In Music theory is a set of systems for analyzing, classifying, and composing music and the elements of music. ...music theory, the major scale (or major mode) is one of the In Music theory, the diatonic major scale (also known as the Guido scale), from the Greek diatonikos or to stretch out, is a fundamental building block of the European_influenced musical tradition. ...diatonic scales. It is often considered to be made up of eight notes (seven plus the octave), divided into two groups of four, the tetrachords. The pattern of steps in each tetrachord is, in ascending order:

tone, tone, The musical interval of a half step, semitone, or minor second is the relationship between the leading tone and the first note (the root or tonic) in a major scale. ...semitone, (tone)

The major scale has eight notes (an For the numerical computation software, see GNU Octave. ...octave), which in In music and sight singing solfege is a way of assigning syllables to degrees or steps of the diatonic scale. ...solfege are the syllables "Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Ti, and Do." At the The musical keyboard, also known as the piano keyboard is the set of adjacent depressible levers on a musical instrument which produce notes. ...piano keyboard, the simplest major scale is C major (see figure 1). It is unique in that it is the only major scale to use only the white notes on the keyboard and, likewise, no This article is about the musical notation. ...sharps or Alternate uses: Flat (disambiguation) Figure 1. ...flats on the In musical notation, the staff or stave is a set of five horizontal lines on which note symbols are placed to indicate pitch and time. ...musical staff.

Figure 1. The C major scale

Listen to the C major scale.

When writing out major (and A minor scale in musical theory can be viewed as the sixth mode of the major scale. ...minor scales), every line and space on the In musical notation, the staff or stave is a set of five horizontal lines on which note symbols are placed to indicate pitch and time. ...stave has to be filled, and no note can have more than one An accidental is a musical notation symbol used to raise or lower the pitch of a note. ...accidental. This has the effect of forcing the In musical notation, a key signature is a series of sharp symbols or flat symbols placed on the staff, designating notes that are to be played sharp or flat unless otherwise noted with an accidental. ...key signature to feature just sharps or just flats; ordinary major scales never include both.

The major scale is the same as the In music theory, the major scale is one of the diatonic scales. ...Ionian mode.

Constructing major scales

Analyzing scales with sharps

Scales and key signatures are closely linked in This article needs cleanup. ...music. It is necessary to construct a key signature _ consisting of a number of sharps or flats _ in order to know which notes a particular major scale will have. An easy, but time consuming, way to do this would be to use the pattern of tone/tone/semitone/etc... given above. If we choose to write the scale of D_major, we know immediately that the scale begins on a D. The next note will be a tone above _ an E. The note after that will also be a tone above, however it is not simply an F as would seem obvious. Because the difference between an E and an F is actually a semitone (look on a piano keyboard, there is no 'black note' in_between them) it is necessary to raise the F to become an F_sharp to achieve a difference of a whole tone.

This could be followed to create a whole scale, with all the sharps (or with a different scale, flats) put correctly in. However a more clever way of constructing scales arises from analysing patterns in the whole series of major scales. Starting on the scale of C_major, there exists no sharps or flats. If you start a new scale on the 5th of C_major _ G_major _ you will find one sharp, augmenting the F. Starting the scale on the 5th of G major (a D) it will be necessary to put 2 sharps in _ an F_sharp and a C_sharp. Writing this pattern out for all the scales looks like this:

 C maj _ 0 sharps G maj _ 1 sharp _ F# (meaning F_sharp) D maj _ 2 sharps _ F#, C# A maj _ 3 sharps _ F#, C#, G# E maj _ 4 sharps _ F#, C#, G#, D# B maj _ 5 sharps _ F#, C#, G#, D#, A# F# maj _ 6 sharps _ F#, C#, G#, D#, A#, E# C# maj _ 7 sharps _ F#, C#, G#, D#, A#, E#, B# 

In this table it can be seen that for each new scale (starting on the fifth of the previous scale) it is necessary to add a new sharp. The order of sharps which need to be added follows: F#, C#, G#, D#, A#, E#, B#. This pattern of the sharps can be easily remembered through the use of the A mnemonic (AmE [] or BrE []) is a memory aid. ...mnemonic:

 F C G D A E B Father Charles Goes Down And Ends Battle 

Looking closer, the last accidental added matches the tonic (first note) of the scale two_fifths before it (in this table, two lines up.) A useful rule for use in recognising major scales with sharps is that the tonic is also always one note above the last sharp.

Analysing major scales with flats

A similar table can be constructed for major scales with flats in them. In this case each new scale starts on the 5th below the previous one:

 C maj _ 0 flats F maj _ 1 flat _ Bb (meaning B_flat) Bb maj _ 2 flats _ Bb Eb Eb maj _ 3 flats _ Bb Eb Ab Ab maj _ 4 flats _ Bb Eb Ab Db Db maj _ 5 flats _ Bb Eb Ab Db Gb Gb maj _ 6 flats _ Bb Eb Ab Db Gb Cb Cb maj _ 7 flats _ Bb Eb Ab Db Gb Cb Fb 

Here, a similar pattern can be recognised, each new scale keeps all the flats of the previous scale but adds a new one following the sequence: Bb, Eb, Ab, Db, Gb, Cb, Fb. Interestingly this is the direct inverse of the pattern of sharps given above. Luckily (!) the mnemonic can now be reversed to form the sentence:

 B E A D G C F Battle Ends And Down Goes Charles' Father. 

Again there is a similar, but reversed, relationship between tonics and accidentals. The tonic matches the second to last flat added on.

The circle of fifths

The information gathered from analysing scales can be used in constructing the In music theory, the circle of fifths is a model of pitch space and is the series encompassing all of the notes in the equally tempered chromatic scale. ...circle of fifths:

This is a useful way of finding key signatures of major scales. Starting clockwise from the top C each new letter represents a new scale, a fifth above the one before it. This means that each new scale (clockwise) requires an extra sharp to be added to its key signature. The exact sharps to be added are found by reading off the letters starting from the F (to the left of the C.) For example, if we needed to know how many, and which, sharps a scale of E major requires, we note that E is at position 4 - it requires 4 sharps. These sharps are (reading off from F): F#, C#, G#, D#. If you were faced with a key signature of 5 sharps, you would count off 5 from the top to arrive at B - it is the scale of B major.

Fig 2. The B-major scale

Similarly, key signatures with flats can be created. Each new letter starting from F represents a new scale, and the position of the letter indicates how many flats it has. The actual flats are read anticlockwise from the Bb on position 2. Bb is on position 2, so it has 2 flats: Bb and Eb.

Harmonic properties

The major scale may predominate because of its unique In acoustics and telecommunication, the harmonic of a wave is a component frequency of the signal that is an integral multiple of the fundamental frequency. ...harmonic properties. It allows:

• major or minor chords, both stable and Consonance is a stylistic device, often used in poetry. ...consonant, on every scale In music or music theory a scale degree is an individual note of a scale, both its pitch and its diatonic function. ...degree but the In music, see the intervals: Major seventh minor seventh The leading tone or subtonic, and the chord built on the leading tone, is often called simply the seventh as it is the seventh scale degree. ...seventh
• a This article is about the musical interval. ...diminished fifth in the seventh chord built on the fifth degree, the In music, the dominant is the fifth degree of the scale. ...dominant
• motion by a The musical interval of a half step, semitone, or minor second is the relationship between the leading tone and the first note (the root or tonic) in a major scale. ...minor second from the In music theory, a leading_tone (called the leading_note outside the US) is a note or pitch which is resolves or leads to a note one semitone higher or lower, being an lower and upper leading_tone, respectively. ...leading tone to the tonic
• The root (basse fondamentale) of a chord is the note upon which that chord is perceived or labelled as built or centered, the root of a chord in root position or normal form. ...root motion by fifths, the strongest root motion, from nearly every degree in either direction, the exceptions being up a fifth from the seventh degree, down a fifth from the fourth degree

Differences between major and minor

See In music, major can refer to a scale, chord, or interval, in contrast to minor. ...major and minor.