scale looks like:

Here I've labeled the more "important" notes with their names - starting from the root, notice that we pick every other note to get these important notes. In fact, this is how several types of chords are created - we start at the root and pick every other note from the major scale to form a chord.

Key Signatures

I briefly mentioned key signatures in the first lesson on reading music. Here we'll go into a little more detail. Every key has something we call a key signature, which is the pattern of sharps or flats that are associated with that key. How do we know what flats or sharps are associated with a key? You guessed it - we look at the major scale.

Earlier I said that the C major scale is special because it contains no sharps or flats. Thus, the same is true for the key of C major - its key signature contains no sharps or flats. Here's what it looks like:

Pretty boring, huh? Well let's try another key that actually has sharps - the key of G major. Looking at the G major scale (notes: G, A, B, C, D, E, F#), we see that there is one sharp - specifically, F#. So the key signature for the key of G has one sharp in it - F#. Here's what that looks like:

As you can see, there is a sharp symbol on the top line of the staff, which is the line for the note F. This means that anytime you see the note F, whether it's on the top line of the staff, or in the lowest space of the staff, or elsewhere, then it is automatically an F#. Here's what I mean:

Every note above is an F#. Even though the sharp symbol is only on that top line, it applies to F's on all parts of the staff. This rule applies for any sharp or flat you see in a key signature. And again, to cancel out a sharp (or flat) that is in the key signature, we use the natural symbol - see part 1.

Here's another quote from the first lesson in this guide: "The sharp or flat symbols can only be on certain spaces or lines at the beginning of the staff, and there is a specific order in which they must be added - you will never see just one # symbol sitting in the key signature on the second line from the top of the staff." Now, let me explain this statement. The sharp or flat symbols are only used in certain places - as we just saw, when we want to indicate an F#, we put the sharp symbol on the top line, and not in the lowest space of the staff; you will never see a sharp symbol in that lowest space. The "specific order" in which sharps (or flats) must be added is again due to the major scale - there is no major scale that has just a D#, and all other notes without flats or sharps; this is why you will never see a key signature with a single sharp symbol on the second line from the top.

If you want to see what all of the major key signatures look like, click here to open a table of key signatures, along with short explanations, in a new window. However, none of the information there is essential to make it through the rest of this guide - it is only for those of you who want to know a little more.

Reference Chart of Intervals

Below is a reference chart for all 12 keys. For each key, I list the root and the notes that correspond to all the important intervals, which we'll need to be familiar with for the next 3 lessons. Click here to open it in a pop-up window, which also makes it easier if you want to print just the chart. For gods' sake don't try to memorize the chart, unless you are a genius - use it as a reference only. Also, I use the interval name "Sharp 5th," instead of "Minor 6th," because in my experience this is more common. Remember, both of them mean the same thing.

The full names of certain intervals (i.e. major 3rd, perfect 5th) are written only for the key of A - for the remaining keys I use the abbreviated names.

Chart of Intervals

Key of A

Key of A#/Bb

Key of B

Key of C

Root
Minor 2nd
(Major) 2nd
Minor 3rd
(Major) 3rd
(Perfect) 4th
Flat 5th
(Perfect) 5th
Sharp 5th
(Major) 6th
(Minor) 7th
Major 7th
Octave
9th
11th
13th

A
A#/Bb
B
C
C#/Db
D
D#/Eb
E
F
F#/Gb
G
G#/Ab
A
B
D
F#/Gb