The Major Scale: Foundation of Music in Western Civilization

The Major Scale has been the foundation of music across Europe for centuries, if not millenia. Early church music and folk music may have been leaning to a modal preference, but that is still based upon the modes of the Major scale, namely: Ionian, Dorian, Phrygian, Lydian, Mixolydian, Aeolian and Locrian.

If we turn further back through the pages of musical thought even further, all the way to the Greece of Plato, it is still the Major scale that dominates the musical vocabulary. His advocacy of using Lydian and Dorian modes, amongst others, has influenced musical tendencies in Europe ever since.

But why the Major scale? Why not the Harmonic minor, Neapolitan Major, Melodic or even the Harmonic Major, for that matter?

Well, this comes down to a fundamental truth regarding the unique formula of the Major scale.

When the intervals between notes follow this order: T T S T T T S we are left with the combination of notes that comprise the most stable scale in existence, out of all 66 scales. This is unique. Why?

When music modulates, using the circle of fifths in combination with the Major scale, we are then able to comprehend the hierarchy of keys, in both directions, either flattening notes or sharpening them. But if we look closely at the actual notes that are altered and the modes built upon them, we come to a stunning realization.

The C Major scale has the F natural sharpened to become F# of the next key in the circle of fifths, G Major, but if we look at the mode built upon that note, F Lydian, we then see that when its root F is sharpened, or in my terminology (+1), the result is the F# Locrian mode (mode VII) of the G Major scale.

Now, we have all taken this for granted. Yes, that’s what happens when we sharpen note four of the Major scale. But if we look at all of the other 65 scales, and all of the 462 modes in existence, at no other time does the alteration of one of their notes lead to the same scale in another key. Never.

The opposite approach is to start on the seventh note of the C Major scale, in this case B. The mode on B is Locrian, and flattening it, or (-1), we get Bb Lydian, mode IV of F Major.

So, sharpening (+1) mode IV: Lydian (+1) = Locrian

and flattening (-1) mode VII: Locrian (-1) = Lydian

We can now see the importance of these two modes among the modes of the Major scale, in that they create a Lydian – Locrian Axis by which the music can modulate whilst staying in the same scale. This only becomes apparent when the (+1) (-1) approach to modulation is used, as opposed to a theoretical circle, because the same mathematical operations can be applied to every mode of every scale, and the resultant scale be understood.

Therefore, the Major scale is the one used to understand modulations, and is also the template in which all other scale modulations can be compared.

I explain the modulations to all 462 modes of the 66 scales in my book, The Modal Method of Music (M3) and on the blog at my website:

https://www.bedwellmusic.co.uk/

Thanks for reading.