Lesson 5 - Making a Scale and Basic Chords

Ok, while you are practicing your chord changes, I want to fill your head with a little knowledge to help you so you can eventually start building your own chord progressions and making your own songs.

In your note practice, you see that you keep cycling from A to G#, then starting the alphabet over again.  Every A you play is the same note, some sound higher, some lower.  The distance from one letter to another is called an OCTAVE.  There are 12 different tones (A, A#, B, C, C#... etc.) in an octave.

Below are (in tablature and standard notation) examples for this lesson.

Ex. A is an octave from middle C to the C above middle C.  It includes the 12 tones and the C octave (for a total of 13 tones).  Each tone is a half step.  C to C# is a half step, C# to D is a half step, E to F is a half step also.  Remember there are no sharps between B and C, and E and F.

If you skip a half step (follow me with the pre-Algebra here) you get a whole step.  So C to D is a whole step, D to E is a whole step, E to F# is a whole step.

So here is where the magic begins.

To make a major scale (also called Ionian Mode), you have to use the following math:

Whole Step + Whole Step + Half Step + Whole Step + Whole Step + Whole Step + Half Step = major scale

In Ex A and B, each note is a half step, Each note and rest is a whole step.  So, the notes of the C major scale above are  C, D, E, F, G, A, B, and back to C.

Scales we will learn to play soon enough.  For now it is just important how the scales are created.  Because from these, we make chords.  The basic chord, and the ones we have been learning so far, are called “triads.”  They are based on three notes taken in “thirds”.  The first chord of a major scale is the first note, third note, and fifth note of the C Major scale (as seen in Ex C).