In music theory, a scale is a series of notes played between two pitches - these can be literally any two pitches, and any notes between them, and we can base the music we create and play on the notes of these scales. Although these possible scales are theoretically limitless, there are a number of already established and named scales - or journeys between two notes - and it’s these that almost all of the music we hear is based on.

Generally the scales used in Western Music are almost always made between two notes of the same pitch class / name (ie two ‘D’ notes, or two ‘F#’ notes) which are an octave apart. A practical example would be if we take any ‘C’ note on the piano, and then find the next ‘C’ up in pitch on the piano (this distance is an octave), the notes we play in a journey between these two ‘C’ notes would be called the ‘scale’.

Perhaps the most obvious possible scale is the ‘Chromatic Scale’, which simply plays every single note, black and white, between the beginning and end point of the scale, however the scales that form the foundation of most Western music, from classical to folk, rock and jazz, are 8 note scales made from 7 distinct pitch classes. That might sound unnecessarily complicated, but in reality it’s very simple. Let’s use the notes of the C Major scale as an example:

C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C

So in this scale, there are 8 notes total, C-C, and there are 7 distinct pitch classes / names (we have two ‘C’’s, so ‘C’ only counts once as a distinct pitch class). The scale is named after the first, or ‘root’, note - the note we begin the scale from.

Above ⬆️ G Chromatic Scale - - - Below ⬇️ B Major Scale

This next part is absolutely the most crucial thing to understand about scales!

Scales are made from formulas where the interval (distance) between each note is predetermined.

All same named scales follow the exact same formulas from the first to the last note!

Another way of saying this is that for all Major scales, the distance in pitch between the 1st and 2nd notes is always the same, as is the distance between the 2nd and 3rd notes, 3rd and 4th, 4th and 5th etc. Because of this, the distances between any two notes in the same position in any major scale are also the same, ie between the 1st and 5th notes, or the 2nd and 7th notes, or the 3rd and 6th notes..

Each consecutive note in the common scales is either a semitone up in pitch, or a whole-tone (simply called a ‘tone’) up in pitch.

We shall shorthand semitone to ‘S’ and tone to ‘T’

With this in mind, the formula for the Major scale is (notes are numbered):

1st (+T) 2nd (+T) 3rd (+S) 4th (+T) 5th (+T) 6th (+T) 7th (+S) 8th

Using this formula and beginning with the note ‘C’ we get:

C (+T) D (+T) E (+S) F (+T) G (+T) A (+T) B (+S) C

This matches the C Major scale we wrote earlier:

C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C

It’s named ‘C Major’, because we started on ‘C’ (our root note) and followed the ‘Major’ scale formula!

We can use this formula, and begin at any note we would like! So…

D Major:

D (+T) E (+T) F# (+S) G (+T) A (+T) B (+T) C# (+S) D

D, E, F#, G, A, B, C#, D

E Major:

E (+T) F# (+T) G# (+S) A (+T) B (+T) C# (+T) D# (+S) E

E, F#, G#, A, B, C#, D#, E

F Major:

F (+T) G (+T) A (+S) Bb (+T) C (+T) D (+T) E (+S) F

F, G, A, Bb, C, D, E, F

Ab Major:

Ab (+T) Bb (+T) C (+S) Db (+T) Eb (+T) F (+T) G (+S) Ab

Ab, Bb, C, Db, Eb, F, G, Ab

F# Major:

F# (+T) G# (+T) A# (+S) B (+T) C# (+T) D# (+T) E# (+S) F#

F#, G#, A#, B, C#, D#, E#, F