Journey to Creating Songs

There are seven notes in musical terms. These are C,D,E,F,G,A, and B. This pattern resembles the C Major scale (CDEFGABC). Now the last note in the Major scale (in this case,"C") just repeats itself. But if you listen to it carefully, you'll notice that the "C" at the begining and the "C" in the end sounds same though different in pitch. The last note is then called an octave. An octave note has double the frequency of the actual note. So you hear it in a high pitch. Before I begin explaining scales, I should point out how the intervals work and also the meanings of "sharps" and "flats".

Let's look at a scale: A B C D E F G. This type of scale is known as a Chromatic scale. Because you ascend gradually throughout the notes. You may notice that we've got the seven universal notes of music. But to tell you the truth, there are actually 12 notes! Ok, I can hear you saying "What the ****?" This is where the "sharps" and "flats" come into play. Remember the chromatic scale, A B C D E F G? Good. Between two notes (there are exceptions), there is a flat or a sharp. We denote the sharps by putting a "#" symbol after the note. So you may see C#,A# and etc. And the flats get denoted by putting a "b" after the note. So you may see Ab or Gb. By the way, sharps are also called augmented notes and the flats are also called diminished notes. Now let's write down the chromatic scale again, shall we?

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

Notice the sharps? You have just raised the actual tone by half. So the "sharped" note is called a "semitone" above the actual note. Also notice that there is no sharp for the "B" and the "E" notes. You might be thinking where the flats come into play? As you might have guessed, you can also lower the actual note by a semitone. This is called a flat. Now, if you flatted the B note, what should be the new note? Bb. Good. But if I say, A#? It would be correct too! Again, writing down the chromatic scale:

A A#/Bb B/Cb C C#/Db D D#/Eb E/Fb F F#/Gb G G#/Ab

Cool isn't it? Giving two names two one single note. If you play A# and Bb, you are simply playing the same note again. This is an example of enharmonic spelling and the two notes are enharmonic. Got it?

Now all I've talked is about notes and enharmonics and all that stuff. But chromatic scale doesn't actually sound so...well,musical! That's where scale comes in. Remember we talked about the Major scale, CDEFGABC? Well, that's the C Major Scale. Now to construct a major scale, we have to understand intervals. The intervals can be thought of as the distance between two notes. Intervals are always counted from the lower note to the higher one, with the lower note being counted as one. Suppose our first note is C, so if we move to D we are moving a whole-step. A whole-step is equal to two semitones. If we look carefully, moving from C to D requires you to jump over C#. So here's a simple example:

C --> C# = One semitone
C# --> D = One semitone

Thus, if we move from C to D:

C --> D = Two semitones

And like a story having two sides, a musical term also has two names. One semitone is also same as a half-step. Two semitones is a whole-step. If we re-write the section above using steps, it would look like:

C --> C# = A half-step
C# --> D = A half-step
Thus, C --> D = A whole-step

See, it's so easy if you put it altogether! Now back to constructing scales, Major scales to be precise. The formula for constructing a Major scale is:

W W H W W W H

"W" means a whole-step while "H" means a half-step. So let's create a C Major scale! Our first note (the root note) of the scale is "C". So putting it at the begining:

C

Now as the formula tells us, we have to move a whole-step from "C". So, a whole-step above C is D. And if you prefer to refer (hey it rhymes!) to semitones, two semitones above C is D.

C D

Now by applying this basic rule, let's see how the completed version of C Major scale looks like:

C D E F G A B C

If we put the steps or intervals between the notes, it looks like this:

C(W)D(W)E(H)F(W)G(W)A(W)B(H)C

The A Major Scale

So this is the A Major Scale. You start at the 5th fret of the high E-string of the fretboard and then move to a whole-step forward to the 7th fret. Then again move forward a whole-step forward to the 9th fret (remember the WWHWWWH pattern?). Some guitarists prefer to use three notes per string (abbrv. as 3NPS).

If that's the case you want, then the next notes you have to play just lie below the A note, that is, the 5th fret of the E-string. Then play the notes in the same style as before (3NPS). In the end, play the 6th fret (G#) of the D-string and then the 7th fret (A) of the same string (D-string). There you go. You've just played the A Major Scale.

The B Major Scale

Now comes the B Major Scale. The method is same as the one applied in A Major Scale. But this time you start on the 7th fret of the high E-string (because that is where the B note is). Then play the notes in the scale as before. Here is the B Major Scale for your reference:

B C# D# E F# G# A# B

See those exact notes lying all around the fretboad? If you play any of those notes during a chord progression based on the B Major scale, then you'll see that it sounds O-K-A-Y! That's the secret of soloing over a chord progression. With a little effort, you can memorize the whole fretboard for each individual scale and obviously, you should also memorize which fret contains which note.

The C Major Scale

How can I forget the C Major Scale? Well, I didn't as you can see. The procedure is the same as playing A Major or B Major scale. One new thing to learn: some musicians also practise 2-Octave version of a particular scale. You might ask what's that. In the previous scales, we just played from A to A. That is, we played the A note and then to it's octave, A. But actually, there are seven notes in any particular major scale. We get the 8th note because we double the root note. Let's look at the "actual" C Major scale:

C D E F G A B

See? There's no C in the end of the scale. Now let's look at the so-called "2-Octave" version of the C Major Scale:

C D E F G A B C D E F G A B C

So you get two octaves of C. If you follow the 3NPS, then you should end on the 13th fret of the B string. But as we are guitarists and are crazy, we play some more notes. It doesn't matter much in theory though!

I won't talk about the other scales because I want you to find out the notes (heck, they are all given in the pictures) and they play the scales. Good Luck!

The D Major Scale

The E Major Scale

The F Major Scale

The G Major Scale

Well, all these pictures of notes on guitars may as well turn into a mystery for you.

Now that I've showed you how to work out the Major scale of any note, I want you to check out my Chord Construction tutorial. Below are some links you may find interesting:

Ricci Adam's at http://www.musictheory.net

Ultimate-Guitar at http://www.ultimate-guitar.com

Intervals and Scales at http://library.thinkquest.org/15413/theory/intervals.htm

Chord progression at http://www.angelfire.com/fl4/moneychords/lesson.html

Chord Progression Generator at www.hotfrets.com/songanator.asp

Music Theory Web at www.teoria.com

Music Theory for Guitarists at www.theorylessons.com