Estimated reading time 3 minutes
Table of Contents
The G Major Scale/G Major Chord Scale #1: Constructing Scales and Building Chords
Do you want to know what notes and chords are in the G major scale? Do you find the theory behind the G major chord scale confusing? To truly understand music, you must know how to construct scales and how to build chords from the scale tones. Read The G Major Scale (Including the G Major Chord Scale) to learn how they work.
This post uses musical terms. For definitions, see the Glossary at the end of the article.
The G Major Scale/G Major Chord Scale #2: Exploring the Scale
Mobile users: for best results reading the examples, tilt your screen 90o to the right.
To play a virtual keyboard: click here.
Before we look at the G major chord scale, we’ll talk about how the G major scale works. When we use the term scale, it usually indicates a collection of notes used for making melodies and melodic patterns.
- The key of G has these notes: G A B C D E F# G.
- Also, it has this pattern: W W H W W W H (where W = a whole step and H = a half step).
- All major scales use this pattern of whole and half steps.
“Whole and half what?” If you look at the keyboard above, the scale has one key in between each note (the whole steps), except for the notes B & C and F# & G (the half steps).
- Notice that you’ll use F# instead of F, which conforms with the major scale pattern.
- In addition, the labeling of the notes must be kept in alphabetical order.
- Thus, you’d label the black key note F# instead of Gb. Otherwise, you’ll have two versions of G (G and Gb) and no notes labeled with a version of F.
For more on accidentals (i.e., sharps, flats, and naturals), where they came from and how they work, read:
The Scale:
The G Major Scale/G Major Chord Scale #3: Exploring the Chords
Diatonic Harmony:
Now that we’ve talked about the G major scale, let’s talk about how the G major chord scale works.
Even though many people call it a “chord scale,” more properly it should be called diatonic harmony.
- Diatonic chords in the key of G only use the notes from the G scale, as is the case in the harmonized scale above.
- The key of G has three major triads (G, C, D), three minor triads (Am, Bm, Em), and one diminished triad (F# dim).
- All major keys have this pattern of major, minor, and diminished triads, even though the notes will change from key to key.
For more on how to analyze chords:
The G Major Scale/G Major Chord Scale #4: Final Thoughts
Here’s a summary of The G Major Scale (Including the G Major Chord Scale).
- We use scales for playing melodies and melodic patterns.
- The notes in the key of G are G A B C D E F# G.
- From these notes we can build the chord scale (i.e., diatonic harmony).
- The chords in the key of G only use the notes from the G scale.
- Therefore, these chords will be best suited for harmonizing melodies in the key of G.
- Also, this means that if you have chords in the key of G, you can use the G scale when improvising.
- Plus, you can use it to write a melody over a chord progression in the key of G.
Have fun playing!
Related Posts
- Changing Keys in Your Songwriting
- Why Do Minor Keys Sound Sad to Me?
- What is a Parallel Mode and How Does it Work?
- How Do I Find the Key of a Song with Accidentals?
- Tonic vs. Root in Music Theory: Are They the Same Thing? (Part 2)
© 2024 Geoffrey Keith
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