If you don't remember what a major scale is, we suggest you go back to
The Scale to refresh your memory. So, you may be wondering
why we decided to revisit the major scale. The reason is that there were some important
things that we purposely didn't mention in Lesson 3 because they were a little too
advanced at that point. Now, though, we all know enough to fully understand the
major scale revisited!
The Major Scale Revisited
Audio Clip (MIDI): 'C' Major Scale by us. Simple major
So what is a major scale? In Lesson 3, we talked about some of the uses of major
scales, but we didn't really go into too much depth on what a major scale is. Let's
look again at the C Major Scale. Now, in What are Intervals?,
we discussed how any two notes in music are separated by a certain number of whole
steps and half steps. Major scales also follow this rule.
Let's take a look at this 'C' Major Scale graphic. Here, we've shown you where
all the half steps and whole steps are by putting the letter 'H' where the notes
are a half step apart and the letter 'W' where the notes are a whole step apart.
No matter what note the scale starts on, this set of whole steps and half steps
remains constant. So, as we said in Lesson 6, musicians can easily describe intervals
by just saying the number of notes in the major scale that it would take to fill
that interval. For example a whole step would just be a "second" because the first
two notes in the major scale are equal to a whole step. A "third" would be two whole
steps because the distance between the first note in the major scale and the third
note is two whole steps. A "fourth" would be two whole steps and a half step since
the distance between the first note in the major scale and the fourth note is two
whole steps and one half step.
OK, this seems pretty simple now. But what happens if a musician wants one whole
step and one half step? Suddenly, our system fails because there is no note in the
major scale that is one and a half whole steps away from the first note. This note
is in between the second and third notes in the major scale.
Again, musicians have devised a solution to this problem. When a note fits perfectly
on the major scale, musicians call the note a major interval. For
example, two whole steps would be a major third. However, if the
interval is a 4th or a 5th, the interval is called a perfect interval.
For example, two and a half whole steps would be called a perfect fourth.
So, back to the problem of the note that is one and a half whole steps away from
the first note in the scale. Musicians can lower the width of the interval by a
half step by saying the word minor. So, a note that is one whole
step and one half step away is a minor third.
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