[Harmonics] Course 3 What Are Major Scales?

Major Scales 

Let’s look into some scales that you will face first when you begin to learn musical theories. 

The previous course regarding the intervals was based on the C major scale and the scale will be the first one that people learn from school. 

So now let’s review some information about what background the major scales came from. 

We feel good when we hear two notes with simple proportions of vibration as harmony but we feel a sense of discord when we hear two notes with complicated proportions of vibration. 

When we say that the standard note vibration for A (Ra) is 440Hz, we mean that the note vibrates 440 times a second. 

When we collide a note with the same vibration (440Hz), the proportion of the vibrations will be one-to-one ratio thus resulting in unison that we have learned from the last course. 

This can be described in a table as follows: 

Proportion of Vibration	Interval
1:1 440Hz : 440Hz	per 1(unison)
1:2 440Hz : 880Hz	per 8(octave)
2:3 440Hz : 660Hz	per 5
3:4 440Hz : 약586.6Hz	per 4
4:5 440Hz : 550Hz	maj 3
5:6 440Hz : 528Hz	min 3
3:5 440Hz : 733Hz	maj 6
5:8 440Hz : 704Hz	min 6

When we list this with a standard note C, the notes C, E, F, G and A appear. 

The lack of the notes B and D will be supplemented by adding the major third and the perfect fifth with a standard note G thus resulting in the C major scale that we know. 

Such notes are explained in a mathematical concept but in fact the major scales are the list of notes that we feel comfortable while hearing. In addition, the staff notation is based on the C major scale and we will focus on it. 

Allocation of the major scales 

Distance from the root 

Let’s learn the major scales with the two methods. 

We will look into major scales with different keys based on the C major scale. 

We have learned from the above that the major scales are allocated from the root consisting of whole tone, whole tone, half tone, whole tone, whole tone and half tone in order. We will create the F major scale based on this. 

The F major scale has a root F consisting of notes G, A, B, C, D and E. 

However, the allocation includes F-G (whole tone), G-A (whole tone), A-B (whole tone), B-C (half tone), C-D (whole tone), D-E (whole tone) and E-F (half tone) whose order is not matching with the allocation of the major scales. In such cases, we can use accidental marks to correct the allocation appropriate for the major scales. 

Put the flat to B so that the allocation of the scale can be appropriate for the major one. 

The accidental mark is placed beside a higher note to indicate tonality. 

Let’s find out other major scales in this way.