Introducing Scales - The Major Scale

Scale/Key: A group of notes that dominate the melody and harmony of a section of music.
Tonic: The 'home' note of a scale/key.
Major scale: Take a note (this will be your tonic), then move up the notes by the following steps - tone, tone, semitone, tone, tone, tone, semitone. That is 2 tones and a semitone, then 3 tones and a semitone. Repeat the pattern up the piano.

E♭ major

F major

C major
Scale degree: The position of a note in a scale. The major scale has 7 notes so these are numbered from 1 - 7 starting with 1 for the tonic.

Work out some major scales. Pick a random note as a tonic, then work upwards.

tone, tone,

semitone,

tone, tone, tone,

semitone.

Use one of the major scales you have worked out to play a simple melody such as Twinkle Twinkle.

Here is the start, using the scales degrees 1 - 7:

1, 1, 5, 5, 6, 6, 5, 4, 4, 3, 3, 2, 2, 1

See if you can work out the rest for yourself. Then try it using other major scales.