Major scale on guitar

The notes of the C major scale

C D E F G A B

Formula: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7. Steps from note to note: 2 2 1 2 2 2 1 semitones (whole, whole, half, whole, whole, whole, half).

C major has no sharps or flats. Its relative minor, with the same notes, is A minor.

The C major scale on guitar

One position, frets 7–11, low E string first: low E: 7 8 10 (7 1 2) · A: 7 8 10 (3 4 5) · D: 7 9 10 (6 7 1) · G: 7 9 10 (2 3 4) · B: 8 10 (5 6) · high E: 7 8 10 (7 1 2). 0 = open string.

1 is the root. Put it on the fret the table below gives for your key and the same shape plays that key.

The major scale in all twelve keys

One shape for twelve keys

Learn the major scale shape once with the root under your middle finger on the low E string, and every key is a fret number: G at the 3rd, A at the 5th, C at the 8th. The table gives the fret for each key on the low E and on the A string, where the same scale starts one string higher. The tone-tone-semitone pattern is the same in every key; the guitar just lets you see it as a shape.

More scales

Major scale Major scale on piano Major scale on trumpet Major scale on bass C major scale on guitar A major scale on guitar

How this page works

Hear it plays the scale up and down at 100 BPM on one of four Brumm sounds. Take it gives the same notes as a MIDI file and a WAV. − and + move the root. Every note here is computed from the formula.

Sources

Scales and modes: Open Music Theory, musictheory.net. Piano fingerings: the standard scale-book fingerings (ABRSM scale books; Hanon, The Virtuoso Pianist, part 3). Trumpet valves: the standard B♭ trumpet fingering chart (Yamaha, Bach). Hz: A4 = 440 Hz, ISO 16.

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