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Music scales
The scales everyone actually uses, drawn on the guitar, electric guitar, ukulele and cavaquinho neck. Notes, degrees, formula and the chords each one builds.
Basic scales
Pentatonics
- C major pentatonicFive notes, no friction: you can improvise without hitting a wrong one. Country, pop and folk live here.C · D · E · G · A
- C minor pentatonicEvery guitarist's first scale. Whole careers in rock and blues fit inside these five notes.C · D# · F · G · A#
- C bluesThe minor pentatonic with the blue note (b5) in the middle. It is the note that makes a solo sound dirty in the right way.C · D# · F · F# · G · A#
Greek modes
- C IonianThe first mode — the same notes as the major scale, resting in the same place. It is the ruler you measure the other modes against.C · D · E · F · G · A · B
- C DorianMinor with a major sixth. A shade brighter than natural minor: the sound of Santana, of funk and of most modal jazz.C · D · D# · F · G · A · A#
- C PhrygianMinor with a flat second. That half step right at the start is the sound of flamenco and of heavy metal.C · C# · D# · F · G · G# · A#
- C LydianMajor with a raised fourth. It floats instead of settling — film score and daydream.C · D · E · F# · G · A · B
- C MixolydianMajor with a flat seventh. The sound of rock, of blues and of any riff that asks for a dominant chord.C · D · E · F · G · A · A#
- C AeolianThe sixth mode, the same notes as natural minor. Every sad song you know passes through here.C · D · D# · F · G · G# · A#
- C LocrianThe most unstable mode: a diminished fifth and nowhere comfortable to rest. It shows up in passing, over half-diminished chords.C · C# · D# · F · F# · G# · A#
Advanced scales
- C harmonic minorMinor with a raised seventh. The step and a half before the root gives it that eastern colour and pulls hard toward home.C · D · D# · F · G · G# · B
- C melodic minorMinor with raised sixth and seventh: it climbs as smoothly as a major while keeping the minor third. The modern jazz scale.C · D · D# · F · G · A · B
- C whole toneNothing but whole steps, six notes all alike. No obvious root — the sound of dizziness and dream sequences.C · D · E · F# · G# · A#
- C diminished (W-H)Whole step and half step alternating, eight notes. Symmetrical, so the same shape repeats every three frets.C · D · D# · F · F# · G# · A · B
- C diminished (H-W)The diminished scale starting on the half step. The scale for improvising over altered dominants.C · C# · D# · E · F# · G · A · A#
- C chromaticAll twelve notes, skipping none. Not a place to rest: a bridge from one chord to the next.C · C# · D · D# · E · F · F# · G · G# · A · A# · B