[MUSIC] Now we're going to talk about major scales. And I'm sure many of you might have heard these sounds before. We're going to talk a little bit about how they're created, why they're important. Again scales you can use as a warmup. They also familiarize you with tonalities, and scales are used to create melodies, and when you have more than one note that you combine from the same scale, and you play it, you play them all together, you create what's called harmony. Keys are determined by scales. Without getting into a big discussion about the theory of it, what I'm going to do now is try and explain the basis of what we call a major scale. We spoke about the 12 half steps that occur in western music that are the building block for all music. A sequence of half steps and whole steps, whole step being two half steps combined. A sequence of half steps and whole steps is what creates a major scale. Now we start off with a whole step, then, we have another whole step, and we have a half step, and we have three more whole steps, then a half step to get back to the note an octave higher than the note on which we started. I'm going to demonstrate that on a single string so that you can hear and see what that actually sounds like. Fortunately, for us, the half step corresponds to one fret so a whole step would be two frets. Now we're going to start with the F on our six string and first fret. We move up a whole step, we're going to go to G. Another whole step, [SOUND] we're going to be at A. Now we move up a half step. [SOUND] We're at B flat. Now that's not an A sharp. Technically, they're the same note but it's a B flat because the rule with major scales is that it must go to the next letter name. So, if we go from A, the next note has to be some kind of B, in this case it's a B flat. We move up another whole step, where it's C. Another whole step, D. Another whole step, E. And then a half step to get back to an F, which is one octave higher [SOUND] than the F on which we started. [SOUND] We'll play it again a little faster. [MUSIC] Whole step, whole step, half step, whole step, whole step, whole step, and a half step. [MUSIC] Now if you listen to that sound, it might sound very familiar. I'm sure many of you might have seen The Sound of Music or movies like that where you actually hear do re mi fa so la ti do. It's a very familiar sound, it's a very familiar sound in Western music. And it's the basis for a lot of the music that we play. Many of the melodies of pop tunes or tunes that you hear on the radio, traditional tunes, folk tunes from many cultures are patterned or built with pieces of the major scale. [MUSIC] Now that's a demonstration of a major scale as played on a single string. And that allows you to see the sequence of half steps and whole steps. [MUSIC] On guitar, conveniently, as I said, half step corresponds to one fret. A whole step corresponds to two frets. Now the great thing about major scales is that they are movable. And the relationship stays the same regardless of the note on which you start. We started on F just now. If I were to start on this note which is a C, [SOUND] on the fifth string third fret. And I did the same sequence of half steps and whole steps, I would wind up with a C major scale. So now I'm going to start with [SOUND] C right here and I'm going to do the same sequence, whole step, whole step, half step, three whole steps, and then another half step. Listen to how this sounds, it sounds pretty much identical with sort of a different starting note. In this case we call it the root. So in this case we're going to play a different root, which is C, same major scale. [MUSIC] C, whole step to D, whole step to E, a half step to F, whole step to G, whole step to A, whole step to B, and then a half step to get back to C which is an octave higher than the one on which we started. One more time, C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C. Of course when we start on a different note we get a different sequence of letters. In this case we started with C and we went through the alphabet until we got the musical alphabet until we got to another C. C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C. In this case, we didn't have any sharps and flats or any notes in between. Every note that we landed on was a pure letter name. Now, fortunately for us we have six strings on the guitar. That allows us to play things in position. We don't have to climb up on the single string every time we want to play a melody or a scale. It's possible to play a C major scale in position, without moving up. It was convenient enough for me to demonstrate the C-scale, moving up, so you can see the sequence of half-steps and whole-steps. Now I'm going to play a C-major scale in position. I'm going to play it in First Position, and we can play some of the same notes that we play going up this way. We can actually play them in position. So we'll start off with C, on the fifth string, third fret. going to go to an open D, E, F, G, A, B. And we're back at C, which is an octave higher than the C on which we started. Now, we're going to do the descending portion of the scale. It's important to do the descending as well as the ascending every time you practice this scale, C. [SOUND] Open B, A, open G, F, E, open D, and we're back at C again. One more time. C D E F G A B C, C B A G F E D and C. [SOUND] Now you should practice this with your metronome. Metronome, again, helps you create a strong sense of time in your playing. Now I'm going to switch my metronome on to 60 beats, and you can play along with me. You can print some of the supplemental materials and practice along with me. Here we go, 1, 2, 3, 4. [MUSIC] That was a C-Major scale in first position. Now it made use of open strings and so it was not what we call a moveable fingering.
