Whare are musical scales? There are many types of musical scale. A scale is a series of notes which is fixed by a particular pattern of tones and semitones.
Semitones are notes which are directly next to each other. (It doesn’t matter what colour the keys are).
A tone is the same as two semitones.
For example:
- E-F is a semitone
- E-F# is a tone
- Gb-G (natural) is a semitone
- Gb-Ab is a tone
- Eb-F is a tone
There are many types of musical scale. In this lesson we will look at the major, natural minor, harmonic minor, melodic minor, chromatic, whole tone and pentatonic scales.
In this lesson, we use the letter S for semitone and T for tone.
Use each letter name only once in each scale. (G-Ab is ok but G-G# is not.)
What are Major Scales?
Major scales have 8 notes from start to finish.
Starting from the lowest note, the pattern for major scales is:
T-T-S-T-T-T-S
Here is an example starting on D:
Remember that we use each letter name only once. This means we can’t write Gb or Db in a D major scale, it has to be F# and C#.
Major scales use the same notes on the way down as on the way up:
What are Natural Minor Scales?
Natural minor scales have 8 notes from start to finish.
Starting from the lowest note, the pattern for natural minor scales is:
T-S-T-T-S-T-T
Here is an example starting on A:
Natural minor scales also use the same notes on the way down as on the way up.
What are Harmonic Minor Scales?
Harmonic minor scales have 8 notes from start to finish.
Starting from the lowest note, the pattern for harmonic minor scales is:
T-S-T-T-S-3S-S
(3S = three semitones)
Here is an example starting on E:
Harmonic minor scales also use the same notes on the way down as on the way up.
What are Melodic Minor Scales?
Melodic minor scales have 8 notes from start to finish.
Starting from the lowest note, the pattern for melodic minor scales is:
T-S-T-T-T-T-S
Here is an example starting on F:
Melodic minor scales have a different pattern of tones and semitones on the way down!
Starting from the highest note, the pattern for melodic minor scales is:
T-T-S-T-T-S-T
Here is the descending melodic minor scale, starting on F. Notice which notes are different from the ascending scale.
This is, in fact, the same as the descending natural minor scale
What are Chromatic Scales?
Chromatic scales have 12 notes from start to finish.
Starting from the lowest note, the pattern for chromatic minor scales is:
S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S-S
There are two main ways to write chromatic scales.Â
1. The tonic-dominant method. This uses the letter name for the tonic and dominant only once, then each other letter name twice. This method uses the same notes on the way down. Here is a chromatic scale starting on D:
2. The sharps-up and flats-down method. This uses only sharps (or naturals) on the way up, and only flats (or naturals) on the way down. Here are the ascending and descending D chromatic scales written using this method:
What are Whole Tone Scales?
Whole tone scales have 7 notes from start to finish.
Starting from the lowest note, the pattern for whole tone scales is:
T-T-T-T-T-T
Here is a whole tone scale starting on C:
Whole tone scales use the same notes on the way down.
What are Pentatonic Scales?
Pentatonic means “5 notes”. There are lots of different pentatonic scales – what they have in common is that they are built on a pattern which contains only 5 different notes.
The most common pentatonic scale is the major pentatonic scale. The pattern of tones and semitones is:
T-T-3S-T
Here is a major pentatonic scale starting on F#:
This also happens to be a scale using only the black notes of the piano.
Another very common version is the minor pentatonic scale. The pattern of tones and semitones is:
3S-T-3S-T
Here is the minor pentatonic scale starting on A#.
This scale actually uses exactly the same notes as the major pentatonic scale, but the tonic note is different.