A scale by any other name...

The previous lesson focussed on constructing a major scale in the abstract. For example, it didn’t matter which particular string or fret you started with, so long as you had the right pattern of intervals across the 8 notes. Now we need to learn briefly how the notes in a major scale are named. This is the focus of this lesson, and if we learn it carefully we will be able to name each note on each string up and down our fretboard.

You will remember that a major scale is a pattern of notes played across an interval of one octave. There are 12 frets between the 2 octave notes. This means that we can create 12 different major scales. Each scale will have the same pattern, but a different root note, like this:

...and so on.

Now in each of these scales there are 7 distinct notes. The naming convention for these notes is to make use of the first 7 letters of the alphabet. For example, the notes in the C major scale are named like this:

note   1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8

name   C   D   E   F   G   A   B   C

(Remember that the scale has 8 notes, but the first and last notes are the octave notes. They have the same “essence”, so they have the same letter name.)

Now comes the slightly tricky bit if you're new to music theory. We have 12 frets in an octave. However we have only named 7 of those frets by letter. The other 5 frets are named by using the adjacent letters plus a sharp or flat sign.

For example, C and D are the first 2 notes of the C major scale, so between C and D there is a 2 fret interval (remember the pattern? 2-2-1-2-2-2-1). So what about the note in between? This note can be named in two ways: C sharp (1 fret up from C) or D flat (1 fret down from D).

In the same way the interval between D and E is 2 frets, so the fret in between D and E can be named either D sharp or E flat.

On the other hand, the interval between E and F is only one fret, so there is no middle note. No E sharp or F flat - we go directly from E to F.

Technical stuff

You will find an E sharp in more advanced music theory, but that is beyond the scope of this lesson. The basic idea is that E sharp is equal to F, and occasionally in sheet music a note is written as E sharp instead of F because that makes it easier to read.

The sharp sign is a stylised hash symbol music symbol (sharp sign) and the flat sign is a stylised b music symbol (flat sign). So C sharp is written as C#, and D flat is written as Db.

Put all this together and you get the names for every fret in your octave. They go like this:

A
A# or Bb
B
C
C# or Db
D
D# or Eb
E
F
F# or Gb
G
G# or Ab
(and back to A)

Another definition...

If you play all 12 of these notes in a row you have played a special scale known as a chromatic scale.

You can now use these note names to identify the note of every fret on your guitar. For example, the frets on string one are named like this...

1E fret |--0--1--2---3--4---5--6---7--8--9--10--11--12-13-|

name       E  F  F#  G  G#  A  A#  B  C  C#  D  D#  E  F etc

                (Gb)   (Ab)   (Bb)      (Db)   (Eb)

...and the frets on string 2 have exactly the same 12 note names, except they start with B rather than E.

Why so complex?

You may have questions about all this, such as:
“Why does this scale run from C to C, and not A to A?” or “Why not 12 letters to name the 12 frets between the octaves?” Good questions. There are answers, but to deal with them we would need a more extensive knowledge of historical music theory and sheet music notation. It’s like asking “why does one culture write left to right, and another culture right to left?”

So for the present just accept that this is how it is. If you are keen, there are many resources that will give you a deeper insight into music theory and how to read sheet music.

Welcome to keys!

In a previous page we defined the basic idea of a music key as the overall range of the music. Consider a set of notes in a song. If that set as a whole goes up or down, the key goes up or down.

Now that we have a way of naming each note on our fretboard, we can be more specific.

We start with C. In music C is the “default” scale. It’s the only major scale that has no sharp or flat notes added. Every other major scale needs to use at least one sharp or flat to fill in the gaps.

So, C it is. Let’s play this scale on our guitar. There is a C note on string 2, fret 1, so we could play it as follows:

2 B |--1---3---5---6---8---10--12--13--|

note   1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8

name   C   D   E   F   G   A   B   C

steps    2   2   1   2   2   2   1

Congratulations! You have just learned your first official scale. You have also defined your first key. The key, octave, major scale and root note all go together as follows:

What about the other keys? We construct them in the same way. Each of the 12 notes in the chromatic scale will have its associated key, and a major scale that begins from that root note. Here are some examples:

The key of G

The chromatic scale (set of 12 notes plus the finishing root note) in G is:

G G# A A# B C C# D D# E F F# G

(You will see that we have exactly the same 12 notes of our octave. The only difference is the root or starting note.)

Now we apply the interval pattern that we have learned for a major scale. When we apply it to the G chromatic scale, we get this set of notes:

note   1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8

name   G   A   B   C   D   E   F#  G

So you can see that the G major scale is almost identical to the C major scale. The only difference is that at note 7 we play an F#, not an F. We need to make this change to maintain the pattern of intervals that creates a major scale.

The key of A

As before, we begin with the chromatic scale in the key of A...

A A# B C C# D D# E F F# G G# A

...to which we apply the now familiar interval pattern for a major scale:

note   1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8

name   A   B   C#  D   E   F#  G#  A

For this scale we need to sharpen three of the notes to maintain the major scale pattern.

The key of F

The chromatic scale in the key of F will be...

F F# G G# A A# B C C# D D# E F

...which produces this major scale:

note   1   2   3   4   5   6   7   8

name   F   G   A   Bb  C   D   E   F

For this scale we need to flatten the fourth note to maintain the major scale pattern. (There is only one fret between notes 3 and 4, so we go from A to Bb, not A to B.)

To sharpen or not to sharpen?

You may have wondered why the F major scale has a Bb note when all the other changes so far have involved sharps. Why not A# here?

The answer is based on how sheet music is written, so the full details are beyond the scope of this lesson. But the basic idea is that each line and space on a music staff has a letter assigned to it. So it is easier to read music when each of the lines and spaces has to handle only one note. If we use A#, the A natural and A sharp notes would lie on the same line and make it harder to read. But if we use Bb, we can put the A natural notes on the A line and the Bb notes on the B line.

For our purposes, all we need to do is choose in each case the name that ensures we have one and only one of each letter in the scale. So in the key of G above, we could have chosen Gb instead of F#. But then we would have no F something, and two G somethings - a G flat and a G natural. So F# is the right choice.

Hopefully you have enough information here to work out the note names for the other scales as you need them.

A practice exercise

Try writing down the note names in the D major scale. Write the scale twice - once naming the notes as flats where necessary, and the 2nd time naming them as sharps. Which option gives you all 7 letters from A to G? Now try the A#/Bb major scale. Again, write down the notes twice. Which set gives you all 7 letters? The first note will be the name of the scale. Will it be the A# major scale, or the Bb major scale?

So far, most of our work has been on learning about scales, rather than playing them. In our next lesson we will focus more on the playing side, and in particular how to play scales across several strings on the guitar.

(Need help interpreting the guitar tab symbols used throughout this site? Click here)