music theory for musicians and normal people by toby w.

rush

The Majorœ Scale

œ
one of the reasons that a particular piece of
music sounds the way it does has to do with the

#œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ ˙.
group of notes the composer decided to use.

3 œ œ œ œ
&4
1722
bach,
a
magdalen
formajorbach
anna
notebook sebastian
G
in
johann
Minuet

take this melody, for example...

œ #œ œ
let’s first remove all the duplicate notes, regardless of which octave they’re in.

& 43 œ œ œ œ

œ œ #œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ œ #œ œ
next, let’s put the notes

œ
in alphabetical order,
starting on the note
that the melody sounded
like it was centering on.

# œ œ
what we end up with

œ
there are actually many

œ œ œ œ œ
is the “palette” for different types of scales,
this particular piece... each with a different pattern
of whole steps and
half steps.

a half step is the

distance between
like the board on which a painter holds two adjacent keys
the bits of paint being used in the painting on the piano keyboard,
being created. regardless of color.

in music, this “palette” is called

a scale. though we usually write
scales from low to high, the order is actually
unimportant; it’s the notes contained in the
scale that help make a piece sound
the way it does.
this particular
arrangement, where

œ
half steps occur between

œ # œ
steps three and four and between steps seven and eight

œ œ œ
(or between seven and one, since eight and one are the

œ œ
same note), is called the major scale.

half a whole step is the

whole step
whole
step
equivalent of
half whole step
step
two half steps.
whole step
whole step
step (this scale, by the way, is called the
g major scale, because it starts on g.)

knowing this formula, you can create a major scale on any note!

œ œ
&œ œ œ bœ œ œ & bœ bœ œ bœ bœ bœ œ bœ
the f major scale the d flat major scale
but remember...
with

bœ œ bœ
great power

& #œ #œ œ & bœ bœ bœ bœ bœ
the b major scale the g flat major scale comes great

œ # œ # œ œ # œ responsibility!

licensed under a creative commons BY-NC-ND license - visit tobyrush.com for more