Visual Guitar TM :: Guitar, Guitar Scales, Modes, Strings, Fretboard

:: Visual Guitar Menu Home Sound and Light String Fundamentals Tuning The Octave Octave Groups Octave Regions All the Notes C Major Scale C Major Modes Minor Pentatonic Downloads Exercises Maj Scale Groups C Major C# Major Db Major D Major D# Major Eb Major E Major F Major F# Major Gb Major G Major G# Major AbMajor A Major A# Major Bb Major B Major

See all the Major Scales and Modes in Full Color down the page below. Play the visual guitar. Click on any note on the guitar or musical staff. Use it to learn the notes, learn sight reading, analyze any scale or chord.

Click on any note on guitar or musical staff to hear
Sight Reader - Octave Regions: E :: F :: F# :: G :: G# :: A :: A# :: B :: C :: C# :: D :: D# :: E

Below is the complete full color map of C Major. The colors let you see at a glance, all the root notes, and which notes are the same, and which ones are an octave apart. This is explained in the following pages. Click on the All Notes - No Color link to see all the notes. Then click on Piano Fretboard to see the sharp notes (like the black piano keys). If we take out the black notes, we are left with the key of C Major. The black notes form a pentatonic scale. See all the major scales down below.

All Notes - No Color | Piano Fretboard | Map of C Major

Major Scales and Modes

Below you can study the Major Scales and Modes. Read each major scale across. For example the first row is the C Major Scale, the second row is the G Major scale. Between the 3 and 4 degree, and 7 and 8 degree of any major scale, there is a half-step (move one fret). A whole step is 2 frets.
Major Scale Formula: Start on any root note.

(1) whole step (2) whole step (3) half-step (4) whole step (5) whole step (6) whole step (7) half-step (8)

Notice the key of C has natural half steps at E F and B C. The key of G has one sharp, F sharp. This is so that you end the G major scale with a half-step. The key of D has 2 sharps. G is the 5th note of the C scale. D is the 5th note of the G scale and so on until you have the chart below. This is called the cycle of fifths.
Example: Click on E in the Minor Scale column. (E is the 6th note of the G major Scale). The notes of E minor are the same as G Major. Then click on G Major. Only the root note (our starting point) changes. Once you learn all the modes in one key, you will soon realize that the patterns are all the same in the other keys! You just shift the whole pattern you know on to a different root. Try holding the same root and go through all the modes to see the changes (use the bottom menu). You don't have to memorize the colors or the note names to use these maps. But I encourage you to read the note names to yourself while you are learning each scale. Don't worry about speed at first. The note names will start to become familiar without trying. Click on each Mode name to see a clear template of the scale, without the note names. Click on the music icons to hear each scale. Set your MP3 to Loop.
For further explanation, go to the discussion on the C Major Scale and Modes.

Major	Dorian	Phrygian	Lydian	Mixolydian	Minor	Locrean	Major
C	C	C	C	C	C	C	C
G	G	G	G	G	G	G	G
D	D	D	D	D	D	D	D
A	A	A	A	A	A	A	A
E	E	E	E	E	E	E	E
B	B	B	B	B	B	B	B
F#	F#	F#	F#	F#	F#	F#	F#
C#	C#	C#	C#	C#	C#	C#	C#
G#	G#	G#	G#	G#	G#	G#	G#
D#	D#	D#	D#	D#	D#	D#	D#
A#	A#	A#	A#	A#	A#	A#	A#
F	F	F	F	F	F	F	F