Unit 5 · Lesson 3 of 12 — IB MYP: Personal and Cultural Expression · Communication
The Major Scale
A key gives music a collection of pitches and a home base. Scale degrees help us describe each note by its job inside the key.
In this lesson
Learning Targets
Each section below is labeled with the target it teaches. The questions and your Noteflight task practice every target.
Target 1Build a major scale in an assigned key using the correct key signature
Target 2Number the notes of the scale as scale degrees 1–7
Target 3Identify scale degree 1 as tonic and explain why it functions as home
IB MYP connection
Command terms: CONSTRUCT · IDENTIFY
ConstructIdentify
Learner Profile · ATL
Knowledgeable · Thinker — Thinking: connect scale and chord knowledge to the melodies and harmonies you build.
Task
Use what you're learning to notice this in the music you already know, and be ready to apply it in your next Noteflight task.
Inquiry: Why does labeling notes by scale degree, instead of just by letter name, help you talk about a key?
Reflect: What did “The Major Scale” teach you about your own composing choices?
Key words
Words you will use today
Scale
The pitches of a key in order, from the tonic up to the tonic an octave higher (or back down). A scale uses each letter name exactly once.
Major scale
A scale built with the pattern W W H W W W H: whole, whole, half, whole, whole, whole, half.
Scale degree
A note’s number in the scale, counting the tonic as 1 up to 7. The tonic an octave higher is 1 again. The numbers work the same way in every key.
Home tone (tonic)
Scale degree 1: the pitch the key is named after and the one melodies treat as home.
Leading tone
Scale degree 7, a half step below the tonic. Because it is so close, it pulls strongly up into 1.
One pattern, every key
Target 1
The major scale pattern
A scale lists the pitches of a key in order, tonic to tonic. Every major scale uses the same pattern of whole steps (W) and half steps (H): W W H W W W H. The two half steps always fall between degrees 3–4 and 7–1. Two more rules: a scale uses each letter name exactly once, and whatever sharps or flats the pattern needs become the key signature. Below, each label names the step from the note before it; orange marks where a half step falls, or where a note had to change.
01
C major: all white keys
Start on C and the white keys give the pattern exactly, because the two white-key half steps, E–F and B–C, land in the right places: between degrees 3–4 and 7–1.
C major. The half steps (orange) are E–F and B–C.02
G major: F becomes F♯
Start on G. Up to E, the white keys fit. The next step must be a whole step, but E–F is a half step, so the 7th note must be F♯. Then F♯–G is the final half step. That F♯ is the G major key signature.
G major, with its key signature. F♯ (orange) makes the last two steps W then H.03
F major: B becomes B♭
Start on F. After F–G–A, the pattern needs a half step, but A–B is a whole step, so the 4th note must be B♭. It is spelled B♭, not A♯, because the scale already used the letter A. That B♭ is the F major key signature.
F major, with its key signature. B♭ (orange) makes step 3–4 a half step.
Numbering the notes
Target 2
Scale degrees describe a note’s job in the key
Letter names tell you which pitch. Scale degrees tell you what the pitch does in the key. Number the scale from the tonic: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and the tonic an octave higher is 1 again. Degree 5 is G in C major, D in G major, and C in F major, but it has the same role in all three keys. That is why musicians use numbers to compare melodies in different keys.
01
The G major scale, numbered
Count from the tonic. Degree 7, F♯, sits a half step below the top G, which is degree 1 again.
G major with scale degrees 1–7, then 1 an octave higher.02
Same tune, same numbers
Phrase 2 of “Ode to Joy” is 3 3 4 5 | 5 4 3 2 | 1 1 2 3 | 2 1 1 in any major key. Here it is in F major. In C major or G major the letters would change, but not one number would.
Beethoven, “Ode to Joy,” phrase 2, in F major, labeled by scale degree.03
A tune that is a scale
“Joy to the World” opens with the complete major scale, descending from 1 to 1. Numbered, it reads 1 7 6 5 4 3 2 1. The rhythm makes it a melody, but the pitches are exactly the scale.
“Joy to the World” (Mason) in G major: 1 7 6 5 4 3 2 1.
Why 1 is home
Target 3
The other degrees lead back to 1
Degree 1 is the tonic because the rest of the key is organized around it. The scale starts and ends on it, and the two degrees next to it both lead into it by step: 2 steps down to 1, and 7, the leading tone, is only a half step below 1, so it pulls up into it. That is why closed endings so often finish 2–1 or 7–1.
01
The pull of the leading tone
Play the G major scale, which pauses on degree 7. The half step between F♯ and G makes the pause sound like it is leaning forward. When 1 arrives, the pull is released.
G major: the leading tone (7) pulls into the tonic (1).02
Home by 2–1
Beethoven’s closed ending in “Ode to Joy” steps down from 2 to 1 and holds it. This is the ending you analyzed in Unit 1, now described by scale degree.
Beethoven, “Ode to Joy,” phrase 2 ending, in G major: 2–1.03
Home by 7–1
The Minuet in G reaches its tonic the other way: it descends to the leading tone, F♯, and turns up a half step to G, held for the whole final measure.
Petzold, Minuet in G, mm. 15–16: 7–1.
Worked analysis
Target 1Target 2Target 3
“Joy to the World” as a major scale
Here is the opening of “Joy to the World” in G major, labeled by scale degree. The table gives the step between each note and the next. Read downward, the major scale pattern is reversed: H W W W H W W. Orange marks the tonic at both ends.
“Joy to the World” (Mason), opening, in G major. Scale degrees labeled; orange = the tonic.
Move
Notes
Step
What it shows
1 → 7
G → F♯
Half
The signature’s F♯ makes the first move a half step, as in C major (C → B)
7 → 6 → 5 → 4
F♯ → E → D → C
Whole, whole, whole
Three whole steps in a row, the long middle of the pattern
4 → 3
C → B
Half
The second half step, between degrees 3 and 4
3 → 2 → 1
B → A → G
Whole, whole
Steps down into the tonic and holds it: a closed ending, 2–1
Model description: The opening of “Joy to the World” is a complete G major scale, descending from 1 to 1. Its half steps fall between 1 and 7 and between 4 and 3, which is the W W H W W W H pattern read in reverse, and the key signature’s F♯ is what makes the first half step possible. The melody starts on the tonic and ends on it an octave lower, arriving by step from 2 and holding it for the longest note of the phrase, so the tonic sounds like home at both ends.
Notice what the description does: it names the key and the scale, locates both half steps by scale degree, explains where the key signature comes in, and says why the tonic sounds like home. Degree numbers let you say all of this in a way that works in any key.
Check your understanding
Try it before you compose
Pick an answer for each question. You will see right away whether you are correct and why.
0 of 6 correct
1You are building F major: F, G, A, … Which note must come 4th?
Target 1
2Listen, then choose which excerpt you heard.
Target 1
A
B
3In G major, which note is scale degree 5?
Target 2
4This is “Ode to Joy” in G major. Which scale degree is the orange note?
Target 2
5Listen only. The scale stops before it finishes. Why does it sound incomplete?
Target 3
6Which explanation of why scale degree 1 functions as home is strongest?
Target 3Target 2
Take it to Noteflight
Build, number, and resolve a major scale
Build a major scale with its key signature, label every note with its job in the key, then write a short ending that uses that knowledge.
Your Noteflight task
In G major or F major, write the major scale ascending, one octave from tonic to tonic, using the correct key signature. Label each note with its scale degree (1–7, with the top note as 1). Then write a 2-measure melody in the same key that ends on degree 1, approached by 2–1 or 7–1, and held.