Major Scale Charts
The major scale is made up of seven notes (heptatonic) per octave. It is also known as a diatonic scale. In music theory, a diatonic scale is a heptatonic scale that includes five whole steps and two half steps per octave. The sequence of intervals between the notes of a major scale is: whole, whole, half, whole, whole, whole, half. The black dots in each diagram below indicate the scale root notes.
Learn how to play fill riffs using the Major Scales:
A Major Scale:
Bb Major Scale:
B Major Scale:
C Major Scale:
C# Major Scale:
D Major Scale:
Eb Major Scale:
E Major Scale:
F Major Scale:
F# Major Scale:
G Major Scale:
G# Major Scale:
Tips and tricks
The major pentatonic scale is basically a stripped down version of the heptatonic major scale. When you’re learning how to create guitar solos up the neck with the five scale positions, it’s usually easier to memorize the major pentatonic scales first. Then, after you can visualize the major pentatonic scale positions across the fretboard, study and memorize the heptatonic major scale charts above.
You can solo over most country and bluegrass songs using the five major scale positions. To make your solos sound even more country and bluegrass, try mixing the blues scale with the major scale. We’ll continue to post guitar lesson videos each week here at Country Guitar Online that will show you how to combine the blues scale and major scale positions to give your lead guitar a nice country and bluegrass twang. We’ll also teach you several techniques that’ll help you create melodic solos that flow well over a song’s chord progression.
Practice makes perfect
It really helps to visualize this on the neck of the guitar. Memorize one position of the major scale at a time. Have fun making up different licks in that position. Then when you master one position, move on to the next. Experiment with different ways of connecting the two positions of the scale. For example, you can slide various notes up and down, hammer on, stretch your fingers to hit three consecutive notes on a string, or just shift your hands up or down on the neck. The key to learning to how to solo is practice and repetition.