Scales are fun and important to learn, chances are you will encounter them in your musical journey one way or the other. Personally I think knowing scale kind of supercharges your arsenal when the time comes for improvisation or composing some melodies.
Fundamentally, scales are just a bunch of notes put together in a certain intervallic pattern that gives out a certain emotion. There are so many scales in the world, each of them has their own sound. So it’s prudent to start with the most common scale found in every culture i.e The Major Scale.
Major Scale or the Happy Scale
The reason I call it the happy scale is because, well, it sounds happy. Also, it’s better to treat scales as an emotion, how is the sound making you feel that way when you want that kind of sound in your composition you can access the scale.
Let’s start learning how to build the Major scale.
Below you’ll find the C major scale with the famous Do Re Mi solfege.
Audio of it
The major scale uses all the letters successively without any of them repeating it. (This is an important rule as you’ll see later)
The formula to build a major scale is as follows:
T T S T T T S
T = Whole Step or Whole Tone
S = Half Step or Semitone
This is the intervallic pattern of the major scale. It tells you which interval you need to jump to get to the next note.
Let’s take another example of F major Scale and apply the above formula
Degrees of the Major Scale
Let’s give numbers and names to the notes of the major scale so it’s easy to communicate which note we’re talking about.
Easy way to number them is, well, seven notes so seven numbers should do the trick.
Another way to name them will be how they function
Tonic
The tonic is the first degree of the major scale and serves as the “home” or resting point of the scale. It provides a sense of resolution and stability.
Supertonic
The supertonic is the second degree of the major scale. It often creates tension and typically leads to the tonic, making it an important part of chord progressions.
Mediant
The Mediant is the third degree of the major scale. It acts as a transitional note between the tonic and dominant, contributing to the overall harmonic movement of a piece.
SubDominant
The subdominant is the fourth degree of the major scale. It provides a sense of departure from the tonic and often leads to the dominant, creating tension and anticipation.
Dominant
The dominant is the fifth degree of the major scale. It has a strong tendency to resolve to the tonic and is frequently used to create cadences, particularly the authentic cadence (V-I).
SubMediant
The submediant is the sixth degree of the major scale. It adds variety and color to chord progressions, often serving as a point of departure or arrival.
Leading Note
The leading tone is the seventh degree of the major scale, located a half step below the tonic. It creates a strong sense of resolution when it ascends to the tonic, particularly in the context of the dominant chord leading to the tonic.
Practice writing different major scales on the manuscript it will help you to memorize the formula and different scales.
You can find the next lesson here where we discuss key signatures.
Cheers,
SonorousMoose xD
