Obviously the world of music theory can be very complicated, so I'm going to be posting a few lessons over the coming weeks/months to show how we can use some simple concepts in a very practical way.
Firstly we'll start with the chromatic scale (All 12 notes in order) using just sharps and no flats, just to keep it a bit more simple:
A A# B C C# D D# E F F# G G#
Remember every note except B and E have sharps!
Got that? Great, for the next step we're going to start from the 'C' note and we're going to follow a very simple formula (which never changes!) to find the major scale from that chromatic scale.
C C# D D# E F F# G G# A A# B
And the formula is:
Root - Tone - Tone - Semitone - Tone - Tone - Tone - Semitone
The root note is he very first note of the C chromatic scale, we then jump 1 tone (2 frets/notes) to find the next note of the scale, which is D, we then jump another tone to find E, and then a semitone (1 fret/note) to find F, then a tone to G, a tone to A, a tone to B, and finally a semitone to bring you back to C.
So using that formula we have found that the C Major scale is:
C D E F G A B C
Now we can use that very same concept to find the notes of the G Major scale. Starting with the G chromatic scale:
G G# A A# B C C# D D# E F F#
Using the same formula as before, we end up with
G A B C D E F# G
This exact formula can be used to find the notes of EVERY major scale, and this concept can help you to work out what chords work well together and what notes these chords consist of, as well as helping with learning different scale shapes/positions and of course building your knowledge of the fretboard (which there is a diagram of below)
In the next lesson I'll explain how we can use this rule to build some simple chord progressions!
Firstly we'll start with the chromatic scale (All 12 notes in order) using just sharps and no flats, just to keep it a bit more simple:
A A# B C C# D D# E F F# G G#
Remember every note except B and E have sharps!
Got that? Great, for the next step we're going to start from the 'C' note and we're going to follow a very simple formula (which never changes!) to find the major scale from that chromatic scale.
C C# D D# E F F# G G# A A# B
And the formula is:
Root - Tone - Tone - Semitone - Tone - Tone - Tone - Semitone
The root note is he very first note of the C chromatic scale, we then jump 1 tone (2 frets/notes) to find the next note of the scale, which is D, we then jump another tone to find E, and then a semitone (1 fret/note) to find F, then a tone to G, a tone to A, a tone to B, and finally a semitone to bring you back to C.
So using that formula we have found that the C Major scale is:
C D E F G A B C
Now we can use that very same concept to find the notes of the G Major scale. Starting with the G chromatic scale:
G G# A A# B C C# D D# E F F#
Using the same formula as before, we end up with
G A B C D E F# G
This exact formula can be used to find the notes of EVERY major scale, and this concept can help you to work out what chords work well together and what notes these chords consist of, as well as helping with learning different scale shapes/positions and of course building your knowledge of the fretboard (which there is a diagram of below)
In the next lesson I'll explain how we can use this rule to build some simple chord progressions!
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