The Logic of Scales
Explore scales with colors, numbers and piano keyboard.
Examples on this page will be with the key of C.
Root/key note, where the scale starts, is "1" or Red.
Remember, colors and numbers are always relative!
The Chromatic Scale
is the canvas with all the musical pitches/notes, 12 per octave.
Neighboring notes are 1 semitone (pitch interval) apart.
All other scale types will be extracted from it.
2
1
4
3
5
6
7
9
8
10
11
12
1
Major / Minor
Let's look how major and minor scales are built from the chromatic scale.
Notice that the pitch intervals are having a pattern.
They have 7 notes per octave.
Chromatic
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
Major
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Minor
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
C Major Scale
7 notes per octave with pitch intervals having a pattern:
2, 2, 1, 2, 2, 2, 1 semitones apart (starting from the root).
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
1
C Minor Scale
7 notes per octave with pitch intervals having a pattern:
2, 1, 2, 2, 1, 2, 2 semitones apart (starting from the root).
3
1
2
6
4
5
7
1
C Major Pentatonic
Major pentatonic scale is extracted from the major scale.
5 notes per octave with pitch intervals having a pattern:
2, 2, 3, 2, 3 semitones apart (starting from the root).
1
1
2
2
3
3
4
5
5
6
7
6
1
1
C Minor Pentatonic
Minor pentatonic scale is extracted from the minor scale.
5 notes per octave with pitch intervals having a pattern:
3, 2, 2, 3, 2 semitones apart (starting from the root).
3
1
2
3
6
4
5
7
7
1
1
4
5
1