Music Fundamentals A Balanced Approach

Elements of the major scale:

• Has eight diatonic notes (adjacent letter names)


• Spans one octave, beginning and ending with the same letter name


• Lowest note gives the scale its name


• Consists of two tetrachords


• Has adjacent notes which are whole steps except for half steps between 3 and 4 and between 7 and 8.


• This pattern may begin on any note; when one changes the starting pitch while keeping the same arrange-
  ment of whole and half steps, this is called transposition.Each resulting scale will sound similar because
  the interval distance between each of the notes remains the same. All major scales except C major will need
  at least one accidental.


• Use sharps or flats exclusively in a major scale

Writing Major Scales: Using Tetrachords

The word “tetrachord” comes from the Greek words tetra(meaning “four”) and chord(from the Greek word
chorde ̄meaning “string”). There are several kinds of tetrachords, but we will study the tetrachord pattern that
is used in the major scale, that of a whole step, whole step, followed by a half step.

142

W W H

Tetrachord

MODULE 6

C D E F G A B C

H H

W W H W W W H

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8

C D E F G A B C

Do Re Mi Fa Sol La Ti Do

C major scale:

Sing:

H H

Tetrachord Tetrachord

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