Learn Major Guitar Scales

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Learn Major Guitar Scales

Major guitar scales are the basis of lead guitar playing and are essential for learning all the other scales. Once you learn the major scale pattern you will have taken the first step on the road to lead guitar mastery.

The musical alphabet is made up of the first 7 letters of the normal alphabet. Each of the letters represents a distinct pitch. The difference between each pitch is called an interval. The smallest interval between one note and the next is called 1 half tone or 1 semitone. The interval between two notes is called one tone or a full tone. A tone is simply a standard way of measuring the change in pitch of a note, similar to how a mile represents a certain distance.

Look at the C major scale below to see what I’m talking about. The C major scale is the simplest scale in western music.
It has no sharps and flats. If you don’t understand what sharps or flats are read on. The C major scale can be easily played on piano by starting on middle C and playing the 7 white keys that follow it. We will use it as an example of how to form the other major scales.

The Notes of the C Major Guitar Scale – C D E F G A B C

The Difference between Sharps and Flats

Imagine a piano. Each note on a piano, including the black notes, represents 1 half tone (or semitone). The black notes each have two names. For example the black note between C and D above can be called C# (# is the symbol for sharp) or Db (b is the symbol for Flat). The note between F and G can be called F# or Gb.

Looking at the C major scale you can see that between the 3rd and 4th notes of the Scale (E and F) there is only 1 half tone (i.e. no black key). Between the 7th and 8th notes of the scale there is only 1 half tone also.

Using The C major Scale to form the major guitar scales

Starting on C
The next note of the scale is D. The distance between C and D is two half tones or one full tone.
The next note of the scale is E. The distance between D and E is two half tones or one full tone.
The next note of the scale is F. The distance between E and F is one half tone. There is no black key on the piano between E and F.
The next note of the scale is G. The distance between F and G is two half tones or one full tone.
The next note of the scale is A. The distance between G and A is two half tones or one full tone.
The next note of the scale is B. The distance between A and B is two half tones or one full tone.
The next note of the scale is C. The distance between B and C is one half tone.

The Intervals of the C major Scale are:

Full Tone – Full Tone – Half Tone – Full Tone – Full Tone – Full Tone – Half Tone

Using this pattern we can now form the other major scales. Let’s have a look at the G major scale.

Starting on G
From G we move 1 full tone to find the next note of the scale – A
From A we move 1 full tone to find the next note – B
From B we move 1 half tone to find the next note – C
From C we move 1 full tone to find the next note – D
From D we move 1 full note to find the next note – E
From E we move 1 full note to find the next note – F#
From F# we move 1 half tone to find the next note – G

The G major Scale looks like this – G A B C D E F# G

We can use the same pattern as above to form the remaining major scales. Some of the more common one are listed below

D Major Scale: D E F# G A B C#
B Major Scale: B C# D# E F# G# A#
E Major Scale: E F# G# A B C# D#
A Major Scale: A B C# D E F# G#
F Major Scale: F G A Bb C D E
F# Major Scale: F# G# A# B C# D# E#
Bb Major Scale: Bb C D Eb F G A

December 10, 2008 at 4:57 pm | Learn Guitar Scales | 1 comment

One Response to “Learn Major Guitar Scales”

Hidoma, on February 7th, 2010 at 1:10 am Said:
Interesting.I still need to work more on that coz i just started to know all these things. Quite difficult to understand for beginner like me………

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