Basic Music Theory for Guitar - Part 3

Notes and Scales, Part 3 – Major and Minor Scales

If you are familiar with basic music, you’ll notice that every song is performed based on a particular KEY. Keys are basically relative pitches in which a song is being performed. For a layman, listen carefully to two different person sing a same song. You will notice that the tune of the song is the same but both of them will be singing in a different pitch. This means that both the person is singing in a different key.

Music can be in any key as depicted under Part 1, and as circled in Figure 2. This means that a song can be performed in a total of 12 keys (C, C#/Db, D,D#/Eb, E, F, F#/Gb, G, G#/Ab, A, A#/Bb, B).

Now, let’s look at scales, what are scales and how do we apply it all keys. For understanding, scales are basically a group of notes which makes a harmonious melody. The most common scales are the ‘Major’ and ‘Minor’ scales.

Major Scale

For most people, the Major Scale would be by far the most familiar. You will know this by the DO, RE, MI, FA, SO, LA, TI, DO as explained in Part 1, Figure 1. If you look closer, the Major scale actually consists of notes taken from the chromatic scale. We shall look at the C Scale (or ‘C’ Major Scale) once again, in which it is in the key of ‘C’ Figure 4 below depicts a chromatic scale. Pay attention to the circled notes, and you will notice that the notes circled are actually the notes in the C Scale as explained in Figure 1.

Now, let’s take a look at the intervals in the Major Scale. A whole note is an interval of 2 steps, while a half note is 1 step. You can see above in Figure 4 that the interval pattern for the Major Scale for each octave is WWHWWWH from C¹ to C², and likewise from C² to C³, in which the C notes are known as the Root (Underlined above). Figure 4 shows a C Scale. Let’s now look at a D Scale (or ‘D’ Major). The difference between ‘C’ and ‘D’ is known as a whole key up, in which ‘C’ Key is lower pitch compared to ‘D’ Key. Figure 5 below shows the notes in the D Major Scale as circled.

In a D Scale, notice that all intervals are the same as a C Scale, WWHWWWH from D¹ to D², and likewise from D² to D³ etc. In the D Scale, there is C# and F# reason being a whole interval (2 steps) from ‘E’ is ‘F#’ and likewise a whole interval from ‘B’ to ‘C#’. And obviously, the D Scale is in the key of ‘D’, and the root is ‘D’. Similarly, if you want to get another scale, you’ll just need to take the Major Intervals (WWHWWWH), apply it to the chromatic scale and start counting from the root.

Minor Scale

Let’s look at another common scale, the Minor Scale. In this section, the Minor Scale refers to the Natural Minor Scale as it is most common. We shall not touch on the Harmonic Minor and Melodic Minor Scale. The Minor Scale’s intervals are WHWWHWW. Figure 6 shows an ‘Am’ (pronounced ‘A’ Minor) scale, in which its root is ‘A’. 

Notice in Figure 6 above, the notes in the Am scale (circled) are the same with C Major in Figure 4. The only difference is in the root. If you compare Figure 4 and Figure 6, if in the C Scale where ‘C’ note is the 1^st note (root) of the Major Scale, you will notice that the ‘A’ note falls on the 6^th. Vice versa in the Am Scale, where the ‘A’ note is the 1^st note (root) of the Minor Scale, the ‘C’ note will fall on the 3^rd. Figure 7 compares the intervals for 2 octaves between a major and minor scale. This should give you a clearer picture.

Figure 8 is a Bm scale. Applying the Minor Intervals on a Chromatic Scale (Figure 2), you would expect that Relative Major would be ‘D’. That is exactly the case as illustrated below:

Referring to Figure 8, we can see that the 3^rd note (‘D’) from the root ('B’) is the Relative Major. Vice-versa, if you refer to the D Scale in Figure 5¸you will notice that the 6^th note (‘B’) from the ­root is the Relative Minor. If you were to check out the intervals between Figure 5 and Figure 8, you will see that it is related as in illustrated in Figure 7.

As a summary for Part 3, we learnt the difference between the Major and Minor Scales and how the intervals are related. You can take the Major or Minor Intervals and apply it to any starting note in the Chromatic Scale. The starting note will determine your scale, depending on whether you use the Major or the Minor Intervals. Also, each Major Scale will have a 6^th note being the Relative Minor, and vice-versa for each Minor Scale, the 3^rd note will be its Relative Major.


Click here to read bout Part 1. 

Click here to read bout Part 2