Learning the major scale can be a long and tedious process. This article tries to ease the pain and answer some questions, as well as explain why this is such a worthwhile endeavour.
We’ll start with G major. Why G major? Because it is relative to E minor, meaning that it contains exactly the same notes. Based on this fact, hopefully you should see some similarities between the G major scale and the E minor pentatonic. In practicing these two scales, you will hopefully start to realise that the major (and minor) pentatonic scales are simply the complete major (and minor) scales, but with two notes missing.
The tab-style diagram below shows you the position of every note in the g major scale up and down the fret board:
Figure A:
|-0-2-3-5-7-8-10-12-14-15
|-0-1-3-5-7-8-10-12-13-15
|-0-2-4-5-7-9-11-12-14-16
|-0-2-4-5-7-9-10-12-14-16
|-0-2-3-5-7-9-10-12-14-15
|-0-2-3-5-7-8-10-12-14-15
The first two notes on the low E string are in the G major scale. But if you start from there, there is the chance that your scale will sound more like E minor, which contains all the same notes. Search my site for “modes” or click on the modes tag for more info. This is the first version of the major scale the most people become familiar with:
Figure B:
|---------------------------2-3
|-----------------------3-5----
|-----------------2-4-5--------
|-----------2-4-5--------------
|-----2-3-5--------------------
|-3-5--------------------------
The scale below is also a G major scale, but a slight variation on the first version above. The aim is to try and get 3 notes on every string. This is a good exercise for flexibility and speed:
Figure C:
|-------------------------------3-5-8
|-------------------------3-5-8------
|-------------------4-5-7------------
|-------------4-5-7------------------
|-------3-5-7------------------------
|-3-5-7------------------------------
You will notice some patterns that emerge in these scales. There is always a gap of either 1, or two frets between notes. A couple of things will always be true when practicing or figuring out your major scales. If you play the following pattern, on one particular string (which you will find to be quite a lot)….:
Figure D:
|---x-|-----|---x-|---x-|-----|-----|-----|-----
The second two of these notes make up the first two notes of the following pattern on the same string, and this will always be….:
Figure E:
|---x-|---x-|-----|---x-|-----|-----|-----|-----
So combining the two makes…:
Figure F:
|---x-|-----|---x-|---x-|-----|---x-|-----|-----
That might seem like a small amount of information, but when you consider that this pattern always comes in pairs, it becomes more significant. Let us consider the first version of the major scale that we covered above in Figure A:
Figure G:
|-----|---x-|---x-|-----|---x-|-----|-----|-----
|-----|-----|---x-|-----|---x-|-----|-----|-----
|-----|---x-|-----|---x-|---x-|-----|-----|-----
|-----|---x-|-----|---x-|---x-|-----|-----|-----
|-----|---x-|---x-|-----|---x-|-----|-----|-----
|-----|---x-|---x-|-----|---x-|-----|-----|-----
You can see some of the patterns starting to emerge. We have two examples of Figure D on the 3rd and 4th strings, and two examples of Figure E on the 5th and 6th strings.
So from having learned the first basic example of the major scale, and the rule described by Figures D and E, we can expand on this shape to give us more of the major scale:
Figure H:
x-----|---x-|---x-|-----|---x-|-----|-----|-----
|-----|-----|---x-|-----|---x-|-----|-----|-----
|-----|---x-|-----|---x-|---x-|-----|---x-|-----
|-----|---x-|-----|---x-|---x-|-----|---x-|-----
x-----|---x-|---x-|-----|---x-|-----|-----|-----
x-----|---x-|---x-|-----|---x-|-----|-----|-----
OK, so we’re still mising a couple of notes from the above before it becomes a “complete” set of notes for the major scale in these positions. You can try working out what the missing notes are by ear. Or you can refer to the tab in Figure A, above.
It should be easy to see that with practice and by extrapolating these ideas, it would not be too long before you have learned the whole major scale up and down the whole fretboard. And then the world is your oyster!!!! Try some of the articles on this site for modes and the circle of fifths.
For your reference, this is the entire major scale from fret 0 to 12:
Figure I:
x-----|---x-|---x-|-----|---x-|-----|---x-|---x-|-----|---x-|-----|---x-
|-----|-----|---x-|-----|---x-|-----|---x-|---x-|-----|---x-|-----|---x-
|-----|---x-|-----|---x-|---x-|-----|---x-|-----|---x-|-----|---x-|---x-
|-----|---x-|-----|---x-|---x-|-----|---x-|-----|---x-|---x-|-----|---x-
x-----|---x-|---x-|-----|---x-|-----|---x-|-----|---x-|---x-|-----|---x-
x-----|---x-|---x-|-----|---x-|-----|---x-|---x-|-----|---x-|-----|---x-
0---1-|---2-|---3-|---4-|---5-|---6-|---7-|---8-|---9-|---10|---11|---12
Why is this so useful and important? Well the major scale is pretty much the foundation of all music. Once you know the major scale patterns (for example):
- Start the same shapes on a different fret to change the scale (instead of G major, shift the whole lot up one fret to make it a G# major scale, etc….)
- Play the same shapes but begin on different notes, other than the root, in order to achieve the different modes (begin on the 6th degree to make an E minor scale, the second note to achive A dorian, etc….). If you click on G in the interactive circle of fifths, so that it is at the top of the circle, you are presented with a list of mode names around the left hand side of the circle. The notes are the names of the major scale required to achieve that mode of G.
- Mirror image the mode names through the vertical line (kind of like this), and you have a list of modes that the G major scale can be used for.
- Play alternative notes to start building up chords in the associated key. So for the G major scale, we can find the chords in the key of G major. These are also chords in the key of E minor, or A dorian, anything that is built up from the G major scale, etc…. (1,3,5 = G major; 2,4,6 = A minor; 3,5,7 = B minor; 6,1,3 = E minor; 7,2,4 = F#diminished; 1,3,5,7 = G major 7th etc…)
- The world really is your oyster!
If you have any questions / comments / suggestions, or if you spot an error in this article, please fill in the reply form below, or visit the contact page.
Thanks!
Tags: circle of fifths, major, modes, scale
0