The Major Scales in Music

An essential part of music is knowing the different scales. For this example, we will clarify and give sound examples of the Major Scale. This is essential for electronic music producers to stay in the scale when producing music from scratch.

*WAV samples, zip, and .flp project files are available upon request.

Major Scale or Ionian Scale is of the diatonic scales. The Major Scales are made up of seven notes with the eighth note duplicating frequency thus becoming one octave higher.

Diatonic Scale is the sequence of intervals between notes of a Major Scale. Example: whole whole, half, whole, whole, whole, half.

Whole = Whole Tone

Half = Semitone

Circle of Fifths – The numbers inside the circle show the number of sharps or flats in the key signature.

Reference: Saddleback College Music Theory 1 Course