> **From theory:** the pattern lives on [/theory/western/#scales](/theory/western/#scales).

# The major scale

> Interactive page: [`major-scale.html`](major-scale.html). The **Hear** buttons play the notes.

The five-finger shape already walked C, D, E, F, G. A major scale keeps going until C comes back. Those notes are the ones a song in C is built from.

## What a scale is for

A scale is the list of notes that belong together, named for the note you start and end on. A tune steps through the list. The next page takes degrees **1, 3, and 5** and plays them together as a chord.

The five-finger shape stops on G. The scale adds A and B, then C again. That top C is an **octave** above the start — eight scale notes. The left hand's C, from the introduction, is an octave below middle C.

| Degree | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 1 again |
|--------|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|--------|
| Note | **C** | D | **E** | F | **G** | A | B | **C** |

Degree **1** is home.

## Whole steps and half steps

A **half step** is the next key. E–F and B–C are half steps: no black key sits between them.

A **whole step** skips one key. C to D skips C♯.

The major scale is **whole, whole, half, whole, whole, whole, half** — **W–W–H–W–W–W–H**. From C:

| Move | What to do | Land on |
|------|------------|---------|
| start | middle C | **C** |
| W | skip one key | **D** |
| W | skip one key | **E** |
| H | the next key | **F** |
| W | skip one key | **G** |
| W | skip one key | **A** |
| W | skip one key | **B** |
| H | the next key | **C** |

The half steps fall on E–F and B–C, so C major is all white keys. The white keys are this scale because you started on C.

## The same pattern from G

G A B C D E **F♯** G. From E, a whole step skips F and lands on F♯, the black key to the right of F. That is G major's one sharp. Any other starting note keeps the same steps and takes a black key wherever a white key would be the wrong size.

## How five fingers play it

**Right hand**, up from middle C. After E, the thumb passes under onto F:

| | C | D | E | F | G | A | B | C |
|--|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Finger | **1** | 2 | 3 | **1** | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |

**Left hand**, up from the C below middle C. Finger 3 crosses over the thumb onto A, and the thumb arrives on middle C:

| | C | D | E | F | G | A | B | C |
|--|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Finger | **5** | 4 | 3 | 2 | **1** | **3** | 2 | 1 |

Coming down, use the same fingers in reverse. Hands separately. The tuck is the hard moment.

## Play C before you collect the others

1. Right hand, one octave, letter names, metronome near 60.
2. The same hand, saying 1 through 7 and 1.
3. Left hand alone, lower C up to middle C.
4. Hands together only once each hand can tuck slowly.

Then G, D, A, E, then F, then the black-key majors. About one new scale a week. The [scales lab](scales-lab.md) shows every fingering later. Sources: [Hoffman Academy](https://www.hoffmanacademy.com/blog/piano-scales), [Dennis Frayne](https://www.dennisfrayne.com/blog-dennis-frayne/2020/8/3/scales-sequence-how-to-teach-piano-scales-in-the-right-order).

Next: [How chords are built](building-chords.md).