Major and Minor Scales

The easiest way to understand a major scale is to go sit down at a piano and play these intervals to see how they sound.

Major scale: from tonic -> W W H W W W H
Natural Minor scale: from tonic -> W H W W H W W
Harmonic Minor scale: from tonic -> W H W W H X H

Where:
“H” means half step (1 step)
“W” means whole step (2 steps)
“X” means 3 steps, or an A2 (augmented second)

Although this might seem a bit confusing, this is the easiest way to break down a major vs. minor scale. Also, it’s an easy guide once you have it memorized. You can start on any note on the piano, and following this guide, will play every major and minor scale with ease.

As you can see, the major and minor scales only differ slightly based on where the Half steps come into play in the sequence. If you start on a C, you will notice that the major and minor only have 3 differing notes. Playing through all the different major and minor scales will help you see which ones overlap with each another.