The C Major Scale
Now you know the C major scale. It’s easy to remember because it’s the only major scale without any sharps or flats. So that’s the scale we’re going to use to discover the major scale formula or pattern. If you ever forget the formula for a major scale, just write out the C major scale and you can work it out just like we’re going to do now.
Here is the C major scale again.
I II III IV V VI VII VIII
C D E F G A B C
Let’s check our rules
It’s a major scale in the key of C, so the first note (tonic) is C. We can see that every letter of the musical alphabet is used. They’re in alphabetical order and each letter appears only once. The eighth is the same as the tonic, only an octave higher.
OK, so it meets all the rules! Let’s see where the C major scale fits in among all the notes in chromatic order, and we’ll work backward to find the formula.
Figure Out a Major Scale Pattern
Let’s look at the interval between each note. Because it’s the C major scale, we start on the C note (tonic).
- The scale starts on C (tonic)
- From C to D is a “Whole Tone” (2 half tones).
- D to E is a “Whole Tone”.
- E to F is a “Half Tone”.
- From F to G is a “Whole Tone”.
- G to A is a “Whole Tone”.
- A to B is a “Whole Tone”.
- and from B to C is a “Half Tone”.
And that gives us our formula, or pattern, for a major scale:
Whole tone, Whole tone, Half tone, Whole tone, Whole tone, Whole tone, Half tone
More commonly written as: W – W – H – W – W – W – H
Each fret on your mandolin is a half step. If you think of the major scale pattern in terms of frets on your mandolin, then it’s 2 frets, 2 frets, 1 fret, 2 frets, 2 frets, 2 frets, 1 fret. – or 2 2 1 2 2 2 1.
Just like a phone number : 221-2221
Pretty easy, huh?
So, lets try to put that formula to use!
The G-Major Scale
Let’s try to build the G major scale.
We know the first degree (or the tonic) of the G major scale is going to be a “G” note, so that’s where we’ll start. I’ll start with G and write out all the notes in the octave until I get to the next G.
So, the tonic is G. Let’s apply the pattern from there:
- W – a whole step (2 half steps) up from G is A. The second (II) is A.
- W – a whole step (2 half steps) up from A is B. So the third degree (III) of the G major scale is B.
- H – a half step up from B is C. The fourth (IV) is C.
- W – if we move a whole step up from C, we get a D. The fifth (V) is a D.
- W – another whole step up gives us an E. The sixth (VI) is E.
- W – one more whole step up from E is F#. The seventh (VII) of the G major scale is F#.
- H – a half step up from F# gives us another G. The eighth (VIII), is another G, one octave above the tonic.
So, using our major scale pattern, we find that the G major scale has 1 sharp. The seventh (VII) is an F#.
The G major scale looks like this:
I II III IV V VI VII VIII
G A B C D E F# G
Lets check out our rules!
It’s a major scale in the key of G, so the first note (tonic) is G. Every letter is used in alphabetical order and each one appears only once. The eighth is the same as the tonic, only an octave higher.
Here’s what it looks like on our diagram:
Let’s look at the fret spacing used to build the G major scale on the mandolin. We’ll use the fourth string because it’s tuned to G. So, the open string will give us our Tonic (G). The tonic and the octave are displayed in red.
Try building the A major scale yourself with the pattern you’ve just learned, then move on the the next page to check your work.
