1.2 Scale Creation

Before we could even think of understanding chords and progressions, we need to understand the fundamental musical concept of scales. The key, the chords, the progressions, it will all stem from the scale the song was rooted on.

But what is a scale exactly?
How do we know that C major has C, D, E, F, G, A, B, or that E major has E, F#, G#, A, B, C#, D#?

It’s actually very easy! I have a more in-depth article with more examples on my blog post, especially in relations to guitar, but I’m just going to focus on the concept in this lesson.

Step 1: Understand The Chromatic Scale

The chromatic scales includes every single note between A and G# and would look like this:

A – A♯/B♭ – B – C – C♯/D♭ – D – D♯/E♭ – E – F – F♯/G♭ – G – G♯/A♭ – A

Between every letter, there is a ♯(sharp) or ♭(flat) except between B & C, and between E & F.
You will end up with 12 unique notes. This is easier to see on a piano or keyboard like the image below.

Step 2: Understand How The Major Scale Works

The first thing you need to do to understand any other scale or ‘mode’ is to understand how the Major scale works. Every single Major Scale follows the same pattern:

W = Whole Step (2 Steps) | H = Half Step (1 Step)

The Major Scale Pattern is: W – W – H – W – W – W – H

The reason why the C major scale is so popular and regularly used instead of A or G major is because when you start from C and apply the pattern, you are left with a scale with no sharps or flats. Check it out!

C – C♯/D♭ – D – D♯/E♭ – E – F – F♯/G♭ – G – G♯/Ab – A – A♯/B♭ – B – C

From C, you do a whole step, so you skip C♯/D♭ and go to D.
From D, you do another whole step, so you skip D♯/E♭ and go to E.
From E, you do a half step, so you go to the next note which is F.
From F, you do a whole step, so you skip F♯/G♭ and go to G.
From G, you do another whole step, so you skip G♯/A♭ and go to A.
From A, you do another whole step, so you skip A♯/B♭ and go to B.
From B, you do a half step, and you’re brought back to C.

Thus, The C major scale is : C – D – E – F – G – A – B – C 

For reference, the clip below has both the C Chromatic Scale, followed by the C Major Scale. We go from 12 notes to 7 notes with this pattern.

Let’s try this pattern to make the G Major Scale as well!

G – G♯/A♭ – A – A♯/B♭ – B – C – C♯/D♭ – D – D♯/E♭ – E – F – F♯/G♭ – G

From G, you do a whole step, so you skip G♯/A♭ and go to A.
From A, you do a whole step, so you skip A♯/B♭ and go to B.
From B, you do a half step, so you don’t skip anything, and go to C, and so on.

The G Major Scale will have 1 sharp note: G – A – B – C – D – E – F♯ – G.

(P.S. You may be wondering why I wrote F♯ in the scale instead of G♭. Right now, if this is new to you, I would say don’t worry about which one is technically correct. A quick way to decide is to note that you will never have 2 of the same letters in the same scale. We already have G, and G is vital since we are doing the G major scale, so we wouldn’t use G♭ as well. While F♯ is correct, I personally like to remember both as I know different websites, lessons, videos, and programs will change things up. For FL Studio, the producing software I use, the piano roll only utilizes sharps (♯) regardless of the scale or chord I inputted. But I’ve also seen guitar charts that will refer to everything in flats (♭), so it’s good to be flexible!)

All in all, if you remember the major scale pattern, you’ll be able to figure out the major scale for any note, even ones you’ve never seen or heard before.

Let’s do this one more time to make the E♭ Major Scale.

D♯/E♭ – E – F – F♯/♭ – G – G♯/A♭ – A – A♯/B♭ – B – C – C♯/D♭ – D – D♯/Eb

From E♭, you do a whole step, so you skip E and go to F.
From F, you do a whole step, so you skip F♯/G♭ and go to G.
From G, you do half step, so you go to G♯/A♭, and so on.

And thus the Eb Major Scale is: E♭, F, G, A♭, B♭, C, and D.

(Back to the PS above, if you’re doing a flat scale, it’s safe to assume all the odd notes are flat, and if you’re doing a sharp scale, all the odd notes are sharp, but again, it’s good to think of it both ways. The E♭ scale is also the D♯ scale. They sound the same, but depending on the context or how one looks at it, it will be written differently).

Step 3: For Other Modes/Scales, Shift Everything Over

Obviously, the Major Scale isn’t all that exists in the musical world. It can get really overwhelming and intimidating if you tried to memorize various scale patterns blindly, but trust me when I say, every scale imaginable can be related back to the major scale.

Thankfully, in Japanese music, the major and minor are what’s usually used. As we go forward, we will only make chord progressions in a major key sense, but they too will use minor scales, and may even utilize other scales or notes outside of those scales to add tension. So, I at least want you to be able to understand how other scales are built. You don’t need to memorize these scales, but if you understand how they come to be, you won’t need to!

So let’s go back to C Major Scale for this step since it is the easiest to see and register.
We now the major scale pattern and what notes will show up in C Major.

Scale: W – W – H – W – W – W – H
Notes: C – D – E – F – G – A – B – C

The reason why the A Minor Scale is so popular is because it’s the ‘relative minor’ of C, and thus it has the same notes, just starting on A: A – B – C – D – E – F – G – A

Why is that?

Well instead of trying to look at each note and scale differently, start with one Major Scale, and then figure out all the modes of that same scale.

C Major/Ionian = D Dorian = E Phrygian = F Lydian = G Mixolydian = A Minor/Aeolian = B Locrian

This is the trick: When you start on the second note of the C Major Scale, aka D, all you have to do is shift the order of the scale as well to get that mode (D Dorian). Instead of doing W – W – H – W…etc, you’re going to start on that second W and loop it from the start when you run out.

C Major/Ionian Scale
Scale: W – W – H – W – W – W – H
Notes: C – D – E – F – G – A – B – C

D Dorian Scale
Scale: W – H – W – W – W – H – W
Notes: D – E – F – G – A – B – C – D

While understanding modes, it’s best to practice writing these things out on paper so you can create these on your own at anytime.

Let’s look at the D Dorian in more detail:

Dorian Scale: W – H – W – W – W – H – W

D – D♯/E♭ – E – F – F♯/G♭ – G – G♯/A♭ – A – A♯/B♭ – B – C – C♯/D♭ – D

From D, you do a whole step, so you skip D♯/E♭ and go to E.
From E, you do a half step, so you go straight to F.
From F, you do a whole step, so you skip F♯/G♭ and go to G, etc.

Thus in the end, you also get a scale with no sharps or flats like C Major, it just starts on D instead.

Therefore, if you ever want to play the D Dorian scale, you can use the same scale/box pattern as C, but just start and end on the second note. D becomes your ‘tonal center’ (what sounds like home) instead of C.

Let’s shift the pattern 3 more times so we can make the G Mixolydian scale.

C Major/Ionian Scale
Scale: W – W – H – W – W – W – H
Notes: C – D – E – F – G – A – B – C

G Mixolydian Scale
Scale: W – W – H – W – W – H – W
Notes: G – A – B – C – D – E – F – G

Let’s look at it in detail!

Mixolydian Scale: W – W – H – W – W – H – W

G – G♯/A♭ – A – A♯/B♭ – B – C – C♯/D♭ – D – D♯/E♭ – E – F – F♯/G♭ – G

If you remember the G Major scale we did at the beginning, that scale had the F♯/G♭ in it, but because we are using a different pattern, we end up with a F instead. This one has a half step (H) then a whole step (W) at the end, instead of a whole step (W), then a half step (H).

Finally, let’s go to the A minor scale, aka the Aeolian scale.
From G Mixolydian, we will shift that pattern by one.

C Major/Ionian Scale
Scale: W – W – H – W – W – W – H
Notes: C – D – E – F – G – A – B – C

A Minor/Aeolian Scale
Scale: W – H – W – W – H – W – W
Notes: A – B – C – D – E – F – G – A

Let’s look at it in detail once more.

Minor/Aeolian Scale: W – H – W – W – H – W – W

A – A♯/B♭ – B – C – C♯/D♭ – D – D♯/E♭ – E – F – F♯/G♭ – G – G♯/A♭ – A

You should be able to see how and why this works on your own. It’s not as hard or as complicated as they make it sound, right? With just the major scale pattern, you technically know 7 different scales!

SUMMARY

So to summarize, first you figure out the Major scale. Let’s use E Major for example this time.

Major Scale Pattern: W – W – H – W – W – W – H
E – F – F♯/G♭ – G – G♯/A♭ – A – A♯/B♭ – B – C – C♯/D♭ – D – D♯/E♭ – E
E Major scale: E – F♯ – G♯ – A – B – C♯ – D♯ – E

Next, we can figure out all it’s relative modes:

E Major/Ionian = F♯ Dorian = G♯ Phrygian = A Lydian = B Mixolydian = C♯ Minor/Aeolian = D♯ Locrian

Now, starting with F♯, you just need to shift the Major Scale pattern by one as you go along the scale.

The Ionian/Major scale pattern: W – W – H – W – W – W – H
The Dorian scale pattern: W – H – W – W – W – H – W
The Phrygian scale pattern: H – W – W – W – H – W – W
The Lydian scale pattern: W – W – W – H – W – W – H
The Mixolydian scale pattern: W – W – H – W – W – H – W
The Aeolian/Minor scale pattern: W – H – W – W – H – W – W
The Locrian scale pattern: H – W – W – H – W – W – W

Of course, when people who are soloing or making melodies use modes, they will use, for example, E Phrygian or E Mixolydian over the an E Major progression for that extra spice. We aren’t going to go into that into this course because this isn’t really necessary to understand or create Japanese music, but I just wanted to show you that the concept and creation of modes isn’t that hard.

When you see charts with modes and they show you that this mode has 1 flat and this one have 4 flats, most would assume they are all different scales and try to memorize those patterns blindly. It can become both confusing and intimidating. But when you look at modes and keys as a shift from the major scale and major key, you’ll start to see how everything is connected and know how to create these things from scratch when needed. Feel free to check out these additional videos to solidify these concepts: