It’s very common for a performer to use scales to develop their technique and finger dexterity. This is true for guitarists, pianists, or any other musician. A scale can be considered a group of pitches in ascending and descending order. The scales used the most in the past 200 hundred years are known as the diatonic scales.
Diatonic scales have a mix of half and whole steps and sometimes a step and a half. Each tone in the scale plays a role. The first tone is called the Tonic. The tonic is the most stable tone in the scale and all the other tones lead toward or away from it.
Scale Degree Names and Meanings
Major Scale
A major scale is a scale of seven different pitches with whole steps between adjacent tones except for half steps between the third and fourth degrees and between the seventh and eighth degrees. The eighth pitch will have the same letter name as the first.
Key Signature
The key signature is an arrangement of sharps or flats that is drawn at the beginning of each staff after the clef.
Minor Scale and its Three Forms
The three forms of the minor scale are as follows:
natural minor –
harmonic minor –
melodic minor –
Relative and Parallel Relationships
When a major and minor scale share the same key signature they are said to have a relative relationship. To find a relative minor of any major scale, look to the sixth degree of that major scale. The sixth degree will be the tonic of the relative minor scale.
When a major and a minor scale begin on the same tonic note they are in a parallel relationship. For example, C major and C minor.
Circle of Fifths
Pentatonic Scale
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Blues Scale
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