GUITAR DOJO
scales
What is a scale?
It’s a 7-note collection (plus the octave) arranged by a fixed step pattern of whole and half steps. This formula is super important to understand. Learn to build the scales on paper to figure out the sharps and flats. There are tools and ways to help make memorizing them easier that I will show you later.
Whole steps & Half steps
If you look at a piano, you will notice that there are no black keys between the E & F and the B & C. here is a diagram with the piano keys extended to make seeing the notes a little easier. This will help you when you a re learning to build your scales.
The Major Scale Formula
Think of the major scale as the alphabet of music.
Just like letters form words, scale notes form chords.
For example, the C major scale:
C – D – E – F – G – A – B – (C)
Each note is a potential root note or home base for a chord.
Four Chord Types
Formulas are applied to the notes of a scale to find its Chords.
Listen to how the Augmented chord reminds you of a surprise in a Tele Novella... Or how the Diminished chord sounds like someone slipped on a banana peel.
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Triads
Here’s the secret recipe: take a note, skip one, take the next, skip one, take the next.
That pattern — called stacking in 3rds — is how chords are born.
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Start on C → add E → add G = C major (C–E–G)
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Start on A → add C → add E = A minor (A–C–E)
It’s like making a sandwich: bread, filling, bread. Each “layer” adds flavor.
Anatomy of the Fretboard
The guitar is a pattern based instrument. You will notice that scale and chord shapes are moveable. When you learn major and minor chord shapes you will know all of them across the fretboard. the pattern of whole and half steps are the same on every string. The only half steps in music are between E and F and between B and C.
