How to Build Major Scales on Guitar
Major Scales
Major Scales are arguably the most important thing you can learn to get better at guitar. 90% of all music is based on the Major Scale. It is used to create solos, chords, riffs, and even more. If you feel stuck, learning the Major Scale is probably the next step.
There are three things we are going to cover about Major Scales:
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How to Create Any Major Scale
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Creating Chords with the Major Scale
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Using Numbers in a Key
How to Create Any Major Scale
A very important thing to remember is that a Major Scale is based on a pattern. This pattern allows us to memorize the scale, as well as create patterns in music. Have you ever been playing a song where a singer asked to change the key? This is possible because the notes in one key follow the same pattern as the notes in another key. This pattern is the Major Scale.
The pattern to create a Major Scale uses half steps and whole steps. On guitar, a half step is one fret apart. A whole step is two frets apart. If you play an open A string, a half step above that is the first fret of the A string. A whole step above the open A is the 2nd fret of the A string. Half-steps and whole steps measure the distance between notes. These are also called intervals.
The pattern is whole step, whole step, half step, whole step, whole step, whole step, half step.
Let's do a C Major Scale:
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The first note is C. (it's in the title.)
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Then go up one whole step. This would be D.
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Then go up another whole step. This is E.
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Next, go up one half step to F.
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Then go up a whole step again to G.
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Go up another whole step to A.
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Finally, go up one more whole step to B.
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The last part is to go up one more half step to C. We already played C, so B is technically the last note in the scale.
The notes in a C Major Scale are C, D, E, F, G, A, and B. If you notice, every note in the musical alphabet is here: A through G. This will be the case in every scale. So, how do scales differ if every musical note is there? The answer is sharps and flats. The other scales will add sharps and flats to make sure they have each letter of the alphabet.
Let's do the key of F to see:
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Start on F.
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Then go up one whole step to G.
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Then go up another whole step to A.
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Then go up one half step. A half step above A is not B. It is Bb. (Not A#, we already used A, so we have to choose a different note name.)
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A whole step above Bb is C.
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A whole step above C is D.
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A whole step above D is E, and finally a half step above E is F.
The notes in an F Major Scale are F, G, A, Bb, C, D, and E. Do you see the difference between this and C?
The next step is to learn all of your Major Scales. This article doesn't cover actually learning the scales. Click here to learn how to play CAGED scales.
Pro Tip: Assign a number to each note in the Major Scale. In C, C is 1; D is 2; E is 3; etc. This will help you transpose riffs, solos, and chords.
Creating Chords with the Major Scale
One of the most important features of the Major Scales is that it gives us the chords in a key. It tells us which chords belong in a key, whether they are Major or Minor, and which extensions (7th, 9th, 11th, and 13th) fit. Extensions are a topic for another article, but the Major Scale is what defines them.
The Major Scale tells us which chords to use. It is easy to figure out. In the key of C, we use the C Major Scale. The C Major Scale has the notes: C, D, E, F, G, A, and B. This means we can't play an F# chord in this key without playing notes from outside the key.
How do we know what each type of chord is? This is where understanding how chords and intervals work will help. Click here to review intervals. To figure out whether a chord is major, minor, or diminished, stack notes in thirds. (skip a letter, then skip another).
Example 1: Starting on C. Skip D, land on E. C to E is a major 3rd, so this is a major chord: C major.
Example 2: Starting on D. Skip E, land on F. D to F is a minor 3rd, so this is minor or diminished. Skip G, land on A. D to A is a perfect 5th, which confirms it: D minor.
Run that same process on every degree of the C Major Scale and you get this breakdown:
| Number | Note | Chord Quality |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | C | Major |
| 2 | D | Minor |
| 3 | E | Minor |
| 4 | F | Major |
| 5 | G | Major |
| 6 | A | Minor |
| 7 | B | Diminished |
Using Numbers in a Key
The C Major Scale Chord analysis above was an in-depth breakdown of chords in a key. If we go back to the beginning of the article, we discussed that Major Scales follow a pattern. This is very valuable because it shows us that the chord breakdown uses the same pattern in every key.
If we assign each letter in the Major Scale a number, this pattern can be used in any key. C is 1; D is 2; E is 3; F is 4; G is 5; A is 6; and B is 7.
We get a chord breakdown like this:
| Number | Note | Chord Quality |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | C | Major |
| 2 | D | Minor |
| 3 | E | Minor |
| 4 | F | Major |
| 5 | G | Major |
| 6 | A | Minor |
| 7 | B | Diminished |
This happens in every key. This will always be the pattern as long as a Major Scale follows the pattern laid out earlier.
Tip: The Most Common Chords in any song are 1, 4, 5, and 6. If you find a Minor chord in a song, it is likely to be the 6 chord in whatever key you are playing.
Learning Major Scales is one of the most important skills a musician can have. But, there is so much to learn. Mastering how a scale is built and learning it is just the start. This is before understanding how a Major Scale can define chord progressions. If you are looking for help navigating Major Scales, click the link to get your Roxy Rockin' Guitar Books. It will help you master each stage of the Major Scale.
