All melodic Westerm music is made up of a combination of 12 pitches/notes which ascend and descend at even intervals. We call these even intervals half steps. On guitar, a half step is 1 fret away from any note on a given string. 

The Major Scale is our reference point to understanding this system of half steps. It organizes all 12 tones by choosing 7 of those notes as “diatonic” or within the scale, and the other 5 as outside of the scale. We can choose any of our 12 tones as the root, and number the steps in the major scale as Root, 2nd,  3rd,  4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th.  Since there are 5 tones left OUTSIDE of the major scale, we can still orient those notes according to the root by altering the diatonic tones. For example, b5, or #5.

This is a helpful way to organize the tones because it honors and communicates the emotional side of music. Each interval has its own character and emotional affect. When you hear a 3rd, there is a very distinct feeling we can all relate to. Being able to recognize the feeling of an interval and using that knowledge skillfully in your playing is what makes a musician more like a magician, because the musician is manipulating feelings and emotions and dominating the energy of the environment through the music. 

That said, learning the Major Scale does not end with simply being able to play it. Major Scale practice is a an ongoing journey of discovering how to convey feeling and emotion on your instrument. In order to do so, we must begin slow, and approach each exercise as if it were a developmental game. We are not here to just perform major scale patterns, we are actually trying to train our minds and hands to recognize the physical attributes of very abstract information: music. The goal of this way of practicing is not only to become technically proficient, but to develop a dynamic relationship with this sonic language that allows you to listen to and express what words cannot. 

Written by Ila Cantor